I (respectfully) disagree: I think he is cliche in a lot of ways. In the best possible ways, though; this is a book where almost everything in it seems gently derivative of something else. It's a little Earthsea and a LOT Song of Ice and Fire - but not Harry Potter, no matter what Orson Scott Card says about it - it's every fantasy hero who has grown up on the streets under his own spunkiness and loved an unattainable woman. Perhaps predictable is a better word than cliche, but the point is that it's a decent embroidery on a well-established structure. Now that's OK, but I think I was hoping for more somewhere along the way...It seems like there's enough spark behind the plot and characters to give the story its own life, and it floats along under a breath of wind (and Kvothe's stubbornness).

There are some parts that are alive: the dragon cracked me up, and I enjoy Innkeeper Kvothe (he's got potential as a nicely-dimensioned character and there are interesting things to say about someone's relationship to his own legend), but I'd say a good chunk of the novel is predictable, overlong, derivative, and cursed with some bone-headed female characters, including one of the worst Mary Sues I've ever encountered.

Despite all of that, this really is one of the books that I love to complain about, and my inability to stop talking about what bothers me is actually a sign that I enjoyed it. It brings out the editor in me: this is so GOOD! Can you make it BETTER?