I am at the exact same point in the 2nd book as you are when you wrote this and yes, I would say to continue reading.

How can you not tell that there is a bigger story involved here? The whole main plot is that of him going to the University to find out more about the Chandrian and currently he is finding more information about them and the Amyr

Kvothe doesn't learn jack shit about the Chandrian or Amyr in Wise Man's Fear. The whole book was a waste of time.

I personally loved this series, I have to stop myself from re-reading this again because I want to wait until the third book is out so I can read all three in a row. But that's me, so I'll try and give you an idea of what you're getting into without spoiling anything.

The book does move slowly, especially the first one. It pretty much never leaves Kvothe's perspective which was a new and interesting choice. It is not a book that is full of action and constant swift movement.
Normally, a review like that means I won't like the book, but in this case it wasn't just an excuse for a boring story (IMHO). When movement does happen, it sweeps you out from under your feet and you become even more involved in the book. It is a seductive book, and its charms entranced me. The second book has a lot more fantasy and action, and does an even better job of drawing you in. Also the language and writing is very impressive and I found it as enjoyable as the story itself which is NOT standard in the fantasy genre.

However, you have a new baby, which is one job, and you work (because even if you don't work, keeping a home intact and functioning is a job itself!), and many other pressing things and I wouldn't blame you for needing to table a book like this for a beach vacation when you have the time to really savor it.

I actually listened to the audiobook version of this and highly recommend it. The reader is very capable and knew how to read the rhythm of the words which made the book even more enjoyable and impressive. I don't know if you've ever tried audiobooks, but they can be a great alternative for a busy schedule. My daily chores when I was staying at home became much less tiresome because I got to enjoy a good story while doing the dishes, weeding the garden, or folding laundry.

I hope this helps and good luck with the little one!

I have personally re-read WMF about 4 times already and loved every minute of it!! I think I read it for the language Rothfuss uses as much as the story - I love the realness of all the characters, how things don't always go the way Kvothe wants them to. I love the eloquence and the amazing metaphors Rothfuss uses - he's so visionary and tactile with his descriptions. The world is so tight and well created that everything is believable. I think the difference for me between this book and other fantasy books is that I didn't want this one to end for the joy of reading it whereas with a lot of others I just want to find out what happens.

If you're looking for a series to pack a punch then maybe this one isn't for you???

Yes holy shit, keep reading. its gets amazing. i wont spoil it but it gets really really good. trust me. I loved it so much

You really have to understand both novels are well written but is told and laid out extremely poor. As other have stated his main goal was to learn about the Chandarin and all but it takes forever to get there and then not completely. The first is mainly about him being dirt poor, going to school and being sherlock holmes at the end. There was NO more info about what he wanted to find out. There were little alchemy and what a disappointment that was considering the "going to school" portion took half of the book! Sure he's super smart but give more examples!

I can understand how some of you can come to love this work so much because I too adore his style of writing. I couldn't get enough and wanted to read on even though it dragged on and on. The storytelling has to be better and I feel many are giving way to much credit on his behalf (the author).

could not agree more

The most accurate review I've read about these books. I have nothing more to add to this.

Agreed! I actually did find them entertaining while I was reading but I was completely blown away by the hype.

You're a complete idiot sir, and you've completely missed the point.

Before judging a novel, I would think that you would read it all the way through first, instead of reading many 20% and then saying it's filth. In fact most of what you mentioned regarding how Patrick Rothfuss never finishes his stories can be explained quite clearly if you ever bothered to finish the book.

Couldn't disagree more. While there are definitely things in the book that appear to take inspiration from elsewhere, it is by no means a formula book and this is better appreciated as the novel continues. The second novel also rounds the story out further.

To respond to specifics.. it's very strange that you thought there was a problem when "he allows another buy to be stripped and beaten...."etc. The entire Tarbean era was I thought, a well done attempt at showing this young boy going from a loving cheerful family with a brilliant mind etc etc to being beaten in alleys with no one to protect him... he couldn't protect his lute and would have been killed that day if not for a chance intervention... what makes you think after months of starvation and finally clawing himself a small piece of 'living" that he would jump right into the middle of a fight. I think that's what perhaps you wanted, some hero who jumps into danger at the drop of a hat in order to showcase his abilities.. to show him as vulnerable, as scared, shows tremendous skill in painting this multi-dimensional character.

