The Wise Man's Fear

The Gist: Kvothe goes to Uni, has a few adventures and gets laid a lot.

I was really looking forward to this book. "The Name of the Wind" was a great and compelling read and I was looking for more of the same in in this book. I didn't get it.

Rothfuss has a way with words and is a very gifted writer but WMF just had to many boring bits for me. It took me over one month to read and there were times where I went days without having the urge to pick it up. In comparison it took me less than a week to reread "The Name of the Wind" and at times I stayed up late to keep reading.

I enjoyed the University part of the book and could have easily read more of that but Rothfuss decided to skip parts of that story in favour giving more time to Kvothe's other adventures. It was when Kvothe went off on his adventures that I lost interest. His Bandit chasing escapade in the woods and the whole fuckfest in the land of the Fae was a total snorefest for me. Those two sections account for around 30% of the book at a guess and about 80% of the time it took me to read it. Not a good ratio.

Kvothe himself is another reason why I dnd't like this book as much a tNotW. Kvothe in tNotW was an arrogant jerk. Despite that I liked him and found him to be an interesting character. Kvothe in The Wise Man's Fear goes from being an arrogant jerk to a arrogant whiny Wanker! The whole chip on his shoulder about how the Edema Ruh are treated now and in the past is just friggen annoying. It annoys me in real life when different groups go on about how they are victims. I don't need it in my fantasy. Lack of empathy on my part no doubt.

What really turned me off him though was the way in which he treated the young kid who was late in delivering the message from Denna. Grade one Wanker right there folks. There were other minor things but that was the one that grated on me the most. I also didn't see much growing up going on. He still holds on to his childish misconceptions.

This is a 1000 page book in which not much happens.

As mentioned, I loved tNotW and thought Rothfuss had the potential to be my next favourite author. Unfortunately after four years of waiting I get a main character I dislike enough for it to intrude upon my enjoyment of the story, three hundred pages of boring crap and the now over used gag "I thought you'd be taller"!

I'd like to say this was a good book but I don't know If I can call a book that took me over one month to read, good. That makes me sad as there were parts of the book that were just as good as tNotW, which I have no trouble calling a great book.

Piece of advice, If you have weak wrists, don't read the hardcover. It's not the thickest book on my shelf but it seems to be the heaviest. Thankfully I bought the eBook version as well.