Doors of Stonewalling: the Patrick Rothfuss Thread

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Doors of Stonewalling: the Patrick Rothfuss Thread

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

A human heart posted:

is that really what he looks like

That's actually one of the more flattering pictures.

OP posted:

Why should I read this guy�s books?

Rothfuss has unique opinions on art, stories, women, life, and magic. His prose is one of a kind. He�s a master of eroticism. Kvothe is a very multifaceted character � at times you have no idea what he�s supposed to be. The final novel of the trilogy will be a real spectacle.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2017 16:16

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 9, 2024 14:43

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

If you're still waiting for the third book after those two, sure, go for it, you're probably dead on the inside already.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2017 20:51

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

M_Gargantua posted:

And I was beginning to think my dating life was boring.

I must assume you all are writing trashy genre fiction about your dating drama because how the hell do those people exist?

You haven't lived until Rothfuss ruined your relationship.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2017 19:06

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Harrow posted:

For some reason I assumed Lord of Light would be a book I'd bounce off of but that description sounds pretty fantastic.

It's great, go for it.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2017 18:16

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Consistency is clearly not a requirement for Master Worldbuilding^tm.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2017 16:36

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

We totally need a Marxist reading of Kingkiller.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2017 12:32

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

jivjov's review?

# ¿ Oct 22, 2017 22:28

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Story? Planned?

# ¿ Oct 25, 2017 19:50

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

calandryll posted:

It also lists the Sword of Truth pretty high, which tells me that list is poo poo.

Seriously. If this isn't setting off all kinds of alarms, you don't know enough about Sword of Truth.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2017 20:41

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

my bony fealty posted:

Cragon would be a better name for a book than Eragon

Fragon.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2017 17:55

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Then again, they did one on Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books...

# ¿ Nov 8, 2017 20:20

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

PJOmega posted:

On a tangentially related note is there a good write-up/analysis of Book of the New Sun? I mainlined them as audiobooks and they were wonderful but holy hell is my mind not wrapped around what I listened to. I know there are levels that I'm not even aware of.

There's a podcast that goes through it chapter by chapter; currently they're nearing the end of Shadow so it's still hard to tell what parts they are and aren't going to catch on and it's entirely possible to disagree with some of their interpretations, but it's enjoyable if you want a slow and steady stream of parsing and interpreting the events.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2018 22:51

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

eXXon posted:

I didn't dislike Name of the Wind much at first. I thought the pacing was off, and some of the dialog was certainly insipid, but I kept going based on the overwhelming praise it received assuming that interesting things would happen. It was more by the time I got to the end and read those pages of horse bartering and country bumpkin talk and the blue fire that was definitely a sign of the Chandrian but then was actually a dragon not related to the Chandrian but still the Chandrian had actually been there and left a clue... or did they? Well, that's when I realized the payof wasn't coming and started to think about what I'd actually read. I briefly considered reading the second book but the plot summary is enough for me.

I think this is the way most people got acquainted with it - reading with a growing sense of disappointment. Then, depending on your level of tolerance for bullshit, you either arrive at book 2 where the stupid is unleashed in full or pause and think about what you were reading and, well, you get the average Rothfussian goon.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2018 19:02

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

If that's your typical response to things Rothfuss tries to emulate and utterly fails at, don't ever venture anywhere near anything by Gene Wolfe.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2018 21:49

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Pretty much. Because the world is a completely generic fantasy setting that doesn't even make sense half the time.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2018 20:32

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Y'know, I was rereading Earthsea while on vacation and it's pretty hilarious how much Rothfuss wanted to write the first book of that.
Which has like 150 pages.
And actual themes.
And a plot.
And is much better-written.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2018 22:31

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

I blame Robin Hood.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2018 09:14

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Strom Cuzewon posted:

"it's as beautiful as a really beautiful thing" Did Edmund Blackadder write that review?

The note was as sad as saying sad. I think we don't have to look that far for the suspect.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2019 14:39

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Inspector Gesicht posted:

Pillars of Eternity I gets faulted for its overwrought and heavy text, but it still had 40 hours of Baldur's Gate gameplay attached. So what does Tides of Neumenera have if the writing sucks?

