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Maybe this whole feminism thing is a huge red herring to distract people from remembering that this dude made them read a 200 page segue about elf loving
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Aug 15, 2013 07:13
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Ogmius815 posted:The most irritating Rothfuss character isn't a poorly written women. It's Bast. Oh my god do I hate basically everything about Bast, which is a shame because I think the frame story is actually my favorite part of the books. Bast sucks (so far, I have suspicions that he will turn out to be awesome). But so far, no argument there. But his threat to Chronicler at the end of book 1? Chills. Most badass thing I've ever heard a character say in any book. No exaggeration, I was on the fence over the book as a whole until I read that, and those couple pages turned it into one of my favorite books ever. quote:As he spoke, Bast's eyes grew paler, until they were the pure blue of a clear noontime sky. "I swear by all the salt in me: if you run counter to my desire, the remainder of your brief mortal span will be an orchestra of misery. I swear by stone and oak and elm: I'll make a game of you. I'll follow you unseen and smother any spark of joy you find. You'll never know a woman's touch, a breath of rest, a moment's peace of mind." I loving love, love, love how creepy the fae are in this trilogy(?). wellwhoopdedooo fucked around with this message at 07:27 on Aug 15, 2013 |
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Aug 15, 2013 07:14
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Wow, people really disliked relationship scenes. You need to remember he is 15. I forget how old Denna is...or if it is in fact even mentioned. I remember my first, what at the time I thought was serious, relationship when I was about 15. We were horrible. Bunch of jealous drama queens. Kvothe is in fact handling it to well to be believable. Denna on the other hand is interesting (in a bad way). This makes one wonder if he drew their relationship from one of his. wellwhoopdedooo posted:I loving love, love, love how creepy the fae are in this trilogy(?). They aren't just creepy. They are incredibly interesting. We know next to nothing about them, but the little tidbits tossed around hint on an absolutely amazing hidden world full of potential stories. Combined with the whole shapers and namers thing it really makes one wander. And this is the main thing I love about this series. Rothfuss really knows how to write. The world reveals so much yet so little. Just enough of it is known for it to be full of potential. Of course that is not always a good thing, it is next to impossible to live up to the potential of the unknown by defining it. The matrix sequels and the midichlorians proved that... And still I can't stop hoping it won't end as a trilogy. Although if I remember correctly I read somewhere that Rothfuss does indeed intend to continue writing in this world. Just not with Kvothe. A few pages back someone listed all the things that still need to be covered in the third book. And there were a lot. But this is the problem. They don't have to be. Covered that is. His writing creates questions and possibilities, it does not answer them. I think that while Kvothe's story will be finished in the third book, the questions won't be answered. The mysteries won't be solved. There will be no cathartic effect. Only the groundwork for more and more books. Now that I have written it out it actually doesn't sound that bad. It actually sounds good. I would love to see more books in this world. Much better then to ruin it by cramming it all in one book. Although I can't imagine how even the rest of Kvothe's story will fit in one book...
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Aug 19, 2013 21:31
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Grogsy posted:Wow, people really disliked relationship scenes. You need to remember he is 15. Basically Rothfuss wrote most of the books when he was young and emotionally underdeveloped and it shows. They're still enjoyable for other reasons but I don't see the current Kvothe as being any more mature than his younger self.
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Aug 20, 2013 01:04
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Above Our Own posted:An adult Kvothe is telling the story with no indication of maturity as he continues to idolize (and objectify) his love interest. The only perspective adult Kvothe has about young Kvothe is that, "Yeah, I really was completely awesome at everything" and adult Kvothe presents his current state as "heroic despair" or some dumb angsty poo poo that's appealing when you're 20. Not to mention that Innkeeper Kote is himself an unbelievable age. He might not even be 30. Only a college student could think of a 30 year old as a washed up old man.
