THE SLOW REGARD OF SILENT THINGS - Review 

If you’re interested, check out the book here: amzn.to/2rrIX1q

It’s my second favourite book about soap next to fight club.

Correction: King Killer doesn't entirely follow Kvothe. There are breaks in his story. I just spoke without thinking. Small breaks, but they are there.

If you want to read a more in this world but in a more conventional style there is The Lightning Tree novella. It's even shorter than this book and It's a fun read, I think you will like it.

I like how us fantasy fans don't consider 150 pages to be a 'full book'

Daniel, you are really stepping up your game and I thoroughly enjoy watching *you* and your channel grow. It makes a 50 year old tolerant of the fact that he has to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. But wait. Daniel will have a video posted by 5:00 am Pacific time - so I grab my coffee and that's how I start my day. So, from Long Beach Washington, I salute you. Enjoyed the review. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas...

Glad you liked it! I thought it was such a delight, and also it was about one of my favorite characters of the Kingkiller Chronicles was definitely a plus. If Rothfuss released more of these short novellas for other characters like Elodin or Devi, it would make for some great change of pace on my readings. I feel like we're always reading these grand stories, several books long and sometimes just a short novella is a warranted refreshment, specially when it adds something to the whole picture. I'm really glad you got to enjoy Rothfuss this time, Daniel :)

It is interesting how closely our tastes align outside of king killer chronicles. (Which is my favorite series hands down) Even with my feelings towards Rothfuss souring over the years, he still weaves words in ways I wonder at 10+ reads latter.

Yes... and what about the book? How does the book stand as a read? What is good and bad about it? Can it stand on its own? What makes it worth a purchase?

This felt more like a review of Rothfuss than of the book. Though I do agree with all the things you did say about the book. TSRoST is a bit of a weird book, but very lovable.

I’d love to know what you think of The Lightning Tree. It’s Rothfuss’ short story about Bast which IMO is awesome.

I was just wondering, will we see more individual Wheel of Time or First Law reviews?

I really felt like this novella was brilliant. I could be biased here, loving the character of Auri, but wow was it amazing getting that peek into her world!

Lets hope Daniel doesn't go too rough on my boy Rothfuss XD

Anne Rice does the prose fruit thing. I read Rothfuss often, I don't particularly like Kvothe, but I love the language soo much!

I burned through it aswell, my favorite part is the entire book being an excuse for us to know auri can make soap.

dude the music at the end of your videos is tight af. for real, props to whoever made it

Bro, I dont know if someone has already recommanded this series for you, but you absolutely NEED to read The Chronicles of Amber - probably the most underrated fantasy series ever and the one that most people forgot it exists. But it does and ITS SO GOOD such a feast for imagination! Best regards from Poland

Love your reviews! Only thing I would recommend is that you quote more from the book, especially when you describe a tone or style. I don't think a few quotes would get you demonitized?

It's a beautiful poetic story. I would start reading Rothfuss with The Narrow Road Between Desires, a novella published last year which is similarly beautiful, poetic and intriguing as The Slow Regard but a bit more approachable. It follows Bast, one of the main characters in The Kingkiller Chronicle, set a little bit before we meet Bast in the main books.

Me upon seeing the thumbnail: “Oh boy, this is going to be fun”.

I just started watching His Dark Materials today....WOW it's amazing!

I really loved this book because Auri is my child and I vibe with her a lot just because OCD and her idiosyncrasies feeling very similar. Overall yeah I’ve rather lost faith in the narrative direction of Kingkiller but Rothfuss’ writing is actually a giant bag of sweets I’m happy to make myself sick with

Picking this up and trying to understand Rothfuss may be a bit weird to the "random" person. Definitely agree with you on this one. This was a weird one, and I loved it. Also, obligatory soap comment.

so which will be ended first, king killer chonicles, or ASOIAF? :D

You should also try his short story How Old Holly Came to Be. It's in the first unfettered story collection and it is a GREAT example of how wonderfully he writes.

Checkout the lighting tree. Same concept but follows best. Short but really good.

Kvothe is not a Mary Sue, although I can see why people'd think so. He's precocious and incredibly smart because he spent all of his time around adults as a child, but he's definitely not perfect; he's an incredibly-talented musician and actor, but he's hubristic, naïve and a little arrogant, which is all perfectly understandable given his history. He's also traumatised after losing his entire troupe and part of a discriminated minority. As for his magic abilities, he's above average in sympathy, but he's not the strongest or smartest, as Devi and Fela make abundantly clear to him. He is built up to be a legendary character, but right from the beginning of Name of the Wind, we know he messed up bad somewhere, so it felt lile he was being built up for an incredible fall.

