The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss - Epic Fantasy Novel | Kingkiller Chronicle Book 2 | Perfect for Fantasy Book Lovers & Gift Ideas

I think this series is worth starting both because it seems that the third book may be getting close to release (as of Jan '22), and also because the story contains so many well-crafted mysteries that you can enjoyably kill two or three years just rereading the books already published and trying to figure out what is going to happen in the next book. I’ve read/listened to the both books at least 3-4 times each, which on Audible works out to more than 60 hours of story each time, and I enjoy them just as much each time, which is really unusual for a reread. Don't let the lack of book 3 deter you from giving them a chance! Below are my (spoiler free) thoughts about why I love the story so much. If I had to describe Patrick Rothfuss’ series, The Kingkiller Chronicle, in just two words, those words would be “beautiful” and “mysterious.” The Name of the Wind (NotW), and its follow-up novel, The Wise Man’s Fear (WMF), are probably the most compellingly, intriguingly-beautiful books that I have read in the last decade. Notw is the first novel published by Patrick Rothfuss, but seems to me to show none of the signs of the debut novel. It is filled with poetry (and with prose as compelling as poetry) that surpasses most of Tolkien’s work. Short stories and interludes are interspersed throughout the main narrative with such artistry and such a thorough change of voice that it hardly seems possible that they could all be coming from the same narrator (in-story) or author (out-of-story). The worldbuilding is not so manifestly innovative as Brandon Sanderson’s, nor so epic and cosmic as Tolkien’s, but it is surprisingly deep, requiring the reader to pay attention and piece things together if they want to really appreciate the full depth and subtlety on display. The book’s fundamental structure is that of the story-within-a-story, but the sub-story itself has many fascinating stories told within it, creating a deeply nested body of stories interacting with one another--like a matryoshka doll of narratives. All of this fits beautifully with what I perceive to be the main themes of the series. The first such theme is the tendency of all stories to degenerate with repetition, how well-known events may be perceived in utterly different ways, blur together, and be reported with widely varying levels of accuracy—leading to difficulty in determining their underlying truth. The second main theme of the series is the importance of deeply understanding the true nature of things. In this world, as in some In-Real-Life (IRL) cultures, names are held to have great significance and power. This is made clear in the introductory blurb to the first book in which the main character provides a brief introduction to himself by way of the many names and titles he has accrued in his life. The significance of names is also showcased by the power of True Names, which embody the platonic ideal and deepest essence of those things which they identify. Hence, the Name of the wind is no mere descriptor or label, but is a powerful thing which cannot be possessed by any except those with an intimate understanding of the nature and essence of wind. The difference between knowing the descriptor of a thing, and understanding its true essence is demonstrated by one character who asks another “What do you mean by blue? Describe it.” Both of these themes underscore the type of story this is: a mystery. Although the setting is fantastical and this is a world where faeries and magic are real, this is fundamentally a mystery story. Or maybe I should say a whole collection of interconnected mystery stories, because there seem to be no end of fascinating questions raised for readers to theorize about. The main character has a clear motivation, but no understanding of how to go about pursuing it, or even why the seminal events in his past occurred as they did. The legends of the world’s creation and past conflicts tie into current events and factions, but only in the most tantalizingly confusing ways due to the unreliability of all the narrators who pass them on. The love-interest is a three-dimensional, well-realized, hauntingly-compelling character, but we are left unsure even of her name, much less her history or deeper motivations. After 1500 pages of densely packed story, one of the biggest questions fans enjoy theorizing about is still “what king gets killed in The Kingkiller Chronicle?” That is the equivalent of people reading most of the first 5 Harry Potter books but not having been introduced to the eponymous main character yet, or reading most of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion and still not knowing what rings are referenced or who their lord is. I could probably go on for pages and not do justice to this aspect of the story, but the gist is this: this story makes you care about its characters and world so much that the vast array of mysteries and secrets scattered throughout the story becomes as fascinating as the events of the main plot, and the way in which the mysteries and story are intertwined becomes its own riddle for readers to puzzle over. This is also not another stereotypical Hero’s Journey in which the Chosen-One (TM) must go off to fight the evil blah blah to save mumble-mumble from the evil power of whatever. There is no clear, urgent threat, either to the world or the protagonist’s people, for him to strive against in an epic allegorical battle. Instead the story’s conflict is very personal and intimate and the protagonist’s first task is to try to understand the mysteries underlying his past so