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Aug 20, 2013 07:42
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Ogmius815 posted:Not to mention that Innkeeper Kote is himself an unbelievable age. He might not even be 30. Only a college student could think of a 30 year old as a washed up old man. I think the criticisms of the books are valid but I dunno why everything has to be read in such a negative light. I mean 99% of genre fiction is complete trash that makes a mockery of the very idea of characterization, and because Rothfuss kind of sucks at writing realistic characters everyone's gotta bash him? These are his first novels, he hasn't had 40 years in the business like every other fantasy writer.
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Aug 20, 2013 08:02
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tliil posted:Or a sad sack with low self-esteem. I'm approaching 30 and I feel so old, bro. Do I complain about the books with every waking breath? Yes Do I still enjoy the series? Yes Am I going to buy the third book the moment it hits the shelves? Hell yes
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Aug 20, 2013 19:02
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Above Our Own posted:The majority of posts in this thread are either criticism of the books or people complaining about criticism, but at least the former is topical discussion instead of post whining. You can like a thing but not love a thing know what I'm saying? As bad as certain sections of the books are for being goony as hell, treating women terribly, and making Kvothe an improbable super hero, they are still written amazingly well and Rothfuss has a way with descriptive imagery and words that most authors don't. The section where Kvothe the virgin encounters a fairy sex goddess and manages to overwhelm her with his prowess is cheesy, but incredibly poetic and visual without being graphic or smutty.
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Sep 8, 2013 09:19
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pentyne posted:As bad as certain sections of the books are for being goony as hell, treating women terribly, and making Kvothe an improbable super hero, they are still written amazingly well and Rothfuss has a way with descriptive imagery and words that most authors don't. The section where Kvothe the virgin encounters a fairy sex goddess and manages to overwhelm her with his prowess is cheesy, but incredibly poetic and visual without being graphic or smutty.
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Sep 9, 2013 19:25
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So, I'm almost done with TNotW and I noticed a second book in the series is out. Is it comparable to the first?
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Sep 14, 2013 18:26
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along the way posted:So, I'm almost done with TNotW and I noticed a second book in the series is out. Is it comparable to the first? The storytelling is right about the same, as is the worldbuilding. There are a couple parts that seem to be really polarizing, but overall I find it just as good as the first.
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Sep 14, 2013 18:31
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From the top of the page:Wangsbig posted:Maybe this whole feminism thing is a huge red herring to distract people from remembering that this dude made them read a 200 page segue about elf loving A bit harsh, perhaps, but a good sum up! Book 2 emphasises the first novel's good and bad bits. If you really enjoyed the first novel and weren't infuriated by the pacing/ Kvothe's ability to be great at everything, you'll probably enjoy the second. The good: Patrick Rothfuss' prose is still masterful. More hints are dropped about the series' resolution and all the secrets contained within, and that Kvothe is likely an unreliable narrator. The bad: the plot doesn't go very far and rehashes the "Kvothe has no money" tale. That unreliable narrator bit is because Kvothe is vastly more of a self-insert wish fetish character than before, and it's the only solution that would save the book. The ugly: terrible sex bits that take up a ridiculous portion of the book. They're so ridiculous they might just kill your appreciation of the series entirely. Rothfuss believes people don't like them because "people are prudes" and ignores the genuine criticism.
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Sep 14, 2013 18:37
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It is unclear to me that Kvothe is actually good at anything other than story telling, but he is pretty good at that. We don't exactly know. 'Heart of Darkness' formula and all.
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Sep 15, 2013 02:50
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along the way posted:So, I'm almost done with TNotW and I noticed a second book in the series is out. Is it comparable to the first? It's a few hundred pages more but it doesn't really justify the higher page count. Basically, the typical case of fantasy bloat where after a successful first book the editing just goes straight out the window, and it shows. It has the same good qualities of the first book but it kinda doubles down on the bad parts so it all depends on how you feel about TNotW.