Unlike Denna I love Auri so this was a boon for me while I wait for Kingkiller 3. (Though I guess I still am? ;-) ) I agree with Daniel though, I think you need to have read at LEAST Name of the Wind before picking this up, probably both for it to make any sort of sense. I guess it CAN work as an abstract work of fiction, but it works best with at least some context. :-)

I think even the title of the novella is beautiful. It’s such a quiet descriptive and interesting little book.

Will there be a his dark materials review for episodes 3 and 4?

I LOVE this book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Rothfuss has a way of making inanimate object sentient even though they're not? I hate reading descriptive passages and typical skim over them but he has a beautiful way of intertwining description into story like a poem. It's definitely an odd book, but beautifully written.

KKC Spoiler!!! Auri is Princess Ariel. Kvothe kills her Dad!!!

Tool just released a new album and Rothfuss is releasing a new book almost in the same year, talk about slow regard, and I kind of liked this book

Daniel you need to read the red rising triology! So fun and so entertaining, You would never regret it

INTERVIEW STEPHEN KINGGGG :3

I enjoyed The Slow Regard of Silent Things. I love the way Rothfuss plays with words. Great review!

Agreeeee, I adore Rothfuss’ writing style. It’s fantastic. That said I also adore the Kingkiller books, they’re my favourites. Slow Regard was definitely Rothfuss flexing as an author, nailed it. 😂 If felt very different to me too but I think that’s cos Auri is very unconventional. Her perspective is hard to follow and understand the context of. I gave it a 3/5, it wasn’t incredible but it was okay? Honestly we just want more books and I wish he’d release something or disclose some kind of update. :(

I came across your channel today from your tier videos. I know you are a fantasy reviewer and I don't know your stance on Star Wars, but I would recommend the Thrawn trilogy books starting with Heir to the Empire. You may have already read it and just not done a review but I would be interested in what you have to say about the series. I had to listen to the audiobooks from my library as they did not have paperback, but the 20th anniversary edition of the Heir to the Empire audiobook is spectacular. It has revised music and sound effects which are amazing, and the book itself introduced some of the best Star Wars characters to date. I'm just upto the third book which I'm waiting on. Would be interested on your view of it.

I don't dislike the Kingkiller books like you do, but this is my favorite of his, too.

Daniel's feelings on the Kingkiller Chronicles amuse me because his reasons for not liking those books mirror my feelings for not liking the Lies of Locke Lamora. I guess we can't like everything.

I really love "King killer", but Kvothe does grate on me. This book was in a lot of ways even better. Auri is such an interesting and mysterious character. "SRoST" manages to shed some insight on her without destroying the mystique. Just dug it outta the bookshelf for a re-read, lol! Great review! Thanks!

I love this, it would also be great if you could read the lightning tree which is another short story in the series about Bast.

I got a similar recommendation when i was listening to Seth on the WOTSpoilers podcast. I really am not a fan of this though. I get using fragments, but it's several per paragraph. And Kingkiller lost me maybe half way through the first book, so honestly, i should have heeded Rothfuss's preface.

If you are going to start with Rothfuss, start with the lightning tree. It's about Bast. It's great. It isn't going to be wonderfully weird the same way slow regard is, and a lot of the wonderful part of slow regard's weirdness is in picking up hints and clues about kingkiller chronicle mysteries. The Lightning Tree, on the other hand, is stand alone, showcases Rothfuss prose, and is a shorter read.

Hey Daniel, which audiobook service do you use?

Definitely agree with you Dan. I much prefer the character of Auri.

Love this novella! Great review. Love that there’s a chapter with only 2 words in it. Fantastic.

I met Patrick Rothfuss once at C2E2 in Chicago, years ago now. It was after a panel he was on, and he graciously stood around in the hall afterwards and took some group pictures and signed stuff and chatted with people. He really is just the nicest dude. I complimented his prose a lot as it's kinda the main reason I love his books (they're a pretty standard heroic male fantasy otherwise, let's be honest), and he said something to the effect of, "go read and re-read The Last Unicorn, it'll teach you everything you need to know about good prose, that's what I did anyway" Soooo....yeah, anybody who wants to write like that, go read The Last Unicorn I guess? I must confess I still haven't read it. I really should.

