The Wise Man’s Fear
Preceded by: The Name of the Wind In The Wise Man's Fear, 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 his family, and travels into the Fae realm. There he meets Felurian, the faerie woman no man can resist, and who no man has ever survived...until Kvothe. Now, 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.
Stats for nerds
16recommend
30mentions
25people
2010–2026years
57% recommend33% neutral10% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I felt the same way about DCC having listened to the series as audiobooks.
On the other hand, and not to over-hype them, but The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear are probably my favorite non-fiction books. Way better writing and stories than DCC. Not everyone is a fan, but I think I've listened to them 6-7 times each at this point. I often notice new details on each pass, and I appreciate some parts more on subsequent listens than I did in the first one/few. Not having a third book sucks, but definitely still worth it.
- I did not believe that he'll finish the series since I got my hands on the first two books, because it already was 7 years after the first release. In my opinion his novel "The Slow Regard of Silent Things" is not worth the money and he had lost his flow. That would have been a pity, but kind of ok-ish - nobody is perfect.
More recently I feel confirmed (and a little shocked), since I've read about his shady behaviour regarding his "charity" work, as well as plans of releasing and reading chapter 1 and then not delivering for more than 8 months.
I can't believe there are still fans standing by him and still spending their money for his very shady purposes... I would not recommend to do so.
And yet "The name of the wind" (part 1) and "The wise man's fear" (part 2) are still the best fantasy I've ever read so far.
- The Harry Potter series remains the most enjoyable books I've ever read. The Pillars of the Earth comes close though.
Terrific sci-fi reads were Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Hyperion, Ringworld, and to a lesser extent A Deepness in the Sky. Also Excession, whose human characters are poorly developed and written but whose world-building and AI characters are amazing.
Terrific fantasy reads were The Time-Traveler's Wife, as well as The Name of the Wind and its sequel The Wise Man's Fear. The latter two have rather bad writing and TERRIBLE female characters, but the story is extremely engrossing anyway and some of the ideas are really original (the Cthaeh!).
Catch-22 was an amazing read as well. Watership Down, After Dark, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, and Blood Meridian all dazzled me.
Oh, and The Sandman, Watchmen, Maus, and Persepolis for graphic novels.
For short stories: MMAcevedo (https://qntm.org/mmacevedo), The Last Question by Asimov, The Library of Babel by Borges, and The Dead by Joyce (whose final sentence is my favorite of all English-language writing).
Lastly, The Design of Everyday Things changed how I saw man-made items.
Edit: I almost forgot-- Ecclesiastes, from the Old Testament. I am not religious and this work stands out strongly from all the other writings collected in the bible. It's a poetic work on finding purpose in a world that lacks any inherent meaning. Considered one of if not the most well-written book of the entire bible. Recommend the NIV translation.
- Wise Man's Fear is also excellent. The Slow Regard of Silent Things was... interesting. I wouldn't say it was bad, but I definitely think it's a love it or hate it kind of book/novella. I liked it, but your enjoyment of it isn't necessarily a reflection of your enjoyment of the rest of the series.
Welcome to the long wait for Doors of Stone.
- The Kingkiller Chronicle.
Firstly, they're good books and are enjoyable to read a second time round.
Secondly, Rothfuss has laid down plot points like a Go player places stones. The second time reading through will join together disparate pieces of information that you wouldn't have connected together before, starting from very large revelations in the second reading of the first few chapters.
I know of other books that are so rich that you can appreciate new details on multiple readings, but none that re-contextualise the whole story with revelations hidden in plain sight.
Readings: (Name of the wind - 4 times, Wise Man's Fear 5 or 6 times - I like this one more for some reason).
- You should check out the sequel to The Name of the Wind, A Wise Man's Fear.
