I'm thinking tragedy, but I'm hoping the book will end on a high note with Kote becoming Kvothe again. It would be horrible if that happened and then there wasn't a sequel from modern Kvothe's PoV though.

Also, one thing I've been wondering, how young is Kote really? Unless the third book takes place over a much greater span of time, he might not even be what we'd consider an adult in some parts of our world. Of course that's not considering his time with Felurian.

(Then again they might have mentioned Kote's age in the first book and I just forgot)

 

Kvothe is 25 in his Inn when he is telling his story to Chronicler.

I don't expect a particularly happy ending, but I also don't expect a completely dark ending either.

 

I expect the very last chapter to begin with "The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts." And then something happens and the silence is broken. I'm thinking something to do with that huge chest Bast tried and failed to open.

But yeah, I'm with Ellisande here. Something bittersweet sounds about right.

 

Kote is 25. And chronicler mentions that whatever happened, im guessing the king killing, happened not even 2 years ago. So book 3 should cover roughly 5-6 years. Because Kvothe tells Dal he was 17 when he was actually 16. "Chased the wind" for a year making him 17 when he returned. And then like 3 or 4 terms pass before the end of the book.

And as for how it ends I personally hope some bandits, mercenaries, or some one bursts in looking for him and Kvothe looks up from the bar looking like he did when told Chronicler and Bast to behave in NotW. The way Rothfuss described Kvothe in that scene is one of my favorite parts in both books. The difference between Kote, the innkeeper, and Kvothe the kingkiller.

 

I'm pretty sure that however it ends, it will be a nearly complete surprise in many ways, and yet we'll all be kicking ourselves for not having thought of it.

...For some reason, I just had the image of Nonjon's AK (Dimension Hopping For Beginners) coming out from behind the stone door and fixing/fucking up everything. :awesome

 

Reread WMF the other week, and I had forgotten how much the 'man mother' nonsense of the Adem pissed me off. Seriously, shit's ridiculous.

Was also reminded of how much the final third part of the book seemed to drag on and on compared to the first two thirds. IMO he probably could have trimmed a bit from the hunting bandits, Felurian, or Adem arcs.

Otherwise I was glad I reread it; I know I picked up more things the 2nd time around after reading all the theories and thoughts contained in this thread. Gonna be a long 2-3 years until the next one though...Currently starting a reread of ASoIaF in anticipation of the 5th book.

 

So I read these books for the first time this week, and I gotta say, as much as I loved it, it didn't quite lived up to its hype.

I really, really like the overall story, but as much as I loved reading it, I feel as if I won't be able to get into it the second time around. And I've read some mind-numbing things (Crossroads of Twilight comes to mind.)

I liked the first book better than the second one. Kvothe is one of the best written characters I've ever read, and the story is really brilliant. But some things were really irritating. The whole Draccus section at the end of the NotW seemed to drag on and on. And the end also wasn't all that great.

Same thing with the few chapters in WMF. I really expected him to get expelled from the university at the end of the book, and while the Felurian thing was fun to read for a few chapters, it also started to get boring.

I wished the Chandrian storyline, which is obviously the main story arc, had been given some more attention. Yeah, we got it, they are really hard to find and shit, bit at the end of the second book of a trilogy, I'd expect to know more about the dudes who killed his parents.

Still, these minor irritations aside, the whole story is pretty awesome. The writing is extremely well, and some parts were simply a delight to read. The world and the magic system are very well written, one of the best I've read recently.

I understand that the author plans a separate trilogy for the events happening in the present. While that is understandable, given the story arc, it also, i dunno, lessens my excitement for the third book, as I know the series hasn't quite reached it's conclusion.

 

Yeah, for as many Gary Stu and Mary Sue's that turn up,I'm surprised its so popular on DLP. Not that I don't like the series myself.

Yeah. This happens too much. >_> I was less annoyed with the Draccus, versus the entire Adem section in WMF. Christ it never ended. I swear the last few months are a drug induced hallucination and I'm still reading about the Adem. :|

I found the Felurian bits to be the most interesting, tbh. And yeah. I was hoping he'd get expelled as well.

This as well. Rothfuss has a great style and I love the books but... It feels like he was trying to create tension by drawing all of that out. But instead it just feels cheaply done. Like some rotten kid in a mall, parents trying to drag him away from some shiny toy.

Also: Less Denna, More Kvothe/Fela or Kvothe/Devi.

 

Fuck Denna. The bitch needs a reality check.

 

While I won't say that I like Denna, I find the character interesting. She's made to be polarizing, of course. Speaking of Denna, what the hell happened to Geoffrey? Is he the poet that Kvothe kills?

I know conventional wisdom says its Ambrose, but I'm not so sure after the scene in the forest before they set Ambrose's wardrobe on fire. Devi has Denna's emerald earrings. We know Devi trades in favors more than coin, so what advantage did she get from Geoffrey? Why mention him at all, ever? We know he's royalty and supposedly a naive simpleton, but suddenly I'm not buying it. Denna gets really interested in magic after meeting him. I wonder if he has some connection to Denna's patron.

