Latest Read: The Wise Man's Fear

I finally finished the chunkster The Wise Man's Fear and discovered that I could actually fall more in love with this story than I already had with the first novel.

It's amazing how much Rothfuss' books completely transport you into the world he's created.  These novels truly hold a little universe within their pages.  I sighed heavily when I saw that only 100 pages remained to be read...I didn't want my time with these characters and this world to end.

One of the aspects I love most about Rothfuss' books (and seems more pronounced in The Wise Man's Fear) is the stories-within-a-story.  There is much more tale-telling in the second book of The Kingkiller Chronicle and all of the stories were just delightful (my favorite is the one about the boy with the gold screw in his bellybutton).  I also loved that you got to explore more of the realm in Kvothe's world.  Rothfuss takes his hero to exciting and sometimes surprising new places and the reader finally gets to discover some more of the dramatic events behind the legendary tales of Kvothe.

This book also made me feel even sorrier for the elder Kvothe who seems to have lost his way.  I wonder how the last installment of this series can possibly explain all that must have transpired to lead him to become the innkeeper called Kote.  How does Bast come into Kvothe's life?  The shadow of war and unexplained evil looms over the story...what's going to happen??  So many questions to answer in the last book...I can't wait to read it!

Despite having technically already written the full Kingkiller Chronicle, I have a feeling it may take several years (as it did between The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear) for this last book to be released.  Although patience is one of the virtues I lack, I will gladly wait any number of years to see how Rothfuss will end Kvothe's story.  I can't recommend these books enough.  Seriously, go out and read them now!

5/5 stars

Latest Read: The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle

What appears to be a children's book at first glance is most definitely for adults.  You might not believe me when you start perusing this book...but please, for the love of man, don't read this to children!  The ending is...well I really can't say anything about the ending now can I?  What I can reveal is that technically there are three endings.  So, I suppose you could read the book up to the first ending to a child - however, if you have curious children (and aren't most children curious?), I wouldn't tempt them to sneak a read at the rest by showing them the delightful first bit of the book.

Loved this hilarious horror book for adults!  Does this mean I am somewhat dark and twisted?  Mayhaps...or I might just like creepy old faerie stories.  Either way, the illustrations by Nate Taylor are delightful and add to the wicked wrongness of this book.  It is rather obvious that I'm a big admirer of Patrick Rothfuss, so I could not avoid sating my curiosity about this story.  I also discovered that some copies of the book (not mine, alas) come with a silver sticker featuring Mr. Whiffle's face (looking similar to the Newbery Award) - but surrounded by the text, "This s**t is not for children. Seriously." - Ha!

4/5 stars

Holy First Edition!!!

Holy crap!  I was catching up on all of my favorite blogs and read an entry that piqued my curiosity.  As evidenced by previous posts, I'm a huge fan of Patrick Rothfuss and subsequently subscribe to his blog.  His latest entry was answering the question "how do I know if I have a first edition?"  After reading his answer, I was delighted ecstatic in my discovery that I actually have a first edition of his latest novel The Wise Man's Fear!!

 
Yesssss!  I can't wait to read this book...but due to its heft (993 pages) I'm afraid to start it because I know I will put the rest of my life on hold until it's finished.  I also decided to buy Rothfuss' not-for-children illustrated book The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed because apparently I'm mildly obsessed with the man's writing.  I will be posting my review of the latter book soonly (erm, probably tomorrow).

Latest Read - The Name of the Wind

Tolkien fan?  Lover of fairy-stories and valiant heroes?  If so...you'll love the first novel by Patrick Rothfuss.

 

The story follows Kvothe the wonderfully arrogant and charming hero of the novel.  Some may say he's too good to be true, but I think he's an endearing and brilliant protagonist.  Speaking of what some say, this book got rave reviews from every direction (i.e. "this is the epic trilogy of our generation" etc.).  It's definitely deserving of great praise, but could easily be over-hyped...so be warned, don't enter into this magical world with ridiculous expectations of a life-changing novel but be assured...it's a seriously (seriously) terrific book.  I say this because I read some snarky reviews of this book and thought "what?!  Did they read the same novel??"  And it seems that all the overzealous praise The Name of the Wind garnered may have caused people to be suspicious of the hype and underwhelmed with the book :(

  

I really don't want to give to much of the story away...so, let's see...this is the first book in a series of three and is largely comprised of Kvothe's own telling of his young life to "the Chronicler."  Occasionally, the book slips back to present day revealing a troubled older Kvothe (I'm sure the reasons for this will be revealed in the subsequent books).  

The writing in this book is just...poetic.  I easily get bored with flowery descriptions and tend to skim over these so as not to lose interest.  This never occurred during my reading of The Name of the Wind...I savored every word AND it was quite the page turner (I've found that many times these two characteristics are mutually exclusive).  In sum, I heartily recommend!  Check out this video of the author himself discussing the novel:

~Also, the sequel comes out this March...can't wait to snatch that up!

5/5 stars.