A question I get asked almost daily over Twitter is: ‘When will Patrick Rothfuss’s 3rd Kingkiller Chronicles novel be released?’
Every single time I’m asked this question I answer: ‘I don’t know, I’d guess late 2015 to late 2016’.
I know it sucks, but Patrick Rothfuss is a busy man and, as he has said previously, he does find his creativity frustrated by being stuck working on a single project so tries ‘to scratch that itch by working on smaller things like short stories or joint projects’.
Of course, I’m just guessing, and basing my assumption that if finished this year it’ll need editing and such, but following Pat’s Reddit.com hosted Ask Me Anything last night it seems I’m probably not too far off by being less than optimistic about a 2014/2015 release (Note: Amazon have it as 20 Aug 2015, but I wouldn’t put too much stock in that).
Essentially, Pat made no notions that he is anywhere near able to speculate a release date for Doors of Stone, but that he did give us some VERY good news by promising that he didn’t intend to leave fans banished from the world of The Four Corners completely until its release… Pat explained that between now and the release of Doors of Stone he plans to expand his world through a number of side-projects:
1: A novella (about 22,000 words) that centers around Bast. It’s coming out in the Rouges anthology later this year.
2: Another novella centering around Auri. ‘I meant for it to be a short story, but it became a lot more than that, and right now it’s creeping up on 25,000 words.’
3. ‘A short novel (short for me) set in Modeg. It tells the origin stories of one of the other legendary figures in my world: Laniel young-again. (That’s probably going to be about 100-120 thousand words or so.)’
Of course, for fans who can’t wait for the above, there is one non-Kvothe, Four Corners based short-story already out there. As a fan of The Kingkiller Chronicles, the story you should be looking for is: How Old Holly Came To Be, which is a short story told from an unusual character of the Kingkiller world. It was published in July 2013 and printed in the Unfettered anthology that was edited by Shawn Speakman.
Although some people are concerned that Pat’s delay in publishing book three is because the thing’s conclusion is spiraling out of control and could end up being so long that he is forced to split it into two books (as G.R.R. Martin recently admitted may well happen with A Song of Ice & Fire), Pat has said that he still feels that Doors of Stone will be ‘no longer’ than Wise Man’s Fear and ‘maybe even a bit shorter’. What seems to be taking the time is that Pat had written the entirety of The Kingkiller Chronicles as a single book. Converting it into three books meant that a lot of changes had to happen to it – each needed its own story arc, for example. Someone asked Pat just how much the thing had changed and Pat’s answer gives a good insight to the extent of work required: ‘”How much has the basic skeleton of the story changed since you started revising for print?” … I’d say 60% has changed compared to my original draft. It’s a lot different.’
In addition to the updates about Doors of Stone, there were a few cool highlights that stick in my mind having read this and Pat’s last Ask Me Anything. Pat once again confirmed on multiple occasions that he doesn’t like to read up on speculation for his books because ‘I worry that it would crapulate my writing process.’ As for actually sitting down and penning your own novel, Patrick has some great, sophisticated advice for us too… he says that the best advice on writing he can possibly give is: ‘”Just write. Just quit worrying about all that other bullshit and write. Yeah. You’re going to make mistakes. Huge mistakes. Your book/story/poem might turn out to be total crap. That’s unavoidable. But if you want to get better, you have to write. So write.”‘
Perhaps my favourite question and resulting answer from Pat – ever! – was the one where he was asked whether Locke Lamora and Kvothe would get along should they ever meet. Pat’s response was priceless and, even if you were angry at him for taking his time with Doors of Stone, you’ll be forced into a grin and and a feeling of forgiveness:
Truth is, I’ve spent more than a little time thinking about this.
If Kvothe and Locke got together in the right circumstances, I think they would get along. I actually think they’d like each other, in a reserved, professional sort of way.
Here’s the key piece of dialogue from their conversation…
Locke: You know, for a thief, you’re one hell of a performer.
Kvothe: Thanks. As a performer, you’re one hell of a thief.
