I am 750 pages into Patrick Rothfuss' The Wise Man's Fear--over 200 pages to go still--and I can't recall the last time a book has made me more resentful. Why resentful? Because, I am sorry to say, it is boring the crap out of me, and has been doing so for nearly all its 750 pages so far, and yet I can't not finish now. And so it is the obligation that I resent. The obligation to finish a book I am thoroughly not enjoying, and yet have committed so much time to already (in addition to the outstanding first book in the series before this, The Name of the Wind), that to put it down now without finishing would just feel like even more of a waste of my time than its been already. If I'm going to waste my time, in other words, I at least want to be a completist about it.
My reaction to this book is bumming me out. And if it wasn't for reading like-minded reviews elsewhere, I'd wonder if maybe something was wrong with me. Because the first book, The Name of the Wind, was just so damn good--one of the best fantasy books I've read in a long, long time. It was just the story he told, and the way he told it, but the writing itself, which was just so clearly a cut above the standard stuff of this genre. (Though there are some amazing fantasy writers out there---my favorite, which is a cheat, because he's as much a comic writer and satirist as "fantasy writer," is Terry Pratchett, but that's a topic for another post.)
Rothfuss just has a great way with words, and when you marry it, as in the first book, to a great story with great momentum and suspense and mystery, it makes for marvelous entertainment. The saving grace in The Wise Man's Fear is that Rothfuss still writes great sentences. He has a poet's ear for description and cadence, which, when everything else is going wrong, still helps carry me along without wanting to blow my brains out.
Not much of a recommendation, I know. The problem with this book is everything but the individual sentences. I don't even know where to start. Well, okay we can start at the beginning, or more specifically, the book's first 300 pages, which feels to me like nothing but a total, unnecessary rehash of the first book. ( I'm trying to avoid specifics, because I don't want to give away any spoilers, not that I think you need to bother.) It's one thing, in a trilogy, to start off where the previous book concluded. It's another to go on for hundreds of pages without doing anything to advance the plot beyond where we were a few years ago. Yes, we know Kvothe is poor, and brilliant, and in love with Denna, and is awesome at the lute, and is the greatest student at the University in a billion years, but, good god, man, we knew that already and have been waiting for years now for you to tell us something we didn't know.
Once Kvothe does finally move on--which, if I had edited the book, would have happened about 250 pages earlier--it hardly gets better. While the Name of the Wind drives along on the strength of a gripping storyline, Wise Man's Fear feels episodic, and disjointed, with "set pieces" stuck together with masking tape. First he goes here, then he goes here, then he has amazing sex because he's so good at having sex even immortal faerie queens can't believe it, then he goes here, and then he goes here, without ever seeming to get one step closer to the essential mystery that opens the first book: The murder of his parents, for one, and how he becomes the guy we know he is to become in the book's present-time sequences. And when every episodic, barely interesting event seems to have "look how awesome I was!" as its point, it just makes it that much more intolerable. When I finished Name of the Wind, I felt like I could have listened to Kvothe's stories for a number of books. Now I just kinda want to kick his ass.
But, who knows. It's the middle book. The story is not done yet. Maybe, in retrospect, all this rambling braggadocio will mean something in the context of the larger work. Maybe the third book will be so satisfying it will help this book seem better. And, hey, I'm not even done with this yet. Maybe, in the 200 pages I still have to go, Rothfuss will tie all the pieces together in a way that will make me feel ashamed and embarrassed that I ranted here prematurely. (In which case I'll have to post again to apologize.)
And I am ranting because I've so rarely been this disappointed by the followup to a book that I loved. Because I'm a slow reader, I almost never read books twice, but I loved The Name of the Wind so much that this one I did read twice--and enjoyed it even more the second time. But now, I'm counting the pages for every chapter. It feels like being back in college. "Okay, if I just read 10 more pages, then I can reward myself with something fun." And this is why I'm so resentful. This is supposed to be my leisure reading. This is supposed to be fun. But it feels like a slog. I'm looking at the stack of books sitting by my nightstand, waiting to be read, and I am resentful that I can't get to them yet, because of this interminably boring book.
Most of all, I'm resentful because I want to believe. I want to love it. I still think he is fantastic writer for the most part. And I know I'll still be buying the third book on Day One. But, for the love of Gandalf, please let that third book be a better read than this one. I need my entertainment to entertain me, not make me a bitter, ranty blogger.
14 comments:
I'm currently struggling with this book as well. 300 pages in and I'm putting it down so I can read some summaries of George R R Martins books in preparation for A Dance With Dragons. I think I'll come back to it this summer, but I'm not very excited about it.
I've been struggling to get through it as well (60% according to Kindle). First book was just 1st class fantasy adventure ass-kickery. This just feels like middling daytime soap opera and I keep yelling out, "get the fuck on already!!!".
Just hoping to finish before DANCE comes out. Maybe I should just pick up a couple more Joe Abercrombie; writing isn't as strong but at least I know I'll get tons of intrigue & action for my buck.
