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Welp, read through it, and while it was somewhat better than Name of the wind, it still isn't great. It's odd, the guy can write like a champ, but it's WHAT he writes that irks me, not how. Or it's easier to say "He is very easy to read, but his characters are annoying." I think if he got the chance to write in someone elses universe, like star wars or something, he would be pretty good at it. When he has control of the characters and the universe, it tends to be a fun filled romp through uncontrolled id and wish fulfillment. In book 1, we basically have Kvothe, ubergoon extraordinaire, who can do no wrong and is more kick rear end than Jesus and Chuck Norris combined. In book 2, he is a little more laid back, and actually (GASP) gas a learning curve to some things. That in itself is a huge improvement over the first book. Things I liked : The writing (as mentioned) I can kinda see where the plot is going from here. Kvothe seemed like an actual human being for parts of the book, albeit small ones. The ending. (not in a sarcastic "Cause it stopped!"  kinda way, they guy just writes good endings)Things I didn't like : Anything and everything sex related. Holy poo poo this guy writes sex worse than Jim Butcher, and that is loving saying something. Moments of humanity, followed by chapters and chapters of ego run wild. loving DENNA. Sweet mother of god I hate this character. Granted, everyone has the "unrequited love" poo poo happen to them once or twice when growing up but JESUS CHRIST DUDE MOVE THE gently caress ON! I am being completely literal when I say this, every single god damned time she popped up in the book I started to get a headache cause I knew it was going downhill and fast. Right over my right eye. Spoilered what I thought might be some vague importance to the books plot. I don't think it spoils anything huge (everything on my list is vague anyway) but I don't want anyone getting all whiny. The best way I can think of to describe this book is Cod Pieceington and Zapp Brannigan hosed on top of a bad romance novel set in fairy land. 3 stars outta 5. The good parts were great, the bad parts were rear end, and while I wouldn't recommend it without the disclaimer of Cod and Zapp, I have read much much worse. Stupid_Sexy_Flander fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Mar 8, 2011 |
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Mar 8, 2011 14:37
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So I'm not going to use spoiler tags because those are retarded, but I just want to say that the Felurian part was hilariously bad, like one of the worst things ever in a book. Patrick Rothfuss has really hosed up ideas about human sexuality and healthy relationships, and while those hosed up ideas sort of infuse all of his writing, the Felurian bit is the worst. To anyone who hasn't read the book yet, I recommend that you skip any page on which Felurian appears. You really won't lose out I promise. Also I love how Kvothe goes from ladder theory nice guy to Internet PUA. I guess one of the books that he found in the library was The Game.
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Mar 8, 2011 16:42
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Liesmith posted:So I'm not going to use spoiler tags because those are retarded, but I just want to say that the Felurian part was hilariously bad, like one of the worst things ever in a book. Patrick Rothfuss has really hosed up ideas about human sexuality and healthy relationships, and while those hosed up ideas sort of infuse all of his writing, the Felurian bit is the worst. To anyone who hasn't read the book yet, I recommend that you skip any page on which Felurian appears. You really won't lose out I promise. I also just got to the Felurian part...I figured it would be over in a chapter, browsed ahead 20 pages or so and saw it was still happening. It seems like a terribly stupid addition to the book....
