The Wise Man's Fear

The first book in this series was great, epic. This...couldnt, and didn't, live up to the first book. It's okay, but it's really a bridge to the third book and that's about all. The first 400 pages drag horribly, and when it starts to get interesting, there really doesn't seem to be a point to it. The third book is set up to be quite interesting, but for the most part, I look at this book as something of a dull, tedious exercise.

Rothfuss takes his time and it's worth it. Can't wait to read more by him and explore this world more!

Fantastic, can't wait for the next book. It's a long read but it is 100% worth it

Just awful. Like Final season of Game of Thrones awful. Except less happens.

I do not understand the ratings for this book, yes the first book was amazing, yes Rothfuss knows how to write and draw his readers into his world, but this book was a massive let down. The plot goes nowhere, and there is only one day left for Kvothe to tell the rest of his story. Maybe he will make it up in the third book. There were some inconsistencies in the world, but that could be explained by Kvothe's point of view, I guess. The first part of the book is good, but then it comes to a stop, and you spend like 10 chapters in a some mythical demon-fairy sex fantasy. If the author wanted to go there, fine, but nothing happens except Kvothe becomes a Casanova. It was the stereotypical male adolescent fantasy. I skimmed through that section looking for something that reassembled plot, there were like 2 moments of interest. The rest was him romping around with a blowup doll in the glade.

I was ready to forgive him for that, but then came the Adem. I have read other people's criticisms of the book and I am surprised that no one seems to bring this section up. The Adem are basically the Aiel from The Wheel of Time, except stupid. Why are they stupid? Here's an excerpt:

“Are you not making a joke?” she asked, one hand still half-covering her smile. “Do you truly believe a man puts a baby in a woman?”“Well . . . yes,” I said a little awkwardly. “In a manner of speaking. It takes a man and a woman to make a baby. A mother and a father.”“You have a word for it!” she said, delighted. “They told me this too. With the stories of dirt soup. But I never thought it a real story!” (fyi, she calls the concept of a father “man-mother”...)

That's right, there is an entire supposedly “wise” and “enlightened” society of people who don't know where babies come from. I read this passage like 10 times to make sure I was understanding it correctly, I am. It's a society of free love (so ya know, Kvothe gets plenty), with no consequences. Kvothe and his lady of the day go on with the conversation and end up with a conclusion that is suppose to convince you that, yeah it is entirely plausible that women magically ripen like an apple in the fall - actual argument given. No wonder the Adem have to rent them selves out as warriors, they don't understand pollination and probably slaughter all their rams and bulls then wait for the cows and ewes to magically ripen with child. (yes it includes animals, she doesn't understand how cats get pregnant either.)

Now it's common for me to roll my eyes at how some authors think women would act if there weren't any social constraints or emotions placed on sexuality (WOT again), but this section takes the cake. Obviously enlightened women, who have no fear of consequences, are going to go into the bushes with any man they find slightly attractive. This is helped by the fact the Adem never contract any STDs, that is something that only comes from the barbarians (aka people not in their society and who thing that men and women have equal roles in reproduction) and the men are not responsible for any children that come from their little escapades. Once again, what I see is a stereotypical male fantasy. Being able to go off with any women you want (who are always raring to go) without any fear of consequence. There's even a special herb Kvothe chews that keeps him from bestowing any children, however the Adem seem to be unaware of such a plant or the need for it.

There is no way any advanced civilization does not understand the basics of the birds and the bees. If they are unaware of concept of biological fathers, believing that humans are actually asexual and only need the mother for reproduction, then family is only traced through the mother, then they are completely unaware of who their brothers/sisters/DAUGHTERS are. Since there are no silly emotions or biological consequences tied to sex, why would there be an issue with a 40 year old man messing around with the daughter of a women he had a thing with 20 years ago? Why would the mother have any issue with something as silly as that? Sex is just needed for release, needed for warriors to be better warriors. For men to release their “anger.” The mother probably barely remembers it happened. There was no importance tied to the time when she conceived and no need for any familial ties or emotional relationship, only barbarians think like that. Now this special girl gets to give birth a daughter/unknown sister. Then when the daughter/sister grows up she finds her uncle/brother, from another woman, exceedingly attractive (hey, her own father/grandfather is only 60! I doubt there are any age prejudices). Now her child gets to be his own cousin! Maybe one day, he too can find enjoyment with the daughter/sister/whatever he never knew.

