Decent writing and world-building, but with an unlikable, smug twat for a main character. Kvothe is like the "perfect" protagonist from everyone's first attempt at fantasy. One unattractive difference is that he believes that he is better than everyone else and subsequently talks down to people all the time.
I love Kvothe, I find him to be a wonderful character, although I probably wouldn't want him as a friend IRL, because he does have a musician's ego. The story mesmerized me though. Rothfuss captures a feel that I found enchanting. And Kvothe IS better than everyone else
Pratchett's Discworld series is, for me, the finest non-Tolkien fantasy series ever created, and certainly my favourite current series. With its finely crafted characters, wonderful sense of humour (there are even plenty of proper belly-laugh moments, a rare thing in literature) and vividly described settings, it really is satire of the highest order. I tried to get through the interminable Wheel Of Time series, but I gave up halfway through book four. Honestly, if I never read a description of someone's clothes ever again, it'll be too soon.
Yeah, it's a love/hate thing I've found with most people. Rothfuss can write though, that cannot be denied. Very good at capturing the reader. Haha, or how Aes Sedai always seem to not sweat even though it's hot! I swear that's mentioned at least once in every Aes Sedai section.
I liked Kvothe a good deal as well. He certainly does have an ego, but I don't think it is carried off in such a way as to render him unlikeable. I found that while that ego is certainly there, as the reader we were able to see cracks in that wall in the older Kvothe, and I suspect Rothfuss is going to give us more of a basis for that ego, and the personality that is concealed behind it, as the series goes on.
