Summary
Five stars. Two enthusiastic thumbs up. It's really freakin' good.
That said, it's not perfect. In fact, it's really more like 4.51 stars. Still really great despite a couple of tiny but nagging issues. "Issues" is putting it too harshly, but you know what I mean. I loved reading/listening to this book, especially the first half of it. The second half is why it's not a pure 5-star book for me, but as I said, it's still one of my all-time favorites in terms of pure fun to read. The prose flows beautifully, the descriptions are brilliantly evocative without being too verbose (most of the time), and the characters are real people with real people personalities and dialogue (mostly).
But let's get into more detail.
Technical Aspects
Let's start with a blanket statement. Pat Rothfuss is a phenomenal writer. I've seen several reviews on Goodreads where the reviewer gripes about the prose and claims that there's too much telling as opposed to showing, etc. Compared to what? Hills Like White Elephants?
I'm here to tell you they're all full of crap. I mean, I'm a harsh critic (see my A Hero's Quest review) but seriously, it seems like some people just like to gripe and spout basic writing technique jargon like "oh, yes, he TELLS more than he SHOWS, mmyes,..whatever that means..." I imagine that statement with a uppity British accent.
The prose in this book is extremely poetic. Now, I tend to like things a bit on the poetic side, so maybe I'm a bit biased, but I didn't think it was too verbose for the most part. Yeah, sometimes there'd be a recycled description or a particular mental state compared to a particular gentle summer breeze or whatever one too many times, but for the most part, I loved it. Rothfuss uses simile and metaphor extremely well in his descriptions, especially through Kvothe's first-person perspective when describing character actions and gestures. I could really see and taste and hear and feel this world.
That said, a lot of reviewers have brought up the gripe that the world isn't all that original. And that's true...for the most part. I mean, the names of people are largely common day names from our world, though many of the main characters have more original ones. The social structure is your typical medieval monarchical ruling-class system with nobility and merchants and farmers and beggars and all that stuff. Not that that's a problem. There are plenty enough unique features (like the brilliant, if not terribly well-defined magic system and the religious system) and unique aspects of the more familiar parts of the setting (like Kvoth's childhood in a troupe of traveling performers). Long story short, there is more than enough uniqueness to go around. In addition, what isn't that terribly original in its conception is executed so well that we don't really care. Heck, literary fiction like To Kill a Mockingbird gets the job done with NO magic and NO fantastical setting. It's all about execution. But, this being fantasy, I do have to take off a very tiny, tiny fraction of a point for lack of more unique aspects of this world.
Oh wait. I just remembered the dragon. Never mind. Full marks. Well done, sir...even if that part of the story dragged a bit. More on that later.
As for perspective, Rothfuss sets the scene with beautiful imagery and description in a third-person omniscient perspective executed so well as to rival even that in Dune. The bulk of the story though is in first person as Kvoth narrates his own story to a scribe who has convinced him of the need to set the record straight and put down the true story of his exploits. The balance between these two perspectives is marvelously done and seamless in transitions from chapter to chapter. Yes, Kvoth does narrate in a very written-out, premeditated way even though he's supposedly telling this story off the cuff, but he does come from a long tradition of musicians and storytellers so it at least makes some sense.
The prose is a bit verbose at times, as I mentioned. That said, those times are few and far between (for me at least) and even when it does get a little wordy, it's not that distracting.
There's a scene in particular where Kvoth performs his lute in a tavern. There's a lot more going on in the scene, but that's the simplified, spoiler-free version. As a musician myself, I must say that this scene is one of the best-executed music performance scenes I've ever read. The description of not only the music, but of Kvoth's feelings and thoughts as he's approaching the stage, as he's playing, afterwards, are so beautifully and accurately painted with words that I could authentically feel as though I were there playing myself. It would not suprise me at all to find that Mr. Rothfuss is a musician. If he's not, then I applaud it all the more. Music is one of the hardest things to capture in words. I will say that in the opening of the second book, it gets a little over the top with the music stuff. In this book though, in that scene in particular, it was simply brilliant.
It may not be the "greatest prose in the history of all writing ever," but it is tight, beautiful, and effective. Nothing that I can really complain that much about. Compared to most of the writing I've seen these days, especially in fantasy (I'm looking at you, Mr. Sanderson), it is a shining example of how to author. Yes. That's a verb now.
Also, footnote, Sanderson isn't terrible. Just not as in line with my tastes. So much of this stuff is completely an utterly subjective. Some of it though is not (looking at you, Morgan Rice).
Plot
Strangely enough, this is where I had most of my issues with the book. Small issues...but issues.
The plot starts off with Kvoth in the present day (in the story world) as he goes about his business managing his inn. He is apparently some heroic, famous person who is in hiding, believed to be dead. This part of the story is really great. We get to know the characters slowly through a fairly normal evening until BAM somebody walks in and drops a dead, giant spider demon on the table. I'm hooked. But only because he bought the right to introduce a giant spider demon with the quality of the writing up to that point.
From there, we meet Chronicler, a scribe who travels the world searching for stories to record on paper. He has tracked down Kvoth and convinces Kvoth to tell his story.
Kvoth's story kind of breaks down into four segments;
- Traveling with his troupe of performers
- Living on the streets in Tarbean
- The Academy
- Hunt for the Chandrian
Of these four sections, the first two are by far the most interesting. I absolutely loved Kvoth's time with his family in their traveling group of performers and the old mentor character (while yes, a little cliché) is great as well. It's a brilliant way to introduce so many different world elements as they travel around, while the dynamic between Kvoth and his parents is nothing short of heart warming.
