Is anyone else excited about The Wise Man's Fear?
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Fist and Faith
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I've read the first 11 chapters so far. Very happy to be back in this world! Nothing major has happened yet, but the semester is all set up. He just paid his tuition. More than anything, it's refreshing my memory on NotW. I've been too obsessed with Malazan to reread NotW, and couldn't have told you half of what happened. As I'm reminded now, though, I'm just amazed at how much there was.
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
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Fist and Faith
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Very enjoyable! On his site, he talks about why it's difficult to translate and publish in other languages.
And yeah, it is. 1,000 pages in hc. And there were a couple times when he could have cut ten or twenty pages with no significant loss. But since all the dialog makes the book very easy to read, the extra depth we gain doesn't come at any great cost.
SPOLIERS
Those couple times are when he's with Falurian and with the Adem. I guess we could spend entire books with just Falurian, or the Fae, and it would be great. But we didn't need as much as we got for this story. And we don't need to know every single way in which the Adem culture is different from the one we're familiar with. Let's just say it's different in every possible way, and move on. Heh. But it both cases, it was fun stuff we learned, so no problem.
My favorite moment is the Adem test at the sword tree. He didn't pass it in the Adem way, but he sure showed his strength with Naming. Excellent stuff.
Good emotional moments in the book. The best was when he killed the bandits. His breakdown with the village's doctor, Gran, was well done. The whole village scene was well done, with the feelings of joy, shame, and justice mixing all over the place.
The Adem were very cool. Great when Kvothe finally understood why they were so difficult to understand; rarely looking at your face because of the hand-speaking. And a nice surprise to learn the names of the Chandrian.
Elodin was excellent! His method of teaching is great, as was his explanation: "Stop grabbing my tits!" And his understanding and knowledge at the end, when he recognized the shaed right away and did the Adem hand-speach, was a great scene.
Bast is sure a piece of work! Not that we didn't already know that. But setting those two soldiers on Kvothe sure didn't work out the way he'd hoped. Chronicler smacking him was fun!!
And the cause of that, the Cthaeh, is a very cool concept.
Devi is quite a powerful babe, eh? Quite a pain in the ass, too. Heh. But their battle was fun, even if Kvothe was at quite a disadvantage.
Telling Fela he wanted to see her naked was an excellent moment.
Obscenely long. Almost 400,000 words long.
How long is 400,000 words?
Well, if you mashed together the first three Harry Potter books, then threw in The Hunger Games, too. It still would still be less than 400,000 words long.
Yeah. The Wise Man’s Fear is long. Really, really, long.
And yeah, it is. 1,000 pages in hc. And there were a couple times when he could have cut ten or twenty pages with no significant loss. But since all the dialog makes the book very easy to read, the extra depth we gain doesn't come at any great cost.SPOLIERS
Those couple times are when he's with Falurian and with the Adem. I guess we could spend entire books with just Falurian, or the Fae, and it would be great. But we didn't need as much as we got for this story. And we don't need to know every single way in which the Adem culture is different from the one we're familiar with. Let's just say it's different in every possible way, and move on. Heh. But it both cases, it was fun stuff we learned, so no problem.
My favorite moment is the Adem test at the sword tree. He didn't pass it in the Adem way, but he sure showed his strength with Naming. Excellent stuff.
Good emotional moments in the book. The best was when he killed the bandits. His breakdown with the village's doctor, Gran, was well done. The whole village scene was well done, with the feelings of joy, shame, and justice mixing all over the place.
The Adem were very cool. Great when Kvothe finally understood why they were so difficult to understand; rarely looking at your face because of the hand-speaking. And a nice surprise to learn the names of the Chandrian.
Elodin was excellent! His method of teaching is great, as was his explanation: "Stop grabbing my tits!"
And his understanding and knowledge at the end, when he recognized the shaed right away and did the Adem hand-speach, was a great scene.Bast is sure a piece of work! Not that we didn't already know that. But setting those two soldiers on Kvothe sure didn't work out the way he'd hoped. Chronicler smacking him was fun!!
And the cause of that, the Cthaeh, is a very cool concept. Devi is quite a powerful babe, eh? Quite a pain in the ass, too. Heh. But their battle was fun, even if Kvothe was at quite a disadvantage.
Telling Fela he wanted to see her naked was an excellent moment.
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
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Fist and Faith
- Magister Vitae
- Posts: 25465
- Joined: Sun Dec 01, 2002 8:14 pm
- Has thanked: 9 times
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I guess we should assume nothing good will come of that. Whether that's the cause of expulsion, though, I'm not sure. Hard to tell exactly what Ambrose's big blows will be. Surely, he kills Denna? And maybe he's the one who reveals the tuition scheme?
