"The Wise Man's Fear" by Patrick Rothfuss

I feel like it would be regarded as utter sacrilege to give this book, this author, this trilogy, this huge following of devoted fans, anything but a review of which is just filled with all glorifying praise for it.

Bless me Father, for I have sinned.

As with a large percentage of reviews for this particular book, you will see rather quickly that a large majority of readers preferred the first book to this second one. I being one of them. When it comes to trilogies, or series, you will find that they either progress and become beautifully developed, and the writing itself becomes stronger .. or it can go in the direction that this one did, which is to regress and actually become weaker in almost every aspect. I liked the first book. The opening of the book actually striking me as one of the better portions of it, the portion that drew me in so deeply. That grip that it had on me was slowly loosened more and more as the book continued, and alas, it never came back to its full power. But it was still a well written, well developed, and entertaining read. I must of enjoyed it as I did immediately begin reading this one as soon as I had finished it. And perhaps that is why I noticed such a stark contrast between the two. The quality of the writing being diminished, the quality of the story becoming diminished, the characters themselves .. diminished. Lets get into the actual breakdown of this review.

For roughly 350 pages there wasn't a lot happening that did much for the story line. It felt like filler, and purely filler for the sake of filler as this book is nearly 1000 pages. We did a lot of drinking and playing at the Eolian with Kvothe and his two friends, Sim and Wilem. A lot of time. We continuously had frequent updates on Kvothe's money situation. How much money he had in his purse, how much money he had to pay for things, how much money he needed to pay for things, how much money his tuition was. For someone that had so little money in his earlier years, and for someone who is always so aware of his money needs, Kvothe sure is stupid when it comes to the managing of his money. He seems to spend it as soon as he gets it, and uses it on frivolous wants such as on his drinking. I think that he may have a drinking problem.

The characters. I have come to realize that a lot of the characters aren't actually very developed. Who are Sim and Wilem? They appear to only be there as a backdrop for Kvothe. They really don't have any personality, and basically come off as being the same person. They are the Watson's to Sherlock Holmes. Kvothe obviously being the most developed character, but I find that the only character that I have come to like is that of Elodin. His character fascinates me.

The females. There are some male authors who cannot write a female character, and I would count Rothfuss among them. When we are introduced to a male character we usually get the general description of what he is wearing, maybe hair color, or even body build, or way of talking. When we are introduced to a female character we get the entire run down, and it is cringe worthy. What she is wearing, her body, her hair color, the shape and color of her eyes, her lips, her teeth, her long elegant neck. What the heck, man? Its all about outward appearances, and therefore his female characters come off as overly sexual objects. In fact I will be going into more detail on this shortly. His female characters relay on their sexuality .. and that's basically all that they are there for. Take Denna for example. I loathe Denna. I do not understand Kvothe's fascination with her, and while I believe that she will have a part in the story later on, right now I currently cannot see the reason for her. Are we supposed to feel sorry for her? Because she brings everything on herself, and there is no sympathy there.

Onto the whole business of females being purely sexual objects, and this is really where the ratings started to drop fast. Felurian. What was that?! Why was this even necessary? At this point, even though I disliked how Rothfuss developed his female characters previously, this is where I started to really see this as some kind of perverted teenage boy fantasy. If you have read the book, you will know of which parts I am speaking of. From there on, no woman can seem to resist Kvothe, and Kvothe himself thinks nothing of sleeping around with multiple woman. Usually this doesn't bother me, but as I stated earlier, this was just poorly done and only seemed to fuel some kind of perverted thrill.

This brings me to the Gary Sue character. We all know that Gary Sue character. That guy that is not only the best looking, but he is also the bravest, the best at everything that he does, the quickest to learn, the most powerful. That basically just describes our Kvothe. Add on top of that, now the best sexual partner too. Nobody likes a Gary Sue.

With that all being said .. I was still entertained by the book. It was 1000 pages of being mildly entertained. The more perverted scenes didn't crop up until I felt like I was too far into the book to call it quits. I feel like I will read book three, if book three ever happens, as I am at this point curious as to where the story will go. I felt like Rothfuss dropped several hints throughout the book, and I have a general idea of where it is going. No one seems to question who exactly, Bredon is .. and we already know that Kvothe has spread tall tails of his doings, and that this is supposed to be the true telling of his story, but events that took place may suggest that he has also embellished this as well ..

So bottom line is, I was entertained, but these books will no longer reside on my bookshelf.

Rating : 3 Stars