I’ve seen comments about books that you haven’t finished before. This is the only book they actually threw in the garbage before I finished because I was so disgusted at what Rothfuss actually put out for people to pay him money for.

I’m a Kingkiller fan... but this book should be labeled “Auri picks things up and puts them down someplace else.” It’s not good... I love WoT, Kingkiller, Stormlight, etc. but this... just couldn’t

I would love to see an interview with Raymond E Feist, because there really isn't that many traditional style authors around if you know what I mean. It would make for a totally different style of interview than say the modern authors. I remember your review being a bit patchy about his rift war cycle and saga's like Magician etc, but he is also branching out with the Firemane series which started with the King of Ashes. Give it a try I think 🤔 you might like it. Queen of Storm's is not that far away. Also you should check out the Sanderson Rythmn of Battle read through which is part of volume four of Stormlight archive.

I'm not even considering reading this book. I just like watching your videos...

Before I even watch your review. This book is great and more people should read it

I love Rothfuss and the Kingkiller chronicles but yeah, I hated this.

This is the inherent danger of 1st person perspectives. If you don't vibe with the protagonist, there is no way to distance yourself, and you end up hating the book. For me, The Kingkiller Chronicles is the best fantasy being written today. Whereas your favorite series, The Wheel of Time, annoys me on SO MANY levels. I got through the first 9 books before I simply could not make myself touch another. I didn't hate them. Obviously, I wouldn't have read 9 if I did. In fact, one or two I considered truly good. But Robert Jordan's flaws as a storyteller seemed to multiply as I went on, until I could not take it any longer. Whereas Rothfuss is so strong as a writer, that even my least favorite segment of the series (Kvothe's time in the Fae) was filled with interesting ideas and imagery. Still, if I were his editor, I would have argued to cut it out entirely, or at least truncate the mf'er. It's a terrible shame you don't like Kvothe. I've read the first two books three or four times. They're the best. :)

The KKC books were quite good, I enjoyed them enough to want to read the third but that was many years ago, I've long since given up waiting and lost interest in the series. As for Slow Regard, for me it was not a story as such, merely a series of happenings. I already realised that Auri's life would be different and didn't need a short book to tell me that which I had already sort of imagined. To me, the Slow Regard read like a chapter from Wise Mans Fear which had been taken out before going to print and then released as a separate title. The only interest I have in Rothfuss's series now is watching to see when it is finally released. I won't be revisiting the series or reading the 3rd book as I've discovered authors and titles I like far more.

Eh. I usually like your reviews, but this one spends too much time going over your relationship to the author's other work instead of going over what you like/dislike about this specific book.

Also... Daniel... when you going to review Grishaverse books? Leigh Bardugo is a fantastic author.

Did you ever get to reading Robin Hobb? If you did I want to hear your review because I was not a huge fan. Great video!

If people are trying to read kingkiller. I remember not getting really into it until chapter 9.

Glad to see you do slow regard. It's an interesting book and I liked him reading it himself on audible. He has a good voice. How did you feel about it being essentially plotless? I thought it was an interesting experience to read a book that's essentially just a slice of a character's life without any external forces acting on them.

Good to see you enjoying Rothfuss. Cant wait to read this.

I think Rothfuss might have ripped Conan for his Name of the Wind ending. Both heroes chased up a cliff by a huge flightless dragon while adventuring with their love interest. Both heroes use thier wits to poison the dragon (Conan used sap from a flower and Klothe used sap from a tree.) Conan stabbed the dragon in the mouth were the poison could kill it and Klothe feed the sap/drugs to the dragon. Conan's dragon died and klothe had to use magnet magic to finish off his. The whole scene I was wondering why Rothfuss threw a damn dragon in there. Lol

I found it quite beautiful.

You did this book justice. Ty. I don’t like Kvothe at all either. Pat writes to see how much he can hide from us in KKC.

In the foreword, he specifically said that that people who are new to Rothfuss should NOT start here.

Can you make stormlight archive theories?

You should check out Josiah Bancroft's Books of Babel series. It deserves all the love it gets and more.

