Review of “The Wise Man's Fear” by Patrick Rothfuss

 

Review of “The Wise Man's Fear” by Patrick Rothfuss

A The Kingkiller Chronicles novel

The follow-up to The Name of the Wind picks up right where the last book left off. The story continues Kvothe's early days at the university and revolves around some young adult drama and romance. The first half or so of the book takes place at the university before Kvothe leave and starts a new journey. While I enjoy the expansion of world building in the latter part of the book, my favorite parts of the story take place at the university. I just love the characters and lifestyle that revolves around the university. 

 

This book does expand the world the author has built, by having Kvothe travel to other cities and different regions of Temerant. While I do like seeing more of how this world operates, I think this book has too much going on, that makes the story feel like it is being dragged out. There are parts where the pacing feels really slow. This book feels like the author committed to doing a trilogy before actually planning out the story, because parts of this book could have been saved for another book, to make the narrative flow better.

 

For me, I love the characters and interactions at the university. That’s the heart of the story. I love the relationships and friendships between Kvothe and the other students. In this book Kvothe also has a sexual awakening, which feels appropriate when he returns to the university. One thing that I like is that one of the female characters flirts with Kvothe, and he is either oblivious or ignores her because he is hung up on another girl. It feels very much like the reaction of a teenage boy, and in the end his friend gets the girl.

 

While this book does a good job continuing the story of young Kvothe, it does leave me wondering if we are ever going to catch up with his life as older Kvothe. Given there is only one book left in the trilogy. Kvothe does learn a bit more about the people that killed his parents, and we still don’t know who Denna’s “master Ash” is, which I hope we get answers to in the next book.

 

There are aspects of this story that I enjoy more than the first book, but I think the narrative structure isn’t as solid as the first book. It very much feels like a middle chapter to a trilogy. I still enjoy these characters and look forward to (someday) reading the third book.

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