I just finished volume II. I enjoyed it, maybe not quite as much as the first one, as I thought it dragged a bit in the Eld with the mercenaries. I am concerned that there’s only one more volume. As Malleus points out, I don’t see how we can possibly cover that much ground, even if he goes to 1500 pages. At the pace he’s going now, it’d take two books just to catch up to the Inkeeper Kvothe frame. Besides, we have to figure that that story is going to go somewhere too. In short I’m concerned, but Rothfuss has shown himself to be nothing if not meticulous and careful so I guess I’ll trust him.
I still predict that Book 3 will be forcibly split in two by the publisher as it slowly becomes just too long to print in one volume. And I think that’s probably a good thing, considering the pacing so far.
As far as spoilers and speculation go, I’ll go ahead and spoil these guesses and questions:
[spoiler]I like the theory about Meluan being Kvothe’s aunt. That seems pretty much a sure thing, just like Haliax being Denna’s patron.
One thing that bothered me: why is one of the Chandrian raiding the Maer’s tax convoys? Is Cinder low on funds? Does he have to buy drinks at the next Chandrian massacre? It kind of undermines his image as pure evil.
Is there any doubt that the king part of Kingkiller will turn out to be our favorite Ambrose?
[/spoiler]
As for Denna, she doesn’t annoy me–I picture her being insanely hot so that makes up for a multitude of sins. Also, it’s pretty clear she’s playing her own game with Haliax – remember how she asks Kvothe in the first book about magic where if you write something down it becomes true – she’s clearly working some sort of this type deal with Haliax, which is why she can’t be with Kvothe, no matter how much money he accumulates.
I am making a meal of this book - whereas I usually am a quick reader. I am doing so because: These last 3 weeks have been insane at work and because I don’t often get a book that I really enjoy.
So far I have been enjoying it. I’m about half way through.
Ahh, thank you for posting this. I did not make the connection before :smack:
It makes a lot of sense. Now I’m off to read the Westeros threads. There are at least two, more than 20 pages each. This is going to take longer than reading the actual book:
I was really excited about this, but then someone in the other thread mentioned that [spoiler]Lanre, who we know is Haliax, got the power to destroy Selitos from Iax, so they can’t be the same person:
So Lanre became Haliax by getting the power from Iax. I’m guessing Haliax means “servant of Iax” or something like that.
[/spoiler]
I read all 800+ posts over at the Westeros forum, and I have to say I’m impressed by the analysis I read there. The signal to noise ratio is very high and there was a lot of great stuff that I missed in my original reading.
The best of the discoveries in the other thread, in my opinion:
In the song that Arliden sings to Kvothe’s mother, there is a pun that spells out that she is really the Lackless heiress: “It’s worth my life to make my wife / Not Tally a lot less.” In other words, Netalia Lackless. Also, when young Kvothe sings the rude rhyme about Lady Lackless, his mother says, “I imagine you could make it up to both Lady Lackless and myself if you found some sweet nettle for the pot tonight.”
Most everyone over there believes that Denna’s patron is actually Bredon, something that I don’t quite agree with. They do have some evidence: both Bredon and the patron have walking sticks, they both dance, they both were in Vintas at the same time. However, that seems a bit circumstantial to me. I think it’s clear that Denna’s patron is one of the Chandrian, and I lean towards Haliax myself. Many people think Bredon = Cinder = Patron but again, it’s purely circumstantial.
Another thing that was brought up is Denna’s use of the Yllish story knots as a type of magic. Is this the type of magic her patron is teaching her or is it something she sought out for herself when she went to Yll? It certainly fits with her questions about magic where you could write something down and it would become true whether people could understand it or not. Perhaps she was so angry that Kvothe understood her hair braid because it revealed she was using it magically, to appear more attractive to people, to aid her in her fleecing suitors work.
Why else was she at the wedding in the first book? Her patron sent her to reconnoiter the wedding party and right after she reported to him, everyone was killed by the Chandrian. Add to that his penchant for cruelty and secrecy.
Well, he refuses to come out into the open, he beats her and he’s the one who put her in the party in book one where all the wedding guests were killed. At the same party, an urn - or something - with pictures and descriptions of the chandrian was found and stolen.
I quite enjoyed it. I too fear that there are way too many subplots for him to finish them all to our satisfaction in only one remaining book. I guess in another 5 years or so we’ll see… (yes, that is a grumble you hear an echo of in that last sentence.)