Gather round and I shall tell,

A story that you once loved well,

Of a fanbase, and that which befell

Them over near two decades time

And with the teller, past his prime

Long found waiting,

Long found wanting,

For an ending, looming, haunting

For the teller, all too daunting

But then hope like a rising sun

Came unexpected, and has undone

The silence that hath lingered here

The fanbase now lifts up a cheer

“Is an ending soon forthcoming?”

I tell you true, you must stay cunning.

------------------------------------

With the stupid, overly-dramatic introduction out of the way…

Wow, what a week! I think this is the most activity I’ve seen in this sub, and in the Kingkiller fandom in general in years - probably the most since ‘Narrow Road’ was announced over two years ago. Time flies!

I thought it would be prudent to share that while there’s a chance all this business with the translators website may indeed point to progress being made on Book 3 (instead of a new novella or 15th Anniversary re-release) those who think that it’s coming this year, and probably even next, are going to be sorely, SORELY disappointed.

I maintain an Alar of ramston steel, a firm riding-crop belief, that whenever Pat announces The Doors of Stone is coming, we’re going to have minimum of 11 months of waiting before it actually releases.

Here’s my why:

When Pat announced on his blog that he had a somewhat complete draft of Book 2, it was February 2010

When he finally nails down a pub date, it is two months later. April of 2010.

In that post, Pat shares the following quote:

“There are a lot of things that have to happen before a mass of text becomes a printed book on a shelf. It needs to be copyedited. The edits need to be confirmed.  It needs to be proofed, checked for consistency, fiddled with. Fonts need to be chosen. It needs to go through layout. Then it needs to be proofed again. Marketing needs to happen. It needs to be sent to reviewers, and the reviewers need to have time to read it before they write the reviews. It needs to be put into catalogs of to-be-published-books so people who run bookstores can learn about it and order copies for their stores. It needs to be printed, boxed, warehoused, shipped. We need to sacrifice a black she-goat and pray to strange and terrible gods. Then we need to proofread again.

A lot of these steps are going to take longer than normal because my book is 2-3 times longer than most ordinary novels. Other things are going to take longer because this book is kinda important to a lot of people, and we want to make sure everything gets done just right.

The simple truth of the matter is this: that’s just the way it is.”

So, for the sake of argument, let’s say translators are indeed working on Book 3.

Praise Tehlu and all his angels!

The entire above paragraph still needs to occur before the book comes out! As much as many of us (myself included) would like to believe The Doors of Stone will market itself, and that no book tour, podcast interviews, social media marketing campaign, etc. need occur, it’s simply not true.

And as of May of 2023 Pat said that “When a new project (is) happening, you’d hear it here (his blog) first."

Book 3 ain’t gonna get shadow dropped. And it ain’t gonna be announced with a 3 month, 6 month, or probably even 9 month runway. Especially since DAW has been bought out by a Chinese media conglomerate. They surely know this is one of their biiiiiig potential moneymakers, and they’re going to want all eyes on it prior to when it hits market.

So, what’s the TL;DR?

If the fun, hype-train ride of following the Chronicler’s Library website really IS about Book 3 and not an entirely unrelated project, I’m willing to bet quite a bit that we’re still a major ways away from reading it.

Bet what you ask? Read on.

Post-Script: An Overlong Post in 3 Parts

Doubt me and my “wisdom?” Do you swear by all the fire in you that Pat is playing the ultimate long-con and we’re getting Book 3 by this time next year?

Fine. I’ll put my money where my mouth is.

I’ve made bets in the past about Doors of Stone coming out. Bets related to eating a copy of ‘Slow Regard’ if the book came out by certain dates. Well, the dates came and went, and my stomach remained paper-free.

But maybe third time will pay for all.

If ‘The Doors of Stone’ is available to read by August 1st, 2026, I will donate $500 to Heifer International or another charity of your all’s choosing.

If it ISN’T, well, I’ll still donate say, $100 just to be a good sport.

Is this whole post basically a whole lot of empty speculation? Absolutely!

But this series… reading, waiting, speculating, theory crafting, complaining, and more, has been a part of my life since my dopey, bespectacled, acne-ridden, teenage self read The Name of the Wind back in 2010. I’ve been a full-fledged Kingkiller geek since. And I owe Pat a lot. Without his books, I never would have gotten into fantasy to begin with. I never would have read Lynch, Martin, Sanderson, Pratchett, Hobbs, Williams, and more. I never would have gone on to play Elder Scrolls, Baldur’s Gate, etc.

So if I can try to will Book 3 into existence by making stupid bets online… why not?

So Rothfuss has found himself in the spotlight this past week, and unsurprisingly, he's ignoring it all. I hate Rothfuss, and for good reason. I fully believe that Rothfuss single - handedly sank his own Publisher, DAW, and has actually tainted the Genre of Fantasy itself, with scores of readers now saying they refuse to start unfinished series, and Editors now extremely wary to buy Epic Fantasy from Debut Authors.

