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vivizinha's review against another edition
5.0
God what was this book! I love it more than the first one, and the characters are so amazing and captivating (love Kvothe), and I'm so curios to see what's gonna happen within the story and in the present time. Hoppefully Kvothe can make it till the end...
the_sunken_library's review against another edition
4.0
I really like this series. Honestly. I thinks it's different, well rounded, has excellent world building and Kvothe, the main character, is an arrogant, self embellishing egomaniac which is great, better than most self depreciating heroes who bore me tears. The only reason it didn't get 5 stars was 200 pages of him ploughing a fairy. Leave out the sex and give me more fighting. Apart from that great and ended on a irritatingly good cliff hanger.
thechadow's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
4.5
Another 5 star book, but 4.5 stars for not even attempting to have an ending.
deluciate's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely love this series. I enjoy the poetic style of the writing, including the wordplay and the connections Rothfuss draws between magic, music, and love. Read this in two long sittings across a 36-hour period, and didn't want to put it down. Can't wait for the third book.
tigerkul's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
donkshan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jacobthesloth's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
timinbc's review against another edition
3.0
I have almost 1500 SF/F books in my database, and I've probably read 500 more that I forgot to list. I have never read a book that was simultaneously so bad and so good. I suspect that as time passes I will like it less. You know when you go to the local Enormous Portions restaurant and go with the meat in the rich gravy with the fries and onion rings, and the mud pie for dessert, and a couple of drinks, and you enjoy it all. Until near the end of the meal, when you don't feel so good; then you can't sleep because your stomach hurts; then it gets worse? Like that.
It's a page turner. Interesting characters do interesting things. You want to know what happens next, so you don't stop to reflect.
I never did like Denna. I'll give Rothfuss credit for being brave in showing us a probable reason for her approach to life, but it's dangerous ground. Or perhaps the author just heard Richard Thompson's song "Beeswing," which describes Denna perfectly. With or without that reason, by the end of the book I just wanted to stuff Denna into a wood-chipper, then put the chips in a blender, then put the result into a strong acid, then go an invent a time machine and go back to a time when I had ever heard of Denna and stop the early me from reading about her.
[ spoilers after this ]
The first several hundred pages were a boring rehash. Never mind that.
I first became uneasy when Kvothe went out after the bandits. They're looking for bandits. They see a band of men. Without further discussion, they slaughter them all. Step 1 of "some people need killing," a theme we'll hear again.
Then I noticed that perhaps 0.05 percent of all the people in Kvothe's world ever notice that he's in his mid-teens.
Then the author tells us that 16-year-old Kvothe knows ten thousand songs and stories. Sure. We are told that this is possible because he and ALL his clan can always remember a song perfectly after hearing it once. We are reminded that he is the best lutenist in the world, at 16, and he even says that he is. Sure.
I give Rothfuss full credit for finally telling us that there are some things Kvothe is not good at. Then he spoils it by suggesting that it's only because they don't interest him. There's no doubt that he could become the world's best in an hour if he wanted to.
Then, after all that, he makes very slow progress in the Adem way.
I like the way Rothfuss leads us into thinking Kvothe is learning something from the Adem. Then he leaves them, and within a very short time he's slaughtering another dozen baddies. This time the "some people need killing" is actually spoken right out.
He also crosses the continent, often on foot, carrying a heavy box full of money that never seems to get in the way or slow him down. The antigravity properties of his new cloak were never mentioned but they must be there.
Ah, the cloak. Made by Felurian. Jesus on a tricycle, can this book really have had an editor? I can't imagine that a professional editor would leave this Felurian part in the book at all, let alone at the length it is. It's time he got laid? You can do that in two pages. He needs a magic cloak? Same thing. But no, he has to outwit a millennia-old fairy while demonstrating that despite zero experience he is already the best cocksman in history. Puh-leeze.
As other have mentioned, there are a lot of cardboard characters. But the Maer is very good. Kilvin, Hespe and some of the Adem are good. Elodin and Bast we can't decide about, but they are interesting. Auri's too weird, and seems tacked on, but no doubt she'll be important later. The Adem culture was a good piece of worldbuilding; the Severen culture OK but not great.
In the end, this is just another "ridiculously talented kid from the poor side of town overcomes all obstacles, reluctantly shoulders burden of being the guy who judges everyone and slaughters many of them while women swoon at his feet." For that, I'd rather read about Drizzt the Dark Elf.
