strange and random happenstance: Denna

The Wise Man's Fear: Kingkiller Chronicles Day 2 by Patrick Rothfuss
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: March 1, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 1008 Pages
Rating: ★★★
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It is day two. The story resumes at The University where Kvothe, in another gallant attempt to win Denna, puts his life at risk once more, yet again in the hands of Ambrose. He escapes with his life, but Ambrose is not done with him. Kvothe is brought up on charges stemming from the incident where he broke Ambrose's arm the term before. While he does get cleared and Chronicler is sad that Kvothe refuses to go into details, Kvothe claims that this episode in his life is already well documented, it is brought to Kvothe's attention that it might be best if he where to take a semester or two off. Count Threpe, who has never been able to sponsor his musical abilities, due to the blacklisting from Ambrose, secures a position for him in Severen to work for Maer Alveron as a musician. While Kvothe loses everything but his lute on his journey, he soon becomes invaluable to the Maer. Not only providing music and tips for wooing a lady love, he also saves his life. All this while Denna is also in Severn, making it a very happy time in Kvothe's life, despite all the court politics and intrigues he has to navigate.

After Kvothe is successful in obtaining the hand of Meluan Lackless for the Maer, Kvothe's presence is no longer desired and the Maer sends him off with some mercenaries to the Eld to locate thieves who have been stealing his taxes. One of the mercenaries, Tempi is an Adem warrior and after much coersion from Kvothe, starts to teach him their ways. But soon Kvothe is lured into the land of fairies only to emerge a much more sexual and virile man, willing to go with Tempi to Ademre to learn to be an Adem warrior. Kvothe is slowly become the man of legend, the lover, the fighter, the hot head who still doesn't know when it's best to hold his tongue. Things will soon get bad, but hopefully they will also bring answers.

I always have problems with the second book in a trilogy. It's like a placeholder book. The book before the final, so you have to be given enough information to entertain you but not enough information so that you can solve all the mysteries. So frustrating! I was very sad that there was not much at The University what with Kvothe needing to get out of the glare of his infamy for a bit. But I loved the Renaissance world of Severn and the Maer. The court intrigues and back biting. Like Machiavelli and the movie Ever After in one. The beauty combined with the scheming. I could have spent the entire book there, which made me pissed when we went off on the weird mercenary jaunt. What is it about Kvothe that made the Maer go, yes, he'll lead a band of mercenaries. I do know that it was really just to get him out of the way, I'm not stupid, I just think it could have been a better more feasible excuse.

All that is nothing compared to the teenage fantasy fairy sex wet dream land made me want to hurl. Felurian, oh how I wish you weren't in this book. Obviously Kvothe has to become a great lover, a Casanova if you will, but, really!?! This is how you chose to do it!?! I mean, I'm sure that weird Cheshire cat creature will become very important given Bast's reaction, and it's important to show that Kvothe, even besotted with ecstasy can outwit a fairy, it was all too, urrgh. Though, I will admit that Felurian making his cloak out of the darkness was way awesome. So I'll forgive some of the fairy orgy for that. But nothing will make me forgive Kvothe's "Shogun" period that just about drove me round the bend. I was never one of those kids who wanted to do martial arts, and in fact don't really have an interest in martial arts. Wasn't it Kvothe who earlier said that it was annoying when Tempi was working on the Ketan and gave the names of the moves but they had no correlation to what Kvothe knew? Then Kvothe spends a couple hundred pages listing names of moves you have no idea what they are so therefore you don't care or have any connection to them. Double standards Kvothe! Just cause it's you listing names doesn't make it less annoying. While discussing this with one of my friends he said that not knowing what the names meant didn't matter... then why use names at all was my response? It just gets under my skin and chafes. Fist shaking at the sky time people.

