It made sense that as a fantasy writer I would read one of the most raved about fantasy books ever, so I borrowed a copy of the first book from a friend.
The book started astoundingly well. There’s something very cool about the way Patrick Rothfuss writes. The way he constructs a sentence and describes things, sometimes even everyday ordinary things, that just works. He didn’t seem to waste a single word.
I loved the first half of the story immensly and didn’t want to put the book down. The characters were all brilliant and the storytelling feel of it was also really comfortable. But I found the second half didn’t appeal to me quite so much. I felt once Kvothe was at the University that the plot slowed more than I’d hoped it would and I grew a little bored.
I was also disappointed with the ending. It feels very much like one story that’s being chopped into three because it’s so long not because it naturally breaks up into smaller chunks. As much as I really enjoyed the writing and the book as a whole I can’t recommend anyone starts reading it while the third book remains unpublished. It would be like starting Lord of the Rings with only The Fellowship of the Ring published and no ending.
That said, I will be reading onwards and I still really like this author’s style, I just might not bother with the second until right before the third one is due out. I hate getting to the end of the book and not feeling like even a part of the plot is finished.
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