that he can figure out how to proceed . (There’s that theme again of the importance of insight and true understanding and the difficulty in attaining them.) There are various people who at different times and in their own ways function as mentors to him, but there is no Gandalf figure pushing him out of his comfortable home and leading him to adventure, no Dumbledore waiting in the wings to dole out backstory elements and quests. This isn’t the story of Merlin coaching Arthur into becoming the Prophesied One to do the Heroic Thing, but rather the very personal story of the protagonist explaining how his life came to be the way it is, setting right the distortions which his own fame (notoriety?) has introduced into his tale. Given his age during the story and the prominence of his quest for answers about his world and how he fits in it, this story could probably fit within the Young Adult (YA) category, but it is unmistakably written to address more complex themes than “can our Chosen-One save District 13 from tyranny?” and to reward a more mature and literary reader rather than a twelve-year old looking for some fight scenes and an obligatory love triangle set against a dystopian backdrop. The linguistic elements are, probably, less deeply constructed than Tolkien’s, but they also serve a different purpose. Where Tolkien seemingly created LotR et al. as a way to give his constructed languages a place to exist, Rothfuss introduces fragments of languages as clues that help tie together the otherwise disparate and conflicting background stories. If you skim over them, as I usually have, you can still enjoy the story fully, and if you really delve into comparing the different words from the different languages (as some fans online have done) you can get some tantalizing clues at connections and answers otherwise hidden from sight. The same level of detail can be appreciated whether you are piecing together references to decipher how the world’s calendar operates, or trying to figure out how many shims there are to the royal at the moneychanger’s. Rothfuss seemingly does not have the ability to carelessly gloss over a detail, but rather he intricately plots everything, so that every word is the mot juste, every allusion is significant, every detail is meaningful, and the overall creation is not just a beautiful story but is beauty, in story form. He manages to do this without ever seeming to veer into a dry exposition-dump, or getting lost in the weeds of unimportant details. Once you read it through, subsequent rereads show all the hidden meanings and significance in what seemed to be throwaway elements on first exposure—which I think is why the series is so rewarding to reread—because you discover new answers and new mysteries that weren’t obvious the first time around. I don’t know how Rothfuss holds so many conflicting story elements in such perfect tension, but somehow he does it. I love quotes. I’d love to share special quotes that exemplify all of the virtues I’ve praised above, but as I looked for good quotes to share I found that, while there was no shortage of quotable and clever lines, most candidate would require a half-page of explanation in order to put their cleverness or elegance in appropriate context. Therefore you will have to find them for yourself—as the author intended.Overall ImpressionsWhat did I think about A Wise Man’s Fear? Well, it’s beautifully written, just as the first one was. It’s a character-driven marvel of word painting that plays out much like a fantasy version of one’s college experience (at least my college experience). This book captures the small ups and downs of life, blown up a bit in a fantasy setting, but not as much as many fantasy novels where saving the world from an all-powerful evil is the goal right from the start and there’s no longer any room (or rather too much room) for the character’s smaller wants and desires to breathe. Those smaller aspects are what make a great character and that’s what this book and this series has in droves.That said, there may be a little too much of the small character things in this book. Good gosh, nothing all that relevant really happens. I mean, Kvoth’s main goal is revenge against the Chandrian. He made literally no progress toward that end in this book aside from a couple small bits of information and the acquisition of resources with which to pursue them…though he still has no idea how to go about doing that. He’s absolutely no closer to finding them than he was before. Yeah, there’s that random bit where one of them was apparently leading a band of bandits, but that is in no way relevant. He just puffs away into thin air, never to be seen again in the book and without even a taunt in Kvoth’s direction.As far as Denna’s side story, there’s extremely little development there as well in an overall sense. We do learn a lot about her past and what’s going on with her patron and such, but between her and Kvoth, they just kind of wind up back where they started in this book. There’s one argument they have, but it’s immediately resolved the next time they see each other. Well, that may not be entirely fair. There is certainly an odd tension between them as this book closes, odd in a good way. There’s more of her popping out of thin air wherever Kvoth goes of course. At one point, she and her most recent boy toy burst into a tavern where Kvoth is staying right as she’s about to choke to death…on nothing…why was she unable to breathe again? Oh, so Kvoth could save her…right…I mentioned in my review of the last book that it was too convenient in terms of what happens to Kvoth at times. That is even more the case here in many ways, though it’s also better in others. It’s