Also, I think I'm going to start an "Oh, Kvothe" for all those times when he does something that makes me cringe and go, no you didn't dumbass. The main one being when he returns to Severen and his Ruh heritage rears it's ugly head. You can become the worlds greatest lover and an Adem yet still get pissed off when people denigrate your Ruh heritage. Get a thicker skin. In the end, which I felt came about abruptly, though I could see there where less and less pages, I was left happy that I know this world but desperate to know more. Also I'm glad that Denna is starting to have a point versus someone for Kvothe to moon over.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Ambrose, Denna, Ever After, Felurian, Kingkiller Chronicles, Kvothe, Maer, Patrick Rothfuss, Severen, Shogun, The Wise Man's Fear

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: 2007
Format: Paperback, 722 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
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Chronicler stumbles upon Kvothe one night and recognizes the man of legend who is now hiding behind a bar and a different identity. Kvothe, or Kote as his is now known, has agreed to tell his story to Chronicler. It will take three days to tell the stories as it should be told in Kvothe's own words, this is the first. Beginning with his childhood with the Edema Ruh, performers and travelling gypsies, he learns to sing and act and play music. After a time the troupe picks up Abenthy, a sympathist, who learned his magics at The University, and knows the name of the wind. Abenethy becomes Kvothes teacher for a time, regaling him of tales of The University and the library, where all the books in the world are held. Soon Abenethy leaves to continue his own life, Kvothe hoping to one day follow his path and learn the name of the wind. Kvothe's parents have been working on a new song, an epic pieced together from story and myth about the Chandrian. The boogie men of their world. Boogie men who happen to be real and don't want a bunch of Ruh singing about them. Kvothe's troupe is massacred. Kvothe was out in the woods and comes back to the end of his world.

Going to Tarbean, he spends years on the street as a beggar, till one day he hears a new story about the Chandrian and realizes that he must start again. He musters the resources and heads to The University, meeting the beautiful Denna on the way. He is able to finagle his way into school, but not without first making an enemy of the wealthy student Ambrose, who is able to trick Kvothe into breaking the rules of the library and is therefore banned. Despite this limitation and his obvious insolence and inability to recognize authority, Kvothe loves school. He also slowly starts to love Denna. He risks it all though when rumors reach his ears that the Chandrian might be near. Kvothe has to choose between avenging his past and seizing his future. He's still only a kid, so his future might have to wait. His future that will end up behind a bar, waiting to die. But hopefully Chronicler will awaken the desire to live in Kote.

The Name of the Wind could been seen to be part Harry Potter, part Tom Brown's School Days, with a little George R. R. Martin thrown in with the slightest dash of Terry Pratchett. But people who set up this comparison fail to realize, that while there are correlations, Partick Rothfuss has transcended these to create a unique world all his own. Comparison is useless when you read a book so effortlessly itself. So funny and unique and wonderfully written that it flows. As I was reading it I kept thinking, why isn't there more humor in other books of this ilk. The humor made me connect with the narrative, made me part of the story, versus an outsider. Making someone laugh is the surest way to create complicity. Me and Kvothe, we're now on this little quest together. A quest that makes up one of the three parts of this book.

The three parts, the past, the present and the quest. We get Kvothe's orgin story, as it where, growing up in the loving arms of the Edema Ruh, which is harshly taken away from him and his early days at The University. We get his present as barkeep and his quest for the Chandrian. While we need to see where he came from to realize how far he has come, I felt that the harshness of Tarbean could have been avoided if he had gone in search of Abenthy. Couldn't he have written a letter? I know so much is character flaws, many of which made me shout at him, such as his continuing taunts of Ambrose. Yes, I know Kvothe can't hear me, that doesn't mean I'm not banging my head against the wall hoping against hope that this time he'll learn. And while I'm curious to know how he ended up in a little bar with a demon as his BFF, I assume it has to do with the whole "Kingkiller" part of the these chronicles. It's the Chandrian that I was desperate for. I was glad that Denna was worked into that story in a way so that Kvothe mooning over her might have some actual purpose. Thing is though... I want the answers now. I do want them to be played out over the books, but can't the books all be done already?