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Captain Monkey posted:Having made the mistake of reading the first book, it's extremely funny. same lol i picked the first one up in an airport waiting for an international flight and it was a hate read through the entire thing. i couldn't put it down because i didn't have anything else to read, and i couldn't go to sleep because i never sleep on international flights; it was pure hell. i left it in the seat pocket for some future victim going the other way across the atlantic.
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Jul 6, 2023 16:47
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NoiseAnnoys posted:same lol The best part is (there are no good parts, either) is that the first book is the good one, even if 'good' is only relative to the second, which is just plain loving insanely bad. And no, he's shown no progress on book 3 and instead seems content on rereleasing old short stories in novella form instead of actually writing book 3.
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Jul 6, 2023 20:32
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John Boyne is so insufferably in love with the idea that writers are Important and that their books have Meaning, but as soon as anyone calls him out on the nonsense they propagate he insists it doesn't matter what garbage he writes, they're just stories. After everyone called him out on The Boy in Striped Pyjamas and his horribly transphobic novel he then released The Echo Chamber, which as far as I can tell is about why its bad when the Auswitz museum calls you out for how terrible your novel is. He's also done a sequel to Striped Pyjamas about the kid's older sister and her life after the war. I can't find the details of how it ends but it's apparantly even worse.
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Jul 6, 2023 20:50
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I looked up that Striped Pyjamas book because I didn't remember the movie adaptation, and apparently it's also been adapted into a ballet, and as of this year, a full on opera  People just can't stop adapting that lovely Holocaust fable!
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Jul 6, 2023 22:54
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Many people desire the weight of important history but not the reality of what happened because that is seldom narratively convenient.
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Jul 6, 2023 23:03
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I don’t hate rothfuss first book. It’s not great but it’s not the worst fantasy novel I’ve read by a long shot. The second one is so mind boggling bad…just an absolute train wreck of a novel. No idea how it got published it’s such a mess. It’s a bit impressive actually.
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Jul 6, 2023 23:11
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I shook Boyne's hand when he was promoting the book with the transphobic content. There was hand sanitizer nearby, though.
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Jul 6, 2023 23:15
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Stripey Pajamas author has a head that looks like a potato.
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Jul 6, 2023 23:30
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Ambitious Spider posted:I don’t hate rothfuss first book. It’s not great but it’s not the worst fantasy novel I’ve read by a long shot. The second one is so mind boggling bad…just an absolute train wreck of a novel. No idea how it got published it’s such a mess. It’s a bit impressive actually. It's surprising the number of friends I have whose tastes I otherwise respect but who love the books, think they're the best fantasy saga ever written, and await the third with bated breath. Just goes to show that opinions differ widely, I guess.
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Jul 6, 2023 23:30
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Lemniscate Blue posted:It's surprising the number of friends I have whose tastes I otherwise respect but who love the books, think they're the best fantasy saga ever written, and await the third with bated breath. Just goes to show that opinions differ widely, I guess. I think it is because if you don't pay attention to anything but the flowery language, it seems good! But if you think about... anything, it all falls apart. Probably not helped by the two books being many different stories knitted together. The first book had the least amount of them, so it was a bit more cohesive. The only two extraneous stories dropped in was the Trebon arc (notice how he takes a bath and all of the trauma of the Trebon arc vanishes?) and the dragon arc. For the second book uhh.. All of it but the school sections were pre-written and just thrown in. Especially obvious was the section where the narration totally changes as he murders a bunch of fake Edema Ruh BEFORE he finds out for sure that they're fakes. That story was specifically the first ever Kvothe story written, which is why it is written to be a Cool Introduction to him, and treats him as a mysterious figure that the narrator does not want to divulge details about, even though the narrator is Kvothe himself.
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Jul 7, 2023 00:59
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:Stripey Pajamas author has a head that looks like a potato. He's Irish, so this statement is racist.
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Jul 7, 2023 01:14
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The funniest thing about Rothfuss was how he promoted the series on the idea that he had actually finished all three books and they just needed to be published. Of course the second book quickly put paid to that idea as the plot slowed to an absolute crawl with Kvothe spending the majority of the book just kind of loving around.
