I’m more than halfway through the book and like… what am I actually reading? Why is it accounted as high fantasy, considering that well over chapter 50 I’m still reading about a dude playing lute at a tavern? Why was it among the “must read if you like B. Sanderson, high fantasy and complex world building”? Where’s the actual world building here. I feel like I was scammed. It’s literally just the sad story of a guy who lost his parents to some evil creatures in an absolutely mainstream and plain conventional fantasy setting. I don’t get why was it even compared to Sanderson’s magic systems and world building. Please please someone tell me it’s still worth reading and that something will eventually HAPPEN that will shake this boring account of a sad university dude.
Best regards, Disappointed reader
It’s very different from Sanderson, I’m going to guess that was a comparison from someone who hasn’t read very broadly in fantasy.
As someone who enjoyed Name of the Wind a lot, even though it’ll never be finished: the big draw is the prose (aka, one of the things Sanderson focuses least on, one of many ways they’re very different authors). Rothfuss’s prose is gorgeous. If you’re halfway through, you’ve been plenty exposed to his prose, and if it isn’t selling the book for you, I recommend quitting.
For books that actually feel like Sanderson, I suggest Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennet, which has a lot in common with Mistborn Era 1 (and, in my opinion, has significantly better character work than Mistborn Era 1).
You couldn’t be farther from truth, I’m very well read when it comes to fantasy, that’s why I don’t see how Sanderson’s world building was compared to Rothfuss’s. So it won’t get any deeper than what is shown in the first book, in terms of employment of magic and action?