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The College has enough would-be arcanists go mad that it has it's own asylum. It seems pretty possible to me, if not actually probable, that Auri cracked as a result of something magical instead of something non-magically traumatic.
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# ? Feb 18, 2014 05:16 |
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# ? May 11, 2024 11:30 |
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Wittgen posted:I actually think it's quite easy to believe someone could end up being like that without abuse. She was a student, right? We see many times that messing around with magic is a good way to mentally or emotionally break yourself. I thought it was clearly magic and the conversation between Elodin and Kvothe on the rooftop only reinforced it. I completely missed any of the Devi rape stuff but those quotes could be interpreted that way I guess. I'm just reading through Wise Man's Fear - I thought I hadn't read it but then I realised I had read it but gave up during the Felurian parts...by God, that section is a sloggy slog. I skipped through most of it on my second read through. After reading The Lies of Locke Lamora, Kvothe really seems like a broad strokes character with few redeeming features.
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# ? Feb 18, 2014 12:55 |
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Whether any specific character was raped or not, the fact that there's grounds to debate it for pretty much every woman in the book reflects badly on its own. Women in Rothfuss are all either mystic gatekeepers to the Land of the Sex (All the Adem, Felurian, etc) or infantilised anime characters for Kvothe to protect and care for (Auri 'i got you a feather and then it was the moon ', sometimes Denna too).
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# ? Feb 18, 2014 14:37 |
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Strategic Tea posted:Whether any specific character was raped or not, the fact that there's grounds to debate it for pretty much every woman in the book reflects badly on its own. Yeah the potential for rape to occur tends to put me off certain books for a while until i can come back to them. Case in point The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley had a scene like that that i really had to slug through. A single blot on an otherwise excellent book.
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# ? Feb 18, 2014 20:49 |
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Strategic Tea posted:Whether any specific character was raped or not, the fact that there's grounds to debate it for pretty much every woman in the book reflects badly on its own. I like your sweeping proclamation based on a single character and sometimes Denna. You seem to be ignoring the fact that the characters you're talking about are possible love interests. NightRift posted:Yeah the potential for rape to occur tends to put me off certain books for a while until i can come back to them. Case in point The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley had a scene like that that i really had to slug through. A single blot on an otherwise excellent book.
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# ? Feb 19, 2014 08:19 |
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Finished A Wise Man's Fear. Not sure I can be bothered for the third book whenever it arrives. I actively felt myself hating Kvothe as a character. I really liked the world around him but Kvothe is a loving prick. He's not even a GOOD prick like an anti-hero can be. Kvothe is just a prick; he doesn't give a poo poo about anyone because he's so busy trying to find out about the things that killed his troupe/parent yet not enough of the story is about that search. The book seems to be about How to Make Money Badly. I can barely even talk about the whole tiresome annoying Denna situation - he's supposedly useless with women but he can seduce a princess for the Maer? Every character around him is 10x more interesting than Kvothe even though they are primarily there to orbit like awed moons around big bad planet Kvothe. And why? Kvothe does nothing for them except leech from their goodwill or use them to pass the time so he can better himself. Most of the enmity stems from one thing; you weren't able to appreciate why Kvothe is so perfect. And why is he even perfect? There's no explanation for his perfection - he's not some son of God or some poo poo. I could take a natural ability to magic as a driver but he's perfect at EVERYTHING...oh, except tying knots even though he's perfect at untying them. He even heals stupidly quickly with no reason given. The only redeeming path of the third book is if Rothfuss gets Kvothe schooled. He needs to confront and be beaten by people/things better/smarter/faster/stronger than he to redress the ridiculous imbalance Rothfuss has given this character. That might be how it is headed considering Kvothe can't do any magic in present day etc.
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 13:28 |
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We only seek Kvothe through Ruh style narration. The narrator is no longer Kvothe. He is a Namer and has renamed himself. I also find it frustrating.
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 20:17 |
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WastedJoker posted:He needs to confront and be beaten by people/things better/smarter/faster/stronger than he to redress the ridiculous imbalance Rothfuss has given this character. This happens constantly. Devi trounces him in terms of the strength of her alar. The one female student masters the name of stone while Kvothe hasn't even figured out how to try and start learning. He spends his time with the Adem getting his teeth kicked in by a little girl. The jerk noble consistently makes life very hard for Kvothe at little to no cost to himself.
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 20:39 |
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Yeah, it's funny, Kvothe sometimes talks about himself like he's the best human who ever lives, but he's been beaten at every single one of his skills except playing lute. It's only a partial excuse for Rothfuss, though, because it's clear that if Kvothe meets a random stranger, he's probably going to better than that guy at pretty much everything.
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 20:48 |
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Wittgen posted:This happens constantly. Devi trounces him in terms of the strength of her alar. The one female student masters the name of stone while Kvothe hasn't even figured out how to try and start learning. He spends his time with the Adem getting his teeth kicked in by a little girl. The jerk noble consistently makes life very hard for Kvothe at little to no cost to himself. True but you get the idea that it would only be a very short matter of time for him to beat them in some clever way if the plot required it. These small defeats are glossed over and his successes are bombastic and overblown. Perhaps Kvothe is still being an unreliable narrator despite his claims to Chronicle. It just really grates combined with his other flaws.