The rest of your comments can either be refuted in similar fashion... or are purely stylistic complaints which are subjective.

I don't understand crappy reviews like this one. Sure the world seems smaller when its from 1 persepctive and Rothfuss doesn't give every single mind numbing detail down to the exact shade of a leaf like some other writers do, but it doesn't make the book any less. It makes it faster paced.

This series is great so far (300 pages into the WMF) Its very fun, and a very nice change of pace from WoT which I just finished.

Let me see...

This is obviously a first noval: You say this in such a way that I feel you think “first” is a criticism. It isn’t.
The dialogue is stilted and manufactured:

I continued to pace along beside him. “I’d think the masters would find other, more academic uses for the academic uses for the university's funds.”
Elodin didn’t look at me. Step. Step step step. “You’re trying to get me to answer questions you’re not asking”. Slide. “It’s not going to work.”
“You’ure trying to trick me into asking questions,” I pointed out.
“It seems only fair.” Step step step. Slide.

“SO why the hell are you bothering with me anyway?” Elodin asked. “Kilven likes you well enough. Why not hitch your start to his wagon?

“I think you know things I can’t learn anywhere else”

“Things like What?”

“Things I’ve wanted to know since I first saw someone call the name of the wind.”

I agree this is a utterly stilted conversation this is always the way i talk to my half mad professor of magic at my mystical university. Pft. Its so formulaic the way Kvothe ask for help and he ranks, dissembles and generally ignores his questions while suddenly slipping in tid bits of information about the backstory...

The setting is inadequately described, leaving almost all the details to the reader's imagination or reusing lackluster descriptors within a single sentence: So what i’m hearing is that your lack imagination and that your looking for a book with pictures. Your in luck Rothfuss has a book called Princess and it has illustrations!

The emotional climaxes are sentimentally crafted: What?

And the characters are paper-thin and one-dimensional : either they're all immediately attracted to Kvothe or they're completely worthless as human beings: Loren, Chronicler, Elodin...how do they fit into that picture. also remember this kvothes story, can you imagine if he elaborated on everyone that wasn’t of consequence to it... oh gods that would be miserable reading.

Even Kvothe is shallowly written, either writhing in self-pity on the streets of Tarbean, or scintillatingly brilliant and devoid of self-doubt: Clearly their isn’t a deepr explanation hidden away in the third noval about how kvothe could show just drastically different personalities. Clearly you haven’t missed something rather large because patrick didn’t spoon feed it to you.

The few instances in which Kvothe's true depth of character demonstrates itself show it to be uniquely awful. In Tarbean, he allows another boy to be stripped and beaten, merely so he can keep his own safe spot. Then, he sets all of Pike's possessions on fire - and then he sets Pike himself on fire, an action for which he is unremorseful: Of course your being fair on the subject here. In no way did Pike break his most valuable position in the world thus breaking any link to his family and past events then nearly beat him to death. No that didn’t happen. Also Rothfuss didn’t explain in elaborate detail the reasons why Kvothe didn’t interject and then explain further how current day kvothe regrets not helping that boy over and over again. CLEARLY NONE OF THOSE THINGS HAPPENED.

And not two or three days later, he is refusing not to pay for his shoes because "it's just the right thing to do" in a manner that Kvothe himself, decades later, finds inexplicable: Clearly at this time Kvothe hasn’t snapped out of a mystical non-spoiler type situatoin in which he has a different outlook at life. No.. no you didn’t miss anything here. Please don’t re-read the book again with a fresh perspective on events...

It's a jarring combination of confused morality : Kvothe is a Mary Sue except when he's a total psychopath: That doesn’t sound like a interesting character that readers would be int rested in. No please, give me those paper thin ones you described earlier.

This might make for an interesting reading if Rothfuss would bother to explore that in an actual plotline, or attempt to more meticulously characterize his protagonist, give him some motives. If Kvothe was altered by these events, or if he was presented to us as a flawed or conflicted hero, that wouldn't make for such a bad story: Yes, RIght on. In no way did you miss subtle hints woven together through the songs, poems and interactions about what the backstory was. Clearly what this book needed was to have a 12 year old boy find fina a book that explained the entire point of everything and the history of the world in context to his problem. How blind of the author to not provid this!

