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Lai · 2012-04-23 18:23:23

Today's Piano assignment was pretty easy so I killed some time by trying my hand at notations.

It's not going so hot.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-04-23 18:24:18

^^^^I know, but still.

Speaking of which, does anyone know when The Doors of Stone comes out?

Forzare · 2012-04-23 18:25:32

Speaking of which, does anyone know when The Doors of Stone comes out?

Probably not for a long, loooong time.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-04-23 18:29:08

T_T

Forzare · 2012-04-23 18:30:22

There were four years between the release of NotW and WMF, so...

Nova · 2012-04-23 18:32:13

So I've heard good things about The Name of The Wind. Any confirmation or denial on that?

whoah other people have heard of this :O

All Nines · 2012-04-23 18:36:28

My favorite fantasy novel is probably Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

I had a tough time getting through that one. I enjoyed it for a while, but its pace is too light for me, I guess.

As for Dresden Files vs. other fantasy: as much as I can't fault Butcher for the writing style he uses in the series, it really isn't that tough to find a more pleasing and elegant writing style. Doesn't stop the books from being enjoyable. Quite the opposite, actually; I couldn't imagine a more virtuoso writing style working for such a series.

Malkavian · 2012-04-23 18:37:57

I eat P.I. crap up so I love the Phillip Marlowe-by-way-of-Stan-Lee prose.

Bastion · 2012-04-23 18:39:28

Mass Effect 2. I appear to be paralyzed with indecision over whether to kill Morinth or Samara.

This is getting silly. I should probably just flip a coin or something.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-04-23 18:39:33

I do too, but the prose in Name of the Wind is some of the best I've seen anywhere.

Firebert · 2012-04-23 18:43:10

^^ Wow, I thought that choice was pretty straightforward.

RedEyedAbyss · 2012-04-23 18:43:36

Sometimes my current gaming tastes semi-qualifying me as casual makes me feel unwelcome in gaming discussions since said tastes feel so out of sync.

Malkavian · 2012-04-23 18:43:43

Not trying to say otherwise and couldn't even if I did want, having not read them.

Hmm to get it physically or on kindle... that is the question...

>mfw when I have a bunch of fantasy novels on kindle and all my cyberpunk books are physical copies.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-04-23 18:44:45

^^^^Seriously? It's basically about whether you prefer the mass murderer who can't be loyal to you or the actual party member.

Nova · 2012-04-23 18:47:17

the prose in Name of the Wind is some of the best I've seen anywhere.

Its' plot holes do get pretty silly though.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-04-23 18:47:56

Such as?

Wicked223 · 2012-04-23 18:50:03

I've seen a bunch of insanely vitriolic reviews of a particular scene in Wise Man's Fear (I think you know the one) but I'm still willing to give it a try.

Forzare · 2012-04-23 18:50:58

Re; Morinth and Samara: IIRC, if you're renegade, Samara talks about how she's going to try to kill you once she's done working with you. And most of your team are criminals, where Samara is very... unforgiving towards people who break the law.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-04-23 18:51:06

^^Which scene? It's kinda a thousand pages long, so there are a lot of them.

^Ah, that makes sense.

Nova · 2012-04-23 18:53:07

Such as?

Remember how he worries so hard about being able to play the... instrument (I think it's a seven-string lyre) when he gets to the University, despite, you know, having played it perfectly fine on the caravans on the way to the University with no practice before that?

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-04-23 18:55:37

Lute.

I figured that's because he's really obsessive about his music. I dunno if it was in NotW or TWMF that he said that losing his lute would be like losing an arm, but I find that pretty consistent with his personality.

Nova · 2012-04-23 18:56:46

Lute, that's it. Sorry, I knew it was an L-song.

Yeah, but remember how much he went on and on about it- to the point that he literally used most of his rest time to go practice with the lute, almost driving himself to burn out because he was afraid he'd forgotten how to play?

Wicked223 · 2012-04-23 18:59:50

Which scene? It's kinda a thousand pages long, so there are a lot of them.

The Felurian scene. That didn't stand out at all in your mind?

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-04-23 19:00:50

^^Yeah, and I'm still not seeing that as a plot hole. That's exactly the sort of thing he'd worry about despite it being pretty dumb for him to.

^Yeah, I figured it was that, but wanted to be certain. Yeah, that was kinda...not the best moment in the series, and lasted far longer than necessary.

The other possibility in my mind was

Spoiler:

all the stuff related to how the Adem view sex,

which was pretty dumb.

Forzare · 2012-04-23 19:02:41

Yeah, it's easily the worst part of the series.

Though without spoiling stuff, the bit in there with the Cthaeh more than made up for it in my opinion.

Nova · 2012-04-23 19:03:54

Leeeet's just go with an actual reviewer pointing it out 'coz I suck.