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Mar 8, 2011 17:01
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It kind of makes you wonder what his editor was thinking. I mean you've got this hugeass tome, and long books like that drive away readers. Most editors would encourage him to cut certain parts and drat do the sex scenes need cutting.Benson Cunningham posted:No one would engage with Kvothe in the type of dialog she does, because she is not a character in a play, she is supposedly a human woman.[/spoiler] This is actually a really good stab at what keeps me from really liking these books. OK, lets say that Kvothe is supposed to be a creep and an unreliable narrator (he isn't, Rothfuss is a huge goon and if you read his blog it becomes clear that Kvothe's weird ideas about sex and relationships are the same as his creator's weird ideas about sex and relationships) but yeah, EVEN IF you but into all that and Kvothe is a really well drawn creeper, it still doesn't justify Denna. He says things like "she's a shy deer, and a cruel force of nature, blah blah" and that's creepy, but forgivable as a character thing. What isn't nearly so easy to overlook is the fact that she actually is a shy deer etc. and that he's totally right in the way he deals with her. The few times that they disagree, it is because he was too forward and she wants him to keep creeping up on her all indirectly. That's dumb, and it totally negates all the "Oh he's just an unreliable narrator or an antihero or a liar" stuff that people keep telling themselves ITT. It's a shame because whenever Kvothe is doing adventures and calling down lighting or whatever I'm there, Rothfuss totally has me and I don't care who knows it. But the sex stuff is just so childish it makes me feel ashamed to be reading it, like it's a Piers Anthony book or something. Liesmith fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Mar 8, 2011 |
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Mar 8, 2011 17:08
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The Felurian parts exist because Rothfuss is riffing on the myth of Thomas the Rhymer. The sex scenes in those chapters really aren't that over the top, considering... Ellen Kushner wrote a Thomas the Rhymer book that won the World Fantasy Award. It was basically Wise Man's Fear's Felurian bits WITHOUT anything else. She writes really well, but the book is complete porn. http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Rhymer-Ellen-Kushner/dp/0553586971 The only part that has bothered me so far is the Broken Tree chapter. It didn't seem to be a plausible use of the magic system when Kvothe "Grounds" a tree, which results in it being struck by a huge bolt of lightning? Isn't a tree pretty much as grounded as an object can get by virtue of it being in...the ground? I mean, I can see if he managed to lower the resistance of the tree. Wood is a bad conductor and electricity seeks the path of least resistance...I just don't understand why anything he did would have increased the likelihood of a massive lightning strike.
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Mar 9, 2011 01:14
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Huh, the Felurian scene made me think of Calypso in The Odyssey. But I guess if I dug deep enough I'm sure I'd find literature littered with "and then I hosed a faerie/elf/nymph for like years!" type situations.
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Mar 9, 2011 02:04
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BananaNutkins posted:The Felurian parts exist because Rothfuss is riffing on the myth of Thomas the Rhymer. The sex scenes in those chapters really aren't that over the top, considering... There's that stuff you mentioned, but he probably also jacked the potential difference to make drat sure the lightning hit it. I doubt he'd have thought about it in those terms, though. Essentially, he turned it into a reverse Tesla coil.
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Mar 9, 2011 02:22
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Someone started me on these books and I see basically all the same flaws that everyone else does but I am so hooked on finding out what happens with the Chandrian that I don't care. He has enough good stuff in there to keep me going. The Adem section was probably my favorite part of the book. I skipped over a lot of the Felurian part because I was just incredibly offended by the whole thing. At the time I thought it was a gender reaction but I'm glad that guys also thought it was broken and disgusting. I really enjoyed the idea of him being in Fae world to add to his legend, but Rothfuss didn't do anything interesting with the idea while he was there. I actually don't mind that Kvothe is so changeless, especially in the first book - he's a mythical hero, he should be better than the average bear at being who he is. And Denna bothers me less than I guess the rest of the people here - I think Kvothe's attitude towards her is pretty stupid but I see that as his character flaw, not a narrative flaw. (I could be wrong there, of course.) I actually like their whole "circling each other warily" romance, and that they had actual conflict in the second book. I don't know. I'm obviously going to keep reading because I'm totally sucked in, but he needs a new editor. The absolute worst thing, as someone mentioned way back on page 1, was that his act break for an entire half of a book was that Kvothe might not have enough money to live. Then it came back in the second book. Arrgggggggh! Edit that poo poo. Curse you Rothfuss! Edit: Oh, and in the beginning I thought he spent too much time in the University because I wanted to know what else was going on goddammit and he wasn't really learning anything at all and he was still poor god stop it with that stupid plot point and then when he finally left I was pretty happy because I thought we were going to see some other stuff, which we did a little. But so much of it just felt like a waste of words. By the end I was starting to long for the days of University again. Feels good to rant. Sophia fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Mar 9, 2011 |
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Mar 9, 2011 17:07
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The story just seems to have been lost while the author explores different wish-fulfillment scenarios for himself. Hey what if I was Dr House? What if I got to lead a recon team on a mission? What if I could be a kung fu master? What if I could get it on ALL the time, without repurcussion? What if .... Two books out of three and Kvothe is still doing basically the same thing which is light years away from where "present-day" Kote is. This really seemed like Book 1, Part 2, where Kvothe has learned a bunch of stuff and "become a man", and now he can spend a book learning the nature of the conflict and another book providing conflict resolution and denouement for Kote. At this pace and with Rothfuss' current writing/editing style, the final book will be forced to have a lot of "spend 500 pages talking about School, ..., and now I'm in a different town" transitions which are completely jarring. I still tore through the book because the guy can write scenes and get me into his characters, but he's gone off the tracks and it'll take some hard work to get it back on, I think. Anyways, I can't wait for my wife to hit the Felurian part just to see her reaction. Campbell fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Mar 9, 2011 |
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Mar 9, 2011 17:59
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Campbell posted:Anyways, I can't wait for my wife to hit the Felurian part just to see her reaction. *Read 3 pages* *Flip ahead 3 pages* *Flip ahead 10 pages* *Furiously flip ahead 60 pages* *Deep Sigh* *Flip back and continue reading*
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Mar 9, 2011 18:02
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The thing is, the whole bizarre sex thing continues throughout the remainder of the book. Even aside from the Felurian, the whole Adem treatment of sex was basically like something out of a GBS thread. The next book will be that much better for having zero getting it on. I mean, is the statement supposed to be: People don't mind gratuitous violence but oh no writing about sex makes people crazy? Because I don't mind either, as long as they don't read like an 11th grade creative writing assignment.