terribly convenient that Kvoth’s nobleman friend happens to know the most powerful man in the world and gets Kvoth a position as his helper for some secret task. But then again, I bought it, so does that make it TOO convenient? Nope. Though it’s on the line. I’m watching you, Pat. I’m watching you. There are other examples such as this that really play jumprope with the line between sinfully convenient and “yay, what a great coincidence for Kvoth!”Let’s talk about what all the haters of this book really gripe about: the plotIt’s true that there are some OUTRAGEOUS tangents that I wish were never included (more on those in a bit) but for the most part, I was with Kvoth on all these tangents. That’s what, to me, makes the meandering chaos of the plot work: Kvoth himself. He’s such a well-written character, as are all the characters around him (mostly) and so wherever the plot goes, I go with him. That’s what really ties this story together for me and makes me root for him regardless of how little actually gets accomplished at the end of the book. Do I wish he handn’t gone off for literally a year and done nothing but have sex with a fairy? Yes. Yes I do.Speaking of having sex with fairies (and just having sex in general) let’s talk about my biggest complaint in this book, the main reason why it doesn’t get my five-star approval. Sex.Oh. My Gosh. Where to begin…Slight spoilers…nothing important of course though. Because apparently sex isn’t important. At all. O_O…I guess I’ll begin where it’s introduced into the story. Kvoth has never had sex before. He’s interested in Denna, though he’s been attracted to other girls before now as well, even if he hasn’t really paid that much attention to them. But Denna is the big goal, the ONE as it were. When he left to go on his big adventure halfway through this book, he left some unresolved conflict with her and it’s been bugging him. So he goes on his big adventure, does some amazing stuff, and as soon as he starts to head back to the city, he runs into Felurian.*sigh*.Apparently, Felurian is a Fae creature who is legendary for seducing men and making them go mad with desire for her. The men then either die or go insane. She’s widely believed to be a myth. Up until now, there have been a few folk stories told about her, but nothing to make the reader think she’ll ever be a part of the actual story with Kvoth, or even that she’s in any way important…and then they stumble across her out of nowhere in the woods and Kvoth chases after her into the Fae realm and spends a year doing literally nothing but eating, sleeping, and having sex…and making a magic cloak made of shadow and moonbeams…WHAT? WHY?! There are at least a few small plot revelations during this section of the book, but nothing all that important…so why did we need this? To show how much of a badass Kvoth is? That’s not interesting. What’s interesting is how people THINK he’s a badass but how his legend has been misinterpreted and muddled over the years and how fragile and insecure he really has become. Yeah, he can do some cool stuff along the way, but this was just too over the top.As I said, Kvoth is still a virgin before this escapade begins. So his first sexual encounter is with a magical faeling who is reportedly the most beautiful, most perfect woman in the whole world, and he blows her mind time and time again on the first try (lego batman style).As a recently married, de-virgined man, I call bulls***. No. Just no.I mean, at least she’s an irresistible, magical creature, so it makes sense why he runs off after her and does what he does…but from a story perspective, why did this need to happen? We were doing so well with realistic, relatable portrayals of life experiences. Why does sex have to be treated like an arcade game or like another feather in Kvoth’s cap? He has no emotional attachment to her. Her only real purpose in the story is to have sex with him and make him a cloak out of shadow and moonbeams. Great female character you got there, very modern of you. Why couldn’t we have had an authentic, touching first experience for Kvoth instead of this emotionless, cold, meaningless frolic? He learns nothing from it (apart from how to have sex…he gets really good at that) and it goes on forever! This book didn’t need more length!It only gets better from there though! After his year of galavanting with Felurian, he literally has sex with the next girl he sees…for no reason other than that she came onto him (pointless)…and then with the next girl he sees, who is his freaking teacher in the ways of the Adem mercenaries. Slightly creepy.The Adem don’t attach any intimacy to sex and see it as a purely utilitarian act. This makes at least some sense for her, at least to an extent, because it’s a cultural thing and she’s just “helping him out” because he’s “distracted” by her hotness during his studies with her (does that sound stupid to anyone else?). But just because THEY see sex a certain way doesn’t mean KVOTH has to see it that way. Yeah, he’s a young man full of vigor and all that, and yeah, he has no moral qualms about having sex with multiple people apparently, but don’t you think he’d at least feel a little bad about hooking up with all these women at some point, seeing as how he’s supposedly so hooked on Denna? That youthful pining really comes through everywhere but in these sections of the story. Shouldn’t he at least THINK about her at some point during all this? He literally thinks about how all of this might relate to her IN PASSING on ONE occasion and then he just goes back to galavanting around with everyone he sees from then on.Even after all that though, it gets better! Rothfuss attempts to address some of the dangers of of casual