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Jul 7, 2023 02:26
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muscles like this! posted:Kvothe spending the majority of the book just kind of loving around. Literally, if what people have told me is accurate.
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Jul 7, 2023 02:33
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Yeah, he visits the land of the sex ninjas (who don't understand how sex leads to pregnancy) and also sexing the fairy queen so good that she falls in love with him.
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Jul 7, 2023 02:43
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Strom Cuzewon posted:He's also done a sequel to Striped Pyjamas about the kid's older sister and her life after the war. I can't find the details of how it ends but it's apparantly even worse. There some, uh, discussion questions: https://johnboyne.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AlltheBrokenPlaces_DiscussionGuide.pdf
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Jul 7, 2023 02:45
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muscles like this! posted:Yeah, he visits the land of the sex ninjas (who don't understand how sex leads to pregnancy) and also sexing the fairy queen so good that she falls in love with him. Hey, they know that sex leads to pregnancy! ... in animals. They think it is very silly that that is how it works for humans, and apparently can't understand the causality of it because they're all banging every single moment they can. They also don't notice that it only begins happening after they start banging. Or that gay or lesbian sex ninjas don't get pregnant (I guess because they don't exist). Also that wasn't the fairy queen. That was the fairy goddess of basically death by sex. Because she fucks you until you die because she magics you. Except Kvothe was both immune to her sex powers and also wrote a really bad story about her but refused to finish it unless she let him go. Also after being warned not to go visit the Doom Tree who tells you prophecies/information that will lead to your doom because you WILL act on it, and also they have a battalion of hyper-elves that kill any living animal that gets within hearing distance of the Doom Tree, Kvothe just kind of wanders up to it, has a loud conversation with it, and wanders away without any of the hyper-elves noticing. He doesn't act on the knowledge given by the Doom Tree that his beloved is being tormented by her master who is also one of the Chandrian, the group of demons he's sworn vengeance on for killing his family. Instead he wanders about, banging random women and then falling in with the sex ninjas and banging them for months. Kvothe by the way is 15-16 years old.
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Jul 7, 2023 18:24
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I didn't even get past the part in the first book where he's talking about how hot his mom is, drat. Rothfuss a weird dude
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Jul 7, 2023 18:28
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Kchama posted:Also after being warned not to go visit the Doom Tree who tells you prophecies/information that will lead to your doom because you WILL act on it, and also they have a battalion of hyper-elves that kill any living animal that gets within hearing distance of the Doom Tree, Kvothe just kind of wanders up to it, has a loud conversation with it, and wanders away without any of the hyper-elves noticing. This is doubly annoying because the Doom Tree in a vacuum is a cool idea. The basic concept is that it's functionally omniscient, with perfect knowledge of the past, present, and all possible variations of the future. It also absolutely hates every single living thing, so if you end up talking to it, it well tell you the exact thing it knows will lead to the most suffering possible for you and everyone around you. Even if you go in with the intention of doing the exact opposite it tells you, it'll tell you something that, in doing the opposite, will cause you to gently caress up horrendously. A good author could probably write an entire pretty decent book just about that concept. And Rothfuss just does gently caress all with it. Kvothe runs into it because he is the Most Important Person Ever, and as such is contractually obligated to take part in every single important event in the world. He limply tries to use it to convince us that Kvothe's story is totally a tragedy you guys, only to go right back to telling us about how he's the coolest motherfucker in the world who fucks all the girls and learns all the magic. Perestroika has a new favorite as of 19:02 on Jul 7, 2023 |
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Jul 7, 2023 18:42
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Ambitious Spider posted:I don’t hate rothfuss first book. It’s not great but it’s not the worst fantasy novel I’ve read by a long shot. The second one is so mind boggling bad…just an absolute train wreck of a novel. No idea how it got published it’s such a mess. It’s a bit impressive actually. Same here, honestly. I burned through it on a camping trip with someone who had enjoyed it, and it was dumb but I’ve definitely read dumber. I’ve never, ever had someone recommend actually reading the second book though, and for several years literally my entire social circle was comprised of bookstore employees that read absolutely everything and often enjoyed trashier junk than you’d expect.
