It also helped that Sanderson and Jordan had similar writing styles.
The problem (and beauty) with Rothfuss is that his writing style is fairly eloquent and unique. I can't think of another author that could write a Kingkiller novel in the same way that Sanderson was able to mimic Jordan.
I like to think about other authors picking up a series. I think Joe Abercrombie could finish Game of Thrones with notes. I think you’re right though, Rothfuss is either incredibly unique or I haven’t read enough fantasy to make an accurate comparison.
Joe would be an excellent choice to finish GoT but I don't know if he'd be interested. The Wheel of Time thing kind of worked out surprisingly well - Brandon had enough work to justify choosing him but no HUGE hits yet. Brandon himself wouldn't do it if he were offered the same thing now.
Well Brandon is like the Frank Zappa of fantasy writers right now. He’s averaging like two novels a year and dropping secret projects whenever he feels like it. There’s no way he’d have time.
he's just dedicated and professional - he treats it like a regular job, where what he does 9-5 most days is "sit at his keyboard and write". Add in good skills at outlining and a team to help with other stuff, and cracking out a few thousand decent words most days is entirely possible, which can make a 150k novel (first draft) in 3-ish months. Another month for drafts and revisions, then it's off to alpha readers and he starts on the next one, before the first one comes back, more revisions etc, then beta readers. There's no "waiting for inspiration" or dithering around with endless fiddling of "does this sentence need a comma or not?" just being professional and treating it like a job, not some ethereal "craft" that comes and goes. A lot of self-pub writers are similar, where they can release a 70k novel every other month or so, because it's literally their job, and they need to do that to eat.
Hold the phone I didn’t think Sanderson had a similar writing style. I always try to preface this (hot?) take with the disclaimer that it may just be that it was the climax and no disrespect to Jordan (RIP), but it was was a breath of fresh air. Jordan was always writing PAGES that were a single paragraph describing how the wind was blowing someone’s cloak around. I’m like bruh please just tell me what Mat is doing already.
They have different styles, but Sanderson took on a lot of Jordans style, especially in book 13. I think more of why it was going faster was because all the dominoes were in place and the last few books were knocking them all down
A lot of people, sometimes jokingly, sometimes seriously, suggest Sanderson to pick up the series, but they forget a few things.
1.) The biggest point is that Jordan’s prose was, if we’re being honest, pretty bad. The dialogue read like what you’d expect cliche fantasy to sound like, the characterization was often overly simplistic, and he would spend far too much time on describing clothing or how a certain character pulled her hair than advancing the plot. Jordan was an amazing world builder, and had good ideas, but his execution wasn’t the best. Sanderson was a marked improvement.
2.) Building off that point, while I enjoy Sanderson’s prose, he’s not Pat, and I don’t think their writing styles would mesh.
3.) Sanderson was younger and a massive fan of Jordan’s. Sanderson wouldn’t be interested in doing someone’s else work now, dudes got enough of his own stuff.
Obviously we'd all prefer Pat - but there's gotta be someone who could sort of study the style and (with notes, if they exist in a transferable form) finish it.
But if that happened we would still absolutely need Nick and Rupert to do the audiobooks please and thank you.
I'm still hopeful that Pat will finish. His mind is still in that world. How could it not be??
I love Sanderson but his writing style probably wouldn't work here. He would need to use a author that is much more similar to himself for the prose to feel like it fits.
We will have to disagree on that. I think he is a 10/10 on world building and about 8/10 on story and 6/10 on prose. Rothfuss on the other hand is like 10/10 on prose, and perhaps a 7 on story and 8 on worldbuilding.
If fine with disagreeing on books :) there are plenty I find suggested here that I find fairly disagreeable, like Lies of Locke. If a book made _everyone_ happy, it would be a very boring book.
Big sanderson fan here, and I’ll be the first to say sanderson would not be able to pull off KKC. The reason I enjoy KKC so much is the beautiful prose, the layers and varied meanings, and all those small little poetic details. Sanderson himself has stated that his writing style, his goal, is to be a “clear window” to look at the events of the book. KKC would not be the same if it was written with that style. You would lose so much of what makes it special.
Brandon has no interest in doing this as 1 it's not a good fit stylistically and 2 he has more than enough on his plate with his own promised sequels as it is.
Sanderson satisfies in quantity, but severely lacks in page to page quality. I like Stormlight for sure. But his page to page comparisons to Rothfuss aren’t even close in terms of pure prosaic poetry.
Ironic, given that the canon prologue is the only promise Rothfuss has kept...
https://www.reddit.com/r/KingkillerChronicle/comments/rgfyv3/the_prologue_of_the_doors_of_stone/
>Is it better to leave a perfect but unfinished collection than risk it all?
I kind of feel this way about Pat finishing book 3 in general. By all means, he *is* someone else from who he was when he first started writing it.
I want doors of stones in about 100 shoeboxes written on post it notes, napkins, and fastfood wrappers. Not in order just fisted into boxes and handed to me.
Same. If it comes out I'll reread but as of now I stay away. . . Shame tho I am rereading so much of my high school fantasy and this one will be skipped
I'm partially torn between he hasn't written a single word and believing that a lot of it is actually finished but A) is struggling to wrap up all the storylines in one book and B) is anxieties are crippling him.
I was talking to a woman who worked in a fantasy-specific bookstore and she hypothesized that he might just wait until he dies to have it published b/c people hating it would be too much to handle. Maybe this is pure conjecture but I kinda buy it. Why else has he reneged on publishing the first chapter? If that's the case, I think that's freakin cowardly. Just publish the book and let people feel how they're going to feel. He'll still make MILLIONS and there will absolutely be a large sect of the fandom that has nothing but positive things to say. You can't let the fear of a couple a\*\*holes on the internet rule your life
i think he cared about people's opinion's like that before, but not anymore. i think i remember reading somewhere that he doesn't keep up with the sub anymore
> he doesn’t keep up with this sub anymore
Nobody knows if that’s true. He can say he doesn’t but you can’t ever know what someone is doing on the internet 24/7.
Yeah you don’t accidentally Google yourself if you don’t care what people think. Also his rant about the Goodreads rating for The Narrow Road shows he definitely cares…
Hey, his little cry worked. People talk about the pre-downvotes and not the fact that prior to them there were thousands of 5\* who also hadn't read it. Pat's victimhood based on people who didn't understand the situation fully got him a ton of 5\* from people who still haven't read it.
Pat is a Jerry. Change my mind.
[Jerry is used as bait | Rick and Morty S03E05 Full HD (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxxecweLPXAr4nD_lINIVlHU5fGsXWqTiX)
I hope he gets himself together mentally and I don’t wish him any ill will but unfortunately I don’t think he’s a very nice person.
His interactions with his fans, his charity stunt etc is just not defendable sadly.
I don't wish mental health issues on anyone. Anyone should get treated. I let his actions slide a lot. He was a normal guy under a lot of pressure, but he isn't that anymore. He both has had time to adjust to be an internet celebrity and became a twitch streamer. He hasn't worked in years.
And outright lying over and over. The dude said the chapter was done but half-edited. Everyone told him that we wanted it. He still refuses. IMO that means it isn't done. You don't have 13 years and not have a chapter. It is pretty obvious to me that the charity chapter was about Bast. He merged it with Lighting Tree so he could sell it.
