Rothfuss? Seriously? Do you have any sales figures on The Name of the Wind? I've heard a lot of critical praise for it, but when I talk to people in the bookstore (yes, this is a habit of mine), they are much more likely to mention Sanderson, Abercrombie, or Bakker. Was The Name of the Wind really that huge? Because Rothfuss' output rate is now in GRRM/Vernor Vinge territory. And where each GRRM book is an action-filled epic unto itself, The Name of the Wind - Rothfuss' one and only book! - was more of a giant slow prologue. I can easily see this guy flaming out, and people clucking about "all that wasted potential," in a couple years.
I think "gritty" also refers to a more accurate description of the brutality and ignorance of medieval life. When I think of "gritty" I think of this quote from George R.R. Martin, when describing a military officer: "[Walton was] blunt, brusque, brutal, at heart a simple soldier...men like him kill at their lord’s command, rape after a battle, when their blood was up, and plunder whenever they could. But once the war was done, men like Walton go back to their homes, throw away their swords for hoes, wed a farmer’s daughter and raise a pack of squalling children." Or, to put it more succinctly: "Must be the king...He's the only one who hasn't got s**t all over him."
According to the publishers and various commentators, including Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, The Name of the Wind, in its first year on sale, massively outsold the very successful and very-heavily-marketed Eye of the World, Game of Thrones and Wizards' First Rule in their respective first years. Whilst Rothfuss needs to maintain that momentum, and the four-year gap before Book 2 comes out may erode some of it, that alone indicates his success will be utterly massive unless he cocks it up in the way you describe as possible. Certainly the online level of discussion for Rothfuss, an author with just one book to his name, is disproportionately huge. Sanderson has also been a big success, but that's been more of a grower over five well-received solo adult novels (and three YA titles) and of course his WoT work, which has raised the sales of his back-catalogue as well. Abercrombie has also been a strong success, but not on the level of the first two. Bakker would certainly be mentioned in any discussion of quality epic fantasy or authors trying to do something different, but as far as I can tell his sales are solid but unremarkable. Isn't the first trilogy still unavailable in mmpb in the States as well?
I wouldn't be suprised to see the second book debut at #1(top ten anyway) myself if they make people aware its coming out.. He's had four or so years to gain fans ontop of his great first year. Will be hard to top the first book though and the wait hasn't helped him in that.
I also spend time talking to book store employees, and Name of the Wind has come up time and time again, especially with those who don't appear to be big fantasy readers but need to make recommendations. I chanced upon the book when it was already in paperback at Powell's Books in Portland. (If you ever get out to Portland, I'd recommend you making the trip to the book Mecca of the Pacific Northwest.) Anyway, the fantasy/sci fi section actually has two attendants staffed to help customers (yes, it's that big) and the gal I spoke to recommended three books, one of which was Name of the Wind. I think Rothfuss managed to reach a wider audience than the usual fantasy crowd, much like Martin and Jordan before him. I don't think he's necessarily better than those you mentioned, but there's a broad appeal for his story. After all, it's already proven by both LeGuin and Feist in fantasy classics that have passed the test of time.
Damn, I might have to move Rothfuss from the "mildly disappointing" bin to the "vastly overrated" bin. Are people really so willing to make out with a book in which nothing happens? And yet, I will buy and read the second book, so I guess Rothfuss gets the last laugh...
Not in mmpb, but it is in trade paperback. I'm not exactly sure why it has never been published as a mass market, but it seems to denote some kind of "literary" merit (e.g. folks like John Crowley never "stoop down" from trade to mm).
I would think in the future we're going to continue along the path we are currently treading. Which is a path full of different styles all with popular authors. The internet has opened up the world to so many authors that have long been forgotten, and authors that are just new and yet really breaking ground. We're already starting to see a resurgence of some of the older style fantasy. I think that because of the internet and us having access to so much information that trends will will become less prominent.
Oh, I don't expect you to change your opinion. I find the phrase "your mileage may vary" to be very appropriate among fantasy readers. I have a good friend who I respect a great deal who thinks nothing happened in Abercrombie's entire trilogy.
people are saying he's popular, which is true. that doesn't automatically amount to being overrated. and a lot of stuff happened in the name of the wind, sounds like you just expect a war or somerthing.
