Date of Completion: 02/07/2021
I seem to be one of the few readers unimpressed by this fantasy “masterpiece”. Perhaps my taste in fantasy books is not mature or profound enough for such an elaborate tale. Or, perhaps I am merely disinterested in fantasy books that read like a convoluted autobiography and have no clear storyline.
Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power.
The abnormalities for me began in the prologue. The weirdly mellow and placid prologue about silence caught me by surprise. As someone who often reads fantasy books, I am used to prologues that hint at imminent problems and trouble. This was not the case here and I found myself intrigued by this deviation from the norm. I guess I should have known that a fantasy book with a prologue about silence would be far too unusual for me to handle.
Moving further into the depths of this book, I was initially very impressed by the detailed world-building and realistic descriptions. Patrick’s words flowed smoothly through my mind, calling forth wonder and delight at the world he created. Yet, as the pages went by, I found myself struggling to hold on to my initial excitement and interest. Surely I could not possibly be bored with the wonderful writing and beautiful details that graced my eyes?
Oh, but I was!
Personally, I think 200 pages is far too much for readers to wade through as the foundation of the story. To make things worse, this groundwork is then buried beneath random tangents that accomplish nothing. At some point, I finally stopped forcing myself to care about the numerous details and developments as they all seemed to lack coherence and purpose.
The magic system in this book is also far too convoluted and detailed for my liking. Each time a comprehensive explanation is given for how a concept works, my eyes automatically skimmed the lengthy paragraphs to get a rough understanding. I do recognise that this level of detail could be very impressive to other readers as each concept is clearly well-thought-out, but for me, it is just too much!
Weirdly enough, the characters in this book had the opposite problem to the magic system. They lacked the depth and creativity that the magic system had in abundance. This caused them to came across as cliché and/or one-dimensional. Even the main character somehow managed to be underwhelming and forgettable.
That was another lesson I had learned perhaps too well: people meant pain.
At least now I can proudly say that I have read one of the most popular fantasy books of all time. Unfortunately, I was not blown away by this book like most people seem to have been. While I did enjoy Patrick Rothfuss’s writing, it was the convoluted world-building and storyline that made it difficult for me to like this book.
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