THE QUIET REGARD OF SILENT THINGS by Patrick Rothfuss

[xiphias]

There is a one-star review of this book on Goodreads which discribes it as "~150 pages of a girl rumning around the sewers doing Feng Shui and kissing objects."  This is, in fact, a completely accurate review except for the one-star part.

According to his Author's Forward, Patrick Rothfuss was worried about publishing this book, because he was expecting that response.  This is the sort of book which deserves a lot of five-star reviews and a lot of one-star reviews.

It's a week in the life of Auri, the odd/crazy/broken/innocent/holy girl who lives in the sewers under the University, whom Kvothe befrends.  Kvothe isn't in this book -- this is about seven days that are between visits.  And it explores what Auri does with her life.
One way to put it is that she spends her life playing what  jehanna taught me as "Elven chess" -- taking objects and figuring out where they go.

She spends her life doing the right action for the moment, judged by criteria that nobody else understands.  There is no significant plot, nothing happens that would seem to affect anything, except that she fixes a broken water pipe once, but, again, that's because the water pipe wanted to be fixed, and, if it had been happier leaking, she would have left it.

It has no characters.  It has no external logic.  It has no plot per se.

And yet, I was on the edge of my seat to find out whether the broken gear with the one tooth missing was going to find its proper place and purpose.

If that sentence makes sense to you, you will enjoy the book.  If you are familiar with the Kingkiller Chronicles, and don't understand that sentence, but are curious about how Auri would understand it, you might like it.  And if the sentence makes no sense and you have no interest in it, this isn't the book for you.  And that's fine.

Comments

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Wow. I am not sure if I'd be one who enjoys this or not, in practice, but I am intrigued by the description. Also by Elven Chess.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I really loved this book. I've been recommending it to a very select few people, because I don't think it's everyone's cup of tea, but it was pure magic for me.

[sproutntad.livejournal.com]

It sounds very cool! And it sounds like I would Hate it!! But I can totally appreciate why/how other people would love it :)