By Patrick Rothfuss
Read by Nick Podehl
Reviewed by Gabby
The Wise Man’s Fear (Book 2: The King Killer Chronicles)
Get it the Rupert Degas Audible version here.
Get the Nick Podehl version on audio CD here.
The Wise Man’s Fear Overview:
“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”
My name is Kvothe.
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trehon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.
The Wise Man’s Fear Audiobook Review:
STORY
The Good:
The plot of TWMF wanders a lot. In fact, there hardly seems to be any direction at all. But this audiobook isn’t meant to be an intense story of Kvothe’s revenge. It’s about how Kvothe became a legend and the adventures which made him into that legend (no matter how irrelevant they may seem). The story doesn’t follow a generic formula, it certainly isn’t the most gripping story i’ve ever heard. Yet it is curiously compelling. Perhaps it’s in the way Kvothe slowly reveals more about himself. Perhaps it’s in the mystery of his world and how Kvothe, the arrogant 16 year old came to be Kote, the quiet and subdued inn keeper. Rothfuss’s story will have you completely absorbed in every detail of Kvothe’s life. There’s something pleasant about how familiar Kvothe feels to me and makes me keep going back to his story.
There was also a good dose of humour in the story, Kvothe doesn’t take life so seriously in this audiobook. My favourite line would have to be:
Master Hemme: “they said you were dead”
Kvothe: “and some people say you wear a red corset, but I don’t believe everything I hear”.
I chuckled a lot over that one.
The Bad:
The story does wander all over the place. I won’t lie. There were definitely times when I lost concentration and stopped listening to the audiobook for a while, but I always came back! My main problem with TWMF was that we learned so little. I have so many questions that are yet to be answered and can only satisfy my burning desire to know more by reading pages of fan theories. The sub-plots within this audiobook are very random and usually come out of nowhere. Instead of being particularly interesting or exciting we just learn that Kvothe can be amazing in all kinds of situations and places. Not just the university!
What also bothered me about Rothfuss’s writing was his constant attempts to seem incredibly clever and deep. When the story is flowing that’s when Rothfuss’s true genius comes out and it’s only upon re-reading (or re-listening) that we notice all the little clues he’s sprinkled about. However when Rothfuss tries to seem profound and philosophical he just comes across as pretentious. Anyone can write things that don’t actually make any sense and pretend that it’s deep.
‘When I walked, it was in the land of the forgotten, with my feet so light barely a blade was felt. As the crisp caress of the frost touched my face I could hear the weeping of those left behind”.
I literally just made that up. It doesn’t mean anything. Know why? Because it’s crap. It might seem poetic or meaningful but it’s not. Whenever Rothfuss does something like that it takes away from the story. If I hear about his silence of three parts again I will scream.
IDEAS
The Bad:
There are virtually no new ideas in this book. You could almost, almost just listen to TNOTW again and just put in some fairy sex scenes and couple more fights and you’d be away laughing. Like I said before, very little is resolved in this book and that’s because for most of it Kvothe is doing pretty much the same old stuff. When he actually goes off and does different things it’s still not very exciting, because it’s so drawn out. The main plus i’d have for the ideas would be that the different races are very detailed, well thought out and interesting. One thing I found immensely irritating with the story was that Kvothe had a tendency to just skip over things. *SPOILER* At one point in the book we’re told Kvothe was put on trial for one reason or another, but we learn nothing about it, Rothfuss pretty much said, ‘oh by the way, this happened, but it’s not important, it’s boring’. HUH? He did it again with a shipwrecking *END OF SPOILER* It seems a very lazy method of writing to me. Why have Kvothe go into so much detail as to the daily activities of his mundane life, but then skip out on these things? Why did we have to listen for hours and hours about him being stuck in the woods with a bunch of mercenaries when that could have been replaced with these more interesting events. Perhaps these events showed Kvothe in a bad light and he didn’t want that in his precious story. For a ‘master storyteller’ he’s got a bad habit of skipping the good bits.
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CHARACTERS
The Good:
Elodin is probably my favourite character. I loved how towards the end Kvothe decided to just accept his weird teaching techniques and do anything he asked. When they both ended up naked on the university roof during a storm I laughed so much, partly because it was so ridiculous and partly because it was so funny to visualise. Elodin is a strange fellow, just a bit potty. But he is undoubtedly likeable and obviously very wise, I’ll be interested to see what happens to him.
I liked Kvothe a little more in this audiobook. Now this will seem contradictory as I also consider him a bad character, but I think Kvothe underwent a bit of improvement. He’s resourceful, talented and also a total smart ass, so it’s hard not to like him. Kvothe certainly has his flaws but he is so determined in everything he does. He perseveres and he works his ass off so he can afford clothes and food for both himself and Arie. His heart is in the right place. I really hope that in the next book Kvothe continues to develop (hopefully becomes a bit more modest) and starts to grow into a great man.
The Bad:
I hate Denna. Good Lord I really can’t stand her. She is a very poorly crafted character, utterly bland, extremely dull and not a realistic portrayal of women at all. Denna serves no purpose in the plot at all and is just conveniently shoved in whenever Rothfuss feels like it. Fiction does not need a love story in it to be good. Characters like Denna just need to be left out because she is totally redundant.
Kvothe. The biggest problem I have with him (and I know i’m not alone in this) is that he’s too perfect. Ty and I noticed that in the last 10 minutes of the book Rothfuss decided to chuck in some stuff about how Kvothe was not that good at Mathematics and that his ideas didn’t really fly with Master Kilvin. But that certainly does not balance out the rest of the book where Kvothe and all his friends are always singing his praises because he’s so good at everything. It’s important to have a character whose flawed in some way, because otherwise they are hard to relate to. Kvothe is a human, I know he’s a legend and all that but he’s not a god. The legends are the products of his own stories and boasting as well as rumours about him. Just because people might think of him as a legend it does not mean Kvothe actually is. I suppose it’s a bit of a contradiction because Kvothe’s biggest flaw is that he doesn’t seem to have any. Over the course of about 42 hours Kvothe manages to pick up a new language (possibly the most complex ever imagined) develop new fighting skills, learn warrior yoga, bring lightening down from the sky, kill a bunch of bandits, save a mayor oh and have sex with a fairy of seduction. This last one is so bad it’s funny. Kvothe hasn’t so much as kissed a girl and yet this centuries old fairy is somehow blown away by his love making. Playing out some of your naughty fantasies eh Rothfuss? Maybe this book should have just been: The Name of the Wind 2: Kvothe has sex.
NARRATOR
The Good:
Nick Podehl does a fine job of narration. His pace is excellent and he handles all the poems and songs scattered throughout the book in a very professional manner. His voice and tone is pleasant to listen to and he gives Kvothe (and all the other parts) a great amount of character and emotion. I found listening to Podehl to be very enjoyable. I’ve heard that the other audiobooks narrated by Rupert Degras are also excellent, but i’m currently caught up with Mistborn, so I haven’t had the chance to listen to him.
Podehl gave all the characters very distinct voices and I thought he handled foreign accents very well. I’m not certain what the accent for the people of Ademre was based off, but it was very good.
The Bad:
All in all, no complaints here, I thought the narration was very solid and well done, considering the books length, Podehl did a great job.
I hope you enjoyed our ‘The Wise Man’s Fear’ Audiobook Review, come back soon!
Juana
Thanks for posting this iteirvnew. I’ve heard of Rothfuss and others have recommended him, but he’s still on my large pile of “to be read.”I liked his definitions of ‘fiction’ and ‘faction.’ And Orullian does a nice job of drawing out the keys to each of his questions. Interesting stuff.