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Mar 9, 2011 18:09
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Campbell posted:The thing is, the whole bizarre sex thing continues throughout the remainder of the book. Even aside from the Felurian, the whole Adem treatment of sex was basically like something out of a GBS thread. The next book will be that much better for having zero getting it on. The problem I have is that a good bit of the book was wasted on the Felurian stuff (~60 pages), and it didn't seem to contribute at all to the story. I got bored of it really, really fast. It wasn't the sex stuff at all, it was the Fae/Felurian storyline altogether. 5 pages, sure. A chapter, sure. But 60 pages? It almost seemed like the dream sequence at the end of 40 Year Old Virgin: 
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Mar 9, 2011 18:21
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Sophia posted:
The books are VERY influenced by Rothfuss's time spent at college. Supposedly he would get by on around $7 a week for groceries, and I believe he spent 10 years getting his bachelors, but it might have been 10 for his bachelors + masters. And he was writing it during all that time there, so you can see why it would have an effect. I don't think money problems are an overused device for the genre--maybe in Japanese anime or something (Cowboy Bebop used it a lot, but that's as far as my knowledge goes). At least the majority of the book isn't Kvothe walking somewhere. The Wheel of Time has 50 bajillion ways to travel 100 miles in three seconds, and the author still finds a reason for 100 page long travel scenes. The biggest problem is that the story's bones are starting to show. I've always hated the story within a story method. We know that Kvothe is telling this story to get us to where he is now, and also to explain his legendary reputation. But now we're getting all these separate, mostly unrelated adventures about the Adem, mercenaries, Felurian, and university adventures. It feels like he's just checking points off the list required for Kvothe to reach level 85, despite his efforts to connect it all using the Chandrian and Denna threads. Another issue is that this is Rothfuss's first book still--he might have grown as a writer in the years since it was originally written and used his improved abilities when rewriting its paragraphs and sentences (he is a very good prose writer), but the plot is still the same one, probably with minor improvements. I still think this book is very good. But I doubt we'll see much improvement in the next book. He's already near the top of his game prose-wise, and he's working with old book plot. The next time he'll improve as an author will be his next series. At least, that's my opinion. MartingaleJack fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Mar 9, 2011 |
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Mar 9, 2011 18:54
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It's not that I minded the idea of him being constantly poor and struggling in a place where everyone else took things for granted. The plot itself isn't the problem, it's the frequency with which it's used. It felt like every chapter in the last half of the first book ended with "I have no money, I will not be able to go to school next term, what am I going to do?" He mines that same question for suspense over and over again, and he always needs the money for the exact same reason. It's not presented as frustrating part of his overall life like it is with Denna's disappearances (though he overuses that too), but as a "how will Kovthe get out of this mess?" point. The most annoying thing is that when he does get money he spends it all and then at the end of the next chapter he's like "gently caress! I need more money again???" Why does he always seem so surprised by it? The other problem is that the answer is always "He gets money by borrowing it or wokring, whew!" There's no variation in the story, and thus there is no suspense no matter how hard he keeps trying to get water from that rock. It's even more frustrating because there are so many things in this screwed-up world that are against Kvothe that it would be so easy to come up with a different problem for him to solve in a different way. It makes it feel like he has no ideas. And the reason it feels that way is because it is poorly edited and (to be truthful) too long. Don't even get me started on how many times his lute-playing is threatened. At least there the reasons change. Sophia fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Mar 9, 2011 |
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Mar 9, 2011 19:08
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Hah this last few responses make it sound exactly like the game Fable. Hell, it pretty much is Fable. The part with Felurian was cool PURELY for the angry tree and the creation myth. I love that stuff. There's nothing I love more than a cool magic system, learning how everything is connected, back story, history, etc. I'm willing to put up with his terrible ability to write sex scenes just for all the stuff he had Felurian ramble to Kvothe. Also, I love the way he's handling the magic system. His take (not that it's very original) on true names is done well and I loved anything with Elodin. Speaking of... Elodin is probably the best character, the random assignments, breaking into Hemme's apartment and burning his clothes, conversations they had, etc. I also love Auri. She's definitely got a deeper role and obviously Kvothe named her with her true name. I read elsewhere that Auri has given Kvothe a key and a coin, she says the key is the moon and the coin is like nothing Kvothe has seen before. The story of Taborlin has a key, coin, and candle. Auri also has that magic light which could have been Taborlin's "candle". Sshe "had a light of her own, something she held in her cupped hands that gave of a soft, blue-green glow." Kvothe continues, "I was curious about what she held but didn't want to press her for too many secrets at once." Thoughts?
