Fantasy Book Club discussion

Post your comments about the illusive and mysterious Chandrian here.

They remind me of Jordan's Forsaken. Myth but reality at the same time. I am anxious to get to know more about them. I like that Cinder is all pale and white (opposite his name), and Haliax is smothered in darkness. It gives them distinctions that are missing in some books I've read where all the antagonists generally look the same.

Yes they are similar to the Forsaken it seems. Though even more mysterious...

Great observation, Viktoria! I hadn't thought of that, but you're bang on. Rothfuss is such an amazing author....

This is one of the parts of the book that I did really enjoy - I would like to know more about them but not sure if I'm willing to go through another disappointing ending to transition from book 2 to book 3 - I'm going to be listening on GoodReads to see what people think of book 2 to decide whether I spend my time to read further.

What I really want to know is how on earth the Chandrian find out about people getting "too close". Not so much the farmer - he was digging up physical stuff. Physical stuff, actual locations can have some type of alarm set up, in this setting, probably magical. BUT, the trigger for Kvothe's family being destroyed seems to be the one-time performance of a not-quite-complete song. How does that work? It can't just be that speaking the name summons the "devils". Why was that particular performance a trigger, rather than the extensive research and practice needed to shape such a song in the first place? And what about the songs and tales that were originally pieced together in the research? Why are they ok? Because they don't contain a "critical mass" of data? Is it just driven by rather whimsical choices?

Well, so many questions, too long til the next two books and, presumably, answers to at least a few of them. Although I wouldn't be surprised if "Why this song?" ends up unanswered.

Tracy wrote: "Although I wouldn't be surprised if "Why this song?" ends up unanswered. ..."

I never thought about it until you just mentioned it but now considering it - I think you are right - and that we won't get to know how they found out about the song.

I felt that the Chandrian were aware of people getting "too close" on a different dimensional level. Somewhat akin to the superstition or belief to not name the Devil for fear of invoking him or drawing his attention. At this point in the series we don't have much information concerning the Chandrian and all of it via an unreliable narrator - Kvothe.

The Chandrian is what kept me reading this book, which was a too slow for me, but not boring. I was really excited when they were following the blue fire in the hills. I thought they were going to found the Chandrian and was jumping of excitement when reading that part. Then, I was very dissapointed when all it was was a giant lizard... Anyway, that was the best part of the book for me.