And I admit that Rothfuss has left us some broad hints that Kvothe has a lot of growing up to do. That might fix some of the above.
But for something like this only better, I'd go to Lois McMaster Bujold's "Chalion" series.
Fairness: This is a genre people like, and within that genre it is an excellent book. I just don't care for the genre any more, and it's probably because I am old and have read a lot of them.
In2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 or so, Rothfuss is going to write a REALLY GREAT book for grownups.
LATER ADDITION: I admit that it is also possible that Rothfuss is going to stun us in book 3 with some plot developments that make everything fall into place as the characters mature, and we realize that the trilogy is some form of "with great power comes great responsibility" lesson.
It's a page turner. Interesting characters do interesting things. You want to know what happens next, so you don't stop to reflect.
I never did like Denna. I'll give Rothfuss credit for being brave in showing us a probable reason for her approach to life, but it's dangerous ground. Or perhaps the author just heard Richard Thompson's song "Beeswing," which describes Denna perfectly. With or without that reason, by the end of the book I just wanted to stuff Denna into a wood-chipper, then put the chips in a blender, then put the result into a strong acid, then go an invent a time machine and go back to a time when I had ever heard of Denna and stop the early me from reading about her.
[ spoilers after this ]
The first several hundred pages were a boring rehash. Never mind that.
I first became uneasy when Kvothe went out after the bandits. They're looking for bandits. They see a band of men. Without further discussion, they slaughter them all. Step 1 of "some people need killing," a theme we'll hear again.
Then I noticed that perhaps 0.05 percent of all the people in Kvothe's world ever notice that he's in his mid-teens.
Then the author tells us that 16-year-old Kvothe knows ten thousand songs and stories. Sure. We are told that this is possible because he and ALL his clan can always remember a song perfectly after hearing it once. We are reminded that he is the best lutenist in the world, at 16, and he even says that he is. Sure.
I give Rothfuss full credit for finally telling us that there are some things Kvothe is not good at. Then he spoils it by suggesting that it's only because they don't interest him. There's no doubt that he could become the world's best in an hour if he wanted to.
Then, after all that, he makes very slow progress in the Adem way.
I like the way Rothfuss leads us into thinking Kvothe is learning something from the Adem. Then he leaves them, and within a very short time he's slaughtering another dozen baddies. This time the "some people need killing" is actually spoken right out.
He also crosses the continent, often on foot, carrying a heavy box full of money that never seems to get in the way or slow him down. The antigravity properties of his new cloak were never mentioned but they must be there.
Ah, the cloak. Made by Felurian. Jesus on a tricycle, can this book really have had an editor? I can't imagine that a professional editor would leave this Felurian part in the book at all, let alone at the length it is. It's time he got laid? You can do that in two pages. He needs a magic cloak? Same thing. But no, he has to outwit a millennia-old fairy while demonstrating that despite zero experience he is already the best cocksman in history. Puh-leeze.
As other have mentioned, there are a lot of cardboard characters. But the Maer is very good. Kilvin, Hespe and some of the Adem are good. Elodin and Bast we can't decide about, but they are interesting. Auri's too weird, and seems tacked on, but no doubt she'll be important later. The Adem culture was a good piece of worldbuilding; the Severen culture OK but not great.
In the end, this is just another "ridiculously talented kid from the poor side of town overcomes all obstacles, reluctantly shoulders burden of being the guy who judges everyone and slaughters many of them while women swoon at his feet." For that, I'd rather read about Drizzt the Dark Elf.
And I admit that Rothfuss has left us some broad hints that Kvothe has a lot of growing up to do. That might fix some of the above.
But for something like this only better, I'd go to Lois McMaster Bujold's "Chalion" series.
Fairness: This is a genre people like, and within that genre it is an excellent book. I just don't care for the genre any more, and it's probably because I am old and have read a lot of them.
In
LATER ADDITION: I admit that it is also possible that Rothfuss is going to stun us in book 3 with some plot developments that make everything fall into place as the characters mature, and we realize that the trilogy is some form of "with great power comes great responsibility" lesson.
river_cooke's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The more I read this, the more I got a sinking feeling in my stomach that seemed to insist, in spite of its reputation and in spite of how much I enjoyed book 1 of the KKC, that I didn’t care for this book.
Which isn’t to say it’s badly written; a lot of the prose and the good ideas and mood (there’s a particular anxiety that underpins a lot of both books that surrounds poverty and is very well executed) remains a strength. Side characters such as Tempi are fun to travel along with, and cultural ideas like the Lethani and different areas of social ritual are fun to read about.