sex with multiple partners: pregnancy and STDs. The attitude toward the great dangers is so flippant, however, that these things are barely referenced on only one occaision with some of the most convenient, lazy explanations I’ve ever seen…Apparently, there is a root Kvoth chews every day in order to render himself temporarily infertile… O_OWay to take all the harsh reality out of it for us, Pat. Way to whitewash this whole issue by simply inserting a single reference to this unnamed herb that we’ve never heard of that magically makes all possibility of unplanned pregnancy disappear. Not only that, but it’s a MALE contraceptive which we with all our vast technology and knowledge haven’t quite perfected…but apparently there’s some weed lying around and readily available even in far-off, strange lands that just does the job if you chew it every day. No biggie. Again, way to side-step the issue there with a magic cure-all deus ex-machina of sorts. More like a deus-SEX-machina…But wait, it gets better! Apparently, the Adem also have NO STD’s! Even though they all are pretty much CONSTANTLY having sex with one another, there is literally NO trace of any sexually transmitted disease among them. That’s not something I just extrapolated, by the way, it’s something one of the women actually tells Kvoth. Why is this the case? Apparently because they only ever have sex with other Adem and not outsiders apparently…even though their culture spans hundreds if not thousands of miles with distinct populations in different places that do indeed intermingle as we see in the example of Kvoth’s instructor. Bull. Honkey.BUT WAIT! IT GETS BETTER!!!!!! Apparently the Adem believe that men have no part in creating children. Let me say that again. The Adem people believe that women just “ripen” like fruit every now and then, especially in the Fall. How the ever-loving HELL could any culture, especially a modern, enlightened one like the Adem, grow to believe that? Part of their job in Adem mercinary culture requires them to travel for long stretches of time, far from home in foreign lands where they doubtless can’t have sex for some time. Have they never noticed over the past thousand years that when people don’t have sex they don’t get pregnant? Have they not noticed that a man injects a little package of something into the very place where babies come out from? Maybe THAT has something to do with it. Maybe it’s no coincidence that the more often a woman has sex THE MORE OFTEN SHE GETS PREGNANT! Sorry for the lewd imagery, but holy CRAP this made me angry. It makes no sense!Oh man. I need a break.*deep breath*You know there’s so much we can learn about our own sexuality by reading about this responsibility and guilt-free world of sex and revelry where we can sleep around to your heart’s content without any emotional entanglement or any sort of consequences whatsoever.O_O…..It’s almost as though Rothfuss is trying to push this philosophy of free love hippy-style on us through this apparently perfect culture of noble savages. Everything the Adem do is presented as flawless and without error, never really questioned by Kvoth and apparently never meant to be questioned by the audience. Yes, they’re fascinating and well constructed as a world-building element, but good gosh they frustrated me at times. From the attitude the rest of the story takes toward sex, It really seems like Rothfuss was putting his own views on sex into the Adem’s philosophy, which is a tad disturbing for me. I mean, he’s a grown man and he can do what he wants, but jeez man. You could have at least treated it in a realistic manner instead of making every so squeaky clean with your deus SEX machina infertility roots and disease-free-even-though-they’re-more-oversexed-than-the-USofA Adem culture. I mean, he really seems to have gone out of his way to separate all sex in this story from any sort of emotion, let alone a loving, committed relationship. Yes, i have my personal beliefs about sex, so maybe I’m a tad biased, but I like to think I’m open-minded when it comes to other people’s views. I can’t be the only one who thought this was odd, right?I don’t mean to say that you can’t make your characters sleep around. You can make your characters have sex with whomever whenever you want, but when you actually address some of the real-world concerns of such a practice so frivolously, with out-of-nowhere made-up solutions that are 100% effective all the time, you are misrepresenting human sexuality and turning it into a farcical imitation of the real thing, a cheap, meaningless thrill for your character and possibly for your readers. If you don’t want to address unwanted pregnancy and STD’s, that’s one thing. It’s still not the right way to go in my opinion, but it’s better than actually bringing those things up and immediately swatting them down with convenient world elements you just pull right out of your butt simply so that your character can go back to thoughtlessly having sex with anyone he pleases.It’s almost as though Rothfuss was like “hmm, Kvoth sure is banging a lot of chicks. Some people might think he’s being irresponsible…hmm, how can I get around that?…oh, I know. Magic root. Boom. Awesome, let’s get back to the sex.” From a book that handles almost everything else so very well, that was a pretty huge slap in the face.Even after all that though, I really enjoyed this book. It’s artfully, masterfully crafted in its prose, I love Kvoth, I love the world, I love the magic. It’s mesmerizing. Frustrating at times. But mesmerizing. The whole sex thing really was like a pebble in my boot while I was reading it, but it was the softest, most comfortable boot in the world.There is no point to a story without an ending. I didn't read all that just to find out there's no point because the third book of the trilogy hasn't been written. You can't call it a trilogy if there aren't 3 books. Such a shame as I was REALLY enjoying it. But a waste of time if I never find out what happened. It's like if Tolkein had stopped 2/3rd of the way through Lord of the Rings. Would we all still love it? No.