The first chapters of a sequel entice you, peak your interest with a sense of familiarity. This is going to be as good as the first time and I am going to follow this through to the end. The same pace. The same comfortable feeling like a good book. Day 6. Now your wallowIng in this sense of malaise, in anticipation of a deepening of character or personal involvement in her story. Everything is just ok, and you know that this could be good but you know something is off. Then you find out she was seeing you just to get closer to your best friend and now I am reevaluating taking her to grandma's house for the summer family BBQ. Awkward!?!
I think it's a problem that every creative has to face or deal with: Is this work my masterpiece? What if all other works that follow cannot live up to expectations?
I agree that Wise Man's Fear was in dire need of editing down. There was so much that could have been condensed (or removed entirely) and still make the work whole and interesting.
I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, though. The story of Kvothe is worth telling and am curious to see how it unfolds and ultimately ends.
Oh, I wish you had made this blog post two days ago before I bought it! Now I'm three chapters in and back to where I was at the end of the last one: thoroughly enmeshed.
I don't understand your review. Not that the book is good (I haven't read it), but because the first book suffers from EXACTLY the same problems. I could barely muster the will to finish that one and I sure as hell won't be reading any more of them.
Jeff, please make a Pratchett post soon. He is pretty much the only active fantasy author I read, and a god damned genie-arse.
I'm currently re-reading Ellroy's LA Quartet in preparation for LA Noire.
I agree whole heartedly, particularly considering the point in the book you're at. It was tough to get through even considering that I listened to the audio book while working. Having said that, I really did enjoy the ending. Sure, it's a bit of a return to the status-quo from the first book, but by that point I missed it. Still optimistic for the third installment.
Wow, you guys are harsh! I've read the first book and loved it as well. Hard to believe that the second is so difficult to read. I'm picking it up anyway, cause I feel it's a story I want to know about.
Finally a review I agree with. I'm sick of reading all this "If you loved The Name of the Wind, then you're going to love Wise Mans Fear even more" crap. They must be hardcore Rothfuss fans which are too loyal to fess-up to the truth; that Wise Mans fear was completely overwritten. TNOTW was an amazing read, one of the best and most unique fanatasy's I've ever read. Rothfuss thought it was full of gaps... I thought it had just the right amount of gaps to allow the reader to fill in their own details. Not so with WMF,Rothfuss has robbed us of any capacity to relate to Kvothe in our own way. Instead he's forced us to see Kvothe the way he see's him; the perfect little shit. All I can say is that I also really want to kick this petulant little 16 year old kids ass as well. And how many times do we have to be reminded that Kvothe is Edema Ruh down to the bone and cam therefore do anything? Just a couple of criticisms on writiing. Jeff when you say "When Kvothe finally moves on...", you forget to mention that Rothfuss glazes over what could have been the most exciting part of the book; Kvothe's trip from the University to Vintas... what the? How do you skip over an entire journey like that in a 1000 page book in just a couple of sentences? I'm also about 700 pages in still (I bought the day it came out, put it down about 500 pages in realizing it wasn't getting any better, and have now several months later attempted to finish it again). All I can say is that I hope there's a reason for this complete lack development in the story at the end, and that it will be made up for in Day 3.. which I'll only buy after reading several reviews first this time. One last thing! Man Rothfuss' characters are empty! I still think of Tempe as someone with autism. Who the hell substitutes natural body language with some stupid form of hand signals.. yeah thats really believable! Rothfuss I loved you now I hate you!! WHYYY!?
So he pulled a Locke Lamora? Damn.
I felt this same way when I first began reading Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series. I eagerly looked forward to tackling this twenty plus book series. I qaugmired through the first book and dropped the series forever halfway through the second book. (It's only the second or third time I've stopped reading a book in my life.) Stilted language and flat characters. Simply no fun.
I really enjoyed this book. It took me a month to read and i would happily read it again. I don't understand why you think it was so different to The Name of the Wind. I hope one day you'll perhaps see it in a different light. The Name of the Wind hit the public unexpectedly, and for that it was revered as a staggering reinvention of the fantasy genre. Fans have been waiting for The Wise Man's Fear for four years, and possibly that's where the difference is -- what were you expecting? It's a continuation of the story. Sure, it's huge in its proportions -- i mean we spent the first three- or four-hundred pages in the University and that's about how long most novels are. But not fantasy; this genre is the exception. Rothfuss has said that this trilogy is the story of a character, and that he's not writing with strict cohesion to plot. But even with saying that there is a strong plot.
I hope you don’t really resent reading this. When the third one comes out, why don’t you leave it on your shelf until you are in the mood to appreciate it.
I have to say that I had a similar reaction to Name of the Wind. It goes nowhere. Yes, the writing is terrific, and that's what kept me reading. The story, though, is bildungsroman, Harry Potter without the serious threat of the Death Eaters. I don't see it as a re-invention of the fantasy genre, just a really bloated, partial story with an interesting frame, well-written though it is. A novel is more than a progression of sentences. By the time I was half-way through, I was impatient to get on with the story, but that never happened. I doubt that I will be giving later installments the chance to ensnare me.
Post a Comment