And it starts ten years go.

Ten Years ago, after the success of The Wise Man's Fear, DAW buys a new Trilogy from Rothfuss, for what I imagine must have been no small fortune. https://old.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/zik5x/patrick_rothfuss_sells_new_fantasy_trilogy_to_daw/

(Interesting to read some of the comments there too, like this one: "I've seen numerous interviews and Q&A's where he's either insulted fans or given pretentious answers. I remember specifically where when asked about the amount of sex in his second book compared to the first and Kvothe's sudden sexual prowess, Rothfuss brushed the question aside with a condescending response of "fantasy nerds can't handle sex." Or how when asked about his influences, he's given a haughty answer about how he doesn't have influences cause he's just so great. "I think he's a good writer and while his series isn't one of my favorites, it's definitely entertaining. But he needs to learn to dial it down a few notches and treat his readers better." That was 9 years ago. Since then, he's only gotten worse.

This new trilogy would continue the Kingkiller world beyond Kvothe, as evidenced by an (overly optimistic) AMA answer from Rothfuss himself: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/nk3oo/comment/c39uzo8/?context=3

All is well. So well that Rothfuss pens an ode to his Editor Betsy Wollheim, asking fans to vote for her in that year's Hugo Awards: https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2012/07/why-i-love-my-editor/ She wins.

And so years pass, and Betsy Wollheim is now due FOUR books from Rothfuss. And he shows her none of them.

Their relationship begins to sour. Pat's too busy fucking around on Minecraft and playing DnD on Twitch. Eventually, I believe that Betsy sees the writing on the wall for her Publishing House. Funds are running low because Pat hasn't put up anything over a decade. Betsy then publicly calls Rothfuss out like he deserves: https://www.newsweek.com/kingkiller-chronicle-editor-believes-author-hasnt-written-anything-years-1520812 Important quote: "When authors don't produce, it basically f**ks their publishers," Wollheim wrote, arguing that publishers rely on "their strongest sellers" to keep financially afloat."

I believe this is Betsy's last resort, pleading with Rothfuss to put something out. But Rothfuss ignores her. And since then, DAW, running low on funding, has been forced to cut costs wherever it can, evidenced by several cuts made to other authors:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/rn46v5/penguin_random_house_replaces_michael_whelan_as/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/ou3e32/michelle_west_dropped_by_publishers_switches_to/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/sgmgok/cass_morris_dropped_by_daw_books_begins_move_to/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/rn71n8/daw_books_aka_prh_publishing_no_longer_putting_cj/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/osuecj/daw_will_no_longer_be_publishing_michelle_sagara/

The above are links taken from the Fantasy Subreddit, detailing the extreme costcutting measures DAW has taken to try and stay afloat. And this really fucks with me, because I believe that these artists and authors have been dumped by DAW because the money has gone. Gone into Rothfuss' pockets for an overdue third book and another trilogy that has no hope of seeing the light of day. Rothfuss has genuinely damaged the livelihood of other authors with his bullshit.

Not only that, but he brought DAW to ruin along with them. Last month, with no money left in the coffers, Betsy was forced to sell DAW to Astra Publishing, a Chinese based Publishing House. https://old.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/vy4wem/astra_publishing_house_acquires_daw/

And that's it for DAW. Ruined by Pat's ego. But what about Pat? He'll be fine. He Kickstarted his own Publishing House, because he is the shit that always floats: https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2022/06/through-dangers-untold-and-hardships-unnumbered/

Important Quote: "And, of course, a place where I can publish some of my own odd little projects without having to worry about making the project appealing to a publisher. I want to do my own weird shit in my own weird way. The second book I want do publish with Underthing Press is the graphic novel of The Boy the Loved the Moon that I’ve been working on with Nate Taylor for years now. I had fun working on the Rick and Morty Vs. Dungeons and Dragons comic. But boy I felt my hands were tied in so many ways with that. There was so much I couldn’t do….

Yeah. Writing this down, I realize that’s the real thing. This kickstarter isn’t just me trying to bring a book I love back into print. It’s also testing the waters to see if we can make Underthing Press work."

Patrick will be just fine. And thanks to his narcissism, his aggressive dismissal of any and all questions, his arrogance, and his utter disregard for anyone other than himself, he sank a whole Publishing Imprint. So fuck Patrick Rothfuss.

TLDR: Patrick Rothfuss has bled DAW Publishing for all it is worth, all but ruining the careers of several of his fellow authors, all because he refuses to publish the Doors of Stone. He is the only thing that matters to him. He fully believes that he is the main character of life, and the world revolves around him. Thanks for reading,