The Name of the Wind

That I get, but it's his actions that tell, or should tell, of his arrogance or lack thereof, not him saying "I was arrogant".

My older brother mailed the copy I had to his friend who lives half way across the country -_- so the furthest I read is where Kvothe meets the Chandrian for the first time. I put the book aside for a little while because I started reading The Book of the New Sun and Metro 2033 (finished that one).

The reason I bothered mentioning that because while I'm tempted to buy the book again so I can finish it, I'm hearing nothing but negative things about the second book. I'm not sure if I want to put more money into a series where the only good installment is the first.

Honestly, IMO, I'd get it. It's a damn good series. Has some of the best depictions of The Fair Folk that I've seen in a long time. It's also very interesting, very well written, with good characters.

The main character's a bit of a base breaker, but if you don't dislike him thus far, you'll probably ok.

People just like to bitch that everything's not GRRM nowdays.

They're incredibly well-written books, but at times it can feel like the story's moving at a snail's pace.

Definately. Have you read any of Guy whateverhismiddlenameis Kay's books? Tigiana?

If you read/liked them, I'd definitely recommend Kingkiller Chronicles.

I'm afraid not. The first fantasy series I sat and read through up to it's current release was A Song of Ice and Fire (which was introduced to me by the same brother). Beyond that, most of the fantasy works I've tried to read have failed to impress me, some of them I couldn't even get through the first book like The Mistborn series, The First Law Trilogy, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

What Raven Wilder said worries me. I can appreciate well written prose, but I've run afoul too many books where the author seems more concerned with trying to show off their vocabulary or describing every mundane detail as opposed to telling a good paced story. (In fairness, Martin I'll admit has started to show the latter, but I've kept with him because I know he can write better than that.)

Well, thank you for your quick responses, but I'm afraid I'll hold at this point. Maybe after I'm done with Book of the New Sun. I'm sorry if I wasted anyone's time.

edited 15th Feb '13 9:03:54 PM by SoloWingPixy

Nah, it's fine. And for what it's worth, I honestly think Kingkiller is moving a lot, lot faster than Feast for Crows/Dance with Dragons.

But come back if you have any questions.

(The thing is, these books are kinda-sorta a prequel trilogy.)

I know Feast and ESPECIALLY Dance with Dragons has been padded like a catcher's mitt, but the first three books had near perfect pace for me along with The Tales of Dunk and Egg (sometimes I actually rate them higher than Ice and Fire.) And to Feast's credit, while it does have the red flags I admit it has when it comes to pacing, it shows the ugly side to fantasy that a lot of author's in my opinion are too scared to show because they want to be romantic instead.

I won't argue with the bit about the first three being paced perfectly. They were.

I think the thing about Name of the Wind is it's paced a bit like Feast. It tends to showcase a lot of world-building/character building bit that isn't necessarily relevant to the overall plot, but is really interesting because it gives the world verisimilitude. (Of course, I'm one of those people who love reading about fictional worlds)

Well I'll give The Name of the Wind this much at least, it's pacing from what I read is MUCH better than Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell ><. Lord that book was pain.

edited 15th Feb '13 9:29:40 PM by SoloWingPixy

I seem to recall that I thoroughly enjoyed both books, and am still eager to read the next when it comes to be released.

Admittedly my reading of the second book was broken, with a several-month gap in my reading of it (caused primarily by some travelling that I did), but nevertheless, I don't recall having any problems at all with the pacing, not even the Felurian sequence, to which I seem to recall that I've read negative responses.

Strange + Norrel is just...ugg. It's a good book/premise, but it's the slowest damn thing I've ever read. I skimmed large parts, trying to find something interesting/plot advancing.

You gave up on Mistborn? Word of advice: don't. It's worth it.

I've given it five tries, but I'm sorry, Brandon Sanderson's dialogue irks me too much. I sold the copies I had anyway.

edited 16th Feb '13 1:53:57 PM by SoloWingPixy

Don't see why, but to each his own, I guess. Tried any of his other books?

I'm afraid I haven't. When Brandon Sanderson was first recommended to me, I was told implicitly that the Mistborn books are his best work even with that new Way of Kings book out. But seeing as Mistborn just didn't take off for me...

edited 16th Feb '13 2:06:43 PM by SoloWingPixy

Well, Way of Kings is his best book in my opinion, but it works best after reading his other stuff, since it's got something of a Myth Arc. Otherwise, I recommend reading his other standalones (Elantris and Warbreaker, which is free) and see if you like those.

Please understand I can like fantasy that isn't written by George R.R. Martin, otherwise I wouldn't have loved the Earthsea cycle and the first two Book of the New Sun books.

edited 16th Feb '13 2:28:19 PM by SoloWingPixy

Did I imply otherwise...?

It's not that...I just thought I came off as too critical of anything that ISN'T written by him, and that wouldn't be fair to other writers.

Nah, that's cool. I also recommend Jim Butcher's Dresden Files (ongoing detective urban fantasy) and Codex Alera (heroic fantasy with a unique premise). End derail!

If you didn't like Mistborn, odds are you won't like Sanderson's other books high-fantasy books; he's a great writer, but his books tend to be very similar to each other.

Except for the Alcatraz books; those have a very different style to them, and are well worth checking out if you don't mind reading kids' lit.

Getting back to The Kingkiller Chronicles, my main issue with them is that the kind of story it's telling and the prose style it uses don't mesh all that well. The story is a Picaresque tale of a young guy coming of age and going on various adventures, with only hints here-and-there of an overarching plot. The prose style, while great, is more suited for the telling of an epic story, where every person, event, and location is an important part of the overall story; in a story where many people, events, and locations are just an interesting thing Kvothe encountered one time, with little future importance, the level of detail everything's given can seem excessive.

I still really like the books, but they're definitely a few hundred pages longer than they really needed to be, and are probably best read at a time when you're not busy with much else.

edited 17th Feb '13 11:32:05 AM by RavenWilder

O.K just finished the first book and I really liked it. I need to know how a guy that talented ends up so broken.