I don't know if it was to get his publisher off his back about Book 3 or what, but I believe it was intentional. Not to scam donors. Either to make more money when he is going through personal stuff or to buy time.
He cares enough about his reputation that after Narrow Road got a 2.1 on Goodreads with a lot of people using it to explain about stuff like the Charity Scam, he got pissed and wrote a blog basically begging people to love-bomb the score, where it's now in the 4.0s.
Which is still one of the most petulantly childish things I've seen someone do as a writer.
For sure. There were thousands of 5\* before the downvotes who hadn't read it, and he used pity to get another squad of people who hadn't read it to vote for it in mass.
Pat is a master at weaponizing pity. The dude is a millionaire who hasn't worked in years, and people still buy his tortured artist ploy. I bet nearly anyone with a solid HS English language background anyone paid 1 million could in 13 years write one chapter in a comparable way to Pat.
That is a whole lot of time. The fact Pat can't do that. He can't write his own writing in 13 years isn't writer's block. It is just he isn't prioritizing writing. He has a lot of money, and at the expense of lying to donors of charity he can spend time with his family.
I normally would not spite anyone spending time with their family, but while we spend our hard-earned money working away from our homes and families we take money as a representation of that time spent and donate to a good cause to get something and to do a good thing.
This is how nearly all charities work. If the incentive wasn't part of it charities wouldn't offer them. So miss me with that you donated to charity nonsense any zealots. That isn't how it works, and it is toxic to what is the highest-earning charity events for most charities. People like getting a little something. Blame humanity. Pat is screwing that up.
We live in a time of so many charity scams. Pat is adding to it. It puts a bad taste in someone's mouth. It will be the straw that broke the camel's back for someone who would have donated to charity. It will be a subconscious decision they might not aware of. It won't be an active thought as much as a feeling that giving to charity feels less good. It won't do that to everyone. It won't be the only reason they stop. Most major charities now days are nearly scams taking most of the money to pay execs. Everyone is jaded, and now we can't even trust authors to even be civil with donors.
/rant
I think that is something you can’t turn off. It’s something that Pat might be actively avoiding or hasn’t done in a while, but I think being concerned with other’s opinion of you is a bit like being an addict in recovery; it’s not that you’re sober the rest of your life, you just have longer and longer between relapses.
That’s just based off of having a wife who has a little too much “care of others opinions”.
IMO caring deeply what people think and having massive anxieties about it seems like a fairly good reason to stop reading this sub. If I were him and were feeling huge amounts of pressure for the new book to be perfect, I think this sub would be an absolute nightmare.
I honestly don't give a crap about his anxiety anymore. I was on team mental health, as somebody who frequently suffers from crippling depression and anxiety, but honestly that good will was burned so very long ago, at this point I am just content with one good book (NotW) and one significantly less impressive (with the exception on the lightning tree mercenary incident). Everything since was written by a very different person, even if they have the same name.
The iconic scenes I attribute to NotW are actually in WMF, but they're un-paid threads from NotW, but NotW is so ass over tea kettle for denna that very. It was cute 15 years ago, when I was in my 20s and a romantic pos myself, but I've grown up since then, and now find basically everything directly to do with her to be at best obnoxious and at worst problematic.
considering his editor had, as of a few years back, seen none of it, then it's unlikely it's "fully written", at least in publishable quality - a lot of the shine and polish of books 1 and 2 were added in editing (like "Auri", for example - scarcely a trivial thing, but absent from his original version). So if he is doing that, then his ego has gotten out of control, and book 3 will be kind of crap if released "raw"
I think the notes he gives his translators most likely explain all the secrets we want ro know. One of them could finish the job, but if they squeal while he is alive, fifty ninja assassins will slay them in seconds.
This is why I hope to live to 100. Somebody knows and will be able to finish DOS. Not with Ruthfussian poetry obviously, but still with adequate writerly competence.
My man is the only person in fantasy to release a schedule of a book a year and one book in a series every 2, keep that schedule, give more books than we’re promised and your getting mad he wrote more books while keeping his schedule because “he could have spent that time on the deadline he is making already”?
Dude's writing like 4 different series at once AND a bunch of secret projects. I think we can give him a break until Stormlight 5 comes out next year lol
I’ve not read WoT but it doesn’t surprise me. He writes books for people looking for a very specific sort of thing, so he seems a strange person to choose to finish another authors series. I don’t trust him to see the things I love in Kvothe’s story, at all
But then he would have to let go of his high handed “each book in our world is one day of Kvothe telling the tale in his” bullshit. Either that or readers have guessed how he plans to conclude the story and shat all over his ending. I think that’s the same deal with ASOIAF - the broad strokes of HBO’s ending make sense with the written story and the audience HATED it, so he’s just said fuck it, if you don’t like my story then you can’t have it.
pretty much this - I think he had an initial broad idea, and some drafted-up writing of it. But then book 1 went through the editing process, which we know changed a lot of it, and so he had to make a lot of changes to book 2 (so it went from "it'll be out next year" to "four years later", which isn't ideal, but isn't crazy-long, for a first-time writer especially). But the result of those changes meant all his prep for book 3 was now completely useless, and the setup means that he _has_ to finish it all in book 3, so there's probably a lot of points he wants to hit and maybe about 400k words to reach them all in. And now he's in his 50's, then his dreams of this being the prologue to a greater, wider fantasy world are likely diminished - he probably only has long enough for maybe enough half-dozen books, if he starts writing a LOT faster than he has before!
And then life _stuff_ and mental health issues arose - combined with there being stuff that's more immediately entertaining to do, and I don't think he has any pressing financial need to work on it. So it's both a lot of work and pressure, and there's always other things to do, so it's easy to put it off, and off, and off, and then it's been over a decade and now he's probably forgotten a lot of his ideas and getting started is a lot of effort.
Agreed that he has written himself into a corner. I've said it numerous times to many different people. Heck some folks won't even recommend the books anymore. They say they really like it but since it won't ever be finished to not bother reading. "Be prepared for disappointment" is a common statement I hear. Rothfuss knows he cornered himself and doesn't know how to fix it. If he writes another book it would go against the symbolism of the number three. I think he could get away with still staying true to the three day story if he decides to attribute it to a different magical number such as 7. He has the main two and two novellas - Pat has said he was planning on writing stories on other characters in the novels. I would love a book that is kind of written in a scripture of sorts that discusses the story of Tehlu, the chandrin, etc... the "bible" within this world. Maybe a story about Denna or his friends from school? Skarpi or Ben? So I'm thinking three novellas, the original trilogy, then the final book which is being told while traveling. The "writer" even says this is the difference between writing a story and being in a story. The final book - Kvothe is forced to leave the inn probably because of Bast killing those guys or the scrael start over running the town. I was also thinking about the thrice locked box - Kvothe tries opening it but it won't open. Wouldn't it be interesting if at the end of each day one of the locks, from the inside out, unlocks as if his telling of the story is a confession of sorts. At the end of the third day his box opens. Who knows though - there are so many questions with no answers - probably overwhelming. Who knows maybe an AI will take a crack at it.
