Is it as good as people say it is? Is it comparable other modern classics (Harry Potter, ASOIAF, etc)?

Is it as good as people say it is? Is it comparable other modern classics (Harry Potter, ASOIAF, etc)?

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>s it as good as people say it is?

I may have been here too long, but all I've heard is that it is rambling genre fiction with huge tracts where the story doesnt move forward, and a main character that is not likeable, and is in fact a mary sue.

it's awful

no, even harry potter kicks the shit out of it

at least harry potter doesnt have much purple prose. harry potter had a functioning plot in which things happened, too

>I may have been here too long, but all I've heard is that it is rambling genre fiction with huge tracts where the story doesnt move forward, and a main character that is not likeable, and is in fact a mary sue.
This. If it weren't genre fiction, Veeky Forums would adore it.

All I know about it is what the other user said about a Mary Sue main character
If you want a book with such self-centered wankery that the protagonist loses his virginity to a literal magical sex goddess, then she falls in love with him because this virgin was so good at sex, then sure

More forgettable than Harry Potter. I'll admit I enjoyed the stuff pre-Kvothe entering the university but the amount of time he spends whining about Denna really killed it for me and it didn't help she was boring as fuck too.

I liked the first one quite a lot. The second one started becoming really absurd in a lot of ways. I imagine it just going all downhill from there.

If you're itching to read some fiction and cant' find anything else, go for it.

....

>mfw bought it because my friend recommended it and haven't yet started

say something good please

I hated every second of reading it, its not bad, but isnt good, and it feels like its lacking something

I read about 50 pages and absolutely hated the main character. He just seems like such a self absorbed faggot

Rothfuss' books are okay. They definitely don't need to be over a thousand pages long.

I think a fun way to read through the series is constantly question if Kvothe is telling the truth or lying.

The world building is really good regardless and is the strongest part of the book.

I'd say it has far to much of something, it has entire chapters that are completely unrelated to the overarching plot just injected at near random into the book.

>The world building is really good regardless and is the strongest part of the book.

Please explain. I came to comment on how weak the worldbuilding is. It's as though it is intentionally vague and sparse to the point of frustration.

I had many friends who recommended the book and I eventually decided to read it. I mostly liked the main character(He does have a huge ego so if that bothers you, you'll probably hate the book) and pounded out the books in a couple days(I was travelling and had a lot of time to read).

The world is interesting, and it is refreshing to see how this extremely powerful fantasy protagonist comes into the fold from a twice told tale mechanism, and the books will most likely leave you wanting more.

It's young adult fiction. Pick your poison, I like it more than most other young adult series, though it does ramble off and I find it hard that the author will make the third book accomplish everything he sought out to do beginning with the first. I would rate it above Harry Potter and the last 3-4 books of ASOFAI, though probably below the first 2-3.

The magic system is pretty sweet.

I read it when I was younger and this is very true.

Does anyone have scathing reviews of this book? Particularly ones that are humorous, dismissive, derisive?

Didn't this guy write a review on goodreads of his own book? That would seem to explain this

Sign me up.

I read roughly half of this book. Threads, comments and reviews usually mention that Kvothe is unlikable and unreasonably good at everything he does. I also wasn't wowed by the fairly generic fantasy setting.

I don't think it's terrible, it's just too long to justify reading something that isn't very good.

you're correct

it's clearly in the "making this shit up as i go along" camp. theres a good idea here and there but it definitely doesn't feel like a world with real depth.

just look at the map for goodness sake. wew.

i dropped it midway through and will never go back to it. there's actually good fantasy to read instead.

yeah, google "ronan wills name of the wind" and later "ronan wills wise mans fear"

they're very lengthy, very in-depth and fairly funny. gives you a FANTASTIC illustration of the pitfalls of genre authors. you'll learn a lot. lots of fun to read.

caution: he/she has some obvious feminist sensibilities. they come up every now and then. 2/3 of that stuff is deft analysis and 1/3 of it made me roll my eyes. didnt take away from his/her reviews being overall fantastic tho.

also, reddit is asshurt about those reviews and hates them (literally) so theres that. r e d d i t .com/r/KingkillerChronicle/comments/2gkgdn/are_these_books_bad/

also google "ferretbrain wise mans fear". another fantastic one. much shorter, but still pretty long.

its mediocre . world building is kinda ok but pretty cliche too .

the next book will have the unreliable narrator twist go into full force so maybe it turns itself around.


still a stupid meme . ohh boy all my hate for kvothe as mary sue was wrong he is complex hur dur

oh, to be clear, about the ronan wills stuff, i am talking about his/her "let's read", not the review. the let's read is done tackling several chapters at a time, starting at chapter 1. so look for that. read the actual review after the let's read.

