The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Less a review of the story than of the reading experience.

[KathleenAnnBooks]

You amaze me with your ability to talk about a book and interest me in reading it and it only takes you a few minutes.

[doradavison]

I had the same experience with The Name of the Wind. The writing was wonderful but I felt bogged down at times and wondered if it would ever end. For all that Qvothe was supposed to be such a powerful alchemist/wizard, he kept letting himself be baited into situations where he lost face and nearly was expelled. I was reminded of the saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

[paperquilt]

Wow I could not have said it better myself! This is exactly how I felt reading the book! It took me 9 months to read, because 1. I too is a slow reader and 2. I'm impatient and had to put it down every now and then to read other books as well. But, I still loved it!

[tortoisedreams]

Good review! You're way ahead of me. I just picked up Name of the Wind in a charity shop, but haven't started it yet. This will be something new for me. Big books take such a commitment ... at least now I'm prepared. Thanks!

[rinceyreads]

I had a similar experience! There definitely is some bloat in this book, there is a tangent storyline that felt so tedious, but I still ended up really enjoying the book.

[kimberlyrose]

I love the length of you vids, girl. Too many booktubers have fifteen min vids (way too long). I just ordered the first in this series (saw an enthusiastic review from BigHaired Lady). I don't usually read stories like this, but I'm trying to expand my genres. I hope I can stick with it, as you did. I too struggle with meandering prose, even if it's beautiful.
Speaking of, I'm in the middle of a series by Ilona Andrews (a duo writing team): The Edge. It's urban fantasy (het). Read urban fantasy? I don't usually, but this series--! Whoa!

[robreadsgood]

This has been on my to-read list for ages now, but I have a feeling the length and the meandering that you mention will really drive me crazy. It seems funny to me that each book is supposed to represent a day, but the audiobook is 40+ hours long...

[LiteraryMichelle]

I found that with The Name of the Wind too - as far as a lot going on, but not much substance. I still enjoyed it though as a reading experience - just like you said. I have Wise Man's Fear, haven't read it yet. The one thing I found I wanted more of was Qvothe's little friend there, (I forget his name) and Chronicler. To me those two are more interesting than Qvothe himself. It was a tad frustrating to me that there wasn't more of those people in the first book.

[anilthapa]

I like it it's brief and precise.thank u.

[ofbooksandtrees]

been meaning to read this series for so long, but the books are so big and I already have quite a few big books sitting unread on my shelves because of their size..

[tobyharries]

i read this one really quickly so i didnt get too bored i just love the world building in the book and how fleshed out the characters are, but i agree with what you said also! any reccomendations for a similar sort of book that you may had prefered? as i havent read many fantasy books but loved this one!

[brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Ha, you can cross this off the to-do-list for the weekend I've seen on twitter, you've read the book :-). Go, Wiebke!

[laraelwing]

I still have The name of the wind on my TBR, they do look daunting, but I hope I find better direction with it than Assassins Apprentice, by Robin Hobb, which also begins by telling the life of a man from his childhood, but didn't hold me into the story and I ended up DNFing it ... I'll let you know ;)

[SunriseFireberry]

This book was full of interesting characters, lovely writing, Kvothe being full of himself & often making dumb calls, static passages, & I don't doubt it if Deinera or whatever her name is whenever she pops up to end up a villain. The book wuz too long: 800pg wd have sufficed. Otherwise I found it an easy read. (Long ago I read really hard books & after that I found most books easy or easy-medium.) They're gonna make movies&TV series out of it so Rothfuss'll have to finish Vol. 3 sometime, maybe by 2020 or so.

[swirlyalina]

funnily enough the german version consists of two books :) I read it quickly a few years ago and can't remember a lot, just that I liked the story and at the same time was a bit bored while reading it. I'll definitely have to re-read book one and two once the third one comes out :)

[paulwinchell]

You've read both wow I'm still trying to slug though the first one. Everyone says this is new Lord of Rings, I don't see it yet. I flew through Tolkien when I was a teenager over Christmas break and have read it several times I don't get that impression with this. lol wish me luck For the love of books

[claireprg]

Wow!!! Surprises me you think yourself as a slow reader! Sounds like a cool book. I struggle with uber long books lol. As a writer, that is always a tricky balance between descriptions, actions and dialogue lol some authors get carried away 😀

[kenaz]

Rothfuss is a very gifted writer but he doesn't do anything with those gifts. I enjoyed reading it, but felt, at times, I was reading name of the wind fan fiction. The world building was lacking, sure the culture's are a little more rounded out, but Temerant feels like it is the size of Rhode Island. Can't be too hard on him though lots of authors forget about space and time scale for traversal... Looking at you Martin. Sorry I got some issues with this book and this author.