adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Well, that certainly was something - I found myself feeling very up and down through reading this book as to whether I loved it or hated it. It is definitely too long and can feel like a bit of a slog in some of the lower points - I think for me the pacing was a bit off, the bad stuff that kovthe goes through goes on for too long for it to be super enjoyable, and it felt a bit never ending at times.
I really enjoys the way it was written , the details and descriptions and the somewhat flowery language was a big win for me.
I also liked the little twist bit at the end with Bast - I wanted more of him in this book but I imagine he’ll show up more in the next one. 

One thing that brought down the rating quite a lot is the rampant general sexism throughout along with the way he talks about women, specifically the way he makes a point to mention how ‘slender’ Denna is all the time -_- , there could be some amazing strong female characters in the world the book is set in but you can really tell it’s been written by a man unfortunately.
Honestly I kinda wished there was no romance at all in this book, it felt out of place with the tone of the rest of the book. 

I don’t know if I will read the next books, honestly it depends on how thick they are. 


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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Incredible world building and magic system. Unique prose and kept me guessing major-plot wise. 

One thing that is very obvious with Rothfuss’ writing is when he’s giving something to a character just because they’ll need it later on, it took a little away from the mystery for me because the moments were so obvious.
E.g. Kvothe’s unique lamp, the whole character Auri - actually honestly most of the female characters, or even when Denna gets drugged just felt so obvious

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Initially, I listened to this book when I was returning from a trip to an anime convention and was intrigued enough to invest in it because it's a book that falls into one of my preferred genres of fantasy. It's a solid book.

However, my biggest problems with it came about when I fully devoted my attention to listening to the audiobook.

Firstly, the characters, even Kvothe as the main character, felt a little one-dimensional focusing on some sort of single trope or idea and felt a bit disappointing. All minor female characters were described and defined by their beauty, such as Denna and Fela, even if they have at least some interesting ideas to back them up. The supporting cast feels a little bit lackluster compared to Kvothe. Even then, Kvothe feels very much like a Gary Stu/Marty Stu/etc. simply because he feels very one-dimensional and excels at everything without virtually any flaws.

Secondly, the prose feels a bit repetitive towards the end of the book with some sections feeling like it stretches on a little bit too long or tediously. While the world-building and the descriptions were pretty good, it felt a little bit too forced into one perspective, the perspective of Kvothe and his retelling of his life. It probably would've been immensely better if it wasn't a retelling as it would've helped resolve some of the mysteries that weren't explained.

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adventurous dark reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I had a rocky start with this book, and it only got better at nearly 300 pages in — but it became a fantastic read, with extremely good world building and exciting twists and turns.

I did not enjoy the darkness of a lot of the early story, and often felt that the main character was being mercilessly beaten and picked on. Perhaps this was the author’s way of balancing him out (he may be a genius and good at everything he does, BUT he has terrible luck and every asshole gets to beat him). It didn’t feel like it balanced his genius to me, it just felt like reading about a 12 year old getting beaten for a hundred pages. Maybe I’m sensitive.

Still, there were ~500 pages of an amazing story, complete with a mysterious library, good friends, and many heroic escapades. A good read. 

Having read this book, I’m conflicted about whether to pick up the second book in the series. This book was both amazing and terrible. 

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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