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Mar 9, 2011 19:54
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keiran_helcyan posted:Despite my distaste for all the weird sex scenes and Denna's continued pointless existence, overall it was a well written book. It could be a fantastic book if it just focused more on the Chandrian, Amyr, university, or magic battles. I actually came in here to ask: So...she never actually becomes interesting, then?
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Mar 9, 2011 22:08
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Personally I feel like she does become more interesting in the second book than she was in the first (she actually gets a bit of a personality)m but she still doesn't have enough importance to the overall story to justify the amount of words spent on her. Nor is she THAT interesting, just MORE interesting.
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Mar 9, 2011 22:16
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Granted I'm not female, but I would think that from a gender perspective Denna would be even more offensive than all the gratuitous fairy sex. She's cast as a strong, self-sufficient female character without peer among the entire world of available bed partners, all of which are now apparently ripe plums for the taking as Kvothe has mastered the art of making women orgasm by looking at them with an "experienced eye" or whatever that retarded line was from the inn. Instead her range of talents include being good with music, counseling rape victims to commit to whoring because as women they're not good enough to make it in the world any other way, and letting herself get beat up by some dude because she's apparently still 16 and has to date the jock over the good guy protagonist. She's such a contrived character. Rothfuss writes women like the typecast celibate goon trying to wildly overcompensate, which I find odd because I don't know how you can spend 10 years in college without getting laid a ridiculous amount. tirinal fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Mar 9, 2011 |
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Mar 9, 2011 22:35
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tirinal posted:I don't know how you can spend 10 years in college without getting laid a ridiculous amount. 
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Mar 10, 2011 00:35
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/\/\/\ It's so appropriate that that got posted by someone with a WILDCARDS tag. Thoughts on the book: Holy gently caress the Felurian part. Not a fan of that one bit. Both because it felt creepy as gently caress, and it was this total 180 for the character to go from shy to gently caress machine, and it continued onward out of the fae. If there wouldn't have been the whole un-inhibited gently caress bunnies thing right afterwards with the waitress, then the kung fu teacher... it would have bothered me a lot less, but the way Rothfuss went right to them, it just added so much to the creeper author self-insertion fantasy level of it all. Tempi was awesome, but then was surpassed by the awesomeness of where he grew up, except for where that culture continued the creepy sex stuff. As far as the Denna hate... I just don't get it at all. I don't know. I was awkward as gently caress with girls when I was in high school, and that's what age Kvothe is at this point in the story. And I was seeing a girl last year for a while who a)had a mother who got crippled in a car accident when she was a baby and b) had a boyfriend doing 2 years in jail for beating on her. She was co-dependent as gently caress. And really hot. Which made me pretty awkward about it the first few dates, including being shocked as poo poo she accepted my first incredibly drunken advances. But tell you what, after knowing that girl, Denna is pretty believable. Hot chick with baggage. There's tons of them out there. Khatib fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Mar 10, 2011 |
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Mar 10, 2011 03:51
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tirinal posted:counseling rape victims to commit to whoring because as women they're not good enough to make it in the world any other way This isn't really fair to the character. She said the girl had three choices - go back home, work a hard but non-whore job, or be a better whore. The girl was already whoring, just doing it badly, and she obviously wasn't a brain trust to begin with. That's not exactly terrible advice in the confines of the world he's described. Denna doesn't really bother me from a gender perspective, either. She's smart, self-sufficient, and confident. She's focused on getting money and financial security to the point where she's blinded, but I don't find her to be a victim. I think the problem is more that it's hard to write a paragon like he obviously intended her to be. Make someone too perfect and you end up with a Mary Sue. Make someone not perfect enough and you start to wonder why the gently caress he cares so much about her. It's a tough line and considering he doesn't seem to understand much about women he might have bitten off more than he can chew.