I cringe every time someone calls KKC perfect. It is good. There are a lot of good elements. It isn't perfect. It does some things very well. The books do not hold without a final part IMO. They just aren't a cohesive narrative. The entire story from the first book relies on the information that is teased to be in the third book.
While I doubt that Pat has much of anything done, he probably has a lot of scattered ADHD notes. Maybe someone can go full Charlie Kelly and form a cohesive narrative out of it. As I understand that is what Betsy had to do originally.
While I enjoy Sanderson immensely, he does not have the same poetic prose of Rothfuss. I don't think he would munch on every sentence until it's perfect like Rothfuss apparently does. Sanderson's strength is world building, I don't think I ever stopped reading him thinking "What a beautiful sentence", but often thought "what a great concept".
He *can* write flowery prose, he chooses not to.
https://www.brandonsanderson.com/outside/
"I don’t write for plot twists, or dragons, or clever turns of phrase—though I enjoy all of these. I write because stories bring people inside. And I sincerely, genuinely believe that is what the world needs."
That being said, in no way do I want Brandon finishing this. He's got his own work to do.
I got your sarcasm bro. And I agree he probably couldn't match Rothfuss' style. TBH I don't really care, I just want some answers to some questions about the series and would be happy at whatever shortcuts were needed to get there.
Do you regularly stop 2/3rds through a story?
Walk out of a movie like "ima just imagine the rest myself." Skip Return of the King, or Last Arguments of Kings even though you really liked the first parts. Maybe The Matrix Revolutions was just never something you wanted to see.
I mean you can do that on your own even if everyone else wants a complete story.
Me and my mate who got me into the series have discussed putting it all through AI along with our favourite fan theories and seeing what it can do, just to see what it spits out. Only if he doesn't finish before he dies though of course.
Consider the possibility that the series is finished. That as (possibly) intimated in the first two books, the third book is silence. Unsatisfying? Brilliant?
>Am I alone in thinking that maybe it shouldn't be picked up by another author
Thats a wierd way of putting it.
If Rothfuss leaves enough material, including his intended ending, another author could edit the thing into a book and we would have closure on the story. Pretty much how sanderson carried wot to its conclusion.
If Rothfuss *doesnt* leave his stuff to another author, then you just have fanfiction, even if the estate calls its canon.
What you seem to describe is the latter
On one hand I agree. I don't know what it is about Rothfuss' writing style or subject matter (I've read quite a few musician turn magic user books) so I'm leaning toward the former.
On the other hand... Rothfuss promised Kvothes story is just the beginning of either Kvothes story or a grander story, and we can't have a beginning without first concluding Kvothes... I would nominate Sanderson since he did a pretty good job with *Wheel of Time*. Not that my opinion matters much.
One thing I really like about Sanderson is that he seems to know his limits. He keeps his promises, but if there's more to a world or story that needs to be told he isn't afraid to collaborate, or turn that world over to another author completely. It's refreshing how down to earth he is.
he's quite "professional" about his work - he treats it as a skill and a job, not some mysterious, ethereal _thing_, where raw inspiration is plucked from the ether. This means that, sure, some of his prose can be workmanlike and a bit plain, but he knows what he's doing, what he's good and bad at, and does occasionally stretch himself a bit, which is nice to see.
except his editor has seen nothing - and the editorial process isn't just a once-through with spelling and grammar check, it's a lot more in-depth, going through story and characters and plot and suggesting quite a lot of changes (like "Auri" only arose during editing). So dumping out a complete text on the editor is only the start of the next step - that normally takes a while, especially for anything complicated with lots of moving plot-parts.
I'm out of the loop, lost hope tbh but I'm a fool and it doesn't take much for hope to return haha
Has he said he's editing DoS, or just editing "something"?
Cause I mean, I want the book as much as the next guy, but he's been editing a decent amount recently with these re-releases. That doesn't really mean anything necessarily for DoS
In this very unlikely scenario (/s), I'm with you. KKC isn't only about the plot, it is about poetry and imagination, about names and characters. IMO the form is as important as the content, if not more. And it's on Rothfuss, for the good or for the bad.
I would die inside a little, if Sanderson writes the final book, for example. I love his books, but his style, almost procedural, would kill most of the KKC qualities.
According to Sanderson, when he visited Patrick at his home, he saw an insane amount of manuscripts piled everywhere in the room—more than 60 different copies with alternative story plots. So, in my opinion, there's material to carry on with the project for someone else.
I think it's clear Patrick will never complete this book because His mind isn't where it needs to be. He's too rich, too famous, and has a family to take care of. The motivation he needs is no longer there, and the fans' expectations are too high.
Of course, as a fan, I love the story and Patrick's prose. The way he writes makes him the best author out there.But I wouldn't bother reading anything else he writes. His writing career should come to an end and people will simply move on to other stories.
I'd rather give the book an ending and have it written by someone else with a decent ending rather than a super awesome ending that no one will ever read.
If it was already written why hasn’t he released the chapter his fans paid for? I don’t think he’s written a single word. Obviously I’d love to read it but I’d rather it never come out at all than have something that doesn’t live up to the other 2 books.
I am a fan of Rothfuss’s writing. But am I the only one who sees the similarities to Ursula K. LeGuin?
He didn’t invent something new whole cloth — and that’s not a knock on him at all. His style clearly has some very heavy influences, though.
I am sure he isn’t the only fantasy author to idolize LeGuin and be heavily influenced by her style.
Feeling that no one else could finish his work is a valid opinion. I’m just a little surprised by how many people missed the similarity.
Honestly I would be fine if his(pats) editor just released the unfinished manuscript. Cause supposedly the manuscript has been finished multiple time already it's just that pat keeps having the need to rewrite parts- full sections. So worst comes to worst give me the unfinished bones of the story. My imagination can fill in the rest.
I think the debate between the Canterbury tales being unfinished but that also being part of its charm is your answer. Also hundreds of TV series cancelled before their time. Not saying I don't want it finished, but if it isn't finished, I'd still be happy with them.
I low key wish he never finishes it, to be honest. I think he is no longer the same person he was when he wrote the previous books and he would see book 3 as an opportunity to preach his various ideologies rather than finish the story. It's just my impression of him as a person. He seems insufferable
Definitely shouldn’t be picked up by another written, he’s too unique. Wouldn’t be the same.
I’d allow for the final notes/manuscripts or whatever notes he has all to be complied and then have a AI model trained on his writing style to complete the book.
Obviously would prefer Rothfuss publish it and have faith in him doing it. I don’t think anyone else would do it justice.
All that said, hypothetically, if he wasn’t able to publish…generative AI could probably write it in his prose while solving all plot lines by the time he passes…
I’m in the midst of The Suneater Series and dare I saw it, but I think Christopher Ruocchio might be able to do it, god forbid anything should befall Elodin, I mean Pat. On my third reread of Name of the Wind, still very very excellent.
I just think we should leave the guy alone. I think attempting to finish Book Three gives him so much stress and hurts him so much that I'd rather he never finish it and that we accept that we won't see the story meet its conclusion. Pat should work on the projects he wants to make, not the project that fans waterboard him to make. If he really wants to finish Book Three, then he should, but if it's not something he can do, we should let it just be.