Whether that's the cause of expulsion, though, I'm not sure. Hard to tell exactly what Ambrose's big blows will be. Surely, he kills Denna? And maybe he's the one who reveals the tuition scheme?All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
i didn't realize (till i saw recent post in this thread) that anyone besides me was reading these books. i really enjoyed both of them. got them on my kindle. unfortunately it looks like rothfuss is similar to martin in that he writes slowly. arg. so yeah i finished WMF pretty quickly and am now in a holding pattern for this one as well as the next martin. sad panda.
you're more advanced than a cockroach,
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
-
Fist and Faith
- Magister Vitae
- Posts: 25465
- Joined: Sun Dec 01, 2002 8:14 pm
- Has thanked: 9 times
- Been thanked: 57 times
Fist and Faith wrote:Try to keep up, luci. Ryzel started the first thread almost three years ago. hehe
three years ago i was in the heat of malazan reading and knew no other writer existed!
i've read more books in the time since i finished TCG than i have over the last YEARS since i first discovered erikson! i just finished reading all 16 of lee child's jack reacher books! serscott, good to know!
i just remember reading something on his web site when i was researching him before i bought the first book where he was apologizing for WMF being later than he'd anticipated and i thought "oh lordy, please not another grrm!!" you're more advanced than a cockroach,
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
-
Fist and Faith
- Magister Vitae
- Posts: 25465
- Joined: Sun Dec 01, 2002 8:14 pm
- Has thanked: 9 times
- Been thanked: 57 times
oh yeah! i've heard THAT before (king on dark tower, martin on ice and fire, uh...DONALDSON on the chrons!! lol!!)Fist and Faith wrote:Well, even if it's a long wait between books, there's only one more.
you're more advanced than a cockroach,
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
omg i love your 5 year old nephew eli!!!
you're more advanced than a cockroach,
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
-
Frostheart Grueburn
- The Gap Into Spam
- Posts: 1827
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:47 pm
- Location: Gianthome
I picked up these books based on the recs here, but so far not impressed. My biggest grievance arises from the main character's Gary Stueness of epic proportions. He's so perfect and talented and excellent and happy-go-lucky it's bloody irritating and doesn't add a whit of believability to his persona. I have great trouble following the adventures of someone who has zero character flaws, omitting a shade of arrogance.
The world itself feels like Hogwarts thrown into a Jordan-esque countryside where men blush at the sight of women's ankles. The characters' frequent "OMG!!! A NAKED PERSON!!! EYEBLEACH!!!" reactions make a European roll their eyes. What's so horrible about a naked person anyway; it's just someone without their clothes on. Rothfuss cannot write female characters either: whereas Jordan's women suffer from constant PMS'ing, his are all beautiful and bland. Like cardboard cut-outs of flowers. It seems Rothfuss might also be one of those authors who has never studied a single foreign language in his life. Nobody learns one in 1,5 days (or 1,5 weeks, whichever it was), for Taara's sake. Paolini all over again.
Whereas the first volume had a coherent-ish plot going on, the second just sprawls all over the place. The audio book's 42 hours; almost nothing interesting has happened till the 31st hour. Some parts of the plot feel like lists of random words and skills Kvothe learns in an insufferably small span of time sans much effort. I'm slogging through Eldest yet another time.
I'm trying to finish this book, but it's proving difficult.
The world itself feels like Hogwarts thrown into a Jordan-esque countryside where men blush at the sight of women's ankles. The characters' frequent "OMG!!! A NAKED PERSON!!! EYEBLEACH!!!" reactions make a European roll their eyes. What's so horrible about a naked person anyway; it's just someone without their clothes on. Rothfuss cannot write female characters either: whereas Jordan's women suffer from constant PMS'ing, his are all beautiful and bland. Like cardboard cut-outs of flowers. It seems Rothfuss might also be one of those authors who has never studied a single foreign language in his life. Nobody learns one in 1,5 days (or 1,5 weeks, whichever it was), for Taara's sake. Paolini all over again.
Whereas the first volume had a coherent-ish plot going on, the second just sprawls all over the place. The audio book's 42 hours; almost nothing interesting has happened till the 31st hour. Some parts of the plot feel like lists of random words and skills Kvothe learns in an insufferably small span of time sans much effort. I'm slogging through Eldest yet another time.
I'm trying to finish this book, but it's proving difficult.
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Fist and Faith
- Magister Vitae
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- Joined: Sun Dec 01, 2002 8:14 pm
- Has thanked: 9 times
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I think the ease with which Kvothe learns all this stuff is the point. Look how amazing he is. Look how powerful he is.
Look how badly he manages everything despite all he can do. Look how badly he can be beaten, and how badly those he loves can be hurt. He has zero understanding of how much other people can do, and doesn't take their warnings or threats seriously. He's going to suffer greatly because of it.
Look how badly he manages everything despite all he can do. Look how badly he can be beaten, and how badly those he loves can be hurt. He has zero understanding of how much other people can do, and doesn't take their warnings or threats seriously. He's going to suffer greatly because of it.
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
-
Frostheart Grueburn
- The Gap Into Spam
- Posts: 1827
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:47 pm
- Location: Gianthome
Hmm. A deliberate plot point I might understand (Linden went through something similar in the LC's), but he's still a humongous Gary Stu. 
It doesn't really help his credibility that he's now having steamy sex with a fey that has apparently driven everyone else either mad or dead save for him. Does it get any better after this?
It doesn't really help his credibility that he's now having steamy sex with a fey that has apparently driven everyone else either mad or dead save for him. Does it get any better after this?-
Fist and Faith
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Frostheart Grueburn
- The Gap Into Spam
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Ugh, it was a miracle I actually plodded my way through this book. Such groaning and teeth-gnashing. Even though Kvothe appears to have lost his powers now, the character's just too unbelievable and impossible to identify with. I ran him through one of the Mary Sue litmus tests, and this creation scored well over 100 points, making him a hopeless case.
Sorry.
Liked the crazy Master Namer. About the only actually interesting character.
Sorry.
Liked the crazy Master Namer. About the only actually interesting character.