Review of The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS

Day Two: The Wise Man's Fear.
"There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man."

An escalating rivalry with a powerful member of the nobility forces Kvothe to leave the University and seek his fortune abroad. Adrift, penniless, and alone, he travels to Vintas, where he quickly becomes entangled in the politics of courtly society. While attempting to curry favor with a powerful noble, Kvothe discovers an assassination attempt, comes into conflict with a rival arcanist, and leads a group of mercenaries into the wild, in an attempt to solve the mystery of who (or what) is waylaying travelers on the King's road.

All the while, Kvothe searches for answers, attempting to uncover the truth about the mysterious Amyr, the Chandrian, and the death of his parents. Along the way, Kvothe is put on trial by the legendary Adem mercenaries, forced to reclaim the honor of the Edema Ruh, and travels into the Fae realm. There he meets Felurian, the faerie woman no man can resist, and who no man has ever survived. Under her tutelage, Kvothe learns much about true magic and the ways of women.

In The Wise Man's Fear Kvothe takes his first steps on the path of the hero and learns how difficult life can be when a man becomes a legend in his own time.

The words of Patrick Rothfuss will haunt you. They will invade your thoughts before you read, while you read and no doubt long after you have closed the book. Tell this story to a room filled with the world’s finest authors, minstrels, poets, actors and sideshow entertainers and they will laugh, they will shed tears, they will nod at the complexity, and they will weep that their own art looms in the shadows of the story they just heard. After The Name of the Wind (Day One [book 1] of the Kingkiller Chronicle) I was left awed and subdued by the mastery of this wonderful storytelling. In all honesty, I did not have any worries about how the continuation would turn out. Pat’s effort and resolve to take the necessary amount of time to put this epic tale together have definitely paid off. This story is long, dauntingly so. But the real horror I faced was that the end was coming faster and faster and thoughts of that in between reading were actually quite depressing. I felt like I was a ten year old kid who was just taken to Disneyworld for the first time and then told that I had to leave after only a few short hours of riding the best rides in the world. I am not even going to highlight my favorite parts of the book because I could in no way, shape or form do them the justice that they deserve. The whole book resonated within me like a new sun with my mind its closest planet. Twists and turns in the plot reverberated my thoughts back to me like only a set of ninety year old twins could finish each other’s sentences. Each scene is laid out perfectly and rich with detail. I loved it and that is really all that I can say. Except, Go out and read these books. Thank-you Patrick Rothfuss! I am deeply in your debt for the story that you shared with me. Godspeed.