An utterly awful combat system.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2020 22:35

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Evil Fluffy posted:

His books have sold millions of copies iirc, so yes.

He sold the movie/tv rights too and even if nothing comes from those he gets to keep that money as well.

Fairly sure he teaches creative writing at some university. Which is, uh, something.
Anyhow he won't go bankrupt in any way except creatively and that already happened.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2020 11:08

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Ccs posted:

One thing all three do is some pallet swaps on their races to try avoid seeming stereotypical. Rothfuss has ninjas! But wait, they�re BLOND ninjas. Abercrombie has his native Americans except with red hair, and Sanderson gives us white people living in an Asian setting.

Of course, Abercrombie also had the totally not-Islamic invading empire called, uh, Gurkey?

I honestly don't think color of hair of your completely fictional ripoffs does much to combat the laziness.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Apr 26, 2020

# ¿ Apr 26, 2020 22:52

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Ccs posted:

But the women are entirely described as types of birds, which kind of undercuts the "don't worry this isn't sexist" aspect of the scene.

Let me guess - tits?

# ¿ Aug 11, 2020 20:18

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

I thought that was effectively dead?

# ¿ Aug 2, 2021 20:58

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Yeah, Kingkiller seems to come off as someone trying to ape Wolfe... Except I'm not sure Rothfuss has ever heard of Wolfe.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2021 17:03

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

eXXon posted:

He wrote an entire chapter after two of the keys broke on his keyboard and readers said it was the most beautiful, flowery prose they had ever set eyes on.

It was a keyboard of three parts, I guess.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2022 10:48

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Yeah, but I think it's in the old thread.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2022 15:16

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Atlas Hugged posted:

BOTL had some good riffs on The Name of the Wind, but he didn't like Book of the New Sun and was very dismissive of Gene Wolfe, so he's not exactly a pure being of energy handing out literary truths. He's just a dude with opinions. It's weird that people are hung up on him.

Honestly, I think it's perfectly fine to have Disagreeable Opinions on Books. I'm a pretty huge Wolfe fan and I enjoyed BotL ranting on the topic.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2022 11:23

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

mdemone posted:

If he plays the unreliable narrator card then I will read it. Otherwise it's a waste to even revisit the series

What if he pretends playing it, like in the first one? "It wasn't a dragon, just a giant fire-breathing lizard!"

# ¿ Nov 14, 2023 18:25

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

>The Patrick Rothfuss Thread: Let's Talk About Buehlman Instead

# ¿ Dec 1, 2023 21:58

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

I think it's been established pretty strongly that Rothfuss doesn't understand music in the slightest.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2024 16:32

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Here's the thing: you'd be pretty hard-pressed to find someone who argues that Dune 5 and 6 are good. The more or less universal attitude is that the series is a downward slope (with some people, me included, thinking God Emperor the exception).

I believe what you're doing here is building a strawman. The fact other books contain stupid poo poo doesn't make Rothfuss' stupid poo poo better.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2024 14:54

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 9, 2024 14:43

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Evil Fluffy posted:

If there were a single reason to dismiss Rothfuss as a hack who got lucky with his first book, it's this. Despite its flaws, the first book does make an attempt at "my legends are total bullshit here's the boring reality" only for the second book to do a full 180 and bang the "actually, the legends aren't nearly as cool as the reality" drum while using even more previously-written short stories as filling for the book than NOTW did.

The attempt is really bad, too: I think the most egregious part being "I didn't defeat a dragon, it was just a giant winged lizard" - what the gently caress is the difference?
Even the premise isn't very interesting; you could add a lot by simply turning Kvothe into an unreliable narrator and having the other two challenge and second-guess his assertion (if not trusting the reader to do that on their own which, frankly, Rothfuss doesn't have the writing chops for). But starting by straight-up "debunking" - and there's no font size lare enough for those quotes - a legend we are never given the slightest reason to give a drat about is just bad storytelling. Or Storytelling.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2024 19:10

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Doors of Stonewalling: the Patrick Rothfuss Thread