Review: ‘The Wise Man’s Fear’ by Patrick Rothfuss

“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”

My name is Kvothe.

I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trehon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

You may have heard of me.

So begins the tale of a hero told from his own point of view — a story unequaled in fantasy literature. Now in The Wise Man’s Fear, an escalating rivalry with a powerful member of the nobility forces Kvothe to leave the University and seek his fortune abroad. Adrift, penniless, and alone, he travels to Vintas, where he quickly becomes entangled in the politics of courtly society. While attempting to curry favor with a powerful noble, Kvothe uncovers an assassination attempt, comes into conflict with a rival arcanist, and leads a group of mercenaries into the wild, in an attempt to solve the mystery of who (or what) is waylaying travelers on the King’s Road.

All the while, Kvothe searches for answers, attempting to uncover the truth about the mysterious Amyr, the Chandrian, and the death of his parents. Along the way, Kvothe is put on trial by the legendary Adem mercenaries, is forced to reclaim the honor of the Edema Ruh, and travels into the Fae realm. There he meets Felurian, the faerie woman no man can resist, and who no man has ever survived…until Kvothe.

In The Wise Man’s Fear, Kvothe takes his first steps on the path of the hero and learns how difficult life can be when a man becomes a legend in his own time.

The Wise Man’s Fear is the second in The Kingkiller Chronicle. If you haven’t read the first book, then this isn’t the place to start; they need to be read in order. This book continues Kvothe’s retelling of his life to date, picking up where the first book leaves off. It is now day two of Kvothe telling the story and, again, the book jumps between Kvothe’s tale and events in the inn where he is telling it.

I adore the foreshadowing that Rothfuss is able to do by virtue of glimpses of “current” events. One non-spoilery example is the fact that Kvothe at some point killed a king. I’ve been getting a kick out of building my own little theory as to who that might be and why, and will be very interested to see how the story unfolds. Likewise, the fate of Denna has a question mark over it. Regardless of what I think of her (I have mixed feelings), she is definitely past-Kvothe’s love, and her marked absence from present-Kvothe’s life (and his obvious depression) suggests she meets some kind of sticky end.

I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS, YOU GUYS.

There are elements of this book that I didn’t enjoy as much as the first book, although I suppose they are inevitable given the story is about the development of a hero (who must at some point have learned magic and how to fight). They mostly revolve around loose threads. I get really frustrated when characters seem to put one (quite important) thing on hold to chase up another. I’m not talking about Kvothe taking a break from university — I think that was a good idea to mix up the story — but when he decided to take a several month (several hundred page) detour before reporting back to Alveron, I got a bit twitchy. Especially with the Felurian episode … although why that was important became clear by the end of the book.

Still, even the more tangential bits of history are interspersed with action set in the present, and there are little mysteries unfolding there too. For example, what is going on with his student, Bast (a character I really enjoy)?

Overall I’ve given The Wise Man’s Fear 4.5 stars. It was very good, but the first book in the series was very, very good. Regardless, I will definitely be going back for book three, Doors of Stone, when it comes out … which will hopefully be some time this decade. *sniff*

Review: ‘The Name of the Wind’ by Patrick Rothfuss

Told in Kvothe’s own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen. The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature. A high-action story written with a poet’s hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.

I used to read a lot of epic fantasy in my teens and 20s. Eventually I lost the endurance for it — for the sort of weighty tomes that give you a concussion if you fall asleep reading them in bed. Also, I discovered YA and urban fantasy (both of which don’t run that long, as a rule).

Just over a week ago, I was lamenting to friends that I had finished my current audiobook series (The Hollows by Kim Harrison). These friends are all book nerds who didn’t give up on epic fantasy, and all of them recommended Patrick Rothfuss.

They were right.

It took me a chapter or two to get into The Name of the Wind. The whole “three silences” thing at the start threw me — although that sort of epic, bardlike introduction to a fantasy novel isn’t unusual, like I said, it’s been a while. Still, since I’d paid for the audiobook already I persisted, and it was so worth it.

The flashback-style mechanism of Kvothe telling his story to a scribe means that we get to jump between his detailing his childhood misadventures and the present. Because most of the story is the former, the latter serves as excellent foreshadowing of tragedy to come. Interestingly, the latter also contains foreshadowing for events that presumably happen later in the series, once the retelling is complete. (At least, that’s my read of things.) I admire the level of craft that has gone into that.

Kvothe himself is an interesting character, and by maybe halfway through the book I’d fallen a little bit in love with him (present Kvothe, not the 15-year-old whose tale comprises the bulk of the book, because That Would Be Wrong). He’s the kind of character that is brilliant but not Mary Stu-ish; he’s rather cocky and arrogant, and gets himself into all kinds of trouble.

But I think my favourite thing about him is that he sees the beauty in things. For example, I’d noticed that all the girls he met he described as beautiful, and at first I wondered if this was a sort of wish fulfilment thing on the part of the author — but then one of the other present-day characters pulled him up on one of his descriptions, pointing out the flaws in one girl’s appearance. That made it clear to me that Kvothe (at least young Kvothe) just had rose-coloured glasses on. I thought that was sweet. 🙂

The world-building is excellent, masterfully handled; the bulk of Kvothe’s story covers his time in the university, which means we get to learn the mechanics of magic as he does.

My biggest bugbear about this book is that Goodreads tells me this came out in 2007, and the one and only sequel came out in 2011. That means I’m going to be in the market for a new audiobook series very soon, because I doubt the third book will be out any time soon…

Maybe I’ll look for another epic fantasy audiobook after this. At least audiobooks have a much smaller risk of causing concussion.