Some other reviewer apparently thought there was a creepy Oedipus complex thing going on. To them I extend a hearty middle digit. No. Just...no.
Kvoth's exploits on the streets of Tarbean are so visceral and heartbreaking at times that you can't help but be drawn in. The city is described beautifully in its ugliness, though everything in this book is described beautifully, and the characters we meet here are fascinating in their own right, though none of them really carry over to the next part of the story.
Here we touch on one of my only problems with the story and its structure. There's very little organization or what could be called structure. Not that there HAVE to be three acts or that there HAS to be a particular rise and fall to the story. I mean, it works very well as it is, but there are definitely times when you get the feeling of "why are we still here?"
This first started for me when Kvoth reached the Academy. Firstly, his decision to go there comes largely out of the blue, though it is somewhat justified. He's wanted to go there since he was young, but I just could have used a little more of an inciting incident there.
Once he gets there, things move pretty quickly. We don't have as much of a chance as I'd like to be introduced to the Academy, the surrounding town, etc. Maybe I would have had him meeting some other students first, ask them questions, or something like that. Instead, he jumps right into the admissions hearing and gets in.
This may be a good time to touch on another thing I found slightly jarring in this book: convenience. Kvoth pretty much always gets out of jams, oftentimes more through luck than skill. Rothfuss will often introduce a problem (for example, Kvoth can't pay his second term's tuition at the Academy) and then resolve it through sheer luck. In the case of the tuition, Kvoth must borrow money to pay tuition, but he is penniless and has no credit to borrow against, so nobody will lend him money...EXCEPT this ex-student who runs a small lending business in the town across the river. Not only that, but she's a sweet, beautiful girl who flirts with him. Yes, he's now in debt, but the stakes don't seem that high.
Another time, Kvoth needs to sell a horse he's bought in order to get his money back, and a tinker just happens to be sitting on the road outside town in need of a horse and trades a boatload of useful stuff in exchange for Kvoth's horse.
There are several more examples of this phenomenon in the book. These bits aren't story-breaking issues, but they did stick out at me as a little TOO convenient. They're all handled pretty well for what they are though and there is justification and explanation for many of them, but still, it was just a tad too much for my taste. Another thing though: every girl Kvoth meets is not only beautiful, but they all seem to immediately like him in one form or another. Convenient. Again though, Rothfuss kind of buys the right to do this by handling it pretty well and by writing everything else so well.
Anyway, the last part of the story seemed the most out of place to me. It works, just like pretty much everything else in this story, but there were several small story issues I had that, when looked at together after I've read the book, make this section stand out a little to me.
Kvoth hears about a town 60 miles away that has experienced an apparent attack similar to the one he's experienced earlier and rushes off to find the Chandrian there. This felt a little random, but I definitely went along with it. He goes and buys a horse (pretty conveniently, again) and rides off to find the town. He arrives and is told there's only one survivor from the event...and it turns out to be the girl he's had a crush on for half the book. Very convenient. They then run off into the woods to find his friend's sponsor. Then they run into a beast of some description, which they decide they need to kill...for some reason. The justification is that they're afraid it will hurt people...but it hasn't done that before, except in this one, specific situation and there's no reason to think it will start doing it now...so it just felt a little forced in order to get us to the "cool magic scene."
Overall, even this section works very well and we get some great character moments. Characters are really what make any story great, and this story is no exception. I can forgive a whole lot of plot/technical/pacing/originality issues if the characters are good and if the author makes us care about them. Rothfuss definitely hits the mark there.
Characters
The bulk of the book is in first person from Kvoth's perspective. He is an interesting character. He is world weary and "waiting to die" as the story opens, but in the past he is a witty, quick-thinking, yet girl-shy young man who is incredibly bright. He picks up new skills extremely quickly. This is another thing a lot of reviewers disliked, claiming that Kvoth is too perfect or too unsympathetic because he's so good at everything he does in stereotypical fantasy hero fashion. While he's not the most original of protagonists, I think these claims are entirely unfounded. This character type (troubled superman) works for a reason. And there are enough unique parts of his character that he feels like an individual person, not a cardboard cutout caricature. He also fails often enough so that you don't feel like he's TOO overpowered. When he tries to help, he does sometimes make things worse before he fixes them.
We also have his present day self, who is tortured and sullen. Obviously, so much has happened to him and we really want to see what all of that was. Several good mysteries are hinted at, such as "what is that sword on the wall?" and "what happened to his lady friend?" and "how did he meet Bast?" and "how did he get thrown out of the academy?" (that's not a spoiler; you find that out pretty early on).
The contrast between past Kvoth and future Kvoth creates a tension that the reader wants to see resolved. Brilliant.
The only other character I really want to talk about is Denna. I'll try to do the non-spoiler version first.
In short, Denna is confusing.
I think that's about as far as I'm going to get without spoilers, so here we go
SPOILER ALERT!
(view spoiler)
Anyway, the side characters are all great. I especially love Wilem and Elodin. Nothing much to be said; they're all great. Read it and find out why for yourself.
Final Verdict
This book is fantastic. Not perfect, but fantastic. It's got romance, action, magic, tragedy, coming-of-age, self-discovery, other-things-with-hyphens. I don't have as much to say in this final verdict other than buy it. Read it. Enjoy it. You're welcome.
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The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.Highlighted by 15,428 Kindle readers- Besides, anger can keep you warm at night, and wounded pride can spur a man to wondrous things.Highlighted by 7,943 Kindle readers
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