Reviews

A Música do Silêncio by Patrick Rothfuss

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sammy_stenger's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

socialamoebaemily's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I really loved this story! It is very different and the title says it well. There's not really much plot other than daily routine that's a bit ... odd and one character, two if you count her firefly who does not speak or really do anything but you still somehow come to love. It's hard to describe but in a story where nothing happens and nothing is going to happen you somehow get to know this girl so deeply and feel so much for inanimate objects that it's just beautiful.

And the writing!! Get the audiobook or read this aloud to get the cadence correct because it really is poetry and flows and is magical just like Ari. I don't think you really even need to read the Kingkiller Chronicles to enjoy this novella. This story is so different from most anything else I've read and I truly love it!!

A nice let down after being upset about book 3, but we're not going to talk a out that. GO READ THIS ONE NOW!!

fallenquills's review against another edition

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3.0

'you might not want to buy this book'

deluciate's review against another edition

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5.0

I read this on the train in one sweet hour contemplating the unfamiliar. As the author's note says, this book is strange, but I'm one of the people it works for.

timinbc's review against another edition

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2.0

One of the stars is because Auri was an interesting character in the other books.

One is for the sometimes-elegant prose, even including a couple of unusual words and a few that were spinoffs from real words.

I don't have a problem with the existence of the book. It's not a standalone. It's an amuse-bouche, something given to us because the main course is going to be late. It's an interesting exercise, really.

I am not going to say Auri is mentally ill as so many others have. I'd say that if she was a normal human once she is far from it now, like the character in Richard Thompson's song "Beeswing," not so much mentally ill as just operating in a different version of the world. She may have shifted most of the way into Faerie, and perhaps should be considered as such.

But I can't improve on Dan 2.0's "an OCD girl mired in Feng Shui issues."

As Auri moved from room to room to room to room, I was constantly thinking, "You have entered the Bedquilt room. Passages from here go north and east, and a staircase leads down" or "A hollow voice says 'Plugh' " or "drop birdcage. pick up key. go east. open door with key. drop key. go west. take birdcage ..."

We're told several times about a bashful door, but nothing comes of it. We're told maybe ten times that the butter has knives in it, but that's never explained and she never gets rid of the butter. Patrick: go look up Chekhov and gun.

Dozens of beta readers? And not one of them has the faintest idea how to use lay/lie/laid/lain? When you use a word as often as Rothfuss has here, you ought to know how to use it. I didn't keep track, but it is possible that he got it wrong every single time.

The interesting takeway here for the third book, if it is ever released, if it actually exists, is this: (1) Auri is as crazy as John Belushi on crack & meth (2) She is capable of channeling great power at times, and (3) she clearly see things that Need To Be Done, things that to us would be in the "she did WHAT?" category. Rothfuss has given himself an out from any plot problems that may arise. He can use Auri to kill a king, to transmogrify a person, probably to blow up a castle or absorb a huge explosion or teleport or suck the power out of a magic sword. Prediction: she WILL be a big, big deal in volume 3, and when it happens most of us will go, "Really? Seriously? We waited years for this?" And yes, I did see the hint that she's a Namer.

I got this from the library, and as such it was worth the time it took to read. Glad I didn't pay for it, though. I prefer to use my money on things I'll read again, like Neil Gaiman.