The Wise Man's Fear

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.