If you compare the beginning of Wise Man's Fear to the end... nothing much has changed, plot-progression-wise.

Kvothe started the book on good terms at his school. He had a few ups and downs, but he ends it in much the same way (tuition is assured, but now the Headmaster will hate him)

The Denna situation is... basically exactly the same. He obsesses over her, she kinda loves him but thinks she isn't good enough, every once in a while they have an argument.

Nothing much new about the Chandrian- basically just another song talking about their names and signs, which doesn't really help much.

That whole plot with the Maer was kind of interesting, but then it wraps up as "Thanks for saving the day all those times. Here's a brief reward, please go away now." And of COURSE that lockless box is going to be related to the Chandrian, but I guess we'll just forget about that for now.


Gah, this irritates me the more I think about it. He's taken Advanced Sympathy, but he was ALREADY a prodigy at sympathy, so we the readers can't really tell the difference. There was that whole thing with Ambrose trying to kill him that sort of fizzled away.



In retrospect, it really does read like a bunch of connected short stories.