Aww, poor Beth. My mother tied me to a chair and read me Earthsea when I was still impressionable, and I loved it, and then in college I read The Left Hand of Darkness and it blew my mind. Earthsea is a series of three (originally three; now there's six of them) books about a famous mage, except that the books make it clear that he's done some amazing things, but we're not going to talk about the "established corpus" - in scare quotes because Le Guin actually never wrote that part - we're going to talk about two adventures he had when he was very young, and then things he did when he was old and trying to hide from his fame. The idea of Kvothe seems very Le Guin to me; sort of Earthsea on steroids. They're lovely books, all of them, but if The Wizard drives you nuts, try The Tombs of Atuan. It's about women, which helps.
Song of Ice and Fire is this massively long series by George RR Martin. It's complicated and messy and twisted, but basically comes down to a kingdom undergoing internal political convulsions and external invasion by fantasy zombies from the north. The size of the books, the comprehensiveness of the world, and the presence of zombie powers in Rothfuss all seem very derivative of GRRM. But, really, I did find the Rothfuss book mostly enjoyable (and I so very wanted to have a crush on Kvothe, because he's just the kind of protagonist I usually crush on). I think you're right that it is a tribute and that it is getting its own foothold. But I want it to be even more than the fairly solid novel it is - which is why the things that bother me bother me SO MUCH.
Also, remember last week Philia mentioned her peeve about martial arts being easy? I feel that way about music - and while I do respect that Kvothe actually puts in practice time (unlike some people), he's just too good too fast and that's annoying. And Denna's mad skillz read pretty Sue-ish too me.
Orson Scott Card has loudly endorsed Rothfuss, here: http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/content/reviews.asp#orsonscott All respect to Card and Ender, I disagree - although I realize this is probably a debate that can't be resolved. Ever.
My theory is that the male fantasy woman - "guy bait," if you will - is like Denna or the John Green girls: someone smart and funny and gorgeous and pretty much perfect; your unattainable best friend who always goes for the guys that make you feel small and useless, until one day she turns around and falls for you. So Denna isn't supposed to appeal to me anyway, which explains why I dislike her so much.
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Date: 9/15/10 11:10 am (UTC)Song of Ice and Fire is this massively long series by George RR Martin. It's complicated and messy and twisted, but basically comes down to a kingdom undergoing internal political convulsions and external invasion by fantasy zombies from the north. The size of the books, the comprehensiveness of the world, and the presence of zombie powers in Rothfuss all seem very derivative of GRRM. But, really, I did find the Rothfuss book mostly enjoyable (and I so very wanted to have a crush on Kvothe, because he's just the kind of protagonist I usually crush on). I think you're right that it is a tribute and that it is getting its own foothold. But I want it to be even more than the fairly solid novel it is - which is why the things that bother me bother me SO MUCH.
Also, remember last week Philia mentioned her peeve about martial arts being easy? I feel that way about music - and while I do respect that Kvothe actually puts in practice time (unlike some people), he's just too good too fast and that's annoying. And Denna's mad skillz read pretty Sue-ish too me.
Orson Scott Card has loudly endorsed Rothfuss, here: http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/content/reviews.asp#orsonscott
All respect to Card and Ender, I disagree - although I realize this is probably a debate that can't be resolved. Ever.
My theory is that the male fantasy woman - "guy bait," if you will - is like Denna or the John Green girls: someone smart and funny and gorgeous and pretty much perfect; your unattainable best friend who always goes for the guys that make you feel small and useless, until one day she turns around and falls for you. So Denna isn't supposed to appeal to me anyway, which explains why I dislike her so much.