want a real life adventure? come to Australia we have spiders bigger than your hand.

So I'm really tired and i finished this book...2 days ago? so i apologise if I'm being vague during the next bit.

I received this book from a friend I believe last yr for my b'day? well i just had my b'day again so i thought it was about time i got around to it - i had been putting it off because the thing is seriously a fatty of a read. That and my friends don't always recommend great books :P

So I started this book last month? (may-ish) it was a bit of a slow and painful start, i wasn't very interested and thought the writing style was a bit odd. Then Kvothe went back to the beginning of how it all started. It being The Legends of Kvothe:

'I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age then most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during the day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

My name is Kvothe. You may have heard of me.'

 

For the most part we spend this book exploring Kvothe childhood and early teens, his attempts to cope with the death of his family, his loss of reality, his struggle surviving with no money and homelessness in a cruel and unforgiving city, which see's him starving and beaten, a whisker away from death many times. his hopes and dreams of attending the University, the desperation Kvothe will go to in attempts to stay at the University, random side adventures (which include a giant tree eating dragon) and his infatuation with this rather cold and indifferent girl (she has some people issues). Plus random tidbits from his current life, after everything thats happened and everything he's managed to survive 'Kote' the fake bartender i was introduced to at the beginning of the story is a completely different person to the child i think of as Kvothe, technically the same person but amazingly different. I imagine the point is to show how much someone can change after a full life.

The characters where great, and for the most part very detailed with great background stories, quirks, secrets and odd traits. There's quite a few people running around this book with mysterious back-stories that are casually hinted at. I loved it! The nutty girl, Auri, thats lives under the University definitely being my fave, the way she thinks and ow she comunicates just sits really well with me. she's completely bonkers, but i 100% adore her. Though Bast's and Denna's back-grounds were up there as well.

So yea in the end I rather enjoyed myself, am i grateful to my friend for buying me this giant but wonderful book. I'm very much looking forward to getting my hands on the next one! and seeing what other crazy shenanigans Kvothe got himself into!!!

Some of my Favorite Quotes:

Bast: 'You meet a girl: she, unassuming. If you tell her she's beautiful, she'll think your sweet, but she won't believe you. She know's beauty lies in your beholding.' Bast gave a grudging shrug. 'And sometimes that's enough.'

His eyes brightened. 'But there's a better way. You show her she is beautiful. You make mirrors of her eyes, prayers of your hands against her body. It is hard, very hard, but when she truly believes you...' Bast gestures excitedly. 'Suddenly the story she tells herself in her own head changes. She transforms. She isn't seen as beautiful. She is beautiful, seen.'

Auri: 'I pulled a narrow bottle from underneath my cloak. 'I bought you some honey wine.'

She took hold of it with both hands. 'Why, this is a princely gift.' She peered down wonderingly. 'Think of all the tipsy bees.' She pulled the cork and sniffed it. 'What's in it?'

'Sunlight,' I said. 'And a smile, and a question.'

She held the mouth of the bottle up to her ear and grinned at me.

'The questions at the bottom,' I said.

'A heavy question,' she said, then held her hand out to me. 'I bought you a ring.'

It was made of warm, smooth wood. 'What does it do?' I asked.

'It keeps secrets,' she said.

I held it to my ear.

Auri shook her head seriously, her hair swirling around her. 'It doesn't tell them, it keeps them.' She stepped closer to me and took the ring, sliding it onto my finger. 'It's quite enough to have a secret,' she chided me gently. 'Anything more would be greedy.'

'It fits,' I said, somewhat surprised.

'They're your secrets,' she said, as if explaining something to a child. 'Who else would it fit?'

[later on the same page]

She nodded. 'And a mother owl has moved in. Made her nest right in the middle of the Grey Twelve, bold as brass.'

'She's something of a rarity then?'

She nodded. 'Absolutely. Owls are wise. They are careful and patient. Wisdom precludes boldness. After my recent adventures in Trebon i couldn't help but agree. 'But this one is adventurous? An explorer?'

'Oh yes,' Auri said, her eyes wide. 'She's fearless. She has a face like a wicked moon.'

All of Auri's and Kvothes talks go like this, and i just adored every single moment of it <3

So yea well worth the read, even if it took me just over a month to get through it!!