disturbed1995be

Patrick Rothfuss tells a good yarn. His writing style clean and engaging, with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor. Phrases like "I thought it best if I refrain from contact with external objects" made me laugh out loud and it meant that, on the whole, this 1000 page brick of a book went by very quickly. This book consists of a main story containing occasional legends and poems, which in turn is surrounded by a wrapper story. I appreciated Rothfuss's ability to switch writing style and voices between each of those stories. I enjoyed the legends and thought that they added to the world, the story, and the themes rather than distracting from them. The other aspect of the book that I particularly enjoyed were the puzzles. There are enough of them and written at enough different levels to keep me entertained and wondering without making me frustrated. One of the fun things about reading a series of books is that it gives readers time to speculate, re-read, and analyze clues. This book makes good use of that opportunity to leave the reader thinking. After finishing it, I spent a highly enjoyable couple of hours rehashing and speculating with a friend and I may even re-read this book in preparation for the next one. I found Rothfuss's world building spotty. I realize he has spent a great deal of time and effort thinking out the details of the world, which is apparent in his descriptions of money and weather. He includes some very intriguing ideas, such as the hand language of the Adem and the rings in Vint. I also thought the Ctheal was a fantastic concept and I look forward to seeing how it is developed. On the other hand, sometimes his cultures come off as one-dimensional, as if each one was built to highlight a specific concept. The most egregious example of this is the Adem, whose primary purpose in the world seemed to be to provide Kvothe with plenty of casual sex and the requisite martial arts training. I also thought the pacing was off in this book. The bandit search, his time with Felurian, and the Adem section were all very slow compared to the rest of the book and _The Name of the Wind_. The length of those sections completely discredites his excuse for not describing any of the trial or shipwreck. I'll accept a snappy book with exciting parts left out or a slow epic with everything included but the combination is frustrating. I realize that this story is framed as an autobiography rather than a novel but Kvothe claims to be a master storyteller and should be more aware of pacing. Finally, I have some issues with the portrayal of women and sex in the novel. Rothfuss creates some strong female characters and I give him full marks for that. Although none of the secondary characters are well fleshed out, the women are fully equal to the men and there are just as many of them. I love Devi and I even like Denna. That said, must every single woman that Kvothe interacts with be gorgeous? Also, I swear, if I see a hip described one more time as "cupable" I don't know what I'll do. This comes to a head with Felurian (Nymph-fae, as she is known to my friend and me) and far too much of the book was taken up with his time with her. One of the most fun aspects of this series is seeing how legends grew up out of more mundane events. However, no story about Kvothe's time with Felurian was exaggerated and I was disappointed by the lack of interesting backstory. After the Felurian bit, the series makes a sudden and disorienting shift to being much more sex-focused. Kvothe, meanwhile, goes from being utterly shy around women to referring to women as musical instruments who just need the right man (him) to play them. Aside from being annoyed by his new found lecherousness, I found it unrealistic that his experience with Felurian (however extensive) would suddenly make him confident, charming, and suave enough around women to explain the amount of sex he has in the remainder of the book. Despite these complaints, it is a completely enjoyable book. I had an excellent time reading it and thinking about it afterward and I eagerly await the next one.

2023-06-29 02:48