Good post, on topic and everything. I still read books made of paper. I imagine that as more people eRead, eventually all but replacing paper, that developments in eCulture will strongly affect the emerging shape of literature. Maybe serials in shorter installments--put them together and they'll read like Victorian novel. Social media may have an impact, igniting more cooperative writing.
Well, you're right. Something does happen. Spoilers: A kid's parents get killed. He spends some time being a street kid, during which he gets in fights with another street kid and gets beaten up by a guard. He then goes off to college, where he excels in academic subjects and saves a classmate from a fire. A rival student attempts to have him killed by street thugs but he escapes. He meets a girl he likes, doesn't hook up with her, but walks around with her in nature until they randomly encounter a drug-addicted sort-of-dragon that torches a couple of houses before Our Hero manages to collapse a church on it. All this in less than 800 pages! How does Rothfuss do it???
exactly, NOTHING significant at all heaven forbid some time and real care is taken to develop a person who we're going to read about for another 3 books and god knows how many more. that's why people rate it. we actually Spoiler cared for his parents, and what happened to him. because we're taken on his journey. not just tidbits of it.
Yup. Gigantic 800-page prologue. To a story that might be good or might be bad. People are rating it highly on the speculation (hope? assumption?) that the payoff will be an awesome epic story. And if it DOES turn out to be an awesome epic story, I'll definitely say the prologue was not overrated, since it'll have been worth it...
they wouldn't rate it now if they didn't enjoy it on its own a whole lot already. whether the pay off for you is worth it or not, the name of the wind worked on its own. i think Spoiler killing dragons, love, student rivalries, learning magic and growing up on the streets, Spoiler having your parents die , trying to get through his grueling studies and pay for his intuition etc. is definitely something happening. and whether it was the most incident ridden story or not, that wasn't really the point, rothfuss wanted us to get to know kvothe, in the timeless story about coming of age. and by the end most people felt like kvothe was someone they knew deeply - his strengths, his insecurities, his hates, his loves, his desires, his fears, his general personality. and that requires time. that's what creates a connection to a character like no other medium can do, and because of that, we now care what happens to him. that's the appeal of the name of the wind. whether it pays off even more so in the end with an amazing story that we truly care about, which he has given the series the amazing potential to with such a well drawn character, or not, well.....atleast we still have the journey of kvothe in the name of the wind. a great 'prologue' is still great, you just don't like prologues . i guess i do.
While we're on the subject of Name of the Wind, another book I started but didn't finish (but will get back to sometime soon as it seems to be "must reading"), what is the deal with the continual delay of the 2nd book? What is Rothfuss' explanation? If I remember correctly it was supposed to come out a year after the first (so 2008) and now it is slated for 3/11, at least according to Amazon, which will be three years late; that must be a non-Martinian record. It is just surprising because I remember around the time the Name of the Wind came out Rothfuss saying that the entire series was already written and one book would be published each year. As a wannabe writer I understand re-writing and how a story can just go in directions you hadn't planned for, but this is getting ridiculous. What gives?
Rothfuss had written the whole thing as one novel and completed it, but it was a very rough first draft. It took about a year to bring The Name of the Wind to a publishable state, so it was assumed that the same would be true of the other two books. However, Rothfuss first had a lot of personal issues. His mother died, he had a baby, and he had to adjust to a lot of other things, all of which added to the delays. Then it appears that the changes he'd made to Book 1 to get it publishable resulted in significant changes that were needed for Book 2, on top of the already-significant rewriting that would be required anyway. The final problem, which Rothfuss has said, is that the immense success of the first book has made him paranoid about not letting the second book out until it is as good as it can possibly be, to the point that he's half-rewritten Book 2 at least twice over to make it better. At least now we have a hand-in target date of mid-August 2010 and a rough publication date of March 2011. Whether he makes it or not remains to be seen. To be honest, the value of having an already-existing draft is often dubious. If the book has gone or is going in a different direction to what you envisaged in the draft, simply deleting what you have and starting fresh from scratch can be faster than spending months trying to integrate an earlier, different version of the text into the new vision of the book (fitting the square peg in a round hole, or more accurately a hole that used to be square but is now round). GRRM suffered from this same problem after ASoS (to the tune of losing a year of writing time to it) and some elements of it appear to be present in the ADWD situation.