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Jul 7, 2023 18:46
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Perestroika posted:This is doubly annoying because the Doom Tree in a vacuum is a cool idea. The basic concept is that it's functionally omniscient, with perfect knowledge of the past, present, and all possible variations of the future. It also absolutely hates every single living thing, so if you end up talking to it, it well tell you the exact thing it knows will lead to they most suffering for you and everyone around you possible. Even if you go in with the intention of doing the exact opposite it tells you, it'll tell you something that, in doing the opposite, will cause you to gently caress up horrendously. A good author could probably write an entire pretty decent book just about that concept. I love the version of the concept in Centaurworld - the trees are surrounded by signs being all "Stay away! Don't ask for advice!" but it's not because they are evil, just dickheads. Instead of giving useful advice they'll just spout useless platitudes about what you want not being what you need while not taking into account what the person ACTUALLY NEEDS and providing that, like in an inuniverse example a lost child who's entire village has been destroyed goes to them for help and asks for them to be brought back, and the trees just get all smug about that not being what she needs without actually providing the thing she would need - comfort. The trees aren't evil, just idiots who think they're smarter than they are.
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Jul 7, 2023 18:49
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Rockman Reserve posted:I’ve definitely read dumber Solid pull quote for the next edition's cover
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Jul 7, 2023 19:11
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Perestroika posted:This is doubly annoying because the Doom Tree in a vacuum is a cool idea. The basic concept is that it's functionally omniscient, with perfect knowledge of the past, present, and all possible variations of the future. It also absolutely hates every single living thing, so if you end up talking to it, it well tell you the exact thing it knows will lead to the most suffering possible for you and everyone around you. Even if you go in with the intention of doing the exact opposite it tells you, it'll tell you something that, in doing the opposite, will cause you to gently caress up horrendously. A good author could probably write an entire pretty decent book just about that concept. Yep, this sums up why the Doom Tree ends up being so terrible. It loses its impact entirely because Kvothe can just gently caress off and bone for months and forget what it said (because these are stories dropped in that was written before the Doom Tree was invented and introduced).
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Jul 7, 2023 19:12
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The doom tree is spreading misery to you, the reader
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Jul 7, 2023 19:15
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Tunicate posted:The doom tree is spreading misery to you, the reader The doom tree would announce there is going to be a very faithful tv show adaptation of the book, its going to be more popular than Game of Thrones, you will be hearing about it for years, and there is nothing you can do to avoid this.
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Jul 7, 2023 19:37
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Ask the Doom Tree what's the worst thing that would happen if we chopped it down
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Jul 7, 2023 19:47
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It would take care to land on you personally. However far away you were.
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Jul 7, 2023 20:31
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Kchama posted:Yep, this sums up why the Doom Tree ends up being so terrible. It loses its impact entirely because Kvothe can just gently caress off and bone for months and forget what it said (because these are stories dropped in that was written before the Doom Tree was invented and introduced). What finally made me give up on the Audiobook was that Kvothe just decided to pause his incredibly important assignment in retrieving tax money stolen from the Noble Patron who's bankrolling his entire life to do this, like it was a Sidequest in a video game, as if he expects all the Completion Markers will still be there on the Quest Log whenever he decides he's done... and he's right. Or at least I assume that's the case, I didn't get much farther.
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Jul 7, 2023 20:43
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In the first book, I assumed "No, Kvothe is telling the story so of course he's making himself look better. He even gets called out on it by a listener." "And she was amazing and beautiful" "Eh, she was a 6. And kind of a bitch." "...Well you just didn't see the right side of her." Given book 2, I'm wondering who that character was based on that Rothfuss felt the need to say "No she was the best girl just not to everyone"
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Jul 7, 2023 20:49
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maltesh posted:What finally made me give up on the Audiobook was that Kvothe just decided to pause his incredibly important assignment in retrieving tax money stolen from the Noble Patron who's bankrolling his entire life to do this, like it was a Sidequest in a video game, as if he expects all the Completion Markers will still be there on the Quest Log whenever he decides he's done... and he's right. God, that reminds me how that same patron had a wife from an old noble family that's known for owning legendary millenia-old magical lockbox that holds some unknown treasure but cannot be opened by conventional means. And then it's very bluntly implied that she's actually his aunt, making him the eventual heir of the box because of loving course not a single loving thing can happen without him being at the dead center of it.
