The Wise Man's fears Summary hoy

Colin Hoy

English 2A

Bauks

11/11/2013

Wise Man's Fears Summary

These last few weeks I read the book The Wise Man's Fears, by Patrick Rothfuss.  This book is a fantasy novel of epic proportion, and is truly a good read.  It is the sequel to Rothfuss's previous novel, The Name of the Wind, which I recommend equally.

The book is about a young boy named Kvothe, who is extremely intelligent and clever, who always runs into trouble.  His parents were murdered when he was a boy and is currently living and studying at the University, a school for scholars and those of incredible intellect.  The University is the only school like this, and is extremely expensive and difficult to get into.  The tuition each year is based on a test, given by the heads of the school, the higher the score the lower the tuition.  Kvothe, who is not from a wealthy family, instead a traveling troupe, called Edema Ruh, does not have much money to pay for his tuition, so a high score is critical to him.  Luckily for Kvothe, he gets one of the lowest tuitions ever at the University.   

Throughout the rest of this amazing book filled with adventure and disaster, Kvothe spends his time at the University searching for any sort of evidence in the vast library about a mythical creature called the Chandrian, which had supposedly killed his entire family.  Along with this quest Kvothe finds himself in a bitter rivalry with another boy at the University named Ambrose, who is a rich, spoiled slob from the family of a wealthy baron.  Whenever something good happens to Kvothe, Ambrose always comes around to ruin his life, for instance, when Kvothe was about to take maybe the most important test of his life Ambrose poisoned him, “I’m going to kill Ambrose… for poisoning me” (178).  Just before Kvothe was about to take his second exam for the next years tuition, Ambrose slipped a potion into his food that would surely make him fail. 

This book is a great rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, and triumph over all odds.  I recommend this to anyone who can read and understand literature, because it is a compelling story of a young underdog who goes through hell and back again to avenge his parents’ death, and puts up with unimaginably difficult tests of his willpower.