Kevin's Watch

Hello everybody!

I just wanted to start a thread here again. (I have not been around much for a while.) And I decided to start a thread about this reasonably new book by Patrick Rothfuss called The Name of the Wind.

For details about it I suggest you check elsewhere. I just wanted to recommend it. This is probably the best new fantasy book I have read for quite a while. It is definitely the best debut fantasy in the last few years. It is better than Acacia, The Lies of Locke Lamora and all other new (debut) fantasy books I have read lately.

Anybody else have anything to say about the book? I see the next book is planned for late next year, which I take to be a good sign as it means that Rothfuss is not rushing things.

Hey Ryzel!

Tell me what else you like, before I decide to go out and buy it!

I thought the wind was named Mariah.

Well, the rain is Tess and the fire's Joe...

I hadn't heard of this book when I saw it on the shelf. I bought it because I liked the cover and the title. (I usually regret buying a book for either of those reasons, but sometimes I do it, nevertheless.) The paperback has 722 pages. I'm on 170 now. So far, I think it's great. Not sure exactly what I'd say that would make it sound worthwhile, though. An innkeeper who's more than an innkeeper. A child growing up with a traveling circus. A stranger who knows a whole lot of stuff, and becomes his teacher.

If not for him, I would never have become the man I am today.

I ask that you not hold it against him. He meant well.

Yeah, I know, it sounds like a lame book so far. What do I like about it? You know, anything can be done well, or done poorly. How many crap baroque concertos were written? Then, after everybody else stoped writing them, Bach came along and wrote the best ones ever. I'm not saying Rothfuss is fantasy's Bach. I'm just saying he's taken an old formula, and done it better than usual. At least so far.

I liked Name of the Wind. I pretty much bought it for the reasons that Fist did. I didn't regret it. It is the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicle. Which will be a trilogy. Kvothe, the protagonist, is an interesting, well written character. The concept, basically, is Kvothe's telling, as a world weary adult, the story of his renowned life to a chronicler. Name of the Wind deals with the story retold of his youth. The next book in the series will be The Wise Man's Fear, which hopefully will be out soon.

Good news, Damelon! I was hoping there would be more. Any details of follow up yet?

I just started The Name of the Wind yesterday after being lent it by a friend months ago (was saving it for my holiday). I'm hooked!

(Which is kind of a bad thing at the moment because I have nothing left to read after i finish this, with 8 days left in korea then a 12 hour flight back home! )

I keep asking at B&N and Borders, but there's no reliable release date yet. Amusingly, the audio book is the only format listed on Amazon, and it says Jan 2011.
www.amazon.com/Wise-Mans-Fear-KingKille ... 853&sr=1-2

Thanks Fist!

I've just checked on Amazon.co.uk and got confused as there are at least four different realease dates for 'Wise Man's Fear', 2 of which have already passed.

Then I read this in a review....

The delay on this book is not due to the publishers moving dates.
The main error has been the publishers/publishing house giving the wholesellers a date in the first place.
The book has not been finished, on his own blog page Patrick has gone to great lengths to explain why and apologise for the upset this "delay" has caused (this being despite it not being his fault we were given the damm date in the first place).
He's just trying to make it the best possible book he can, give him time, I know I'm willing to wait....

Thanks right back atcha!

Stonemaybe,

I believe Pat Rothfuss submitted the second draft of WMF to his publisher last month. I'm hoping to see WMF early in 2011. I really enjoyed TNOTW.

early in 2011

oh no! That's what really bugs me about reading new books!

But I supposed we're not allowed to kill the messenger! Thanks, Serscot!

A quick update. Per Pat Rothfuss's blog he has advised the firm release date is March 2011. He is still revising but is supremely confident all revisions will be in on time and the book should be out next March. Scott Lynch's Republic of Theives is due about the same time. It should be a good month.

Great! Thanks for the update, Ser!

Wise Man's Fear is now available....at last

Look down five threads. heh heh

I read this one on a strong recommendation from a couple of friends. Overall it's a good book, and I look forward to reading the next -- eventually. It did not grab me as it has others.
I like the characters in general. Like the way the story is told: the two facets of the past and present. I like some of the 'scenes'. But overall, I was left unimpressed. To me it is a story (so far) told many times before and not really in an interestingly enough way to make me forget the comparison to others.
As Fist said,

I'm not saying Rothfuss is fantasy's Bach. I'm just saying he's taken an old formula, and done it better than usual. At least so far.

For me, it wasn't done 'better', just slightly different.
The most obvious similarity is with Harry Potter. So many of the school elements seem to be right from those pages. i am in no way saying it consciously was, but if I was a writer, i would be aware of a certain insanely popular series and try to make mine a little more distinctive in certain elements.
I found his style of story-telling similar to Gavriel Kay and some winks at Scaramouche that we neat.

As I said, I will read the other books, because it is a pretty good story, but I'm not rushing.

I'm 80% through The Wise Man's Fear, it has really opened up into a cool little "zen-like" world, I have a feeling Rothfuss is a BIG Donaldson fan...

www.tor.com/blogs/2013/07/patrick-rothf ... ision-show
Coming to television. Apparently animated. I'm happy.

I see now that I may have been a bit optimistic about the release schedules of anything by Rothfuss when I started this thread, but the books are still very good.