A Wise Man’s Fear (Kingkiller Chronicles) (Patrick Rothfuss) 3/3

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Questions

Felurian only lets Kvothe go back to the human world because he promises to return and sing the song he’s writing for her. Is this why Kvothe doesn’t play music anymore, so he never finishes the song?

In the first book, Kvothe was furious when Chronicler found him because he was worried that other people would come after him. People like Felurian, perhaps? I’d say that’s a decent reason to hide.

Obviously being ‘the Kingkiller’ is already a good reason to hide but compared to the rest of this story, it would be rather mundane.

 

We learn that the highest ranking members of the Amyr (church knights) were fae. We also know that Haliax, the leader of the Chandrian, protects his subordinates from the Amyr.

Skarpi knew the (heretical) story of Haliax’s ‘creation’ and he said he had powerful friends in the church. Friends like the Amyr?

Also in this book Denna writes a song about the Chandrian but she doesn’t get killed like Kvothe’s troupe, so are the Amyr protecting her? Is her patron an Amyr? Is he is, then I’d guess he’s Skarpi.

This is vividly different from my thoughts in book one, in that Denna or at least her patron are Chandrian. I’m still more convinced by the Chandrian hypothesis than the Amyr hypothesis but either is believable.

 

Content Warning: sexual assault. [‘Skip to Kvothe often says, and demonstrates, how…’]

Remember Ambrose’s alchemised drink that made Kvothe lose all inhibitions? The constant humour? It came with a serious side. Sim was surprised that Kvothe was 100% sure that you shouldn’t ravage women. Fela said she thinks she knows why. When Kvothe is in Felurian’s glade later on, he has a memory of when he was in Tarbean with boys ripping his clothes off and saying everything they’d do to him. This sounds like a rape.

We’ve known since book one, when Denna in a delirium kept on offering Kvothe sex but he refused because she wasn’t in her right mind, that he has very strong moral views on rape. In book two, Kvothe saves two girls from sexual enslavement: he reassures them it’s not their fault and challenges everyone who insults them for being victims.

Of course, one doesn’t have to experience rape to defend the victims. I could be reading too much into it and stringing together unrelated information. Even though Kvothe is a fictional character, I still hope I’m wrong.

 

Kvothe often says, and demonstrates, how good he is at lying and embellishing. Is anything he’s telling the Chronicler true? Or is he building the best reputation he can, to silent rival rumours. He’s started many contradictory rumours about himself so it is within his character to do this.

 

 

Problems

Occasionally, queries pop up. Some things are simply mistakes, oversights or errors.

There’s an inn with one fiddler. The same Innkeeper calls this same fiddler ‘Seb’ and ‘Ben’. He doesn’t give anyone else two names. So this was a bit perplexing.

The similes are in the American style, e.g. ‘soft as a flower’. But then later we get one in the British style: ‘as lightly as a flower’. Why is there this difference? From s tyle point of view, it should be one or the other. Unless Americans do use both but they have different functions? Like how Americans have ‘farther’ instead of ‘further’ bar a few exceptions?

Kvothe studies lesson called ‘comparative female anatomy’. Because Kvothe is such a sexualised character by this point, this almost comes off as a pervert’s subject. From a medical perspective it’s important but it seems misplaced for it to be mentioned here. Perhaps the author’s shoehorning a piece of lore in where he can?

 

Kvothe frequently has sex in this book. ‘The Wise Man’s Sexploits’ may have been a more fitting title.

You wonder how he makes no one pregnant until he reveals he chews a specific herb every day. When did he start that? He was too blind and bashful pre-Felurian to people’s advances so I doubt he started it before he met her.

So perhaps Felurian had him eat it in her glade. But the Fae’s flora was very different to the ordinary world so could the herb grow in both places? Would Kvothe have the foresight to pluck a lifetime’s worth of herb before he left for the human world?

If it did grow everywhere, it probably wouldn’t manage to in inhospitable Ademre. The Adem wouldn’t sell it because they don’t believe in man-mothers (and the apothecary wouldn’t serve Kvothe anyway).

Maybe Kvothe did start chewing it at the university, in his world’s version of a condom in the wallet for the young and hopeful? But he was poor and only made necessary purchases.

There are answers to my questions but none is satisfying or convincing.

 

 

Conclusion

When Kvothe returns to the University, he says he’s been gone three-quarters of the year. Devi says he has two months left until his debt is due; the loan was for a year and a day. Thus there are eight months in the year. So the author, with a few bits of info, has told the readers how long a year is without ever directly stating it.

 

Kvothe’s tale concludes with a happy Kvothe with happy friends before returning to the miserable Kote of the present. By telling his story, Kote is becoming frustrated with his carefulness. Just as Bast wanted. Bast also wanted two soldiers to attack Kote and bring out his fighting abilities. His fighting abilities did not oblige. So the story ends with Bast standing over the soldiers and about to, I assume, kill them. It’s not a big or important cliff-hanger but I’m still curious!

 

So yes, this was a satisfying read. It was over a thousand pages long but at no point did it feel drawn out, weak or boring. To keep a narrative going for that long without losing the thread is impressive. Book two, the first sequel in this trilogy, took five years to release so it would be nice if the second sequel took no more than ten years to be released. (This time is almost up!) But rushing would only degrade the quality and that’s not desirable, although considering the high quality already this wouldn’t be too bad. Whatever the case, it should be worth the wait.