So basically this old, wise, strong, enlightened race was revealed to be a bunch of in-bred imbeciles with an honor code. Maybe Rothfuss' intention was to “empower” women so that they are not beholden to man for any reason, but no woman is empowered if she doesn't understand how she got pregnant. It's like Brooke Shields in Blue Lagoon, she suddenly has a baby and doesn't know how it got in there. The only difference is that this is not a single extremely isolated young girl. This is an entire “intelligent” society that has not figured out one of the most basic elements of human knowledge. Believe me, women everywhere understand the basics of fertility and have to deal with the effects of fertility constantly.

There is also the issue that the men have zero importance in the society. I know that's what people think women want, but it's really not. I gave up on “Girls Rule/Boys Drool” after 3rd grade.

I guess maybe he could reveal that this is a magical people that have all the same sexual-reproductive organs as normal humans, but are really asexual in reproduction. So, a whole society of blow up dolls. I am pretty good at suspending my disbelief, but this was too much.

I really don't remember much after that, but the ending was pretty blah. I finished the book, but I stopped caring about it.

Good follow-up to the first one, a bit windy in certain places but gets the point across in the end.

I was one of the many who eagerly awaited this book. I enjoyed it as much as the first.

Good series. Takes magic in a different direction which was interesting.

This one book is almost as long as the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy and yet seems to do little plot advancement. It feels like multiple books stuck together (Is it?) with minimal segue from one to the other. One moment Kvothe has just defeated a group of bandits and a couple of pages later he’s deep in fairyland mastering sex for what seems like 10+ chapters. It all felt a bit disjointed. Kvothe’s complete inability to make any kind of advancement with Denna has reached maximum frustration levels by the end - becoming almost comical.

¡Exploramos más las ‘Cuatro Esquinas del Mundo’! Surgen nuevos misterios y dudas en "El Temor de un Hombre Sabio", mientras se aclaran (pero no se resuelven) enigmas del primer libro.

Y aunque la prosa de Rothfuss sigue siendo cautivadora, la trama avanza a paso preocupadamente lento: Algunas secciones del libro parecen relleno, aunque su resolución enriquezca (un poquito) la narrativa general y sentí que era un obstáculo leer esas partes, sin embargo aterriza muy bien el final, pero... ¿podrá Rothfuss atar todos los cabos de forma satisfactoria en el tercer libro?

Estaba que le zampaba un 3.8 pero ese final empujó un poquito más el score.

4/5

Every Silence Magic Trick consists of three parts, or acts. The first part is called The Pledge. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object - perhaps he asks you to inspect it - to see that it is indeed real.... unaltered.... normal. But of course, it probably isn't... The second act is called The Turn. The magician takes the ordinary something, and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it, because of course, you're not really looking... you don't really want to know.... 

Rupert Degas sounds so uncannily similar to Steven Pacey that I had a lot of fun pretending that Kingkiller was some alternate timeline of First Law where old-man-Brogan Shinefingers owns a tavern and tells his story. That fantasy alone gave me a pretty decent amount of enjoyment out both books, and while I enjoyed NotW a fair bit (4.25), but WMF unfortunately felt more like the middle 1/3 of one giant book, rather than the middle book in a “Trilogy.” That enjoyment did actually continue for the first 40-50% of WMF, but by the time the ending finally came, I had mostly checked out. And then the ending itself came, which felt like the end of any other random chapter in the book, and then.... that was it. And that will continue to be it for....forever, probably.

I knew that going in, of course, so when I decided to try this “trilogy,” I was hoping to find that special... something buried in here that “everyone” else seemed to find that made reading these first 2 books worth the stonewalling, and I tried man, I really did. Silence just wasn't quite enough for me.

But you couldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough... you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act. The hardest part. The part we call...The Prestige.

I guess just wanted to be.....

Fooled. 

Maybe I was. 

