|
I've been enjoying it a lot so far, but I just reached the part with Felurian  . It's like all the creepy nerd fulfillment he'd been holding relatively in check flooded out in one horrible looong chapter.The Denna fight was also really uncomfortable. He's so in love with her and thinks she's so perfect, but the second he's mad at her he almost calls her a whore. Nothing at all to do with the fight, just him instantly wanting to go there. I guess what I'm saying is, almost anytime a girl shows up it's still awkward as hell.
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2011 18:38
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 19:35 |
|
|
MrFlibble posted:Its not bad, but I just feel its lost the heart of the story. This is exactly how I feel. A lot of cool new stuff in the world was introduced- the entire Adem culture, some Vintan aristocracy, the Big Mean Tree... but by the end the book felt like it had literally just been a string of anecdotes rather then a string of anecdotes formed into a cohesive story. The first book had it's flaws, but I remember at the end I really wanted to read more. I had a lot of questions- who are the Chandrian? Why are scary extinct creatures attacking in the present day? How does Kvothe eventually get kicked out of the University? Will I ever give a crap about his relationship with Denna? Etc. There was a sense of building tension. When I finished this one, I was just kind of like... well, hmm. Rothfuss made an interesting choice in contrasting the past becoming more fanciful (getting tutored in sex by Titania, rescuing the almost-King and gaining him an almost-Queen), with the present being completely mundane (whooped by the soldiers Bast sent to help him get his groove back, nothing more on extinct creatures, just burying the dead guy, doing taxes and a guy we don't know thinking about signing up for the army). The tree makes it even weirder because Chronicler's logic at the end is flawed when he says, "But you might do A or B, so how could the tree know?" Bast described it as omniscient, so the tree sees that you might do A or B, and simply picks the path where you end up doing B and ruining the world. I have no idea what the third book will be like. That said, the direction it's pointed is that Kvothe will become more powerful but lose it all, open an Inn to hide out, and then complete his apparently preordained spiral into death and disaster. A book is a journey, a trilogy even more so, but I don't really have a lot of questions for the third one right now. To me, the heart of the first book was that despite the format of a present-day, obviously alive Kvothe relaying his past, it somehow still felt like there was a lot that was unknown and uncertain. This book really took away a lot of the uncertainy for me, even if there's still a big part of the story that's unknown.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2011 21:13
|
|
|
Benson Cunningham posted:Right after the fight he said something to the extent of, "I almost forgot who I was there for a second. That implied to me that he could have handed those two guys their asses, but he is really, really pushing to maintain this innkeeper identity, even though he was willing to just throw it away earlier to save that kid from going to war. Kvothe - totally selfless for other people but has no sympathy at all for himself. This is cool, because my take on it was the complete opposite- that he was basically saying, "I thought it was the old days and I was going to kick their scummy, bullying bandit asses, but... I can't anymore." I guess it comes down to your perspective on who Kvothe is in the present day, how much is an act and how much is real. Although I did feel like the scene at the end when he's totally alone and tries to open the chest but can't and has to get the keys and then still can't, points towards it being a real limitation. Bast and he actually have the conversation where Bast says, "But in book 1, you kicked monster butt!" and Kvothe says it was brains more then brawn. I think it would be really interesting if he's hiding from, say, the Chandrian more then human assassins, because his power's literally sapped, it's not just that he's washed-up and heartbroken.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2011 08:39
|
|