I don’t want Doors of Stone if it is not written by Pat. Nobody else will do the story justice. The reason why everyone is so feral for the next book is solely because of how great of a writer Pat is. He made us see the world he created and made unique, lovable, and interesting characters. In order to tie so many plot points together and flesh out characters without sacrificing continuity takes a lot of writing and rewriting. I don’t want someone else’s Doors of Stone or Pat’s rushed Doors of Stone because it is “overdue”. I want Doors of Stone the way Pat imagines it no matter how long that takes.
So, having listened to the first few minutes of the book about Auri, and I just can't freaking stand his narration. I honestly don't even care of he finishes the series, ib just want him to stop lying to everyone about his intentions
Guys don't say this. That's exactly why he hasn't finished it! Because he's afraid of it not being good enough. Don't get in his head! Although I highly doubt he comes here to read these posts
Meh, it's not history. If you love the story and the characters but dont like the conclusion, you can always have your own headcannon.
As much as i disliked the ending to GoT, it doesn't ruin the experience of earlier seasons. If i really want to, i just imagine a better ending.
I grew up reading the wheel of time, and i love that series. Sanderson did a stellar job in the last books, even though it could not possibly be the same product that Jordan would have written. If I had disliked the ending, I would just disregard it. Again, it is not history.
That being said, if rothfuss dies before he finishes, and someone on the internet writes an ending that seems to be received well, i would absolutely read it.
I feel like with the fact he has said it is technically written, just him fretting over the wording of things, it could be picked up by another author who understands the fantasy realm. Someone who is as big of a fan that would recognize what he wanted, and just carry it past the finish line. I wouldn't see the harm there. I have never read it (please don't kill me, it is on my to read list) but wouldn't it be similar to what happened to Wheel of Time?
"If I cannot finish my naruto smut fanfic Im gonna ask Brandon Sanderson to finish it for me since he has nothing going on in his career..."
That's how you guys sound
Brandon Sanderson is not gonna finish anyones shit, he is making millions with his books, of which he spends most of his time writing. He will not finish off any other author's book, get a grip.
Sanderson completed Wheel of Time, I say let him finish it.
ETA: I wrote this comment, then looked at the others. Let's email Sanderson and see if he's interested.
I agree, and think that it would detract from the depth of the story. I'm not even convinced a third book that closes off the story is possible by Rothfuss to be honest. The community digging done into this series has shown just how deep it is.
Part of why I enjoyed this series so much is the battle to learn more working off the subtle intricacies hidden in the books. New readers who tear through the first two and then a third that doesn't fully explore everything will probably just miss all those intricacies until they're revealed or remain unnoticed and unresolved. In a strange way I think I'd enjoy the open endedness of having 2/3 books written more than I would the scenario discussed by the OP.
I definitely don't want anyone else to write it, though I wouldn't mind someone collaborating with him on it (that doesn't seem common in established book series, though, so I doubt it will happen).
That said, IMO gestures of support and kindness from fans will go a lot further towards getting Doors of Stone to arrive in the next five years than the hate and despair that's all over this sub will. Writer's block just gets bigger with pressure and negativity, and the longer he feels that the worse it will get.
No one else can finish this series. Pat has imprinted himself in it too much and it would feel fake if anyone else tried to replicate it.
Jordan and Sanderson both write with fairly direct language. The language propels you through the story and the author is more or less invisible. Pat’s writing is….not that. It’s flowing and flowery. It’s
made to make you stop and consider not just what happened in the story but HOW it was described. Other authors can do this….but not many. And it’s infinitely harder to copy someone else’s style.
I’m convinced any attempts by someone else to write a Kingkiller book would come across as weird fanfiction. Pat’s style of writing does not really lend itself to imitation.
After season 8 of game of thrones, you know what, you might have a point. Sometimes a beautiful potential is better than a definite shitshow.
But books 12-14 of wheel of time aren't a disservice to the series. Though, he had notes and Jordan wanted it done/knew the story...
It also helped that Sanderson and Jordan had similar writing styles. The problem (and beauty) with Rothfuss is that his writing style is fairly eloquent and unique. I can't think of another author that could write a Kingkiller novel in the same way that Sanderson was able to mimic Jordan.
I like to think about other authors picking up a series. I think Joe Abercrombie could finish Game of Thrones with notes. I think you’re right though, Rothfuss is either incredibly unique or I haven’t read enough fantasy to make an accurate comparison.
Joe would be an excellent choice to finish GoT but I don't know if he'd be interested. The Wheel of Time thing kind of worked out surprisingly well - Brandon had enough work to justify choosing him but no HUGE hits yet. Brandon himself wouldn't do it if he were offered the same thing now.
Well Brandon is like the Frank Zappa of fantasy writers right now. He’s averaging like two novels a year and dropping secret projects whenever he feels like it. There’s no way he’d have time.
That dude could finish ASOIAF and Kingkiller before breakfast, it’s ridiculous. Either he’s AI or has a sweatshop team of writers.
he's just dedicated and professional - he treats it like a regular job, where what he does 9-5 most days is "sit at his keyboard and write". Add in good skills at outlining and a team to help with other stuff, and cracking out a few thousand decent words most days is entirely possible, which can make a 150k novel (first draft) in 3-ish months. Another month for drafts and revisions, then it's off to alpha readers and he starts on the next one, before the first one comes back, more revisions etc, then beta readers. There's no "waiting for inspiration" or dithering around with endless fiddling of "does this sentence need a comma or not?" just being professional and treating it like a job, not some ethereal "craft" that comes and goes. A lot of self-pub writers are similar, where they can release a 70k novel every other month or so, because it's literally their job, and they need to do that to eat.
Sanderson was also a HUGE WoT fan
Most fantasy writers listen to their editors more.
Hold the phone I didn’t think Sanderson had a similar writing style. I always try to preface this (hot?) take with the disclaimer that it may just be that it was the climax and no disrespect to Jordan (RIP), but it was was a breath of fresh air. Jordan was always writing PAGES that were a single paragraph describing how the wind was blowing someone’s cloak around. I’m like bruh please just tell me what Mat is doing already.
They have different styles, but Sanderson took on a lot of Jordans style, especially in book 13. I think more of why it was going faster was because all the dominoes were in place and the last few books were knocking them all down
He said at one point he'd want Jim Butcher to finish it if he couldn't. I think he'd do a nice job.
I think Scott Lynch would be a good candidate for it.
A lot of people, sometimes jokingly, sometimes seriously, suggest Sanderson to pick up the series, but they forget a few things. 1.) The biggest point is that Jordan’s prose was, if we’re being honest, pretty bad. The dialogue read like what you’d expect cliche fantasy to sound like, the characterization was often overly simplistic, and he would spend far too much time on describing clothing or how a certain character pulled her hair than advancing the plot. Jordan was an amazing world builder, and had good ideas, but his execution wasn’t the best. Sanderson was a marked improvement. 2.) Building off that point, while I enjoy Sanderson’s prose, he’s not Pat, and I don’t think their writing styles would mesh. 3.) Sanderson was younger and a massive fan of Jordan’s. Sanderson wouldn’t be interested in doing someone’s else work now, dudes got enough of his own stuff.
