Critique: A Wise Man’s Fear (Kingkiller Chronicles) (Patrick Rothfuss) 1/3

Thank goodness, speech marks are used speech! (For context, the previous book used quotation marks (‘x’) instead.)

 

The prologue wasn’t as powerful as the first book’s. It dealt with the same concept of the three silences in a slightly different way but I felt like it echoed the first a bit too much to successfully distinguish it.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Some concepts gave me pause. In a brilliant, give-you-something-to-think-about away.

At the Inn in the present, Graham wonders if things are genuinely bad or they just seem bad compared with a happy youth. It’s good to see someone else understand the non-meaning of the ‘these days’ remarks.

Around the same time, Kote notes that you can’t risk asking someone something if everyone else knows it. That really shows you to be an outsider and thus garner more attention and suspicion.

The third one comes much later on. ‘Stories don’t need to be new to bring you joy.’ Rereading books or re-watching films or revisiting art galleries/museums… Having done them before doesn’t make it less valuable or a waste of time to do so again.

Kvothe implies his life’s a tragedy. The Chronicler and Bast agree that it’s not a tragedy if someone’s still alive. This makes Kvothe call them ‘so young’ (even though he’s younger than the Chronicler). I agree with Kvothe: not that his life’s a tragedy but that life can be a tragedy.

 

University

Ambrose (the bastard) has Denna’s ring so Kvothe steals it back.

Will writes a flirtatious note in his femininte handwriting so that Ambrose leaves his room. But Ambrose and Will work together as scribes so surely Ambrose would know?

Ambrose comes back early so Kvothe jumps out the window. The next day, people are speculating who the attempted burglar is. When Kvothe faints, the medic Mola diagnoses Kvothe with ‘”an acute case of jumping out the window last night.”’ Until this moment, Mola’s always been a serious, down-to-business character, so it made this humour all the more surprising.

Kvothe claims he was doing a friend a favour and Sim says it was getting his lady love’s ring back. Mola gets annoyed that Kvothe lied to her but honestly I don’t see where the lie is.

 

Kvothe’s university colleagues play a more prominent role in this book. They were important in book one but they’re a lot more involved with the critique.

Will makes mention that Sim is the son of a duke and Kvothe says he didn’t know. But the very first day Kvothe meets Sim, another noble teased Sim for being a noble of the Aturan Empire. Kvothe has a great memory so what happened? Kvothe should have just replied, “I remember” and then this wouldn’t be an issue.

The character Puppet reminds me of Master Elodin in his speech and behaviours. Perhaps they both went mad learning names and there’s a blue print to how a person behaves afterwards? Puppet had a very small role and, honestly, having him didn’t add much to the story for me. Maybe he has a bigger role in book three, in which case his brief appearance here would be justified.

            Ambrose gave Kvothe an alchemised drink to make him lose all his inhibitions except things that are important. It produces a few pages with a stream of complete hilarity. There was also a touching part where also tells Kvothe ‘I’m telling you three times’, just like Kvothe said to Bast in book one. It means Sim is still with Kvothe, even after so long apart.

 

Kvothe is put under trial by the church.

He’s cleared but he skips over it completely. Admittedly this book is big enough as it is but Kvothe’s been so forthcoming with everything else. It seems odd that he’d miss this out, considering how he clearly dislikes the church.

Master Elxa Dal recommends Kvothe takes a term off to save the University’s reputation. This is why Kvothe goes adventuring. (During this conversation, someone puts a strawberry on their cheese. Is this something people actually do?)

Elxa asks Kvothe how old he is and Kvothe says seventeen. Less than a year ago when Kvothe was first going under admissions, Kvothe said he was fifteen and he used his age as a reason to show why he should be admitted. It seems odd that Elxa forgot this and that Kvothe thought he could risk the lie.

 

Humour

The plot, the characters and the humour were all ramped up for this book.

Kvothe sees Denna with Kellen, someone who’s pretty, rich and talented, a combo ‘that was simply inexcusable.’ Hollar!

Kvothe said he was reading with one eye shut to not damage his whole brain.

Deoch, the co-owner of the Eolin bar, is bisexual. No one can think of the right word so Denna proposes ‘ambidextrous’ and it almost works.

Master Elodin is as brilliant in this book as the last. He casually take Kvothe on a rooftop walk to the Master Librarian’s window, after which Kvothe’s Archives ban is rescinded. The Master Librarian acted like Elodin talking to him on the rooftop was completely natural so you just wonder whatever Elodin has done.

The bit with Elodin that gets picked up the most is justifiably funny. Elodin makes everyone in his class share an interesting fact. When one student presents his (to me, very intriguing) fact, Elodin says, ‘”Wow. Your next task is to have sex. See me after class if you don’t know how.”’

Someone (Ambrose) is trying to kill Kvothe by using sympathy magic and stabbing a poppet. Kvothe makes a device to protect him and gets his friends to help him test it. When they’re making the doll, Sim says, ‘”Kvothe’s head is bigger than that.”’ He’s not wrong! When Sim stabs the doll, Kvothe shrieks and doubles over in pain. But he was just acting. That kept me giggling for some time.