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Sep 15, 2013 03:03
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I just finished Wise Mans Fear, and actually thought it was better than the first book. Getting out of the Hogwarts (which is an interesting - but pretty thoroughly explored) area and exploring the surrounding lands just added a lot of color to the world, I thought. The whole detour into fairysex was a big awkward, but it I also thought he handled it a lot better than 90% of books. Like, that poo poo could have been really, really cringeworthy. The chapters added a lot to the mythology of the world, but it could have probably been done without 'and so it came to pass that kvothe had tons of teh sex'. The evil tree part was great, and adds a whole new layer to the entire story. The stuff with the Maer was far more interesting for the support characters (ie, Bredon and Lackless) than it was for the Maer. All the COURT INTRIGUE was pretty standard, so glad that died out quickly. The whole resolution to the situation was pretty forced, imo. Like Kvothe getting all grumpy and yelling at the King's new wife, which is unrealistic as hell. He could have just told them that the guy said they weren't Ruh, or that he found stuff belonging to the real troupe, or whatever, and left it there. Pardon sorted, patronage sorted, move on. The Maer's overreaction was also contrived - the kid saves his life, wins him a wife and returns his treasure... but then exiles him because said wife gets upset? It doesnt matter that much in the end, just think it was handled badly. I liked the Ademre chapters. I thought Tempi was a good character - especially when it later turned out that the mystical, wise assassin was actually seen as kind of slow and unimpressive - as was the Mrs Miyagi who runs the school. I don't really get the complaints about the whole thing being 20 chapters of ninjasex, mainly because that didn't really happen. There is the awkward teachersex, then pretty much just the thing with Penthe. And that's it. I read the reproduction theory bit as being more about social engineering than anything else. You have a society which can only really survive by sending people out into the world to fight and die. The whole model of 'mum + dad + baby' who then build a farm/general store/accountancy firm doesn't really work in the kind of inhospitable land they are settled in, so you probably don't want to encourage nuclear families. Throw in Grandma Ninja spiking their food/their healthy dose of extreme diet and conditioning leading to some kind of inadvertent womb-control/heavy metals in the water/magic tiger rock which lowers fertility/etc , and you can see why they wouldn't associate the two. Although it also did have a bit of 'lol, silly totally-not-feudal-Japanese and their beliefs' to it. Everything about Denna was boring as usual. Devi is far more interesting. Penthe would make a far better 'Denna' character. How Fela isnt that character - being hot, intelligent and out of his league - is beyond me. (Auri is easily the most fascinating female character, but in my head she is Newt from Aliens, so that doesn't work as The Unattainable Love Interest©) Bast is great when he flips from Smeagol to Gollum. ------------- I don't buy the whole criticism of 'Kvothe is super awesome and the bestest at everything'. Standard example: quote:On top of that, he's so: Like any one of hundreds of 'child prodigy' stories that pop up in the news. Plus, he had a headstart because Old Man Plotdevice taught him some stuff that he probably shouldn't have, and he uses that to get admitted. And even then, the story doesn't really fit with the 'kvothe is the best at everything' narrative this thread throws out. - he is really good at Sympathy, but so are other people. That other kid is better, and beats him in the ending pokemon battle. - he is good at Woodshop, just like a bunch of other people. But spends all day there practising it, since he is poor. And seems to get a lot of tutoring from senior people there. Makes sense that he would end up being pretty skilled. - he takes classes in the Medica, but never seems to be anything but average. - he occasionally accidental speaks the name of the wind, whereas Fela can name on command - he is rubbish at math - he gets kicked out of chemistry - he is pretty useless at learning Yll quote:* musically gifted that he's one of the best lute players on the planet. If someone from a troupe of travelling performers who had been doing little but performing and practising their whole life wasn't pretty drat good at playing their instrument, *that* would be worth calling him out on. quote:* magically potent that he can kill people with his mind. So can dozens of characters. Including the jackass rich guy who doesn't seem to be all that bright. quote:* inventive that he can design new magic stuff that's worth an entire military's R&D budget Its implied that designing new stuff is hardly an amazing feat. There is something near the end that most people being promoted try to have 3 or 4 different patents, so him having one seems pretty believable. quote:* sexually potent that he tamed the sex goddess as a virgin He tamed the sex goddess because he spoke either the name of the wind or the name of Felurian. Not because he gave her the LD. quote:* gifted at fighting that he's the only non-native in history to be taught fighting from the sex village He sucked at fighting, got regularly beat up by a ten year old girl and didn't even make it to the first level of the mountain because a different girl beat the crap out of him. I also didn't really buy that the whole thing is an author insert because Jakis picked on Pat at college. A rich douchebag who uses money and connections to make life hard for a smartass poor kid is hardly a novel concept. If anything, the Jakis character seems more like a contrivance to advance the 'Kvothe needs money oh noes!' scenario. Repeatedly. Not trying to say they were perfect books or anything - there are some pretty big issues, like pacing, copy/pasting 'kvothe is poor/improbable outcome/kvothe can pay $arbitary' and pretty much everything to do with Denna (and the associated 'nice guy/mra' criticisms) - but overall I thought they were well written, engaging and really pretty fun. BrosephofArimathea fucked around with this message at 07:22 on Sep 16, 2013 |
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Sep 16, 2013 06:05
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BrosephofArimathea posted:
He also broke into a room where he could watch the other students interview and learn questions and memorise answers.