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 22:17 |
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Sogol posted:We only seek Kvothe through Ruh style narration. The narrator is no longer Kvothe. He is a Namer and has renamed himself. I also find it frustrating. The "unreliable narrator" has been tossed around since the first book, especially since the whole point is the book starts with Kote giving the Chronicler "the story he wants to hear". The biggest complaints now are how long the story is dragging on. The biggest stories in the legend of Kvothe happen after he leaves the university, and book 2 ends with him still there. Oh, and apparently something about the mere mention of Denna by the Chronicler sending Kote into a silent fury. There's clearly supposed to be something fishy about the whole story. Bast is convinced Kote is the legendary Kvothe of the tales, yet he can't even do sympathy magic anymore, and is at his wits end desperate to prove that the epic tales are true. pentyne fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Feb 22, 2014 |
# ? Feb 22, 2014 23:01 |
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No, actually he doesn't do anything at all to try and prove his story is right. He is also not telling Chronicler the story he wants to hear, in fact he doesn't want to tell Chronicler anything. Legends of mighty Kvothe already abound in the world. Chronicler coaxes a story out of him by pointing out that it's his one chance to tell his true story before he dies. The unreliable narrator idea is really weak from every angle. Even if it were true, I don't see how anyone thinks that Kvothe going "hey I made all this poo poo up, lol" at the end of the third book could possibly enhance the story in any way.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 00:37 |
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And that stuff leads to a few instances where Kvothe talks about how some of his legends are a lot more mundane than people think. Granted this is mostly in the first book, but still! I don't think there is currently enough evidence for an unreliable narrator, and I feel it's mostly a theory that's propelled by wishful thinking.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 03:12 |
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pentyne posted:The biggest complaints now are how long the story is dragging on. The biggest stories in the legend of Kvothe happen after he leaves the university, and book 2 ends with him still there. Oh, and apparently something about the mere mention of Denna by the Chronicler sending Kote into a silent fury.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 03:23 |
I suspect Kvothe's activities in the present fixing everything will be another series.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 03:29 |
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I wasn't suggesting an unreliable narrator. It's supposedly a style of story telling. Whether Rothfuss pulls that off or not is a different matter. The story actually happening is that he is now Kote and can no longer even open his own chest of goodies. Everything else is the story Kote is telling about Kvothe. That does not make it unreliable.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 03:32 |
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pentyne posted:
This I think is explained by Ramston steel, Rothfuss' surrogate for Valaryian steel and the like. Keeps it's edge but is very brittle. Kvothe frequently describes his Alar as being as keen as a blade of Ramston steel. Something happens with Denna and it snaps that brittle Ramston alar. Or, if you prefer, the game he played with his split mind. One part hid a rock and the other tried to find it. Sometimes a good sympathist came up empty. Sometimes one part of the mind lies and never even hides it. One part of his name hid his name and now he can't find it, or it was never hidden.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 04:59 |
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Democratic Pirate posted:This is the crux of the matter for me. From what I remember the main storyline is interesting, but it feels like we're 20% of the way through the story since I'm assuming Kvothe has to finish his part and explain how he got there and then go save the world or whatever. Yeah, you'd think a planned trilogy would have the typical set-up of book 1: Hero starts his journey, book 2: hero starts his "legend", and book 3: things fall apart/major mysteries are revealed. Instead we're 1400 pages in and into year 2 of university and from the chronicler's perspective everything that made Kvothe famous still hasn't been told. The major present day things that are going on seem to be Kvothe is now Kote, the world is "broken" somehow, and Kote can't open the wooden box.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 06:50 |
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"Doors of Stone" would be completely redeemed if Kvothe was entirely removed from it and it was just the chronicles of Devi.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 10:09 |
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I must say, after finishing the second book I'd assumed it would be a five part series. I was surprised when I heard it was going to be a trilogy.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 16:12 |
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pentyne posted:Yeah, you'd think a planned trilogy would have the typical set-up of book 1: Hero starts his journey, book 2: hero starts his "legend", and book 3: things fall apart/major mysteries are revealed. Kvothe posted:My first mentor called me E'lir because I was clever and I knew it. My first real lover called me Dulator because she liked the sound of it. I have been called Shadicar, Lightfinger, and Six-String. I have been called Kvothe the Bloodless, Kvothe the Arcane, and Kvothe Kingkiller. I have earned those names. Bought and paid for them. Well we've had a Draccus burn down Trebon, we've had him spend a 'night' with Felurian, we've seen him expelled from the University...
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 17:01 |
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We also learned why he's called Kvothe the Bloodless.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 17:53 |
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TychoCelchuuu posted:We also learned why he's called Kvothe the Bloodless. That was either the whipping or the arrow stopper?