It has moments, but overall it's pretty shit.
Rothfuss has some skill in writing, for sure. But his taste is just terrible.
The things he values in a character suck. The characters themselves are all shit people too.

>ohh boy all my hate for kvothe as mary sue was wrong he is complex hur dur

this. everyone always says "its shit but oh if it turns out kvothe was lying the whole time it will be BRILLIANT"

no it fuggin wont. there's nothing interesting to even lie about.

"none of it happened, wasted two books telling you about me imaginarily piddlefarting around, heeheehee i lied im actually pathetic EPIC RIGHT?! XD"

meh. might as well just link it

ronanwills.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/lets-read-the-name-of-the-wind-ch-1/

I really do hate the term "world building."

I liked it. I mean, the plot sometimes refuses to go anywhere but it isn't the plot that I enjoyed. For me The Name of the Wind is trying to pull some kind of demythologization of the fantasy genre cliches. For example:

(I don't think you care about it, but SPOILERS AHEAD)

Magic, which is feared by everyone who doesn't know how it works, is actually more like a science. And this is shown when Simon uses his alchemy to make something which goes in combustion when touched by water (which is impossible via chemistry) and Kvothe says: "I don't know anything about alchemy"

You have the Adem too, referencing all the mysticism around oriental martial arts, the ki, etc.

The dragon, who turns out to be just an herbivore giant lizard.

The main girl, who should be a lady at the same level of the main character (which is the image Kvothe has of her), is hinted to be a prostitute.

The Big Library of Magic archetype is always thought of as somewhere where everything is in order. Opposed to that, the Archive is chaotic, with different ordering systems scattered all over the place.

Of course there are points where it's just plain stupid: "Ye, there is this super sex goddess which I fucked for I don't know how much time.", "I'm so good at everything that I learned a language in 2 days", etc. But they don't ruin the parts that I enjoyed, so I guess I'm okay with Kvothe being a Mary Sue as long the demythologization doesn't stop happening.

>each more equally stupid then the last
What did he mean by this?

>You have the Adem too, referencing all the mysticism around oriental martial arts, the ki, etc.

referencing, but doing nothing with it.

>The dragon, who turns out to be just an herbivore giant lizard.

which had nothing to do with the plot or "plot". "but MY dragon does THIS" is a cliche.

>The main girl, who should be a lady at the same level of the main character (which is the image Kvothe has of her), is hinted to be a prostitute.

denna has no character. or rather, she steadily loses whatever character she had at her introduction throughout the books.

>The Big Library of Magic archetype is always thought of as somewhere where everything is in order. Opposed to that, the Archive is chaotic, with different ordering systems scattered all over the place.

rothfuss constantly harps about this over the books because he wants to whine about people editing his wikipedia articles.

>Six’String

I don't get what your trying to say because your examples are well trodden ground in fantasy, in fucking fact

>Magic, which is feared by everyone who doesn't know how it works, is actually more like a science
>the Archive is chaotic, with different ordering systems scattered all over the place.

Are way more common than the shit they're supposed to be parodying.

I remember reading a review that was pretty on the nose. It went something like: Rothfuss's writing is like candy. It tastes nice but has no substance

Hell, even Grossman does a better job with
>Magic... is actually more like a science
than Rothfuss does.

>Mfw I bought it too out of a recommendation
>Read 200 pages
>Then threw it in the trashbin

I normally bring books I dont like to the local library, but I don't want anyone to read this shit.

Cheers.

Objective trash and Rothfuss is a cuck.

>None were good enough for her, so I held them in contempt and hated them. They in turn hated and feared me.

>But we were pleasant to each other. Always pleasant. It was a game of sorts. He would invite me to sit, and I would buy him a drink. The three of us would talk, and his eyes would slowly grow dark as he watched her smile toward me. His mouth would narrow as he listened to the laughter that leapt from her as I joked, spun stories, sang...

>They would always react the same way, trying to prove ownership of her in small ways. Holding her hand, a kiss, a too-casual touch along her shoulder.

>They clung to her with desperate determination. Some of them merely resented my presence, saw me as a rival. But others had a frightened knowledge buried deep behind their eyes from the beginning. They knew she was leaving, and they didn't know why. So they clutched at her like shipwrecked sailors, clinging to the rocks despite the fact that they are being battered to death against them. I almost felt sorry for them. Almost.

>So they hated me, and it shone in their eyes when Denna wasn't looking. I would offer to buy another round of drinks, but he would insist, and I would graciously accept, and thank him, and smile.

>I have known her longer, my smile said. True, you have been inside the circle of her arms, tasted her mouth, felt the warmth of her, and that is something I have never had. But there is a part of her that is only for me. You cannot touch it, no matter how hard you might try. And after she has left you I will still be here, making her laugh. My light shining in her. I will still be here long after she has forgotten your name.