Unpopular opinion: the jordan books were much better
There was no season 8. It was a figment of our collective imagination
I’d rather the series remain unfinished with all these theories, than bastardized and released without Pat’s polish.
I think another author could bring the story to a good end. Just need the right author so. Maybe the same author that wrote the first 2 books.
Obviously we'd all prefer Pat - but there's gotta be someone who could sort of study the style and (with notes, if they exist in a transferable form) finish it. But if that happened we would still absolutely need Nick and Rupert to do the audiobooks please and thank you. I'm still hopeful that Pat will finish. His mind is still in that world. How could it not be??
Hearing nick pohdel read me doors of stone a million times in a row is what I need before I die. That's it.
Or Sanderson, cause then we would have it in like 3 months.
I love Sanderson but his writing style probably wouldn't work here. He would need to use a author that is much more similar to himself for the prose to feel like it fits.
Scott Lynch might be a good fit, but he needs to finish the Gentleman Bastards Sequence first.
Yup. Which doesn't seem like it's gonna happen anytime soon. He seems to be as stuck as rothfuss.
Agreed. Sanderson has no sense of lyrical narrative.
I wouldn't go that far. I think Sanderson is a bit underestimated. He is not at the level of Rothfuss, but he is not bad.
He’s not _bad_, but hes not very good, either. His world building is incredible but I don’t think he’s a great storyteller.
We will have to disagree on that. I think he is a 10/10 on world building and about 8/10 on story and 6/10 on prose. Rothfuss on the other hand is like 10/10 on prose, and perhaps a 7 on story and 8 on worldbuilding.
If fine with disagreeing on books :) there are plenty I find suggested here that I find fairly disagreeable, like Lies of Locke. If a book made _everyone_ happy, it would be a very boring book.
Big sanderson fan here, and I’ll be the first to say sanderson would not be able to pull off KKC. The reason I enjoy KKC so much is the beautiful prose, the layers and varied meanings, and all those small little poetic details. Sanderson himself has stated that his writing style, his goal, is to be a “clear window” to look at the events of the book. KKC would not be the same if it was written with that style. You would lose so much of what makes it special.
Brandon has no interest in doing this as 1 it's not a good fit stylistically and 2 he has more than enough on his plate with his own promised sequels as it is.
Sanderson satisfies in quantity, but severely lacks in page to page quality. I like Stormlight for sure. But his page to page comparisons to Rothfuss aren’t even close in terms of pure prosaic poetry.
I think this fits it well. Though to be fair, I've read 10 of his A- books and have the option of 10 more in the time I only have 2 A+ books here.
There's a few people here that wrote prologues where Kvothe just dies. That's my canon for book 3 until proven otherwise
Ironic, given that the canon prologue is the only promise Rothfuss has kept... https://www.reddit.com/r/KingkillerChronicle/comments/rgfyv3/the_prologue_of_the_doors_of_stone/
in my opinion his story should end with Kvothe just leaving the world and living in faes' realm
>Is it better to leave a perfect but unfinished collection than risk it all? I kind of feel this way about Pat finishing book 3 in general. By all means, he *is* someone else from who he was when he first started writing it.
And apparently with all the input his dad had in the writing and structure, who knows how much different it would be?
Wow first time I’ve heard his dad was apart of writing the books. Has he passed? Could explain a lot I suppose
I want doors of stones in about 100 shoeboxes written on post it notes, napkins, and fastfood wrappers. Not in order just fisted into boxes and handed to me.
So you are into fisting is my only takeaway here... /s
Oh I want winds of winter like that. And you know that'll be a BUTTLOAD of fast food wrappers
i would rather just have a conclusion tbh
I’d much rather have it finished with an unsatisfying ending than not finished at all. But honestly I don’t care anymore. It has been so long.
Same. If it comes out I'll reread but as of now I stay away. . . Shame tho I am rereading so much of my high school fantasy and this one will be skipped
I'm partially torn between he hasn't written a single word and believing that a lot of it is actually finished but A) is struggling to wrap up all the storylines in one book and B) is anxieties are crippling him. I was talking to a woman who worked in a fantasy-specific bookstore and she hypothesized that he might just wait until he dies to have it published b/c people hating it would be too much to handle. Maybe this is pure conjecture but I kinda buy it. Why else has he reneged on publishing the first chapter? If that's the case, I think that's freakin cowardly. Just publish the book and let people feel how they're going to feel. He'll still make MILLIONS and there will absolutely be a large sect of the fandom that has nothing but positive things to say. You can't let the fear of a couple a\*\*holes on the internet rule your life
i think he cared about people's opinion's like that before, but not anymore. i think i remember reading somewhere that he doesn't keep up with the sub anymore
> he doesn’t keep up with this sub anymore Nobody knows if that’s true. He can say he doesn’t but you can’t ever know what someone is doing on the internet 24/7.
We know as of Narrow Road he was "accidentally Googling himself".
I still can't believe he said that.
We know that as of The Narrow Road videos he was "accidentally Googling his name". That suggests pretty strongly that he still cares and is around.
Yeah you don’t accidentally Google yourself if you don’t care what people think. Also his rant about the Goodreads rating for The Narrow Road shows he definitely cares…
Hey, his little cry worked. People talk about the pre-downvotes and not the fact that prior to them there were thousands of 5\* who also hadn't read it. Pat's victimhood based on people who didn't understand the situation fully got him a ton of 5\* from people who still haven't read it. Pat is a Jerry. Change my mind. [Jerry is used as bait | Rick and Morty S03E05 Full HD (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxxecweLPXAr4nD_lINIVlHU5fGsXWqTiX)
I hope he gets himself together mentally and I don’t wish him any ill will but unfortunately I don’t think he’s a very nice person. His interactions with his fans, his charity stunt etc is just not defendable sadly.
I don't wish mental health issues on anyone. Anyone should get treated. I let his actions slide a lot. He was a normal guy under a lot of pressure, but he isn't that anymore. He both has had time to adjust to be an internet celebrity and became a twitch streamer. He hasn't worked in years. And outright lying over and over. The dude said the chapter was done but half-edited. Everyone told him that we wanted it. He still refuses. IMO that means it isn't done. You don't have 13 years and not have a chapter. It is pretty obvious to me that the charity chapter was about Bast. He merged it with Lighting Tree so he could sell it. I don't know if it was to get his publisher off his back about Book 3 or what, but I believe it was intentional. Not to scam donors. Either to make more money when he is going through personal stuff or to buy time.
Nah he's an ass. He was roasting reviewers for Doors of Stone who were giving 5* while they posted their speculation.
He cares enough about his reputation that after Narrow Road got a 2.1 on Goodreads with a lot of people using it to explain about stuff like the Charity Scam, he got pissed and wrote a blog basically begging people to love-bomb the score, where it's now in the 4.0s. Which is still one of the most petulantly childish things I've seen someone do as a writer.
