The Wise Man’s Fear- Patrick Rothfuss

The Wise Man's Fear

“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.” The Wise Man’s Fear – Patrick Rothfuss

So, I’m not sure whether I mentioned how I got into The Kingskiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. I discovered The Name of The Wind on my father’s kitchen table in Wales. My brother had seen it somewhere and, without having heard of it before, bought it on the strength of the blurb alone. That is a good way to buy a book. Unfortunately, since my brother had bought it, I wasn’t able to steal it from him there and then but had to wait until he’d finished it, by which time my father had nabbed it to read. All in all it took me until January to steal it and read it.

By the end of it I was hooked. I wanted to know what happened next. I called my brother to see if he had the next in the series. He told me he didn’t, it wasn’t out for ages. I took to google. Turns out my brother isn’t familiar with googling pub dates because it was already out. I quickly ordered two copies of The Wise Man’s Fear one for myself, one for him and my Dad in Wales. I finally got around to reading it on Saturday, I finished it last night. Which, when you consider I had a busy weekend travelling to Wales for a wedding, back to Oxford, work and a hospital appointment is no mean feat. But you see, the book is compelling.

It continues Kvothe’s life story, as narrated by Kvothe to the Chronicler (keep up, I’ve told you about this before!) and contains some of the tantalising events (such as his “meeting”with Felurian) which occur in the lead up to him becoming the Innkeeper of the Waystone Inn-which might sound like an uninspiring journey, but he’s hiding out, pretending to be dead having caused an awful lot of trouble in his time.

Like The Name of The Wind, The Wise Man’s Fear is brilliantly written, hilarious and dramatic by turns. Something I especially like is that we get to see a bit more of Bast, Kvothe’s apprentice, who is by turns devoted or demented, sometimes both at once. 100% Fae. I can’t wait to read the next one and see a bit more of his meetings with the Faen. I also want to know if some of the theories I’ve been developing are accurate. I can’t even bounce them off my brother until he’s finished the book. They’re not spoilers (in for the first two books at least) but he doesn’t believe me. I’ll give you a hint at one though. I think Kvothe’s mother’s over reaction to him singing the Lackless song in NOTW (she’s a real person you know!!!), his father calling her Tally and Meluan’s hatred of the Ruh might just be connected.

Now to the stone door. Who could be a son of the blood? Hmmm?

If you know anything about the publication date for The Doors of Stone please tell me. Pleeeeeeassse. I’m begging. For accurate information I’m willing to forgive his use of the word minge as an alternative to whinge. It means something quite different in the UK….