However. I did not feel like this book covered anything like the scope of plot that the first one did. This isn’t a criticism as such, I don’t mind a slow, focused character study, but in the context of the first book where we hear that this is the second of three nights across which we hear Kvothe’s entire life story, this feels an odd sequence of events to give so much time to.
There are several causes of this. Firstly, while the whole book is well written, and much of it introduces new ideas in the margins, the plot of the first third feels very much like a retread. We’ve done “Kvothe at college”, and seeing him spend a third of his second day doing largely the same stuff as in book 1 (getting in fights with Ambrose, being embarrassing around Denna) feels redundant. It just feels like we’re waiting for the next chapter of his life to begin.
It’s good, I feel at pains to stress it’s good, but it just feels, in combination with the abbreviated temporal scope, incredibly aimless.
Aimless is a very good word in fact for the next two parts as while there remains an overarching goal of uncovering the Chandrian, it is not focused on that heavily or advanced that greatly. Instead, Kvothe goes and enters the service of a faraway maer where he goes to sort a bandit problem. The plot (like NOTW) feels very “and then this and then this and then…”, however unlike before, where 1) it took place over many years, and biographical stories tend towards that structure and 2) long biographical stories tend to end up with the character in a very different place to where they started, this story takes a year and a half, and ends up with Kvothe right back where he started.
Even divorced from the context of this book as part of a trilogy telling his life story, I don’t feel like there is a grand plot which is set up and resolved in this book, narratively or character wise. Kvothe grows more powerful, and more sexually mature, but his flaws that causes his issues at the start of the book (too prone to a smart mouth, arrogant) are shown to still be governing his actions. It just doesn’t feel that much more meaningful than a gap year. There are individual accomplishments that are very great and worthy of note in Kvothe’s life story, but on the whole I struggle to look at this and care on the whole about “Kvothe’s gap year”.
Which is a shame, especially with how much I wanted to like this book. Still, I’m glad I read it, it had a lot of individual fun/interesting ideas, but not as good as its predecessor.
Which isn’t to say it’s badly written; a lot of the prose and the good ideas and mood (there’s a particular anxiety that underpins a lot of both books that surrounds poverty and is very well executed) remains a strength. Side characters such as Tempi are fun to travel along with, and cultural ideas like the Lethani and different areas of social ritual are fun to read about.
However. I did not feel like this book covered anything like the scope of plot that the first one did. This isn’t a criticism as such, I don’t mind a slow, focused character study, but in the context of the first book where we hear that this is the second of three nights across which we hear Kvothe’s entire life story, this feels an odd sequence of events to give so much time to.
There are several causes of this. Firstly, while the whole book is well written, and much of it introduces new ideas in the margins, the plot of the first third feels very much like a retread. We’ve done “Kvothe at college”, and seeing him spend a third of his second day doing largely the same stuff as in book 1 (getting in fights with Ambrose, being embarrassing around Denna) feels redundant. It just feels like we’re waiting for the next chapter of his life to begin.
It’s good, I feel at pains to stress it’s good, but it just feels, in combination with the abbreviated temporal scope, incredibly aimless.
Aimless is a very good word in fact for the next two parts as while there remains an overarching goal of uncovering the Chandrian, it is not focused on that heavily or advanced that greatly. Instead, Kvothe goes and enters the service of a faraway maer where he goes to sort a bandit problem. The plot (like NOTW) feels very “and then this and then this and then…”, however unlike before, where 1) it took place over many years, and biographical stories tend towards that structure and 2) long biographical stories tend to end up with the character in a very different place to where they started, this story takes a year and a half, and ends up with Kvothe right back where he started.
Even divorced from the context of this book as part of a trilogy telling his life story, I don’t feel like there is a grand plot which is set up and resolved in this book, narratively or character wise. Kvothe grows more powerful, and more sexually mature, but his flaws that causes his issues at the start of the book (too prone to a smart mouth, arrogant) are shown to still be governing his actions. It just doesn’t feel that much more meaningful than a gap year. There are individual accomplishments that are very great and worthy of note in Kvothe’s life story, but on the whole I struggle to look at this and care on the whole about “Kvothe’s gap year”.
Which is a shame, especially with how much I wanted to like this book. Still, I’m glad I read it, it had a lot of individual fun/interesting ideas, but not as good as its predecessor.