Have repeated had to remind myself that I really enjoyed the Name of the Wind – so much gushing and hysteria on the net from bloggers saying what revolutionary genius it is and I naturally start to feel prejudiced against the thing. Which is sad when it is very good and deserves the success it got; wish I could develop such an engaging style but it’s far harder than the effortlessness Pat conveys. But I far prefer the portrayal of Glotka to the smug and insufferable Kvothe, I don’t think boy goes to wizard school is quite so revolutionary as some think, and the prose is brilliantly readable rather than stunningly beautiful.
So can people dial it down a bit so my memory of the book isn’t soured and I’m not put off reading book 2 please?
We are thinking disturbingly alike these days, Tom. Are you stalking me Inception style?
It is for the very reasons you mention that I’m not reading book 2 right away. I’d much rather read the US review copy of Adrian’s bug wars in The Scarab Path. It really is bothersome though, because as good as I thought Pat’s first novel was, all of this fanaticism is tainting my opinion of it all. Just once I’d like to have a conversation with a book reader who doesn’t say “OMG Pat is a GOD…wait does that mean I worship him? YAY!!”
I think it stems from the old “familiar vs unfamiliar” argument. Pat wrote an amazingly accessible novel that was filled with familiar fantasy concepts. The masses like that, and there’s nothing wrong at all with it. Pat is a great writer, and an even better person. I’ll wait until I get back from my UK vacation to read his 2nd.
Heh, I’m neither confirming nor denying anything.
Think I read NOTW over Christmas, and if memory serves it came out close to Twiglet which would make it August-ish – so clearly for book 1 I had to let the hype die down for a few months before I even started it!
As Harry Potter’s shown, familiar + accessibility is the way to rule the world. All that playing with demons stuff hasn’t been nearly so effective…
Demons are interesting and you know it!
How’s the website? I see the forum is still down.
Yeah, webmaster’s doing it in his spare time for me, and given he’s busy at work and has a young daughter, there’s not a whole lot of spare time at the moment! Hoping it’ll be back up in a month or two, but it’s not a quick job as it needs a redesign so hackers don’t constantly go at it again.
We are thinking disturbingly alike these days, Tom. Are you stalking me Inception style?
It is for the very reasons you mention that I’m not reading book 2 right away. I’d much rather read the US review copy of Adrian’s bug wars in The Scarab Path. It really is bothersome though, because as good as I thought Pat’s first novel was, all of this fanaticism is tainting my opinion of it all. Just once I’d like to have a conversation with a book reader who doesn’t say “OMG Pat is a GOD…wait does that mean I worship him? YAY!!”
I think it stems from the old “familiar vs unfamiliar” argument. Pat wrote an amazingly accessible novel that was filled with familiar fantasy concepts. The masses like that, and there’s nothing wrong at all with it. Pat is a great writer, and an even better person. I’ll wait until I get back from my UK vacation to read his 2nd.
Heh, I’m neither confirming nor denying anything.
Think I read NOTW over Christmas, and if memory serves it came out close to Twiglet which would make it August-ish – so clearly for book 1 I had to let the hype die down for a few months before I even started it!
As Harry Potter’s shown, familiar + accessibility is the way to rule the world. All that playing with demons stuff hasn’t been nearly so effective…
Demons are interesting and you know it!
How’s the website? I see the forum is still down.
Yeah, webmaster’s doing it in his spare time for me, and given he’s busy at work and has a young daughter, there’s not a whole lot of spare time at the moment! Hoping it’ll be back up in a month or two, but it’s not a quick job as it needs a redesign so hackers don’t constantly go at it again.
Yeah, is annoying when an opinion is coloured by outside comments – good or bad. I think I’d heard before reading Declare about a flaw that I would find annoying, so it was then REALLY obvious to me when I read it.
Yeah, is annoying when an opinion is coloured by outside comments – good or bad. I think I’d heard before reading Declare about a flaw that I would find annoying, so it was then REALLY obvious to me when I read it.
I am feeling *exactly* the same way. Avoiding the new book for a while, as right now, my impulse is just to shred it out of pure, rebellious spite.
I am feeling *exactly* the same way. Avoiding the new book for a while, as right now, my impulse is just to shred it out of pure, rebellious spite.