Keep this shit in the /sffg/ containment thread where it belongs.

equally stupid but added imcrementally, thus the "more"

This reads like a women wrote it

I've followed along for 26 chapters. This seems kind of like Book of the New Sun only amateurish and shit in every single way.

It's actually a fun book. But it's not good. Not in the way anyone here wants it to be, at least.

it only gets worse

>rambling genre fiction with huge tracts where the story doesnt move forward, and a main character that is not likeable, and is in fact a mary sue.
Just finished it this morning. And yes. Yes the main character is one of the biggest Mary Sues I've ever seen.

Also just fucking annoying writing in it's own right:

>If you've never been X, then you can't possibly understand what it's like [goes on to try describe what it's like]
Fucking tell me Patrick, do YOU know what it's like to be desperately poor? do YOU know what it's like to have a musician's bond with his instrument? Do YOU know what it's like to walk into a really dark tunnel? Shut the fuck up you cunt.

>They said EASILY
(I swear to god somebody does something EASILY about five times a chapter)

I hated this part too, our infallible Mary Sue protagonist is also a fucking beta orbiter!

I want to complain that non of the female characters are actual characters and that they just exist as cardboard cut outs to serve the main character's ego, but I'm starting to think that description fits every goddamn character.

Underrated

>beta orbiter

wtf? kvothe is a fucking hero! sure, he's never stuck it in denna, and other guys have jizzed up inside her, taken her in every hole she has, choked her out and thrown her around, but kvothe's light "shines" in her, dude. he's winning a moral victory.

JUST

The Felurian sex crap was pretty much the nadir of the while series. Rothfuss is half assedly trying to subvert cliches by having Kvothe's legends be misrepresentations or falsely aggrandized by Kvothe himself, while many of his actual accomplishments are unrecognized.

For the Felurian part to actually work he would have had to not fuck her. Have him do his urchin rape murder flashback earlier, and then befriend her without the sex. That would make the "spent the night with Felurian" legend actually have a purpose in the broader novel other than oh look he's the best at sex.

I don't believe that's how it really went down in the book. I would totally read it if it did, that sounds hilarious

>He would invite me to sit
>I would buy him a drink

huh

What's a better one? Imagination?

not a huge fan.

it's genre fiction that thinks it's better because it calls out how gf books are filled with tropes and stereotypes, despite the fact that it is full of repeated memes and ideas itself.

MC is borderline Mary sue. he is rarely challenged by something he can't overcome almost immediately, and outclassed his peers and enemies for no other reason than "I want to study harder, and am poor. while they learn slower because they're rich and lazy."

he also has a habit I just have a personal issue with, and that's bullying others who are dinner and weaker than him to get what he wants. personally, I don't like that.

the main love interest, and any aspect of sex and romance, are the worst parts that just destroy the story. there's the aforementioned "sec goddess" ludicrosy. but then there's also Denna, who is shit.

rothfuss could do something good with her if he had it backfire on qwvothe for putting her pussy on a pedestal, despite her being a whore that's taking advantage of his puppy love, but rothfuss genuinely thinks he's written a superior female character because she isn't a damsel in distress. he calls her critics indoctrinated by social standards and shit like that. he suffers from the regressive delusion that traditional feminine characters or a lack of any female presence is some hhow indicative of sexism.

5/10 not the worst ya book I've read.

*dumber and weaker than him.
sorry, on phone.

that's actually exactly how it goes down in the book

There's at least one site that names it the best fantasy series of all time.

I found it to be an unpleasant, chore of a read. As many people have said, the main character is simply terrible. Most of the book's defenders like to point out that it is told not just from his perspective, but BY him (he's telling his own story to a chronicler), so his Mary Sue tendencies and such are just the result of an unreliable narrator.
While this is true, I fail to see how this makes the book better. It doesn't stop Kvothe from being an unlikable cunt, or the story from being a boring slog. And it only gets worse when he arrives at NOT-Hogwarts.

Having an excuse for bad writing doesn't make the bad writing good.

It goes on for a good 50 pages or so too

i loved the world rothfuss created, he's a great imagination and world builder that's for sure but the criticism of Kvothe being a Mary Sue is the main problem. he is like John Galt or Howard Roark, an Nietschean archetype, he has no internal struggle, he is already fully realized, fully perfect, from birth. it would be nice to see some self development, some more nuance than perfect poor orphan vs rich lazy brats and pure evil. I found it super entertaining nonetheless and enjoyed it very much still. i think books like these are much easier to enjoy like that when you are younger. when you are older reading about a perfect teenager is only infuriating.