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Mar 10, 2011 04:02
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Khatib posted:
Yeah, but being believable isn't the sole justification for a character. *Tremendous* amounts of this story are dedicated to Denna and it's this constant stream of, "Oh I want to be her white knight" and "Then she ran off again!" and it's not interesting or fun or any positive descriptor to read.
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Mar 10, 2011 04:05
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OxeHunden posted:
Just finished the book and had to re-read that part a few times to figure out what was going on. Makes sense now. Bast hired them to try to spark Kvothe. I also agree the box in Kvothe's room is the one from Lady Lackless, I just wonder after their falling out/wood ring incident why she would possibly give it to him. Her being his Aunt is definitely a huge possibility and I'm assuming her sister that ran off with a troupe and was presumed dead = Kvothes mother. Very interested to see how this is discovered and develops. I also think something to do with Kvothe losing his real name (Would it be Maedre, or a different name we haven't learned yet?) is what stripped him of any real power he has. I don't think for one minute that he was faking it with the soldier attack, which is why he started laughing manically. Agh, too many questions. Now all I want is the third book. I don't have any problems with Rothfuss's writing styles, other than the Fae/sex induced 60 page part. Sure, the kid is always broke and when he does have money he spends it like a mother fucker, but who doesn't. So far we are hearing the stories of a 16/17 year old boy who has some up and down on his luck moments.
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Mar 10, 2011 05:53
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onefish posted:I think Chronicler observed that Kote/Kvothe should only have been about 25, but "seemed a lot older." Time spent in Fae probably had something to do with that, in addition to all the other stuff Kvothe must have gone through to end up where he is. Don't forget the soldiers at the end call him young, I think it's safe to assume that Fae aged his mind quite a bit.
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Mar 10, 2011 06:08
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Did anyone notice the bit at the very end where he walks out to the common room in the middle of the night, stands where his fight took place, and takes one tiny perfect step? It seems like another hint that Kvothe may be just playing the role of an innkeeper who's getting his rear end kicked. Over all, I feel like this is becoming a guilty pleasure series. As bad as book 1 was in this regard, book 2 is completely over the top with, "every woman loves Kvothe, oh and he was awesome at sex his first time, oh also and he got really good at fighting faster than anyone expected, oh and don't forget also now he's rich and popular and beautiful...." That said, I have fun reading it and I'll totally get the third the day it comes out. I just sort of wish Rothfuss was making more of this awesome story setup.
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Mar 10, 2011 06:15
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MarshallX posted:Just finished the book and had to re-read that part a few times to figure out what was going on. Here's my problem. When he starts the fight, he very clearly is straight up beating the poo poo out of both of them like they are tiny babies. Then he suddenly loses all his capacity for fighting and throws what seem like intentionally flimsy punches at a much slower speed. While someone who is good at fighting can pretend to be bad, someone who is bad at fighting cannot pretend to be good. That, and the fact that he killed 5 demons with an iron bar in the first book, leads me to believe he is now faking it. And I realize that there were several reasons cited in the book for what happened, but I just don't buy most of it. Kvothe kills 5 spider-demons with a god drat pipe. Two soldier-thieves are a joke. For anyone worried about all the spoiler text, don't be. It's mostly just talk about bad, bad sex. I'll also admit that Rothfuss could basically draw pictures of horse porn on 60% of the pages, and as long as I get to see the rest of the Chandrian story I'll be happy. Speaking of stories, I think Rothfuss is loving up a lot of great opportunities. We have Old Kvothe->Story Kvothe. But we also have Story Kvothe->other stories. And in some of those stories, we approach another layer of distance from the person who is actually telling us the story. Frankenstein used that device to wonderful effect, and in a book that is so much about the idea of stories and legends, it's a shame Rothfuss does so little with the concept.
