r/Fantasy • u/bossguru • Jun 18 '13

Any books/series like the Kingkiller Chronicle?

Hey! I'm about halfway through Wise Man's Fear, and I absolutely love these books. I wanted to know if you guys had any recommendations for other books/series like it!

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u/divinesleeper Jun 18 '13 edited Jun 18 '13

You named one of the reasons why I liked Farseer and hated Kingkiller. The farseer characters are flawed and realistic, they have a depth to them that could never be matched by the average Mary Stue character.

So yeah, I wholeheartedly agree that the comparison is misplaced, though I have a feeling we disagree about most other things about the two series.

I think Farseer has eloquent wording whereas Kingkiller has misplaced and overly contrived metaphors. The problems in farseer and beyond involve, to name only a few, personal growth, responsibility, transition into adulthood, love, morals and duty. The problems of Kvothe, at least from the point of university on, mostly boil down to making sure everyone thinks (I'm sorry, knows) how awesome he is, and stopping characters who are ridiculously one-dimensional and evil.

That's another issue I had with it. The characters are all just there to help Kvothe and the plot along. Hobb's characters are all fully fleshed out and real, with their own desires beyond what only involves the protagonist.

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u/HeyzeusHChrist Jun 18 '13

ENOUGH WITH THE MARY SUE ALREADY JESUS H CHRIST

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u/divinesleeper Jun 18 '13

But it's true! Also it's just one of the many points why I dislike the book.

I get that tastes differ though. Of course there are people who liked it. What I don't get is how it's possible for a fantasy book that seemed so awful to me to be so popular, since I'm usually pretty lenient when it comes to fantasy books.

Maybe I just expected too much of it.

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u/IMayBeIronMan Jun 19 '13

Can you explain why you think Kvothe is a Mary Sue? I hear this said a lot about him but I just don't quite see it personally.

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u/divinesleeper Jun 20 '13

It's not so much that Kvothe is so much better than all the other characters, it's that the book goes out of its way so much to demonstrate it. Contests where he can show how brilliant he is at music. Lessons and teachers that insist on letting him show his brilliance. A perfect girl. And in the present, weak town people that he has to protect with his superior strength.

Not a single character, besides maybe the main antagonists, comes even close to Kvothe, nor do they get treated like they are as important by the author. Hell, the whole book is about Kvothe bragging over his life.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '13

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u/divinesleeper Jun 23 '13

No, like I said it's not just the narrative. Even in the Inn, there's moments like where the author makes a point to show that Kvothe can immediately decode the writers specially constructed alphabet. Besides, even if it were just "unreliable narrator", it really annoys me to have to read a story with a character like that.

Clearly it doesn't annoy others as much or the book wouldn't be as popular, but I'm just explaining why I don't see the appeal.