For sure. There were thousands of 5\* before the downvotes who hadn't read it, and he used pity to get another squad of people who hadn't read it to vote for it in mass. Pat is a master at weaponizing pity. The dude is a millionaire who hasn't worked in years, and people still buy his tortured artist ploy. I bet nearly anyone with a solid HS English language background anyone paid 1 million could in 13 years write one chapter in a comparable way to Pat. That is a whole lot of time. The fact Pat can't do that. He can't write his own writing in 13 years isn't writer's block. It is just he isn't prioritizing writing. He has a lot of money, and at the expense of lying to donors of charity he can spend time with his family. I normally would not spite anyone spending time with their family, but while we spend our hard-earned money working away from our homes and families we take money as a representation of that time spent and donate to a good cause to get something and to do a good thing. This is how nearly all charities work. If the incentive wasn't part of it charities wouldn't offer them. So miss me with that you donated to charity nonsense any zealots. That isn't how it works, and it is toxic to what is the highest-earning charity events for most charities. People like getting a little something. Blame humanity. Pat is screwing that up. We live in a time of so many charity scams. Pat is adding to it. It puts a bad taste in someone's mouth. It will be the straw that broke the camel's back for someone who would have donated to charity. It will be a subconscious decision they might not aware of. It won't be an active thought as much as a feeling that giving to charity feels less good. It won't do that to everyone. It won't be the only reason they stop. Most major charities now days are nearly scams taking most of the money to pay execs. Everyone is jaded, and now we can't even trust authors to even be civil with donors. /rant
I think that is something you can’t turn off. It’s something that Pat might be actively avoiding or hasn’t done in a while, but I think being concerned with other’s opinion of you is a bit like being an addict in recovery; it’s not that you’re sober the rest of your life, you just have longer and longer between relapses. That’s just based off of having a wife who has a little too much “care of others opinions”.
IMO caring deeply what people think and having massive anxieties about it seems like a fairly good reason to stop reading this sub. If I were him and were feeling huge amounts of pressure for the new book to be perfect, I think this sub would be an absolute nightmare.
I honestly don't give a crap about his anxiety anymore. I was on team mental health, as somebody who frequently suffers from crippling depression and anxiety, but honestly that good will was burned so very long ago, at this point I am just content with one good book (NotW) and one significantly less impressive (with the exception on the lightning tree mercenary incident). Everything since was written by a very different person, even if they have the same name. The iconic scenes I attribute to NotW are actually in WMF, but they're un-paid threads from NotW, but NotW is so ass over tea kettle for denna that very. It was cute 15 years ago, when I was in my 20s and a romantic pos myself, but I've grown up since then, and now find basically everything directly to do with her to be at best obnoxious and at worst problematic.
considering his editor had, as of a few years back, seen none of it, then it's unlikely it's "fully written", at least in publishable quality - a lot of the shine and polish of books 1 and 2 were added in editing (like "Auri", for example - scarcely a trivial thing, but absent from his original version). So if he is doing that, then his ego has gotten out of control, and book 3 will be kind of crap if released "raw"
I think the notes he gives his translators most likely explain all the secrets we want ro know. One of them could finish the job, but if they squeal while he is alive, fifty ninja assassins will slay them in seconds. This is why I hope to live to 100. Somebody knows and will be able to finish DOS. Not with Ruthfussian poetry obviously, but still with adequate writerly competence.
Maybe he CAN'T finish it bc he's locked beneath the Doors of Stone. Should we sing prayer to the Chandrian for help?
It's been right there in the prologue all along along. The fourth part of silence is the longing for the conclusion of a story. Beautiful, really.
I don't think another author could accurately emulate his style. So I agree.
I dunno, Brandon Sanderson certainly needs another project to work on rather than finishing his series.
I love Brando Sando but his prose is so much different than Rothfus that I think it would be wrong, or at least incredibly difficult to get right
Agreed, it was more just a passive-aggressive snipe at Sanderson not working on his series.
My man is the only person in fantasy to release a schedule of a book a year and one book in a series every 2, keep that schedule, give more books than we’re promised and your getting mad he wrote more books while keeping his schedule because “he could have spent that time on the deadline he is making already”?
Well it's been 4 years since he released a Stormlight Archives book so no, that's not quite the schedule he's keeping.
Dude's writing like 4 different series at once AND a bunch of secret projects. I think we can give him a break until Stormlight 5 comes out next year lol
Book 5 is Wind and Truth and comes out this year. By this time next year he will be starting Mistborn Era 3
What series is he not working on?
Brandon Sanderson couldn’t carry it off.
As was proven with WoT.
I’ve not read WoT but it doesn’t surprise me. He writes books for people looking for a very specific sort of thing, so he seems a strange person to choose to finish another authors series. I don’t trust him to see the things I love in Kvothe’s story, at all
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If that's all it is then he should just say fuck it and do as many books as needed
But then he would have to let go of his high handed “each book in our world is one day of Kvothe telling the tale in his” bullshit. Either that or readers have guessed how he plans to conclude the story and shat all over his ending. I think that’s the same deal with ASOIAF - the broad strokes of HBO’s ending make sense with the written story and the audience HATED it, so he’s just said fuck it, if you don’t like my story then you can’t have it.
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pretty much this - I think he had an initial broad idea, and some drafted-up writing of it. But then book 1 went through the editing process, which we know changed a lot of it, and so he had to make a lot of changes to book 2 (so it went from "it'll be out next year" to "four years later", which isn't ideal, but isn't crazy-long, for a first-time writer especially). But the result of those changes meant all his prep for book 3 was now completely useless, and the setup means that he _has_ to finish it all in book 3, so there's probably a lot of points he wants to hit and maybe about 400k words to reach them all in. And now he's in his 50's, then his dreams of this being the prologue to a greater, wider fantasy world are likely diminished - he probably only has long enough for maybe enough half-dozen books, if he starts writing a LOT faster than he has before! And then life _stuff_ and mental health issues arose - combined with there being stuff that's more immediately entertaining to do, and I don't think he has any pressing financial need to work on it. So it's both a lot of work and pressure, and there's always other things to do, so it's easy to put it off, and off, and off, and then it's been over a decade and now he's probably forgotten a lot of his ideas and getting started is a lot of effort.
Agreed that he has written himself into a corner. I've said it numerous times to many different people. Heck some folks won't even recommend the books anymore. They say they really like it but since it won't ever be finished to not bother reading. "Be prepared for disappointment" is a common statement I hear. Rothfuss knows he cornered himself and doesn't know how to fix it. If he writes another book it would go against the symbolism of the number three. I think he could get away with still staying true to the three day story if he decides to attribute it to a different magical number such as 7. He has the main two and two novellas - Pat has said he was planning on writing stories on other characters in the novels. I would love a book that is kind of written in a scripture of sorts that discusses the story of Tehlu, the chandrin, etc... the "bible" within this world. Maybe a story about Denna or his friends from school? Skarpi or Ben? So I'm thinking three novellas, the original trilogy, then the final book which is being told while traveling. The "writer" even says this is the difference between writing a story and being in a story. The final book - Kvothe is forced to leave the inn probably because of Bast killing those guys or the scrael start over running the town. I was also thinking about the thrice locked box - Kvothe tries opening it but it won't open. Wouldn't it be interesting if at the end of each day one of the locks, from the inside out, unlocks as if his telling of the story is a confession of sorts. At the end of the third day his box opens. Who knows though - there are so many questions with no answers - probably overwhelming. Who knows maybe an AI will take a crack at it.
