The Wise Man's Fear

In the second book of Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle, titled The Wise Man's Fear, innkeeper Kote continues telling about his life as young Kvothe. While I still wouldn't call this would-be(-maybe?) trilogy one of my favorites, I wouldn't mind reading its conclusion one day.

I think what made me like this one more -- besides being more invested for having already read one book -- is Kvothe's story-self getting more competent and him having made friends. He's no longer alone in his feud with Ambrose, another university student for instance. (Their rivalry reminded me of the Harry Potter books.)

One of the subjects Kvothe studies in the university, the Arcanum, is Naming magic. It is taught by Master Elodin who is eccentric, probably not completely sane. His teaching methods are odd but the subject is difficult too since Naming something is mostly done by one's sleeping mind. Kvothe has instinctively Named wind before but he's still way more talented with his awake mind. Trying to actively learn Naming is frustrating and he isn't getting anywhere with it.

The book doesn't get too in depth with the sleeping and awake mind stuff but it was kind of touching the theme of Blindsight by Peter Watts which I read at the end of last year. Like how your unaware self is more effective at performing tasks than your self aware consciousness. I thought it an interesting basis for a magic system.

Around the middle of the novel I feel Rothfuss came to the realization that the narrative should actually start getting somewhere. Young Kvothe is put on a trial for consorting with demonic powers during the events of the previous book but Kote completely skips the court proceedings which he thought boring and irrelevant to the story. Afterwards Kvothe is recommended to keep low profile for a while and thus he takes a year off, to work on getting a patron for his musical career.

Kvothe travels to Tarbean to offer his services to Maer, an extremely wealthy ruler. The journey there seemed eventful, given Kvothe lost all his belongings (besides his lute) but it is likewise completely skipped by Kote due to irrelevance again. Instead he focuses right away on Kvothe's attempt to get in good terms with Maer and the search for the mythical Chandrian who killed Kvothe's parents and the Edema Ruh troupe they were a part of.

Kvothe's adventures from then on are eventful. Among other things he becomes a novice in Ketan and Lethani, the martial art and the philosophy of the people from the distant country of Ademre. While the Adem are not truly like the Aiel in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, I found them similar. Ketan's movements are also named in the same manner as the sword forms in Jordan's books.

The Wise Man's Fear makes progress but it's still a good ways off from Kvothe reaching his present situation. Like the whole kingkilling business is yet to happen. At the end Kvothe returns back to the university to continues his studies -- which he will never finish I guess since already at the start of the first book it was revealed that he was kicked out. Rothfuss should really finish the series. Looking at the various statements he's given I get the impression that The Doors of Stone might come out eventually. Yet years just keep passing and Rothfuss is doing all kinds of stuff that is not writing the book, like streaming on Twitch.