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Sep 16, 2013 06:31
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I haven't read these books since WMF came out, but I need to put in my 2cents! Right, I remember leaning towards Denna as central to the thing-that-fucks-Kvothe-up. My hope is that it will be something in the line of "I'm dying because you are a stupid gently caress who shouldn't have meddled in my life, Kvothe!" not " *hand to forehead* Oh, woe is me! I couldn't save her! *sob*". His relationship with Denna was written with hardly any depth. They flirted a bit on the way to Hogwards and that seemed ok - I remember thinking it as acceptable groundwork for the supposedly central romance, but on their next meeting Kvothe went from 0 to obsessed in an instant. But yeah, no real understanding between them (at least on Kvothe's side) , no trust, no friendship - I'm hoping it is a setup on which Kvothe can showcase his character flaws and ruin Denna and then himself.  It is probably crappy writing on his part, but a good enough writer can turn that bullshit into something worth reading. And I honestly have faith that he's grown enough as an author and as a person since his college days to do something about it. If not, I'll wait for his next series of books. No matter his flaws, I've greatly enjoyed his worldbuilding and turn of phrase.
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Sep 16, 2013 21:12
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Kellanved posted:I haven't read these books since WMF came out, but I need to put in my 2cents! I agree with most of this. My perspective, and what seems to be a common consensus from this thread, is that the final book of the trilogy will be the deciding factor for how people view the problems with the first 2 books. The 'unreliable narrator' idea has been discussed, and the possibility that Kvothe is spinning fiction he knows the writer wants to hear, and will later tell Bast the depressing truth that paints him in a horribly negative light. Given how long its been since any word for the release for "Doors of Stone" it seems like it might get stretched into 2 book which would suck, since based on Wise Man's Fear his editor has stopped giving a poo poo and is letting Rothfuss go wild. I would probably buy any new series he starts due to the effort and imagination his puts into crafting his fictional worlds, but so far what he's delivered has been massive amounts of dangling plot threads without a coherent resolution.
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Sep 17, 2013 08:10
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Kellanved posted:I haven't read these books since WMF came out, but I need to put in my 2cents! I dunno, from the start storytelling!Kvothe goes all wistful and all "she's so indescribable, I can't explain it, put it into words blahblahblah" about her and Bast cuts in with "she had a crooked loving nose bro" or something to that effect. To me that signaled from the start that the text, if not necessarily Kvothe himself, recognizes that Kvothe's relationship with her was pretty well hosed by the fact that he spent a huge chunk of his social developmental years either absolutely isolated from humanity or scrabbling around a city with zero support. Like, for all his awesome, every single other character except maybe the sex goddess has at one point or another told him to his face that he's got some serious gaps in his people skills. Let's not forget that Denna was the first attractive female near his own age that he had ever seen since emerging from his adolescent isolation. So yeah, it's pretty clear that he doesn't understand Denna at all even though he thinks he does. Like their last interaction in Wise Man's Fear is her telling him to get hosed for thinking he should be the one to dictate what she does or how she does it. I like it because it's clearly a hosed situation for both of them.