(Spoilers contained) Having enjoyed the first book, I’m left slightly frustrated during and after reading this. I have to agree with the other 3 star reviews on the whole, the plot doesn’t quite progress, and is very self indulgent in places. It gets side tracked in massive chunks for no reason. I was waiting for the Felurian Fae section to reach a conclusion but it just went on and on for hours to no real benefit other than he learned how to shag really well and got a really useful cloak out of it. Then, when that was finally over, we launched straight into another extremely lengthy saga into the Tai Chi world of the Adem warriors where he was immersed In the wisdom and teachings of the Lethani (a bit like the Tao) and also got to exercise his new shagging skills freely. That went on for hours and hours too. I enjoyed the section where he killed the rapist bandits and rescued the girls a bit more. He came home to the University as some kind of hero legend. Then he went into Tarbean to send a fake letter to his arch enemy pretending to be a pregnant ex lover. Why did he do that? It just seemed quite a petty thing to do for someone who was supposed to have learned new wisdoms of the world, it was far from “Lethani” and would serve no purpose other than stirring up trouble with his arch enemy and undoubtedly lead to crippling trouble for himself. Besides, given Ambrose’s rough treatment of women I doubt he would even care anyway. All that aside, the Denna thing didn’t progress in the slightest, we’re no closer to any enlightenment on the Chandrian and the Amyr. We are also no more enlightened about how Kvothe came to be innkeeper Kote, who Bast is and how they’re together, the mysterious sword on the wall (which isn’t the Adem sword), the Skrael, the “king killer” thing “poet killer”... In fact there’s nothing that is answered in any way whatsoever, and given that there hasn’t been a sequel for a decade, I doubt the author really has the answers either. I can’t help but think that there is an awful lot to cram into the third book to keep us up to speed. This book was far too long for what it was I can’t imagine how long the next one will have to be!If you like stories, you'll probably love these two books. I did. I've read both books three times now. Not wanting to have a hazy memory of the story, each time I started back through was because the author was "close to finishing" the third. My thinking that when I finish, I can move into the third and final book. That was ten years ago. When I first read these books, they were promoted as a trilogy. Now, it seems they are only going to be a trilogy of two. This mean you devour 1400 or so pages & then stop. A story part told. A hundred questions left unanswered. Still bugging me years and years later.So.. If you don't mind unanswered questions. Or not knowing the end to the story, you'll probably like this. Otherwise, steer clear. You'll be plagued by thoughts of "what ever happened to..."Disappointed by the author for not concluding the story.This is a difficult book to rate and review, because I enjoyed reading it and had a great overall experience, but at the same time have quite a few criticisms. I know many people liked this less than the first book, but I’m not entirely sure I agree. I find the university parts some of the least compelling and engaging, and so taking a big trip away and exploring more of the world was fantastic for me. I really enjoyed most of Kvothe's adventures, there's a good variety of them, and there are some great new introductions to the world (I'm very interested in the Cthaeh).However, I understand and share a lot of the frustration with this book. The story felt quite rambling. It’s definitely taking its time along Kvothe’s journey, and it feels like we’ve barely touched on the things Kvothe is famous for. He still feels a long way from the legendary character teased in the first book. It also feels like we’re circling around and ending up back where we started. This feels like an odd move for the middle book in the trilogy, which I would expect to be breaking away from the ‘origin story’ a little more. In addition to this, the secondary characters still feel underdeveloped and Denna is even more aggravating than before.But despite all this, the tale and the telling of it are so exciting and compelling throughout, I raced through the book and couldn’t put it down, and I want more! I’m still very invested in Kvothe’s story, and now there are interesting new hints that Kvothe might not be the hero we think. I’ve read other people's suggestions that this could be a villain’s story in the end, and while I don’t think it will be quite that simple, I think this is a good observation.Still a very enjoyable read, still both frustrating and awesome, and I still can’t wait for more.The book follows the same pattern as the 1st one (albeit a lot longer). I felt while reading this that nothing was happening or building and like the first book, spent time on stories and going off on tangents that (so far) don’t really have any connection to the overall narrative.That said, the last stage of the book was good and tied some of the bits together.I’m not excited for another instalment if this is the kind of offering coming in the 3rd book. Given how long it’s taking to come out, I’ll probably not bother