But he never changes. Instead, he merely repeats his behaviors at the university, victimized by Ambrose instead of Pike, setting another malefactor on fire and getting away with it, hiding behind medicines instead of on a rooftop, forging shallow relationships based primarily on cleverness and dissembling. And somehow, nothing is ever Kvothe's fault: Ok i agree a bit with this one. dont let it go to your head.

Here are some of the other recurrent tropes I picked up on, before I dropped this book :
1. Kvothe meets an older man, who instantly develops an affection for him (I'll teach you everything I know, come work at my farm, come eat food and do some work for my crippled children, come listen to a story, you don't have to pay for the bath because you're so nice, you're so clever I'll give you some extra money back for your book, here have some free shoes, come study in the archives.) Kvothe does something which tarnishes the relationship. He immediately regrets this. Nothing ever comes of this interaction: So its recurrent because he doesn’t go with the old man to the farm? Or because he meets him?

2. Kvothe meets the most attractive girl in the whole traveling party / school / etc who is instantly attracted to him, but with whom he is awkward. Nothing ever comes of this interaction: What are you getting attttt...

3. Kvothe meets an irredeemable bastard, who instantly hates him and tries to ruin his life. Or, similarly, Kvothe is a filthy urchin and gets beat up all the time and all his precious possessions get stolen or broken.
Up to the point at which I stopped listening (when Kvothe is banned from the archives) you could describe the book as such : 3, 1, 3, 1, 3, 1, long series of 3's, 1, Kvothe sets a human being on fire, string of 1's, 2, 3, 1, 3, 2, 3, cowardice, 1, 1: I would describe your review as 1 2 3 WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. is the first 3 the first chapter in the inn? Whois the bastard? Your number systems needs a longer explanation. its so 1 5 2 1! You provide no backround story for your numbering system? Can these numbers be added together?!? is the total relevent!!! interested minds must know!

In short, it's an extremely adolescent book, focused purely on the devastating cleverness of the protagonist, rather than the actual story. It's not fantasy, it is a fantasy - one that might engross a fourteen-year-old male. It's not literature: You must be a 12 year old male. And thus need only wait 2 more years tell your tall enough to read this book! Your also sexist to boot.

This makes the choice of first-person narrative even more glaringly incorrect. It's bad enough that Kvothe is presented as an unassailable ubermensch. But to listen to him relate all his various triumphs and tragic circumstances as "I did this..." and "I suffered that..." is galling. This is to say nothing of the fact that we are stuck with a single perspective the entire book, which stunts the development of all the supporting cast: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, maybe. Does a book need a supporting cast? No. It needs to be entertaining. Is kvothe galling? Yes. Intentionally so. He is pompous and arrogantly believes himself always right and usually he is! I enjoy this to a degree but it can get boring... the same way GRRM's character switching can get boring and methodical. But its only a problem because your not taking breaks between. Its like trying to stuff down to much of the same dish. You need a break from it no matter how good it is.

What's unfortunate is that there are all sorts of interesting avenues the book might explore, but are simply allowed to languish. What is the meaning of the appearance of the scrael? How does Kvothe's father's patron use the troupe he sponsors, and how does he react to the Chandrian's attack? Why, when he is perfectly able to survive in the forests during warmer months, does Kvothe choose to wallow in Tarbean year-round? What do we know of Tarbean, except that it is a massive, filthy, brutal port? What do we know of the countryside? Is it forested? Mountainous? Plains? What is the relationship of the town around the University to the University itself, and how do its residents interact with the Arcanists? What is the nature of the politics between the university masters? Why hasn't Kvothe even thought of contacting Abenthy once he's made it to the university?
Why is it that I seem to want to know more of Rothfuss' world than Rothfuss? :::: so your deeply invested with lots of questions and you quit half way through t outraged that your mysterious werent answered in the first half of the first book..... You deserve a metal … i suggest iron to the head repetitively when ever you get near a keyboard

It's as though he isn't even curious about the lands he has created, preferring to pore over the invented genious of his hero rather than to explore what is likely a very fertile world. Incurious authors write very poor books.::: You write well enough to suffer from writers envy. It clear from your review you have talent and are envious at the length of mr rothfuss publish contract. You seek desperately to justify your dismal lack of recognition by picking up others works and tearing it down. So you don’t believe Rothfuss is curious about the things he created that your curious about. YOUR LOGIC IS FLAWLESS AND NOT SHORT SIGHTED.

I have compiled a serious of books you might enjoy: Simple copy the word CliffNotes in front of ever book on this list. ENJOY!