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 18:14 |
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WastedJoker posted:That was either the whipping or the arrow stopper? It was the whipping. They thought about calling the arrowcatch the Bloodless though. We also have heard why people starting calling him Kvothe the Arcane over in in Imre. About the only big things we haven't heard about yet is the King Killing, and the Princess from the barrow.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 18:21 |
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jivjov posted:It was the whipping. They thought about calling the arrowcatch the Bloodless though. And didn't he kill an angel or something? I really just want the rest of the back story with the Chandrians and all the awesome stuff with the namers/shapers.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 19:35 |
If Rothfuss can deliver on even half of the final book's potential, I'll consider the trilogy as having been worthwhile. But if he pulls off the full "unreliable narrator" and gives us a great twist to connect story to framing story, it could really be memorable. Unfortunately I'm not sure he's up to that level of skill. I feel like the first two books could be given as a training exercise to other authors, to see how good they are by seeing how much they could do in a third volume with Rothfuss' setup. Lots of room to impress me, but I'm not hopeful.
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# ? Feb 25, 2014 20:00 |
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mdemone posted:If Rothfuss can deliver on even half of the final book's potential, I'll consider the trilogy as having been worthwhile. But if he pulls off the full "unreliable narrator" and gives us a great twist to connect story to framing story, it could really be memorable. I suspect he is going to pull a grrm and the trilogy will become a tetralogy. From my point of view, that wouldn't be the worst outcome. I like reading his stories, and would rather read twice as many new books than have him try and cram two books worth of conclusion into one because reasons. BrosephofArimathea fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Feb 25, 2014 |
# ? Feb 25, 2014 23:16 |
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BrosephofArimathea posted:I suspect he is going to pull a grrm and the trilogy will become a tetralogy. Given the trend so far, I would more expect him to pull a Jordan and enlarge the series beyond all reason and content and then die (from sex judo) before he can finish it.
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# ? Feb 26, 2014 00:41 |
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Patrick Rothfuss just shared this image with "This. One thousand times this." as the only comment: http://rosalarian.tumblr.com/post/78124344560/feminism-is-having-a-wardrobe-malfunction-does Feminism is doing whatever you want, especially if it's going topless.
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# ? Mar 1, 2014 20:10 |
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mdemone posted:If Rothfuss can deliver on even half of the final book's potential, I'll consider the trilogy as having been worthwhile. But if he pulls off the full "unreliable narrator" and gives us a great twist to connect story to framing story, it could really be memorable. If he's sitting there with Chronicler pinging the Chandrian and Sithe and has a globally trusted source record the account of his death at the hands of the Real Actual Chandrian, I would be very satisfied.
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# ? Mar 1, 2014 20:15 |
Bumping this because there's a new Kingkiller book coming out this year. It's not Doors of Stone, but I suppose it'll do.quote:A companion novella to Patrick Rothfuss’ bestselling Kingkiller Chronicle novels, The Slow Regard of Silent Things shares an enchanting new perspective on the Four Corners realm.
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# ? Apr 15, 2014 03:17 |
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God drat it. I forgot that he was doing that stupid novella first.
Star War Sex Parrot fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Apr 15, 2014 |
# ? Apr 15, 2014 03:18 |
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Star War Sex Parrot posted:God drat it. I dunno...I'm pretty excited to revisit the world Rothfuss has made. His worldbuilding, especially the University stuff, is pretty top notch. I love the magic system he's created, and it looks like this novella will delve into the more arcane side of it.
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# ? Apr 15, 2014 03:24 |
I'm looking at this as kind of a test for Rothfuss. I love the world he's built, but I only want to read more about Kvothe inasmuch as I want that story to be over with so Rothfuss can move the gently caress on and stop wanking over the character he's been writing for 20 years. I'm hoping Kvothe gets nothing more than a mention, if that, in this novella.
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# ? Apr 15, 2014 03:55 |
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I never thought Auri was that special when I read the books. Iirc her chapters seemed to have important plot points but I still skimmed through them as fast as I could.
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# ? Apr 15, 2014 04:08 |
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I can't say that Auri is a character who I really wanted to know more about. Heck, with the sort of character that she is I get the feeling that more exposure could hurt. I mean I'll still give it a shot but I can't say it's something I'm looking forward to!
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# ? Apr 15, 2014 05:45 |
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You know what I would like to read? The Name of the Wind, except replace the protagonist with Nicomo Cosca, post-Best Served Cold. There is an unreliable narrator I could get behind. But do something about that rash man, geez..
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# ? Apr 23, 2014 15:35 |
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That companion novel sounds great to me as it should all the strengths of his books without the worst parts, which are Kvothe being annoying and Deena existing.
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# ? Apr 24, 2014 01:11 |
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I very much look forward to that upcoming book because I found Auri interesting and wondered if he would ever delve into her past more! Also since I haven't ever posted in this thread I wanted to say that I loooooooooved the first two books in the series. Not at all surprised to see the hate for them in here, but the first two books in the series were the best reading experiences I've had in years. Dude's got prose I appreciate.
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# ? Apr 26, 2014 02:10 |
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# ? May 11, 2024 11:30 |
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I also really loved the books the first time I read them. I shot right through then very fast, and I loved it. It really took until I thought about the books to realize that they weren't as good as I had thought they were. I really don't know about this story coming out, since I barely remembered Auri when this was mentioned. I will most likely read it, enjoy it, and then never touch it again.
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# ? Apr 26, 2014 02:55 |