We're about a third into the book at this point, and the writing is excellent the whole way. Rothfuss's accessible voice gives his story's sense of place a gritty authenticity you rarely see in epic fantasy. Still, vexing plot flaws mar the experience. If Kvothe's father's troupe was as famous as he says they are ("We were court performers.... Our arrival in most towns was more of an event than the Mid-winter Pageantry and Solinade Games put together."), then you'd think word would have gotten out about their massacre. But it's never mentioned in passing by any supporting character. Why aren't the roads alive with men-at-arms banging on doors and seeking out the killers? Late in the novel, a similar massacre happens at a wedding among people presumably less famous, and the next day it's being gossiped about in taverns 70 miles away. Wha?

Also, if Kvothe is an expert actor, gifted lute-player, and a skilled novice in the use of sympathetic magic, why does it take a whole three years of starving as an orphan on rooftops before it occurs to him to use those talents to better himself? I understand he's bereaved about his parents, but survival instincts are what they are, you know. Time and again we see him beaten as a beggar, but all at once, the day he decides to leave Tarbean for the University, he gets the bright idea to pretend to be a haughty nobleman's son to trick a merchant out of some clean clothing. Why didn't he do this ages ago? And, once at the University, indigent and in perpetual worry about earning enough to pay his upcoming tuition, Kvothe buys a secondhand lute with his last coins so he can earn money playing at taverns. He immediately begins feverish practice, worried that he's gotten rusty in three years. But Rothfuss seems to have forgotten that on the road to the University less than six months before, Kvothe borrowed a lute and played a masterful solo that left his fellow travellers slack-jawed in awe.

So you see, there are a number of sloppy inconsistencies. Fortunately, most of these are limited to the book's first half. But they're pretty visible. It's just a bit much to ask readers blithely to accept that your hero, having barely managed to survive the past three years as a mangy street urchin, then turns up at the most prestigious University in the world and, within days, practically takes charge of the place.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-04-23 19:04:40

the bit in there with the Cthaeh

Yeah, that's why I said "longer than necessary." Because the Cthaeh being in there made it pretty clear that all that did at least happen for a reason.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-04-23 19:10:00

then you'd think word would have gotten out about their massacre

People don't care about the Edema Ruh. For most people, a bunch of them getting killed on the road doesn't warrant mentioning.

all at once, the day he decides to leave Tarbean for the University, he gets the bright idea to pretend to be a haughty nobleman's son to trick a merchant out of some clean clothing. Why didn't he do this ages ago

That one is a fair point, but you have to consider that he's about as far out of his element as can be. While he is trained as an actor, it's quite possible to not make the connection to being a con-man when you're more concerned with figuring out how to eat. Flimsy, I know, but it's not entirely invalid.

And, once at the University, indigent and in perpetual worry about earning enough to pay his upcoming tuition, Kvothe buys a secondhand lute with his last coins so he can earn money playing at taverns. He immediately begins feverish practice, worried that he's gotten rusty in three years. But Rothfuss seems to have forgotten that on the road to the University less than six months before, Kvothe borrowed a lute and played a masterful solo that left his fellow travellers slack-jawed in awe.

Again, I consider this less of of a plot hole than a character flaw.

It's just a bit much to ask readers blithely to accept that your hero, having barely managed to survive the past three years as a mangy street urchin, then turns up at the most prestigious University in the world and, within days, practically takes charge of the place.

If you call being whipped and making about two of the people in charge despise him and another think he's a complete idiot "taking charge."

Nova · 2012-04-23 19:16:11

People don't care about the Edema Ruh. For most people, a bunch of them getting killed on the road doesn't warrant mentioning.

Which is why he specifically states "If Kvothe's father's troupe was as famous as he says they are" and backs it up with a quote from the book that does claim that they are very famous.

That one is a fair point, but you have to consider that he's about as far out of his element as can be. While he is trained as an actor, it's quite possible to not make the connection to being a con-man when you're more concerned with figuring out how to eat. Flimsy, I know, but it's not entirely invalid.

He's more than just an actor, though. He's an actor, a musician, an arcanist. Are you telling me that in three years, he never thought of a way to use any of these gifts to relieve the constant torment he talked about in that segment?

Again, I consider this less of of a plot hole than a character flaw.

It is very inconsistent. Note how he does not worry about his use of sympathetic magic throughout the trip to the University, and nor when he gets in there; he has not practised at all by the time he uses it on his teacher, if I remember correctly. Similarly, despite his acting being the premise for why everyone sees him as a larger-than-life figure, before he pulls off a major con with it, he has not used that at all either.

So, why is he so much more concerned with his lute-playing than with his sympathetic magic, when his sympathetic magic is the entire reason he is going to gain admittance to the University?

Nova · 2012-04-23 19:22:30

also, that

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