The first 50 pages or so were confusing & boring and I only kept on because people I know loved the book. Things improved when the actual story of Kvothe's life started, but frankly it was pretty dull with most characters being unsympathetic and actually not at all nice. It didn't make me care what happened to them, and I will not be reading the rest of the series. Hope the author learned the proper uses of lay/lie somewhere along the way, and corrected the word "hypercritical" to the obviously meant "hypocritical". ( )

Okay, I now understand what the fuss is all about. This is a ripping yarn, full of interesting characters and I came to really care for them. Looking forward to reading the others in the series. ( )

Not incredible or beautifully written, but I still couldn't put it down. ( )

Yer a wizard now, Kvothe. ( )

This was a great book almost solely because of the writing. The magic system was interesting, but not as detailed as Mistborn, and there were fewer main characters (it was far more of a first person story, since it is written in the form of Kvothe telling his life story). In spite of this, the book remains gripping throughout, only faltering a little when he stays in Tarbean and at the end. My final concern was Kvothe's constant struggle with bankruptcy despite the fact that he earns (and spends) lots of money every time he plays music in bars. He just seems to have no idea how to manage himself in that respect, which doesn't jive with the rest of his image. A great book overall (I have trouble describing it's strong points, but I enjoyed everything about the book except what I explicitly mentioned above) and I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.

EDIT - Reread on May 3, 2012

On this reread, I realized that the money issue was nowhere near as big of a deal as it had been the first time I'd read through it. I'm surprised I even mentioned it, honestly. Overall the book was great. Now that I read the section with the Dracchus more closely, it made a bit more sense (though it was still kind of random with respect to the rest of the narrative). I'm very much looking forward to rereading the second book, since I've already forgotten what happens and I remember it being pretty sweet. More importantly though, I'm excited for the third book, whenever that comes out, since I think the conclusion of this series could very easily be the best. I'm almost hoping the 3rd book isn't the last... ( )