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Sep 17, 2013 09:48
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I think the sex elf is hilarious. We don't even know if it really happened. Only that he says it does. It is like a fully cartoonized version of sexual prowess bragging.
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Sep 17, 2013 19:09
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Real talk; "yeah when I went to fairyland all I did was meet the super evil tree. After that the one merc guy got me smashed and bought me a prostitute" would be the best surprise twist.
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Sep 18, 2013 07:46
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the JJ posted:Real talk; "yeah when I went to fairyland all I did was meet the super evil tree. After that the one merc guy got me smashed and bought me a prostitute" would be the best surprise twist. A whole rundown like that would be dope. "Oh yeah Denna was just some girl I kept bumping into, it's just a good story if you create a destined love. Also these pipes are really just given to anyone who performs at open mic night, we all got pretty blitzed there after trivia"
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Sep 19, 2013 01:38
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Whalley posted:A whole rundown like that would be dope. "Oh yeah Denna was just some girl I kept bumping into, it's just a good story if you create a destined love. Also these pipes are really just given to anyone who performs at open mic night, we all got pretty blitzed there after trivia" "Holy poo poo Bast I really had you going this whole time, bro. I can't believe you fell for that. Did you know the word 'gullible' isn't in the dictionary?"
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Sep 20, 2013 00:40
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Notahippie posted:"Holy poo poo Bast I really had you going this whole time, bro. I can't believe you fell for that. Did you know the word 'gullible' isn't in the dictionary?" Only issue seems to be bast knew him when he was The Greatest Of All Time super mage and lover. That and we don't know if Bast and kvothe had a fling.
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Sep 20, 2013 02:02
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It's funny, I've never hated a series of books so much yet simultaneously couldn't wait to read the next one. Rothfuss writes so drat well that it's just a loving joy to immerse yourself in his world, and I still hope that most of my hatred of his central character is a clever device due to the narrative nature of the books.
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Oct 3, 2013 13:38
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I'm halfway through the second book, and it seems that most of my criticisms have already been addressed in this thread. When he Gets out of the university and goes to assist the Maer, it was a super big breath of fresh air, because up until then, the plot of the entire series was: 1) Oh no, the new term is about to start and I don't have any money! And my tuition is going to be higher than ever! 2) That Ambrose sure is a jerk! 3) WHERE'S MY LUTE?! 4) Phew! I suddenly came into good fortune which is just enough to pay my tuition! 5) That Ambrose sure is a jerk! 6) MY LUTE'S GONE AGAIN! And repeat.
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Oct 17, 2013 21:35
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SgtScruffy posted:I'm halfway through the second book, and it seems that most of my criticisms have already been addressed in this thread. When he Gets out of the university and goes to assist the Maer, it was a super big breath of fresh air, because up until then, the plot of the entire series was: You forgot "Obsess over Denna".
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Oct 17, 2013 21:47
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Ithaqua posted:You forgot "Obsess over Denna". That particular bullet point is the one those other 6 all tuck in under.
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Oct 17, 2013 23:18
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I feel like I've missed something. I finally got around to reading the books because I was looking for something I hadn't read that would fill the Mary Sue drive in me, despite how amazingly stupid those types of characters are, and I just finished book 2 and I can't figure what, if anything has actually happened. I feel like I've just read half a popcorn fantasy book extended out to two major volumes. So far all I've got out of the story is: 1) Foreshadowing that Kvothe is likely part of the Lockless family, and that the Lockless family secret will play a role in the future. 2) Foreshadowing that Denna's patron has a solid chance of being part of the Chandarin. 3) Somehow in the course of roughly 5ish years or so between Kvothe picking up the Innkeeper job and the end of Book 2, Kvothe loses most of his fighting ability, his magic, gains a Fea student, killed a King, had some hand in unleashing some form of demon spiders on the world, and god knows how many half formed hints of other things. Because apparently Rothfuss is fully subscribed to the idea that once you hit 20 as a fantasy hero you're as good as dead and buried, so you have to get it all done early. In fairness, I ended up skimming a lot of parts with Denna because they just got to be too horrendous with the already well discussed reasons, but is that really all that happened? Somehow the story of how he lost his virginity, learned to fight with a sword, and is still in the process of finishing his University education (by botching it), has taken this long and hasn't actually progressed the story by a single inch. Hell, assuming the Chandarin are the antagonists of the story the only new information presented about them across the entire books were two short vague tidbits that are completely meaningless on their own and (presumably) haven't been fleshed out yet and one half told story from a, apparently, significant character who lasted less than a full chapter early in the first book before disappearing from the entire series to date. nessin fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Oct 21, 2013 |
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Oct 21, 2013 08:25
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While discussion of the second book has become dominated by arguments about its quality, when it first came out the common initial reaction was surprise that it did so little to advance the portions set in the past toward the present-day of the books. I had been expecting that it would begin with Kvothe immediately being kicked out so that it could get moving beyond the ground the first book covered. It is unclear how the book will now do everything it needs to do in a single installment. On the other hand, after the second book I only intend to read the third book if it gets very positive reviews, so I'm not sure how worried I am about this issue specifically now.
