A joyous train ride, where I had to transfer to different trains many times to get to a destination that wasn't quite where I was told to go.
I want to start by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'll admit that this isn't the greatest book in the world and is far from perfect. In fact, it has a lot of glaring flaws, but I overlooked them because it didn't seem to affect the book's ability to give me a satisfying tale of a desperate journey through a troubled youth.
I like Rothfuss' writing style. It's plain, simple, descriptive, uses some very profound, yet easy to understand anologies, and flows easily. The writing is descriptive (though more heavily in some parts than others), but varied in such a way that the reader's mind will not find it repetitive, nor overly familiar; I never felt any sense of impatience reading through the words that Rothfuss used to paint his characters and his world. If you're looking for something "poetic" or something that uses "a unique style of prose" or "some weird/foreign pentameter to metre his lines", then you won't find it in this book. It's meant to be an easy read that doesn't require readers to re-read each sentence to analyze how each flourishing detail would work to reference the same object/entity. It's an easy read, trust me.
This book is supposed to be the first part of a trilogy. As such, it doesn't seem like the first third of a story; it seems more like a really long prologue. The mode of storytelling is done from the main character's own mouth (Kote or Kvothe), as he tells his story to a chronicler. The author spends ample time building up the character's first few years of life, and then presents a catastrophic event which will undoubtedly pave the path for the main character's ultimate purpose.
Unfortunately, throughout the rest of the book, the character makes close to no progress towards that ultimate purpose. Somehow, I can't blame the author, because the main character's unfortunate position requires him to live day-to-day, being extremely poor, which in turn forces him to focus more on survival than on "seeking to write his destiny".
The main character never develops throughout the book. He's the same person from the start of the book, as he is at the end of the book. He's like a kid who was born with the maturity of a high school/college student, who never becomes a full adult. His level intelligence, wisdom, and charm all remain a static constant throughout the story. The only thing he seems to actually build upon, is his knowledge of the arcane and his ability to use it; oh, and he becomes more and more reckless.
The character has numerous "life-changing experiences" which are masterfully told by Rothfuss, but none of them actually seem to end up changing the character's life. These events do nothing to mold the character; it's as if his life experiences don't affect his character/personality one bit.
The author uses many cheap gimmicks to suppress the character's high-octane emotions through usage of "arcane tricks", making him a robot who seeks nothing but pride and his own survival. The character hides his emotions well, especially from his readers.
This book is basically a compilation of tales/adventures about a young boy. There's no purpose or direction to be found; hopefully the next two books will address this issue.
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