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Mar 10, 2011 06:32
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On the subject of the fight scene. It seems to me that Bast was getting what he intended, which is to say Kvothe was getting is grrove back on and joyfully kicking rear end. Suddenly he was like "Woops i'm a poor innkeeper better get my rear end kicked" It is quite conceivable that he lost is magic by name-changing or whatever, but, if he is not just a poor sap riding his overly exaggerated reputation his physical proesse should be unchanged. My point his: He's a liar and can't fight for poo poo nor is he a great hero or he was faking it. and the book did not yet answer that
just_a_guy fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Mar 10, 2011 |
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Mar 10, 2011 14:28
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just_a_guy posted:On the subject of the fight scene. It seems to me that Bast was getting what he intended, which is to say Kvothe was getting is grrove back on and joyfully kicking rear end. Suddenly he was like "Woops i'm a poor innkeeper better get my rear end kicked" It is quite conceivable that he lost is magic by name-changing or whatever, but, if he is not just a poor sap riding his overly exaggerated reputation his physical proesse should be unchanged. My point his: He's a liar and can't fight for poo poo nor is he a great hero or he was faking it. and the book did not yet answer that Also entirely possible. Hrmph. But what about the box that he couldn't open? Long standing problem or new problem? He seemed very sure of how it was to be opened, like he had done it before successfully.
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Mar 10, 2011 14:34
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MarshallX posted:Also entirely possible. Hrmph. Well.. He sounded of Bast as to how to open the box and that might have been more then just wit training. But he seems to have opened it before "Like Taborlin the great" I am inclined to think that Kvothe is the real deal but not as much as the legends make him out to be. (He even admits himself that the stories are highly exaggerated) maybe his boasting bites him on the rear end hard on the third book. Also that "One perfect step" he took at the hand might be him deciding to get back into shape. Wild speculation time: He will take a new name on the third book and when the bad guys come a'knockin he'll go full blown kick rear end (and die)
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Mar 10, 2011 14:41
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just_a_guy posted:On the subject of the fight scene. It seems to me that Bast was getting what he intended, which is to say Kvothe was getting is grrove back on and joyfully kicking rear end. Suddenly he was like "Woops i'm a poor innkeeper better get my rear end kicked" It is quite conceivable that he lost is magic by name-changing or whatever, but, if he is not just a poor sap riding his overly exaggerated reputation his physical proesse should be unchanged. My point his: He's a liar and can't fight for poo poo nor is he a great hero or he was faking it. and the book did not yet answer that I would love to have Kvothe be a liar and his whole reputation a sham. Unfortunately, the fact that Bast looks up to him and is his student, that pretty much throws that theory out the window.
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Mar 10, 2011 16:51
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Hughmoris posted:I would love to have Kvothe be a liar and his whole reputation a sham. Unfortunately, the fact that Bast looks up to him and is his student, that pretty much throws that theory out the window. Not necessarily. Bast could be suckered just as much as everyone else has been. I definitely admit this whole story would be way more interesting if it turned out Kvothe is barely better than the average University student. Devi kicked his rear end easily enough, and it seems like any of the Masters could destroy him. He has a long way to go from his current point if he's going to live it to the legend he's created. If the pacing is unchanged, I can't see how the third book can be anything but disappointing. Unless it's 1,500 pages long. For it to work, I think it's going to have to end at present Kvothe, which would make a lot of sense actually, since we are constantly told the story doesn't have a happy ending. Maybe there will be a second trilogy that takes place from present-end. I honestly think I would prefer a cliff notes version of the rest of the story and to have Patrick Rothfuss start something new. He doesn't seem like a dumb guy, and I think he has learned a lot from writing this series. His next will certainly be just as interesting with hopefully less flaws.
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Mar 10, 2011 22:44
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About the fight scene: It's implied that he is NOT faking his lack of prowess when he attempts to break the grip of the thug with the double handed move the ten year old girl taught him. He performs it and then is surprised when it doesn't work. This also happens when he grasps the man by the wrist and shoulder like Tempi did earlier on, and that also surprises him. I think what is going on with Kvothe is exactly as what has been shown--he's lost something very great and no longer believes in himself. Denna probably dies or betrays him or he can't save her or something in the next book. Bast isn't testing him, he's truly trying to remind him of who he is and pull him out of the slump. That's it, there is no deception to who Kvothe is, and if you think otherwise get ready to be disappointed.
