The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss

I'm sure you all know of Patrick Rothfuss by now, if not from my rampant fanboyish outbursts then from Logan's similar gushing -- although, to be frank, as much as I like PR, my fannishness is nothing compared to Logan's...

Be that as it may, I shall recap again, in brief, for those that either don't know, or don't recall...

In 2009 I read The Name of the Wind, by P. Rothfuss, which was, by all accounts, the best book I read that year. It had a rather profound impact on me, in ways that I shall avoid elaborating upon here, in the interest of brevity, and in the interest of minimizing the impact such corny reflections will have upon my already-whisper-thin credibility. I loved the book. Let's leave it there.

However, an interesting thing happened when I started recommending it strongly to many in my circle. There was not the flood of similar universal praise I expected, but rather the opinions were decidedly mixed. Some loved it, some did not love it... in fact, some didn't even like it! (I won't name names) It made me wonder if I was crazy. I re-read the book in 2010. I'm not crazy. It's a terrific book. If you didn't like it, you are wrong. :D <---

So I waited patiently for the second book in the Kingkiller Chronicles, The Wise Man's Fear, as PR endlessly revised and edited and polished it -- a wait made tolerable because Pat did a wonderful job of keeping his fans abreast of developments and progress. The result, I had hoped, would be a massive, wonderful book, sure to take it's well-deserved place on my Bookshelf Of Wonder, next to the other (sadly few) epic, 5-star books in my collection.

The story is primarily told from the perspective of the main character, named Kvothe, who is a living legend. He is recounting the tale of his life to a man named Chronicler, who makes it his goal in life to track down stories worthy of remembrance and set them down for all to read. Through a course of events, Kvothe decides the time has come for his story to be told. He is to tell the whole tale over the course of three days. The Name of the Wind was day one, The Wise Man's Fear is day two, and of course, the third volume will be day three, and will bring the tale to the present.

In telling his life story, Kvothe details, in brutal honesty, the real events that transpired that made his life and deeds so legendary. And more often than not, the truth, while fascinating and often worthy of legend, was nowhere near the embellished tales told by the masses. It's almost an exercise in deconstructing a legend, and showing him to be the fellow human that his is. It really is a well-thought-through, terrifically written tale.

However...

I've been trying to think up the best way to convey what I felt as I read the final page of The Wise Man's Fear last night, and it has been difficult. On the one hand, it was everything I'd hoped it would be. On the other hand, it disappointed me, in many ways. Yet I tore through it, with nary a hiccup, and enjoyed the ride thoroughly. Yet the lingering disquiet was pronounced. There were stretches of story that both impressed me to no end, and bored me. Some of the events left me scratching my head, trying to figure out why on earth Rothfuss made the story choices he did, while I simultaneously enjoyed the heck out of them. A lot of it made no sense, while making perfect sense.

Black and white? Nope. Grays everywhere, cover to cover.

I will use specific examples in this paragraph only, so those that have read the book can know better to what I refer. When Kvothe first meets Felurian, I thought it was amazing -- in fact, the first pages of that section rivaled anything written in the first book, as far as the style and polish and the epic writing I enjoyed so deeply. But then it dragged on waaaaay too long. Only to segue into Kvothe accompanying Tempi back into the mountains, to learn from the Ademre, and that section likewise went on waaaaaay too long. Both of those sections could (and should?) have been condensed dramatically, I felt. And yet, I enjoyed reading through both sections. But while I enjoyed it, I couldn't help thinking it would have been better if both of the sections were substantially tighter. And I'm sorry, as much as I thought the heart of the first book was the relationship (odd as it was) between Kvothe and Denna, I felt the way their relationship evolves in this book was disappointing as well. We can chat more about this one-on-one later. Let me wrap up this review before I trip wildly down too many side paths here...

The characters are great, across the board. The writing is well-done, though ultimately serviceable, with only flashes of the amazing style I loved so much in the previous book. The overall story progresses well. But dangit, it rambles and plods along, tearing me in two... again, for while I enjoyed reading it, I found myself longing for the story to pick up pace and start galloping again. I admire the depth to which Rothfuss went to develop the Ademre culture, but I think it was to the detriment of the story and pacing. The same might be said for the fae, to some extent, as well as the lengthy search for the bandits in the old forest (though the payoff of that trek was well worth it).

So, how do I summarize a book which I loved, but cannot urge people to drop everything and read? I can safely say that if The Name of the Wind did little for you, then The Wise Man's Fear will do as little or less. The book is gigantic in size, with great characters, and wonderful storyline, fun/funny dialog, yet suffers from often glacial pacing and eyebrow-arching storyline choices. It was simultaneously very satisfying to read, and disappointing. I want to rate it 5 stars and 3 stars at the same time.

Summary: 4/5 Loved it, in spite of rather pronounced flaws. It may be that I need to read it again in order to come to a more black and white resolution. Until that time, 4 out of 5 for a great time. I guess that's what it boils down to... did I enjoy the experience? Ultimately, very very much so.