Is it bad that, as I writer, I’m scared of Daniel potentially one day reviewing a book of mine because some of my favorite writers Rothfuss, Herbert) seem to be what grates on him the most? 😅

I was warned this was a book I was either going to love or hate. And that turned out to not be true. I read it, didn't struggle to read it, but I don't feel any impulse to read it again. 5/10 It was a pointless, but painless experience.

Always appreciate your objective opinion.

You should totally check out his 1st picture book The Princess and Mr. Wiffle the Thing under the bed.

I was thinking about giving this book a go. Unfortunately, I absolutely HATED 'The Name of the Wind'. Probably the book I dislike the most in my entire collection right now, and I deffinitely have no plans on continuing with the main series, so 'Wise Man's Fear' is a hard pass for me (specially seeing how even people who liked the first one tell me that all my problems with it "actually get worse"). HOWEVER, seeing how the main character of this spinoff is not Kvothe, who was one of my main problems with the book, maybe I would enjoy this one? For some reason everyone tells me it's not worth it, but then again these same people were the ones who insisted I read the first book, so... Geez, I don't know. It's a short one, so it would be kinda painless I guess. But I have an already long enough backlog, so I'm undecided.

Erikssons Malazan books are teally well written too.

I loved Name of the wind and Wise Man's Fear, but wasn't a fan of this book

You talked about whether it's good for KKC fans, whether it's a good starting point, you said what the story revolves around, but all you gave for your opinion is "it's good and I'd buy a Rothfuss book not revolving around Kvothe." Not exactly why I clicked on this video but alright.

If you want to read an author with beautiful prose highly recommend Guy Gavriel Kay. Start with The Lions of Al-Rassan

I got this book as a gift about four years ago and I stopped reading after the foreword in which Rothfuss basically says that you shouldn't read it if you haven't read Kingkiller yet. So, here I am, 4 years later, still haven't got to reading either Kingkiller nor Slow Regard of Silent Things 😂

You speak English well and translate ideas with ease. Good on you.

Is Patrick Rothfuss still an author? Because he hasn't released a new book IN YEARS.

To me this book is like eating a rice cake. Not a great experience, not a bad experience, not any sort of experience really. Ultimately, it had very little impact on me.

It is a bit of self-fellation...but he was obviously adding subtle plot detail for Doors of Stone...probably not enough for it to matter, but more for the fanboys/fangirls...

Bast's side short story is so much better!!! I loved it, but hated this.

Have you read the Miss Peregrine trilogy?

Hmmm i relly didn't liekt his book, (though i really like name of the wind) but i just realised i did read a translation of this and not the original, and i feel more and more like that might have been the downfall since this must have been a very difficukt book to translate. I should probably try to get an English copy to see if i like it more

Very good review perfectly objective and opinionated where it was required.

My mother argues that this book is actually better than the main books 😂

Rothfuss almost didn't publish this book. He thought it was too far from narrative conventions to be enjoyed by anyone but him.

Yay! There's an audiobook for it read by Rothfuss himself. It's great to hear! Also, I really hope Pat continues that story he had been brewing about a middle-age mother going on an adventure throughout the Four Corners of Civilization.

Just curious are we gonna see more Malazan reviews?

I adore this book!

Make a video about how you would like Kinkiller chronicles to end.

I'm sorry, but "The Slow Regard of Silent Things" sounds like it has got to be the most boring thing ever. I enjoyed the Kingkiller Chronicles and Rothfuss's writing style, but found it frustratingly ponderous at times. I'm not convinced this book would remotely interest me.

Wow you have really matured, respect for that!

First I've heard of someone NOT liking Kvothe.

I think for this book to work for you, you really have to have loved Auri as a character and have found her fascinating. If you did, this book will be a treat. If, like me, she didn't resonate with you, this book will be a miss. It's beautifully written, but I'm just not on the character's wavelength and I couldn't get invested in it. And if you haven't read Kingkiller, you almost certainly won't get it.

I adore this book 💛

His prose are very much like Kvothe, in that they constantly call attention to how awesome they are rather than being a tool to tell a good story. His prose are the, “I’m not like other girls,” of prose. They scream, “I am Patrick Rothfuss…you may have heard of me.” I enjoyed Kingkilller my first read through, but even then his prose irritated me. Not because his prose are technically bad, but because I’ve never read prose that made me more aware that there is a clever author behind them who is desperate to remind me that this this thin excuse for a plot is primarily a vessel for his prose so that the world may ogle them. His prose are just as grating as Kvothe.

Auri is my favorite in kingkiller