The Slow Regard of Silent Things
I have a lot of dedicated reading spots in my house. There's the papasan downstairs, where I can make a nest of pillows and blankets and curl up in the long winter months. There's the brown couch upstairs, where I have easy access to a glass of wine or cup of tea on the side table. The green couch is on the wrong side of the table for easy drink access, but it has the recliner. Upstairs there's a leather chair in my office, where I can be surrounded by books, and a second leather chair in the bedroom where I can put my feet up on the footstool. In shady summer afternoons I read out in the backyard, avoiding the sun as much as possible. Finally there's the bed, where I can drift off to sleep, sandwiched between the animals.
This is, perhaps, overkill. Especially since I do the vast majority of reading on the train. But it's nice to have a different spot for each mood I'm in. And it ended up providing a nice parallel to this book, which I read while bouncing around a few of these spots.
The Slow Regard of Silent Things provides a slice of Auri's life, which is mostly consumed by ensuring that everything remains in it's proper place in the vast Underthing. She also spends time looking for a present for Kvothe's next visit, worrying that she won't find the perfect thing in time. I had to do a bit of digging to confirm it, but the timeline here matches up with the beginning of The Wise Man's Fear. Now that I have Auri's perspective on this bit, I really want to see how it these gifts ultimately play out.
This story is a bit strange in that it doesn't entirely have a plot. It's more of a vignette. It reveals more about Auri and her life, while raising even more questions. It wouldn't be Rothfuss if he didn't deepen the mystery even as he was revealing it. Auri is obsessed with the proper names and places of things. She obviously has a gift for discovering names, or perhaps Naming things, as every room in the Underthing has its own name, some changing by the day. She also seems to have something akin to OCD, getting panicky when things are out of order. Though given the implication that this was triggered by her study of Naming, that probably isn't quite right.
Getting a glimpse into Auri's life was a lot of fun, even if the story is shorter than I would like. After a couple of ~1000 page books it's strange to transition to one that's a mere 150 pages, complete with illustrations. But the language is lovely, as is the artwork. And there are more hints of things that should get laid out in the final book. Which will hopefully be released soon.
This is, perhaps, overkill. Especially since I do the vast majority of reading on the train. But it's nice to have a different spot for each mood I'm in. And it ended up providing a nice parallel to this book, which I read while bouncing around a few of these spots.
The Slow Regard of Silent Things provides a slice of Auri's life, which is mostly consumed by ensuring that everything remains in it's proper place in the vast Underthing. She also spends time looking for a present for Kvothe's next visit, worrying that she won't find the perfect thing in time. I had to do a bit of digging to confirm it, but the timeline here matches up with the beginning of The Wise Man's Fear. Now that I have Auri's perspective on this bit, I really want to see how it these gifts ultimately play out.
This story is a bit strange in that it doesn't entirely have a plot. It's more of a vignette. It reveals more about Auri and her life, while raising even more questions. It wouldn't be Rothfuss if he didn't deepen the mystery even as he was revealing it. Auri is obsessed with the proper names and places of things. She obviously has a gift for discovering names, or perhaps Naming things, as every room in the Underthing has its own name, some changing by the day. She also seems to have something akin to OCD, getting panicky when things are out of order. Though given the implication that this was triggered by her study of Naming, that probably isn't quite right.
Getting a glimpse into Auri's life was a lot of fun, even if the story is shorter than I would like. After a couple of ~1000 page books it's strange to transition to one that's a mere 150 pages, complete with illustrations. But the language is lovely, as is the artwork. And there are more hints of things that should get laid out in the final book. Which will hopefully be released soon.
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