If they kill Daryl off I’ll be really, really pissed.

The dude even offered to sleep with you (Kirkman) to stay alive. That’s dedication to your job.

Tax it and stop making me pay 40k a year to put a pot head in prison. You have privately run prisons making a fortune off of ridiculously restrictive drug policies. And we are all paying to make them richer.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

My rating: 5 of 5

After getting disappointed by my trip down memory lane and re-reading the second Piers Anthony book in the Incarnations of Immortality series I was a little disheartened. What was I to read?

I did what I usually do – and looked around the internet, talked to friends, and finally got a good recommendation from my older brother. He suggested I take a look at the new series by Patrick Rothfuss.

Let’s start with a simple statement. It was a great book.

Now let’s dig in a little.

Patrick Rothfuss is clearly a very talented and imaginative writer. He brings his world to life, and pulls you into it in the process. The characters are well built and you can’t help but get emotionally invested in Kvothe’s story.

That’s the good stuff.

Now for the bit that drove me nearly mad. The book starts out in the “today” and opens with a bit of action and an unknown threat that is just barely fleshed out. Then it dives into a story within the story, as Kvothe tells Chronicler the tale of his life. This accounts for 95% of the book, and begins when Kvothe is nothing but a twelve year old boy. It drags you in, it makes you want to know who Kvothe is, and in the process, drove me nuts.

Not because its not well done, and not because it is boring. But rather the fact that there is no conclusion, no middle or end. It feels like the whole book is the beginning. And even though it was a good length – it still ended too soon.

We don’t know what’s really going on in the “today” timeline other than that Kvothe is depressed and maybe lost most of his magic. And in the story of his life we don’t know how he got kicked out of the Acarnum, or what happened with him and Denna. Or how he and Bast, the fae, came to be friends (or student and teacher to be exact).

The story of Denna is so frustrating. You so badly want them to connect, or for Kvothe to take that single step closer to her, but won’t. Who among us hasn’t had the girl that haunts you for the rest of your life? Does she even know who she is? How sad is that?

There are too many open threads, and I want MORE!!!!

The second book better have some small conclusions in it or I’ll be ripping my hair out.

 

Paperback:

Kindle:

 

Don’t mess with Daryl.

Episode  12, Clear

Summary:

The episode starts with Rick, Michonne, and Carl flying down the road in a car. They zip by a camper stranded on the side of the road only to get temporarily stuck on the side of the road for just long enough for the poor fellow to see them again. Rick doesn’t blink an eye, but drives away, leaving the poor sod behind – again. (These are the moments when I wonder if karma will come back to bite Rick on the ass. Will that fellow be a critical character in the near future?)

The road trip ends up at the armory for the police station Rick used to work at, but all the guns and ammo are gone. And it looks like someone cleaned up the rest of the town, killing and burning walkers.

An old friend from Season 1 makes a re-appearance, but he’s a little nuts. The story of how he lost his son is a kick in the nuts. He was never able to kill his wife who turned, and she ended up getting his boy Duane, which put him over the edge. By the time Morgan is done talking I was actually hoping that Rick would put a bullet in the dude just to end his pain. But I think that Rick has to save Morgan because he’s not really talking about Morgan, he’s talking about himself.

As Rick, Michonne, and Carl are driving out of town the body of the hiker they drove by in the beginning is spread out over the road. I wasn’t sure what was supposed to have killed him? It almost looks like he was hit by a car, he’s spread out over the road. But maybe he was just ripped to pieces?

Things I loved about this episode…

• The punji stick fortifications in Rick’s old town. And then Carl blowing away the dude with the assault rifle. Then it turns out to be the black dude who rescued Rick in Season 1 when he first got out of the hospital. Now where is the guys son? Doh, when we found out it was not good.
• Great atmosphere – if you see this, be worried.
• Rick – “We’re eatin his food now?”   Michonne – “Mat said welcome.”
• Morgan’s traps with the animals to lure walkers in. Awesome idea.
• Michonne using the skateboards and the caged animals to draw the walkers away from the door.

Things that I didn’t like about this episode…

• If the black dude has all those weapons, why did he bother to try and jack Rick and team of their meager guns? It seems like he would have been better off just letting them go. People aren’t going to start shooting if you don’t jack them.  Then again, maybe he doesn’t want anyone to know he is there. So he kills everyone so they don’t try and hijack anything?
• OMG – how do you keep letting Carl go out? If he was my kid I’d make sure he was by my side. Thirty six inch rule mother f*ckers. My kid is not getting more than thirty six inches away from me.
• Rick getting a knife hilt deep into his shoulder. I think he’d be bleeding and in a lot more pain.
• Carl is pale and way too clean.  The kid should be dirtier.
• OMG – Carl, you little shit. How many times are you almost going to get people killed for no good reason. For god’s sake kid, is a picture of your family worth getting eaten over? He deserves to get bit. And then he is standing in front of the door as if the walkers couldn’t break through the door.

If Senators had to wear the logos of their top 10 sponsors at all times, I wonder if that would change how people perceive them?

Rick through the seasons:

Daryl and his powerful poncho of +60 to Critical Strike:

The right hand man:

Holy smokes this girl can shoot.  You can only hope she lives next door when the zombies start shambling down the street.

(And I know I’ve been watching too much “The Walking Dead” because the first thing I thought when I saw this 13 year old girl shooting was – Daryl’s got a kid?)

I thought the same damn thing.

Then – BOOOM!