Caesura, the name of Kvothe's sword, is also the name of the line break in Eld Vintic poetry. Aaron calls the sword "poet-killer." I'm wondering if Geoffrey is running some kind of con on Denna, or otherwise betrays her, leading to Kvothe stone-breaking crushkill.

 

Yes, that was one of many things that made my eyes roll around in my head with TWMF. I just finished it, and while I did like it, I did not think it was as epic as the first book. It's just Rothfuss doing more storytelling.

In book one, Kvothe was a subversion of Gary Stu; in book two, he is Gary Stu. I still love Rothfuss's writing and there's no part that wasn't entertaining (some parts were less entertaining than others), but I'm gonna be seriously disappointed if book three is just another doorstopper. (Personally, I'd love a tragic "everyone dies" ending.)

I wrote a full review here.

 

Personally, I loved the books BECAUSE Kvothe is a Gary Stu.

Rothfuss is an excessively talented writer, and it's nice to see someone apply such talents to showing a character solidly being awesome and kicking ass. We have our human interest stories. We have our soap opera dramas and coming of age tales and epic battles of good against evil.

Kvothe's story is none of these. It's a guilty pleasure written well enough to assuage our guilt for enjoying it so much.

It doesn't work often, and I'm dreading the wave of copycat hack writers that's inevitably springing up - but, at the same time, I know there'll be a few gems among them. They may even be written by some of the people who frequent DLP.

 

I completely agree with CareOtters.

Honestly, there is nothing wrong with Gary Stus/ Mary Sues. For the most part, they are awesome and are enjoyable to read. It's just that there are 9 bad stories witih Maru Sues in them to 1 good one, hence the fact many think Mary Sue=bad.

In any case, I actually enjoyed the entire section with the Adem. What I disliked was the part with the Felurians. That part just felt choppy, and gave a 'wtf is going on' feel. Although, that may be what Rothfuss was aiming for.

As for getting kicked from the University, I think it'd be a bad idea if he was kicked already. He hasn't really DONE anything there yet, and I'd be disappointed if all that build up wasn't for anything. Besides, Elodin is too awesome. :banana:

 

So I read both the books over last week. Firstly, I like the second more than the first. I don't know why but I just did. I haven't read many fantasy novels except for Harry Potter. I just read fanfiction mostly so you can count me as relatively new to this specific genre. The second book had much more ass kicking. I literally skimmed through most of the Draccus part in TNoTW and it was the only major action sequence in that book. The only annoying character I found is Denna.

And I am just curious, did anyone else notice that after the Interlude in which Kvothe thinks how to approach "the woman" (Nowhere in the Interlude he refers to her as Denna), the first woman introduced is Devi?

Anyways, any good fanfics till now?

 

I think it's safe to say the woman is Denna. Kvothe is telling the whole story himself, and after everything he's said about Denna, he's not gonna come out and say "HA, I FOOLED YOU, IT WAS DEVI!" to Chronicler on the third day.

And like Vash, I was also hoping he's get laid with Fela or Devi. Rothfuss tried a little too hard to make Denna mysterious.

The Adem, I dunno...they remind me so much of the 'Aiel' from the Wheel of Time series, with their Lethani (Aiel had Ji'e'toh) and being fierce warriors from whom the protagonist learns fighting. The books certainly have a lot of cliches, but Rothfuss is still an excellent writer, and he carried them over quite well, so I really didn't mind them too much.

 

Yes, it is now. But like up until 2/3rd of TNoTW I was sure Devi would turn out to be the woman. Kinda disappointed in that one.

 

Quick question- without my book on hand and not really desiring to take a fine tooth comb through both of them at the moment, does it ever blatantly say if Denna is dead or not? I know there is a lot of mention of a tragedy but I'm not sure if we know for sure she is no longer living. I merely assumed as much, I don't know if that was a mistake.

 

Not that I recall. Bast said he met her, and his wording didn't seem to imply she was dead. But my mom's reading my copy of the book, so I can't look it up right now.

 

No. It's never been explicitly stated that she's dead, or even really implied. The only thing that we know for certain is that she isn't with Kvothe/Kote as the story is being told. So far.

 

I think I'm anticipating the sequel series to the Kingskiller Chronicles (the ones from the present forward) more than the sequel to the Wise Man's Fear. It's depressing, reading about how much of a BAMF Kvothe is, only to be reminded every couple of chapters how he is now, especially with the whole "silence of a man waiting to die" thing at the beginning and end of each book. The one's from the present onward won't neccessarily be happier, but at least there'll be hope and you'll see Kvothe getting better and regaining his former glory (hopefully). Sucks that they probably won't be out for years. >.<