My obsessively detailed reread of Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles is over, but we want to keep on talking about the books. I’m going to post the occasional continuation post when the last one gets too long or if there’s something to say. Spoilers for all of The Wise Man’s Fear and The Name of the Wind—these discussions assume you’ve read all of both books, and frankly they won’t make the slightest bit of sense if you haven’t. But we welcome new people who have read the books and want to geek out about them. This post is full of spoilers, please don’t venture beyond the cut unless you want them.
Abbreviations: NW = The Name of the Wind. WMF = The Wise Man’s Fear. D3 = Day Three, the forthcoming final volume. K = Kvothe or Kote when I can’t figure out what to call him and I’m feeling Kafkaesque. MT: Myr Tariniel. D = Denna, 4C = Four Corners, CTH—that thing I can’t spell! IID3Y = Is it Day Three Yet?
Useful links: The Sleeping Under the Wagon post. The reread index. The map. The timeline. Imaginary Linguistics.
Sorry there has been such a huge delay in posts. I’ve been writitng. I’m not promising to update these threads regularly unless there’s anything to say, like for instance news about D3 or anything like that. But I will try to do one occasionally so we’re not loading a thread with a five hundred comments every time we have a new thought about Master Ash or what Shapers are.
Anyway, I’m excited to say that Patrick Rothfuss is guest of honor at Vericon this year, March 21st-23rd, at Harvard, further information at the link. I’ve heard rumours that he’s going to be donating some very cool stuff to the auction. And I’m going to be at Vericon myself.
Vericon is a cool little con—I was there last year—run by young people. When people complain there are not enough young people in fandom they’re not looking in the right place. Vericon is one of those right places. It’s run by university students and recent graduates, and it’s a ton of enthusiastic fun. Naturally, as a con, it has its own traditions, and one of those traditions is making a gift for the Guest of Honor.
This year, Ada Palmer is making a mask for Pat. (Making wonderful masks is one of her many talents.) She asked me for suggestions as to what that mask should be. My first thought was that it should be the Encanis mask from Tarbean, with hints that Encanis is in fact Haliax. That would be great because it’s an actual mask from the book, and I can’t think of any other specific masks in the books—but I may have missed some? But reading through the description of the Encanis mask it’s just a black devil mask, which would be easy to make but perhaps not sufficiently special.
So I decided to ask you all for suggestions. I’m sure you have ideas! We know Pat doesn’t read this, so it’ll still be a surprise. What would make a really awesome mask for him?
Jo Walton is a science fiction and fantasy writer. She’s published three poetry collections, nine novels, most recently the Hugo and Nebula winning Among Others, and a collection of her blog posts, What Makes This Book So Great. She reads a lot, and blogs about it here regularly. She comes from Wales but lives in Montreal where the food and books are more varied.