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Oct 21, 2013 12:40
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nessin posted:I feel like I've missed something. I finally got around to reading the books because I was looking for something I hadn't read that would fill the Mary Sue drive in me, despite how amazingly stupid those types of characters are, and I just finished book 2 and I can't figure what, if anything has actually happened. I feel like I've just read half a popcorn fantasy book extended out to two major volumes. So far all I've got out of the story is: e. On a page-to-page level I think Rothfuss really excels. His style has a poet's touch and he's good at floating ideas. A real sense of mystery and depth pervades his work and his writing is deeply readable. It's when you stop reading that you realize the story as a whole is jarbled and vague and the plotlines seem hacked together. To contrast I think GRRM has the opposite problem where he writes a really compelling story that isn't very much fun to actually read. Above Our Own fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Oct 21, 2013 |
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Oct 21, 2013 13:38
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I'll need to do a reread sometime soon, as they're easy ways to pass the time, but from what I remember a large amount of University time was given to him getting money or needing money. It's like if Harry Potter didn't have a bank vault full of gold and instead had to get up to magical hijinks to keep paying for Hogwarts every term.
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Oct 21, 2013 15:39
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Democratic Pirate posted:I'll need to do a reread sometime soon, as they're easy ways to pass the time, but from what I remember a large amount of University time was given to him getting money or needing money. It's like if Harry Potter didn't have a bank vault full of gold and instead had to get up to magical hijinks to keep paying for Hogwarts every term. Money he only needed because he ran his mouth every single time he went up for tution, whick Kvothe himself acknowledged via the narration. You can almost argue his continual foot in mouth disease, part of the whole lack of any sort of character progression, actually means book 3 may have actual content since the driving force for half of book 2 and a quarter of book 1 was solved by his lack of tact and inability to shut up with the Maer's wife. quote:The subplots are usually pretty engaging in their own right I think, but the narrative is incredibly unfocused and I can't help but feel that Rothfuss wasn't sure what kind of story he wanted to tell. It almost feels like a TV serial or weekly D&D game and I wish the author would have been more deliberate with an episodic format if that was his intention, instead of plodding along awkwardly with one foot in both worlds. I could actually handle that and enjoy it. I'm not ashamed to admit I occasionally like books that are actually that (the D&D books or stuff like Feist). But they don't read like that, they read like what they are, Rothfuss writing in excessive detail about trivial matters or making up entire background stories in the world to express some meaningless trope. Look at Kvothe's time with the Adem or the mercenary hunt, all of which took place over a significant portion of the book but only had two meaningful detailed events associated with them (the killing of the mercenaries and, presumably, the inheritance of his sword) and yet collectively they were stretched out to more than a quarter of the book. While in the meantime opportunties for actually stories, like the whole pirate/shipwreck adventure gets waved away in less than a few paragraphs. Hell, even the encounter with the tree was completely wasted thanks to the incident with the Maer, thus making the entire Fae section so far completely meaningless to the story unless something new comes up in book 3 (or you count Kvothe become a sex god/women magenet overnight as meaningful) with the cloak. All we have to show for the second half of the book an unknown cloak, a sword with a backstory and promise of more, and a steady stream of half formed story plots that were completely ignored or intentionally broken by Rothfuss. nessin fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Oct 21, 2013 |
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Oct 21, 2013 17:13
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nessin posted:While in the meantime opportunties for actually stories, like the whole pirate/shipwreck adventure gets waved away in less than a few paragraphs. Hell, even the encounter with the tree was completely wasted thanks to the incident with the Maer, thus making the entire Fae section so far completely meaningless to the story unless something new comes up in book 3 (or you count Kvothe become a sex god/women magenet overnight as meaningful) with the cloak. I'd like to think that he intends to address at least some of those threads in the third book, but as evidenced by the first two, I highly doubt it. If he were a more seasoned author, I would be inclined to judge more, but for a new author, especially trying to write fantasy for the first time, I would argue it's a forgivable failure; the writing and depth are still superb, so a mild case of "dangling thread amnesia" goes a long way. I'd be more inclined to bash the editor who let him go around creating subplots without a plan (presumably) to tie them off. One would hope that the person paid to proofread would do more than check for periods.