Too long for how little the story moves, certain sections of the book drag on for 100's of pages with nothing substantial to show for it.

In the first book we were set up to believe the Chandrian are the thing that pulls Kvothe forward in life, despite this the entire book reveals only one short poem about them. Denna is this mystical figure who people tell stories about, who fate pulls to Kvothe over and over again. Yet by the end of the second book he's still too shy to say he likes her, still too immature to say sorry, and not even a kiss is shared between them. One exhausting section can be summarized with: Kvothe has sex with an ancient being, meets a spooky tree, and gets a cool cloak. It felt like hours wasted on a teenager's fantasy while the relationship with the main woman makes zero progress. This is insanity and there is no end in sight.

Also, Patrick Rothfuss is a captivating writer. Unfortunately it's pointless to read his words because they go nowhere. Quite literally the book ends where it began. Kvothe is back at the university and little has actually changed.

I just looove this book so much

Patrick Rothfuss: what the fuck is a woman?!?

4.25/5

3.5/5
This is going to be a somewhat confusing review. In some aspects TWMF was a bit of letdown. It still was a book that I couldn't putdown and that is because rothfuss writes about Kvothe with such narrative mastery that you're willing to forget your complaints.
This book doesn't get to the meat of the matter at all. It meanders so much that you want to leave the tangents that the author is on and move to a more interesting part. The existence of these parts is fine but why they took up so much of the books is not.
This book was really thick in the parts that I didn't care about and thin in the parts that I actually did.
I don't want to be too harsh on my valid complaints. I still found the book endearing. I still enjoyed it. The quality of writing and world building is still there. The pacing and some story decisions are odd but I suspect book 3 is supposed to explain that (if it ever comes out) .

A modern fantasy peplum.
Can't wait for the next book.

And now we wait

This book is the opposite of boring, the opposite of dull. But is over and now must wait for the next.

Amazing story, but not as good as the first one.

In this second entry of the Kingkiller chronicle, we continue the story where we left it in the Name of the wind. The story continues to be an amazing story, nonetheless, the length of this volume is bigger than the first one which is present in the narration. With this one I had a greater feeling of there being a lot of filler content in order to elongate the story, this combined with the very episodic approach where we are told a different tale every 10/20 chapters. This made the reading a lot slower for me since all the cliffhangers were contained in one reading section.

Nonetheless, I still love all the characters and adventures they are involved in on a regular basis. I have the feeling I could be friends with any of the main pals of our main character Kvothe, this lies in an incredible skill in writing real feeling characters.
Once again I found myself cheering and lamenting with all the characters and feeling just like one more of the group.

Can't wait for the third part of this trilogy.

This is a very exciting and fun continuation of Kvothe's story — it does drag a bit in the middle, but cmon, it's still fun!!!!

Love it. Can't wait for book 3. Take your time, Rothfuss!

DNF

A wonderful journey into Rothfuss' world.

As part two of a three part series covering three days (one book per day), the tone and story continues brilliantly onwards from book one (which I read mid-2019).

The characters, their quirks and more importantly to me, the beautiful prose of the book came right back to life.

The book clocks in at a 1,000 pages, and though by my standard that's a (very) long book, quite often I found myself happy that I was still inside the tale and that I still had a long way to go before it would end (and I knew that the current decade wait for book three could well draw longer so I wasn't so eager to finish the book!).

For me, the enjoyment was in the storytelling and being whisked away into the world completely. I honestly did find the amount of sex in the book kind of over the top. I can buy that Kvothe is a legend character and one part of that is perhaps he has a reputation with women, but I'm not wholely sure I needed the many-month-long shagathon story when Kvothe is away with the faeries...

Still, even with this, I found myself wanting to stay in the world for as long as I could.

The very ending, like the last few pages of The Name of the Wind did surprise me a left me a little confused, but I like to think that one day The Doors of Stone will answer some of those questions...

I almost regret having started to read these books. Please, please, just write the third book!
Yes, Kvothe is a bit of a Gary Stue but I still love him and want to know the rest of the story.

9/10

What can I say. This book is epic. It is riveting. I can't wait for more.