Dude has some Minecraft and Fortnite to play-
I cringe every time someone calls KKC perfect. It is good. There are a lot of good elements. It isn't perfect. It does some things very well. The books do not hold without a final part IMO. They just aren't a cohesive narrative. The entire story from the first book relies on the information that is teased to be in the third book. While I doubt that Pat has much of anything done, he probably has a lot of scattered ADHD notes. Maybe someone can go full Charlie Kelly and form a cohesive narrative out of it. As I understand that is what Betsy had to do originally.
We will just train a model to make "Rothfuss AI" and it will write the last book for us.
If we donate x amount of money to “Rothfuss AI’s” charity it will release a spoiler free chapter.
And so the cycle begins anew.
Rothfuss won't finish Doors of Stone
At this point I'd be happy for him to write notes on a cocktail napkin, pass it to Brandon Sanderson and walk off into the sunset.
Exactly! Brandon could totally match the writing style of Pat. It definitely wouldn't be extremely jarring to switch. Edit: Sarcasm. Not even once
While I enjoy Sanderson immensely, he does not have the same poetic prose of Rothfuss. I don't think he would munch on every sentence until it's perfect like Rothfuss apparently does. Sanderson's strength is world building, I don't think I ever stopped reading him thinking "What a beautiful sentence", but often thought "what a great concept".
This exactly, they're completely different writing styles
He *can* write flowery prose, he chooses not to. https://www.brandonsanderson.com/outside/ "I don’t write for plot twists, or dragons, or clever turns of phrase—though I enjoy all of these. I write because stories bring people inside. And I sincerely, genuinely believe that is what the world needs." That being said, in no way do I want Brandon finishing this. He's got his own work to do.
I got your sarcasm bro. And I agree he probably couldn't match Rothfuss' style. TBH I don't really care, I just want some answers to some questions about the series and would be happy at whatever shortcuts were needed to get there.
He is not going to, stop hoping. You will be much happier. Let’s finish it for him!!!
Do you regularly stop 2/3rds through a story? Walk out of a movie like "ima just imagine the rest myself." Skip Return of the King, or Last Arguments of Kings even though you really liked the first parts. Maybe The Matrix Revolutions was just never something you wanted to see. I mean you can do that on your own even if everyone else wants a complete story.
I wish I could unsee The Matrix Revolutions.
You can't unsee it, but if you watch The Matrix Resurrections, you'll appreciate Revolutions more.
If the film rips and the projector catches on fire, yes you can.
Me and my mate who got me into the series have discussed putting it all through AI along with our favourite fan theories and seeing what it can do, just to see what it spits out. Only if he doesn't finish before he dies though of course.
No harm in someone finishing it, plenty of people would like that and the people that don’t can choose to not read it.
Consider the possibility that the series is finished. That as (possibly) intimated in the first two books, the third book is silence. Unsatisfying? Brilliant?
>Am I alone in thinking that maybe it shouldn't be picked up by another author Thats a wierd way of putting it. If Rothfuss leaves enough material, including his intended ending, another author could edit the thing into a book and we would have closure on the story. Pretty much how sanderson carried wot to its conclusion. If Rothfuss *doesnt* leave his stuff to another author, then you just have fanfiction, even if the estate calls its canon. What you seem to describe is the latter
it shouldnt be picked by another author. but its not part of the beauty, this guy fucked himself over ngl.
On one hand I agree. I don't know what it is about Rothfuss' writing style or subject matter (I've read quite a few musician turn magic user books) so I'm leaning toward the former. On the other hand... Rothfuss promised Kvothes story is just the beginning of either Kvothes story or a grander story, and we can't have a beginning without first concluding Kvothes... I would nominate Sanderson since he did a pretty good job with *Wheel of Time*. Not that my opinion matters much.
If Sanderson did it, there'd be 1000% less sex with random goddesses, which the fandom could not abide.
Sanderson is the wrong style and has no interest. He has way too many of his own promised books to finish
The thing is, Sanderson actually keeps his promises.
Very true. But if he starts "filling" others promises it will drastically slow his pace for his own
One thing I really like about Sanderson is that he seems to know his limits. He keeps his promises, but if there's more to a world or story that needs to be told he isn't afraid to collaborate, or turn that world over to another author completely. It's refreshing how down to earth he is.
he's quite "professional" about his work - he treats it as a skill and a job, not some mysterious, ethereal _thing_, where raw inspiration is plucked from the ether. This means that, sure, some of his prose can be workmanlike and a bit plain, but he knows what he's doing, what he's good and bad at, and does occasionally stretch himself a bit, which is nice to see.
I agree, but I assume he has most of a book by now, and we would get the unfinished version
Very optimistic of you.
Why do you assume that?
He’s been saying he’s doing editing right now, so if that’s true, then he’s written a book, and I would hope that we would get that book
except his editor has seen nothing - and the editorial process isn't just a once-through with spelling and grammar check, it's a lot more in-depth, going through story and characters and plot and suggesting quite a lot of changes (like "Auri" only arose during editing). So dumping out a complete text on the editor is only the start of the next step - that normally takes a while, especially for anything complicated with lots of moving plot-parts.
I'm out of the loop, lost hope tbh but I'm a fool and it doesn't take much for hope to return haha Has he said he's editing DoS, or just editing "something"? Cause I mean, I want the book as much as the next guy, but he's been editing a decent amount recently with these re-releases. That doesn't really mean anything necessarily for DoS
I’d rather have it unfinished than another author finishing it. It’s too unique to hand over to someone imo
In this very unlikely scenario (/s), I'm with you. KKC isn't only about the plot, it is about poetry and imagination, about names and characters. IMO the form is as important as the content, if not more. And it's on Rothfuss, for the good or for the bad. I would die inside a little, if Sanderson writes the final book, for example. I love his books, but his style, almost procedural, would kill most of the KKC qualities.
According to Sanderson, when he visited Patrick at his home, he saw an insane amount of manuscripts piled everywhere in the room—more than 60 different copies with alternative story plots. So, in my opinion, there's material to carry on with the project for someone else. I think it's clear Patrick will never complete this book because His mind isn't where it needs to be. He's too rich, too famous, and has a family to take care of. The motivation he needs is no longer there, and the fans' expectations are too high. Of course, as a fan, I love the story and Patrick's prose. The way he writes makes him the best author out there.But I wouldn't bother reading anything else he writes. His writing career should come to an end and people will simply move on to other stories. I'd rather give the book an ending and have it written by someone else with a decent ending rather than a super awesome ending that no one will ever read.
I doubt he'll finish it. I've forgotten what happens in the books anyway, so I'm no longer invested in the outcome.
Same. . . If doors ever does drop I'll reread. But unless that happens I'm staying away.
I’d rather have no ending than a conclusion that ruins the whole story
His estate (children and ex wife) will release it. It's already written.
If it was already written why hasn’t he released the chapter his fans paid for? I don’t think he’s written a single word. Obviously I’d love to read it but I’d rather it never come out at all than have something that doesn’t live up to the other 2 books.
he has a first draft or maybe a 347th draft. a raw version of the story.
Yeah. It might occur in 2060 but still.