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Oct 22, 2013 18:10
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I thought he had written the whole trilogy when he got it published? So I guess the subplots were tied somehow, or the ending (twist?) is so great that it doesn't matter. At least that's what I remember reading around the release of 2nd book, that he wrote it all at once, and was just editing it. But I'm not sure anymore since it takes so long for the third book to come out and it looks like he's writing it now..
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Oct 22, 2013 18:43
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Sacrilage posted:I'd like to think that he intends to address at least some of those threads in the third book, but as evidenced by the first two, I highly doubt it. If he were a more seasoned author, I would be inclined to judge more, but for a new author, especially trying to write fantasy for the first time, I would argue it's a forgivable failure; the writing and depth are still superb, so a mild case of "dangling thread amnesia" goes a long way. According to him, his editor's only instructions for the second book were to make sure that the page count wasn't so big that it'd be impossible to physically print. Make of that what you will. mallamp posted:I thought he had written the whole trilogy when he got it published? So I guess the subplots were tied somehow, or the ending (twist?) is so great that it doesn't matter. At least that's what I remember reading around the release of 2nd book, that he wrote it all at once, and was just editing it. But I'm not sure anymore since it takes so long for the third book to come out and it looks like he's writing it now.. He did have a lot written, but in the years since he has added a bunch of things that weren't in the original draft.
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Oct 22, 2013 19:48
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I seem to remember a blog post by Rothfuss saying something to the effect of "well I had an outline written, and a lot of the early stuff written, but I've had to do lots of rewrites and fleshing out since the original draft was from my college days" Basically 'I had it all written' wasn't a lie, just an exaggeration.
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Oct 22, 2013 19:50
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There are also two story tellers. One is Rothfuss when we are in the tavern. The other is Kvothe/Rothfuss the R'uh telling a story in that style. Most of the 'complaints' in the thread are about the Ruh story, told at a distance geographically and temporally. Kvothe claims to be sticking to the truth, but is potentially a massive bullshitter because it would be a betrayal not to be one. It is at least all very colored by his point of view, for which we have minimal triangulation for most everything except Naming (and its supposed effect on Kvothe who has changed his own name) and the Tree.
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Oct 22, 2013 20:06
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Srice posted:According to him, his editor's only instructions for the second book were to make sure that the page count wasn't so big that it'd be impossible to physically print. Make of that what you will. That checks with chart.
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Oct 22, 2013 20:29
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Sogol posted:There are also two story tellers. One is Rothfuss when we are in the tavern. The other is Kvothe/Rothfuss the R'uh telling a story in that style. Most of the 'complaints' in the thread are about the Ruh story, told at a distance geographically and temporally. Kvothe claims to be sticking to the truth, but is potentially a massive bullshitter because it would be a betrayal not to be one. It is at least all very colored by his point of view, for which we have minimal triangulation for most everything except Naming (and its supposed effect on Kvothe who has changed his own name) and the Tree.
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Oct 22, 2013 20:40
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