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Mar 11, 2011 00:51
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BananaNutkins posted:Denna probably dies or betrays him. Hopefully both.
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Mar 11, 2011 01:45
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Justaddwater posted:Hopefully both. From the tone at the end of the book I'm thinking that most of his friends from the University will be killed.
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Mar 11, 2011 02:05
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BananaNutkins posted:Denna probably dies or betrays him I got the impression that when she was asking them how magic worked at the musical bar that she was up to something nefarious on behalf of her patron. My guess is that that was the direction it was going to go in, but I could be wrong.
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Mar 11, 2011 02:21
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Benson Cunningham posted:Not necessarily. Bast could be suckered just as much as everyone else has been. I definitely admit this whole story would be way more interesting if it turned out Kvothe is barely better than the average University student. Devi kicked his rear end easily enough, and it seems like any of the Masters could destroy him. He has a long way to go from his current point if he's going to live it to the legend he's created. The main reason I don't think he's faking it is because of: On his first hand he wore rings of stone, Iron, amber, wood, and bone. There were— The smith’s prentice frowned. “I can’t remember the rest. There was something about fire. . . .” The innkeeper’s expression was unreadable. He looked down at where his own hands lay spread on the top of the bar, and after a moment he recited: There were rings unseen on his second hand. One was blood in a flowing band. One of air all whisper thin, And the ring of ice had a flaw within. Full faintly shone the ring of flame, And the final ring was without name. This implies that he did learn a bunch more true names, and we've seen that he clearly has a great skill at naming which is definitely the most "powerful" magic we've seen. Also, at 16 after his first year he's a near match for Devi who was stronger than the master Dal and he's definitely "smarter" than almost everyone else. Although a lot of his nick names and feats are definitely stretched beyond proportion. If you reread the opening chapters you'll hear some of the stories from later on that are made into tall tales. Also, he got the arcane, bloodless, and some of his other cool nicknames for minor feats while in the academy. Lyon fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Mar 11, 2011 |
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Mar 11, 2011 02:27
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Kvothe's box: I was under the impression that this box was different from Lackless's, since hers wasn't described as having keyholes or being made of the same roah wood his was (it was made of some other magic wood rich in metal content or something). I figured it was just a box he made, locked with his magic powers, and can't get back open now that he is incompetent. Maybe that's where his shadow cloak went. Kvothe's helplessness: I haven't read Name of the Wind in a while, but I think I remember Kvothe claiming he had to kill an angel or somesuch to accomplish some goal. I always guessed that to mean that killed Denna (possibly related to the face that her patron may be a Chandrian - see Ash/Cinder theory) or let her die and the trauma from that ruined him mentally. Felurian: I didn't have as much of a problem with this as most people did. The sex scenes weren't as common as I expected during the 60-page Fae vacation, and most of the super-sex techniques were only mentioned in one paragraph (except for repeated mentions of the Hundred-Hand Slap or whatever it was called). The STI-free/free-love/man-mother thing the Adem had going on was pretty goony though.
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Mar 11, 2011 04:42
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Donkey posted:Kvothe's helplessness: I haven't read Name of the Wind in a while, but I think I remember Kvothe claiming he had to kill an angel or somesuch to accomplish some goal. I always guessed that to mean that killed Denna (possibly related to the face that her patron may be a Chandrian - see Ash/Cinder theory) or let her die and the trauma from that ruined him mentally. I'm not sure its a spoiler since this is a casual aside from the first book, but I'm gonna spoil the angel thing anyway: It's gonna be one of the Adem. Not the ones who worked for that one country, but the real Adem that were created by that god when the Myr Tanriel or whatever its called was destroyed. People worship those now.
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Mar 11, 2011 13:02
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Liesmith posted:I'm not sure its a spoiler since this is a casual aside from the first book, but I'm gonna spoil the angel thing anyway: It's gonna be one of the Adem. Not the ones who worked for that one country, but the real Adem that were created by that god when the Myr Tanriel or whatever its called was destroyed. People worship those now. I think you meant Amyr. Adem are the kung fu immaculate conception warriors.
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Mar 11, 2011 16:01
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 04:09 |
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Just finished this today. Some parts of it dragged but I want more. In the mean time, any suggestions on what to read next?
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Mar 11, 2011 18:59
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