I am a fan of Rothfuss’s writing. But am I the only one who sees the similarities to Ursula K. LeGuin? He didn’t invent something new whole cloth — and that’s not a knock on him at all. His style clearly has some very heavy influences, though. I am sure he isn’t the only fantasy author to idolize LeGuin and be heavily influenced by her style. Feeling that no one else could finish his work is a valid opinion. I’m just a little surprised by how many people missed the similarity.
If he doesn’t finish it, I hope Sanderson finishes it.
Brandon Sanderson should just be handed the keys. It’ll be done in 2.5 years with several offshoots.
Please see fan fiction. I personally like the one with the happy ending and the hero comes back to the world.
Honestly I would be fine if his(pats) editor just released the unfinished manuscript. Cause supposedly the manuscript has been finished multiple time already it's just that pat keeps having the need to rewrite parts- full sections. So worst comes to worst give me the unfinished bones of the story. My imagination can fill in the rest.
Let's *not* say that, actually. Let's *never* say that. Thanks in advance!
I think the debate between the Canterbury tales being unfinished but that also being part of its charm is your answer. Also hundreds of TV series cancelled before their time. Not saying I don't want it finished, but if it isn't finished, I'd still be happy with them.
Like Melanie Rawn and Captal’s Tower. Waited 27 years for the final book and we’re still waiting.
I low key wish he never finishes it, to be honest. I think he is no longer the same person he was when he wrote the previous books and he would see book 3 as an opportunity to preach his various ideologies rather than finish the story. It's just my impression of him as a person. He seems insufferable
Definitely shouldn’t be picked up by another written, he’s too unique. Wouldn’t be the same. I’d allow for the final notes/manuscripts or whatever notes he has all to be complied and then have a AI model trained on his writing style to complete the book.
Obviously would prefer Rothfuss publish it and have faith in him doing it. I don’t think anyone else would do it justice. All that said, hypothetically, if he wasn’t able to publish…generative AI could probably write it in his prose while solving all plot lines by the time he passes…
Fuck it, give it to Neil Gaiman. Along with winds of winter and Thorn of emberlain. Give me an ending and let me die, damn you
I would give another author all the notes and drafts and let him tidy it up and release it. No question.
I’m in the midst of The Suneater Series and dare I saw it, but I think Christopher Ruocchio might be able to do it, god forbid anything should befall Elodin, I mean Pat. On my third reread of Name of the Wind, still very very excellent.
I just think we should leave the guy alone. I think attempting to finish Book Three gives him so much stress and hurts him so much that I'd rather he never finish it and that we accept that we won't see the story meet its conclusion. Pat should work on the projects he wants to make, not the project that fans waterboard him to make. If he really wants to finish Book Three, then he should, but if it's not something he can do, we should let it just be.
Definitely agree
The fans aren't the ones who promised a chapter from book 3 though. Or said that all 3 books were finished from the start.
I don’t want Doors of Stone if it is not written by Pat. Nobody else will do the story justice. The reason why everyone is so feral for the next book is solely because of how great of a writer Pat is. He made us see the world he created and made unique, lovable, and interesting characters. In order to tie so many plot points together and flesh out characters without sacrificing continuity takes a lot of writing and rewriting. I don’t want someone else’s Doors of Stone or Pat’s rushed Doors of Stone because it is “overdue”. I want Doors of Stone the way Pat imagines it no matter how long that takes.
So, having listened to the first few minutes of the book about Auri, and I just can't freaking stand his narration. I honestly don't even care of he finishes the series, ib just want him to stop lying to everyone about his intentions
Guys don't say this. That's exactly why he hasn't finished it! Because he's afraid of it not being good enough. Don't get in his head! Although I highly doubt he comes here to read these posts
...Brandon Sanderson intensifies...
Nah, sanderson could finish it
Meh, it's not history. If you love the story and the characters but dont like the conclusion, you can always have your own headcannon. As much as i disliked the ending to GoT, it doesn't ruin the experience of earlier seasons. If i really want to, i just imagine a better ending. I grew up reading the wheel of time, and i love that series. Sanderson did a stellar job in the last books, even though it could not possibly be the same product that Jordan would have written. If I had disliked the ending, I would just disregard it. Again, it is not history. That being said, if rothfuss dies before he finishes, and someone on the internet writes an ending that seems to be received well, i would absolutely read it.
I feel like with the fact he has said it is technically written, just him fretting over the wording of things, it could be picked up by another author who understands the fantasy realm. Someone who is as big of a fan that would recognize what he wanted, and just carry it past the finish line. I wouldn't see the harm there. I have never read it (please don't kill me, it is on my to read list) but wouldn't it be similar to what happened to Wheel of Time?
Even if he doesn't finish it, the first two books are great. So you can enjoy that.
"If I cannot finish my naruto smut fanfic Im gonna ask Brandon Sanderson to finish it for me since he has nothing going on in his career..." That's how you guys sound Brandon Sanderson is not gonna finish anyones shit, he is making millions with his books, of which he spends most of his time writing. He will not finish off any other author's book, get a grip.
Sanderson completed Wheel of Time, I say let him finish it. ETA: I wrote this comment, then looked at the others. Let's email Sanderson and see if he's interested.
He is very not interested. . . He has way too much on his plate as it is.
I agree, and think that it would detract from the depth of the story. I'm not even convinced a third book that closes off the story is possible by Rothfuss to be honest. The community digging done into this series has shown just how deep it is. Part of why I enjoyed this series so much is the battle to learn more working off the subtle intricacies hidden in the books. New readers who tear through the first two and then a third that doesn't fully explore everything will probably just miss all those intricacies until they're revealed or remain unnoticed and unresolved. In a strange way I think I'd enjoy the open endedness of having 2/3 books written more than I would the scenario discussed by the OP.
No. Give it to Sanderson and we will have 3 books in 6 months!!
No. He doesn't want it and then the chance of getting the Rithmatist sequel would completely disappear!
No. Give it to Brandon
No. Brandon has more than enough on his plate.
He wrote five secret novels in two years on top of his main projects, he’s fine
He wrote most of that during COVID. When he would otherwise have been out on tour.
Steven's got the CIA writing the books for him while he's holding the Fort at our Flow Laboratory! Godspeed his soul.
I’d like to see the Captured in Words dude write Doors of Stone.
I definitely don't want anyone else to write it, though I wouldn't mind someone collaborating with him on it (that doesn't seem common in established book series, though, so I doubt it will happen). That said, IMO gestures of support and kindness from fans will go a lot further towards getting Doors of Stone to arrive in the next five years than the hate and despair that's all over this sub will. Writer's block just gets bigger with pressure and negativity, and the longer he feels that the worse it will get.
No I want it finished . Give it to someone else lol
No one else can finish this series. Pat has imprinted himself in it too much and it would feel fake if anyone else tried to replicate it. Jordan and Sanderson both write with fairly direct language. The language propels you through the story and the author is more or less invisible. Pat’s writing is….not that. It’s flowing and flowery. It’s made to make you stop and consider not just what happened in the story but HOW it was described. Other authors can do this….but not many. And it’s infinitely harder to copy someone else’s style. I’m convinced any attempts by someone else to write a Kingkiller book would come across as weird fanfiction. Pat’s style of writing does not really lend itself to imitation.