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Jul 7, 2023 21:13
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Elfface posted:In the first book, I assumed "No, Kvothe is telling the story so of course he's making himself look better. He even gets called out on it by a listener." Perestroika posted:God, that reminds me how that same patron had a wife from an old noble family that's known for owning legendary millenia-old magical lockbox that holds some unknown treasure but cannot be opened by conventional means. And then it's very bluntly implied that she's actually his aunt, making him the eventual heir of the box because of loving course not a single loving thing can happen without him being at the dead center of it. a book 3 from someone else’s perspective and showing kvothe as fantasyland forrest gump would actually own ngl
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Jul 7, 2023 21:16
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Perestroika posted:God, that reminds me how that same patron had a wife from an old noble family that's known for owning legendary millenia-old magical lockbox that holds some unknown treasure but cannot be opened by conventional means. And then it's very bluntly implied that she's actually his aunt, making him the eventual heir of the box because of loving course not a single loving thing can happen without him being at the dead center of it. It's made EXTREMELY obvious and there's a bunch of stuff in book 1 that just nails it in. The fact that Kvothe doesn't notice is actually very weird.
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Jul 7, 2023 21:54
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Ambitious Spider posted:I don’t hate rothfuss first book. It’s not great but it’s not the worst fantasy novel I’ve read by a long shot. The second one is so mind boggling bad…just an absolute train wreck of a novel. No idea how it got published it’s such a mess. It’s a bit impressive actually. I liked it, and was actually pretty enthusiastic for the whole idea of "epic fantasy narrated by the alleged hero bullshitting in a bar somewhere"; the setup seemed to invite a structure where the story slowly grew contradictions and exaggerations until his audience called him on it and kicked you back to the frame story in the bar where you get to (eventually) find out what really happened. Of course, the book didn't really follow through on that, but since I was book 1 of a trilogy I figured probably what was happening was book 1 sets up "the legend of Kvothe", in book 2 the house of fabrications collapses and book 3 is about the townsfolk dealing with whatever's in the forest eating people themselves because Kvothe is useless, and maybe he learns an important lesson and/or gets eaten. Then some friends of mine reported back on what book 2 was actually like and I lost interest entirely.
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Jul 8, 2023 00:51
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Serephina posted:You need to read the second book, The thread on book 2 posted:n... no thanks.
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Jul 8, 2023 01:20
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ToxicFrog posted:I liked it, and was actually pretty enthusiastic for the whole idea of "epic fantasy narrated by the alleged hero bullshitting in a bar somewhere"; the setup seemed to invite a structure where the story slowly grew contradictions and exaggerations until his audience called him on it and kicked you back to the frame story in the bar where you get to (eventually) find out what really happened.
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Jul 8, 2023 03:53
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Lemniscate Blue posted:In 2020 his editor said she hadn't ever seen a word of Book 3 and didn't think he'd written any of it. Just to add onto this, because the last detail is the absolute killer imo: quote:"It (Doors of Stone) will be the last book in Kvothe’s backstory, but Pat originally wanted to write more in this world. I don’t know what he wants to do now. Or even if he wants to write at all." That type of thing is often what you hear rumored about someone like Martin, that he got a taste for the non-writer life and has been away for so long it's just too daunting to return to. But obviously it's something that'd never be confirmed or even commented on, let alone openly speculated by their editor!
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Jul 8, 2023 04:57
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Honestly if I'd written The Wise Man's Fear I would also stop writing.
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Jul 8, 2023 05:07
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WarpDogs posted:Just to add onto this, because the last detail is the absolute killer imo: I guess she isn't too worried about burning her bridges since she's long given up hope that the bridge would ever be used
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Jul 8, 2023 10:18
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not disagreeing per se, but isn't "the non-writer life" just life?
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Jul 8, 2023 10:26
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NoiseAnnoys posted:not disagreeing per se, but isn't "the non-writer life" just life? In Rotfhuss's case, he was now a celebrity and running a charity that did little but pass through money and pay himself, so he didn't need to write any more.
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Jul 8, 2023 11:33
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NoiseAnnoys posted:not disagreeing per se, but isn't "the non-writer life" just life? Well, in these cases it's more "life, but with a shitload of money and no responsibilities".
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Jul 8, 2023 11:42
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