Short Story (sort of): The Road to Levinshir, Patrick Rothfuss, from Epic collection

So this marks the third time I've read this particular story, and I suppose it makes me a bad consumer of tales to not remember the other two instances well enough to notice the differences that Pat blogged about.

I first read this exerpt in Rothfuss' actual book The Name of the Wind, because I don't tend to read short stories (I want the worlds to be bigger, and last longer, and the ones that I like the most are rarely the ones with attached series or novels associated).  A year or so later on, I was thumbing through the 2009 Year's Best Anthology (ISBN: 9781607012146 , edited by Rich Horton) in a used bookshop and saw "Rothfuss" and thought, Oh Yay! and was a couple of paragraphs in before I realized that I was re-reading, and by then thought - eh, screw it, it was a good book, so I sat down in the aisle and read it again.

Well, earlier this week, I did the same exact thing with the Epic collection; it arrived at the library, I saw "Rothfuss" and grabbed, and got a few paragraphs in before going "Oh, come on!" in bemusement at myself for not at least recognizing the fricking title this time around.  Of course I read it again.  What a silly question.  

So, because this blog started after I read all of Rothfuss' works, I am enthusiastically recommending them to anyone who would like something amazing to read.  If you like short stories, there's this one, which is technically a section of The Name of the Wind, but that book is freaking massive and epic, and this is a nice little snack-sized morsel of story.  There is also the story The Lightning Tree featuring another character Bast in the Rogues collection, and a novella called The Slow Regard of Silent Things, coming out later this fall about yet another character Auri who is also amazing.  The actual epic novels are two so far: The Name of the Wind, and The Wise Man's Fear.  The last will be titled The Doors of Stone, and if you even dare to whisper about a publication date I will find you and beat you over the head with all of the above publications.

The Road to Levinshir
Patrick Rothfuss
From: Epic: Legends of Fantasy
John Joseph Adams and GRR Martin, editors.
ISBN: 9781616960841
Re-re-read September 24, 2014.

Our first-person narrator invites us along as his road trip is interrupted by what he hopes will be a pleasant break with his gypsy-like "family" of people, the Edema Ruh.  Sadly, his hopes are dashed as things are not even remotely what they seem to be.  The hero is to a Mary Sue what Deadpool is to the 4th wall.  You know he is, but he doesn't seem to know he is, but the story DOES seem to know he is, which implies all sorts of unfortunate things for both the character, and the surroundings.  It's lovely.  Read it, then go read all the other things.