[Jahdu]

I love his writing, his use of language and his depiction of characters but...

I can't stand his mode of story telling. I bought TNotW and it took me months to read it.
I found it a struggle and a chore to finish but finish it I did.
I bought The Wise Mans Fear well over a year ago and I'm not even half way into it.

Like I said, I love his writing, it's beautiful. Auri as a character is just great, she
steals every scene she is in but I just feel like all I've read is hundreds of pages
of the state of Kvothes purse.

I've recently read The Vagrant by Peter Newman... The writing style seems simplistic in
comparison to Rothfuss but the story telling is far greater.

What I'm trying to say in a very ineloquent manner is I want to love Rothfuss but I just can't

[polishgenius]

You should read the Auri novella.


Anyway, Rothfuss splits opinion. I like him a lot. The second book in particular has its flaws and sex ninjas, but I'm still looking forward a lot to the third.

[End of Disc One]

inb4dragoncow

[Andorion]

Its been some time since I read Rothfuss

If I remember correctly, I liked his first book a lot and the second book was a bit mediocre

I really liked his prose and the bits that take place in the present day were my favourite

I also liked the magic system

The second book had this strange interlude with an elf analogue that confused me

[Binder of Demons]

It comes down to personal taste I guess? I have read both books, and enjoyed them both. I don't remember having any issue with the 'mode of storytelling' as you put it, but that doesn't mean you (or I) are necessarily wrong. I know that the infamous 'dragoncow' put a lot of people off, whereas it didn't really bother me one way or the other. Overall, I found the writing style to be enjoyable (and easy to read) and even though much of the story can seem formulaic (poor outsider, off to wizard school, adventures ensue), there is enough mystery there to keep me interested. But I am generally a very fast reader, and so I can barrel through most books in a few days regardless of their quality, just to see how it ends.

There are plenty of other books which have angered me beyond all reason, be that from shitty prose, or terrible storytelling. But more often than not, it will come down to personal preference. Just take this forum for instance. Since we are all here, it can be assumed that we are fans of Steven Erikson's work. And yet you will see the full range of opinions regarding the quality of his work throughout the series. Some have even stated that they couldn't finish the series as they didn't like the direction of the latter books. Whereas others will hold that the latter books are among their favourites. Plenty of people (usually outside of this forum) have complained the Gardens of the Moon was too confusing, and they couldn't finish it, and yet many others, enjoyed that chaos and lack of spoonfeedign the reader. Who is right?

I must say I liked Rothfuss' work, but i wish he was able to produce them at a faster pace.

[Nevyn]

Yeah, you would probably appreciate the Slow Regard of Silent Things the best. While it is a very non traditional story, it is closer to a traditional writing style.

I found Rothfuss slow going at first, but once I got into the stories I really appreciated it.

To me, Name of the Wind kind of presumed your interest early on instead of really grabbing it. But once I got past that I loved everything, other than his slow schedule for publishing, and the fact that I did not know I was reading a trilogy until partway through the first book.

[End of Disc One]

To me, "presumed interest" is a good way to put it. When Kvothe is telling his story, he assumes that the audience cares about every little detail, such as how much money he has and why he makes his poor decisions. I personally did not care.

[Jahdu]

It's the pace that kills me... Like I said I bought Wise Mans Fear over a year ago and I'm not even half way through it.
Some books by "lesser" authors grip me and won't let go but Rothfuss I can pick up, read a couple of pages and leave
for a week or 2.

And quite honestly with the pace of the storytelling I doubt he'll be able to tie it all up in a trilogy.

Will definitely read the Auri novella... He does write her beautifully

[Esa1996]

I've read the series and liked it, but I do think that it is not as good as people make it out to be. Regardless, I actually read the series at a really fast pace (100 pages a day on average, only second to Wheel of Time's 185 and The Stormlight Archives' 154 pages a day). I didn't read it for the plot as I find it to be pretty bland, but Kvothe is a really interesting character, so much so in fact that even when he did what could be summed up as "doing nothing", I didn't get bored. Few writers have managed to do the same for me. Were Kvothe replaced with almost any character from any series I don't think I would've bothered reading past the first book. Each writer has strengths and weaknesses. Rothfuss is very good with characters and prose, but lacks in terms of plot and worldbuilding (At least when compared to most of what I've been reading during the last three years). Different people value different things in books. For example, a friend of mine was unable to finish Malazan due to the "weak characterization" (I wouldn't call it weak exactly, but I do see where he is coming from as it caused me some problems too), gave up The Kingkiller Chronicles due to the weak plot, and The Second Apocalypse for a mixture of the two. Personally I've read all three series, and while I do acknowledge their flaws, I still enjoyed all three.

This post has been edited by Esa1996: 28 January 2016 - 07:02 PM

[QuickTidal]

Obligatory Dragon Cow.

 luring-the-draccus.png (127.89K)
Number of downloads: 11

[Illuyankas]

I liked the transition from book 1's 'did things that weren't nearly as cool as but were distorted into the legends told about me' to book 2's 'actually I am that unironically amazing and great, and no this isn't an unreliable narrator'

And the bit in book 2 where he described a fight with pirates as 'oh this was an interesting interlude we're totally going to skip over' and then included more talking about being in debt, everyone's favourite part of book 1

Oh, and especially the bit where the sixteen year old virgin boy was so awesome and good at sex that the actual fey goddess of sex could not believe he was a virgin, that was good and not awful

[QuickTidal]

....AND the fey goddess sex portion of the book was not too long at all. Not even by a longsh....snnnzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Nevyn]

Illuyankas, on 28 January 2016 - 08:05 PM, said:

Oh, and especially the bit where the sixteen year old virgin boy was so awesome and good at sex that the actual fey goddess of sex could not believe he was a virgin, that was good and not awful

Yeah, because no woman has ever fed a guy a line of complete BS about how well he was doing.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Illuyankas, on 28 January 2016 - 08:05 PM, said:

I liked the transition from book 1's 'did things that weren't nearly as cool as but were distorted into the legends told about me' to book 2's 'actually I am that unironically amazing and great, and no this isn't an unreliable narrator'

And the bit in book 2 where he described a fight with pirates as 'oh this was an interesting interlude we're totally going to skip over' and then included more talking about being in debt, everyone's favourite part of book 1

Oh, and especially the bit where the sixteen year old virgin boy was so awesome and good at sex that the actual fey goddess of sex could not believe he was a virgin, that was good and not awful

This! All of this! Illy for president!

Liked book one, book two was partially good and partially tedious (sex ninja being the most tedious part) but even so, I'm looking forward cautiously to book three whenever it emerges.

[QuickTidal]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 28 January 2016 - 08:50 PM, said:

Illuyankas, on 28 January 2016 - 08:05 PM, said:

I liked the transition from book 1's 'did things that weren't nearly as cool as but were distorted into the legends told about me' to book 2's 'actually I am that unironically amazing and great, and no this isn't an unreliable narrator'

And the bit in book 2 where he described a fight with pirates as 'oh this was an interesting interlude we're totally going to skip over' and then included more talking about being in debt, everyone's favourite part of book 1

Oh, and especially the bit where the sixteen year old virgin boy was so awesome and good at sex that the actual fey goddess of sex could not believe he was a virgin, that was good and not awful

This! All of this! Illy for president!

Liked book one, book two was partially good and partially tedious (sex ninja being the most tedious part) but even so, I'm looking forward cautiously to book three whenever it emerges.

Indeed. Also, I WOULD wait for the paperback of book 3...but I have the 1st and 2nd in hardcover and my shelves would look weird. Curse you Rothfuss!

[Ribald]

I picked up the first Rothfuss book because of the huge amount of hype about it back when it came out...
And while I loved the language he used to tell the story, and I enjoyed the world he had created, I was distinctly underwhelmed by the actual story.

I thought his written prose was fantastic and it was very easy to read because it was so well crafted, but after the initial introduction of Kvothe's early life I began to lose interest. The Name of the Wind seemed to start so well and then degenerated into 'has no money, creates scheme to make money, makes money, loses it in a ridiculous fashion, has no money' rinse and repeat. The school bully storyline was cliche-ridden. And let's face it, the inscrutable and mysterious love interest is so common it was a major plot thread in the children's cartoon Dogtanion and the Three Muskehounds.

The magic school idea has been done a lot, and a magic school about naming magic was pretty much nailed by Ursula K. Le Guin in Wizard of Earthsea. The other forms of magic reminded me a lot of a cross between Lyndon Hardy's Master of the Five Magics and Raymond E. Feist's Magician.

At the time I was also reading Peter V Brett's Warded Man/Painted Man and I loved the story in it but just wished he could write like Rothfuss. But there seemed to be a lot of cross-over between the initial story of Kvothe and the initial story of Arlen. But Brett wrote more like David Gemmell... it was all story with straightforward, journalistic prose and fairly simplistic language. Whereas Rothfuss used beautiful language.

Ultimately I was far more interested in what was happening in the contemporary setting of Kvothe's story than the backstory he was relating.

But I thought it was just me.

[Abyss]

End of Disc One, on 28 January 2016 - 05:17 PM, said:

inb4dragoncow

DAMMIT.

QuickTidal, on 28 January 2016 - 07:46 PM, said:

Obligatory Dragon Cow.

luring-the-draccus.png

look, it pukes windex!

[Salt-Man Z]

Abyss, on 29 January 2016 - 03:36 AM, said:

look, it pukes windex!

Pfft. That's no accomplishment.

[WinterPhoenix]

Wont lie, I love the idea of a Dragon Cow...

I really enjoyed both books, though I will admit that this is about almost 100% down to a love of both Rothfuss' prose (especially in the present day sections) and the characters of Kvothe and Auri, not much else in the books is really that brilliant. Certainly it is in places quite generic, and the first book is almost entirely dedicated to various money making schemes and how they always go wrong. I also echo the sentiments already posted here, the damn Fey goddess sex section of the book was FAR, far to long, took me as long to read that section as the rest of the series put together. Seriously could've just had him naming her, and talking to the evil tree and it would have been much better paced.

Anyhow despite all that, I am very much awaiting the third book in the trilogy, I am very intrigued about all the present day sections, and I do love Rothfuss' prose, even if the stories he is weaving are not always the most exciting or innovative.

I had both The Kingkiller Chronicles and The Lies of Locke Lamora recommended to me at the same time, so I read them one after the other. I honestly couldn't say which one I enjoyed most, the prose is definitely better in Rothfuss' work, but Lynch's stories are easier to enjoy. Plus I still wrestle in my mind as to who I like more, Kvothe or Locke (though I think Locke wouldn't work half as well without Jean, so there is that.)

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 29 January 2016 - 03:55 AM

[Abyss]

Go to the search page.Search for the term Dragoncow.All is explained.
...and it is glorious.