Petrik's Reviews > The Narrow Road Between Desires

4.5/5 stars

The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss is a potentially rewarding expansion to the already whimsical and beautiful novella, The Lightning Tree.

The long silence of The Kingkiller Chronicle can only be broken by the creaking opening sound of The Doors of Stone, which to this day remains firmly closed. I understand the frustration readers and fans have with the more than a decade-long wait for the conclusion to The Kingkiller Chronicle. I am in the same big boat with all of you. But for this review, I will focus mostly on the necessity and addition to The Narrow Road Between Desires. I have read The Lightning Tree twice, and if you want to know my full thoughts on The Lightning Tree, which is still primarily applicable to The Narrow Road Between Desires, you can check out my short review here: The Lightning Tree Review

To put it simply, I LOVE The Kingkiller Chronicle series. Every book in the series, novels or novellas, is one of my favorite books of all time. The Narrow Road Between Desires included! Prose-wise, I believe Rothfuss remains one of the best in the genre. Even though this expansion is only 15,000 words long, I knew I would need to read everything new in The Kingkiller Chronicle. Plus, this book was gifted to me, so who am I to complain? However, to get down to the main point of it, as much as I enjoyed this book, is this expansion necessary in the first place? I truly enjoyed reading The Narrow Road Between Desires. As you can see from my rating, it is still a very positive rating, but if you do a comparison, it is a slight downgrade from my rating for The Lightning Tree. It is odd. I know. This is an expansion; this novella should be better, right? But that is the reality of it.

Here is the thing. The Lightning Tree can already be considered a short novella. Personally, I think the 15,000-word-long expansion added some good developments and exploration to Bast and the supporting characters in The Narrow Road Between Desires. Unfortunately, as a whole experience, this is the case of lesser is better. The pacing in The Lightning Tree was on-point at the most optimal length of this type of story. The 15,000-word expansion and reimagining somehow decreases the strength of the pacing of Rothfuss’s storytelling. It feels less whimsical and immersive now. The transition between scenes sometimes feels awkward rather than having a completely natural flow. Reading experience-wise, I cannot help but choose The Lightning Tree over The Narrow Road Between Desires.

It is not all negative, of course. As I said, I still consider this one of my favorite novellas. If there are two things that Rothfuss did well in this reimagining, one of them (with a caveat) is the inclusion of Embril. The thing about Embril, though, is that we might not see the full potential of it until the long-awaited Doors of Stone is released to the public. The other great thing Rothfuss and the publisher add to this novella is Nate Taylor’s illustrations. If you, like me, love illustration in your fantasy books, then The Narrow Road Between Desires is for you. Remember The Slow Regard of Silent Things novella? Similar to that novella, Nate Taylor gifted his skill to the world of Temerant once more. Honestly speaking, knowing this edition is packed with Taylor’s illustrations was one of the main reasons why I decided to read The Narrow Road Between Desires.


Picture: Interior illustrations by Nate Taylor





Overall, I definitely had a great time reading The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss. I do not think it is mandatory to read this novella if you’ve read The Lightning Tree, though, unless you want to witness all the interior illustrations by Nate Taylor. The expansion might be worth your time more after The Doors of Stone is released, and we have more information about Embril and Bast. If you haven't read The Lightning Tree before reading The Narrow Road Between Desires, then you will most likely have an entirely fresh and different reading experience from mine. My opinion of the novella could change after I do a second read of The Narrow Road Between Desires. Somehow, with Rothfuss’s books, my experience of reading his books tends to improve significantly on rereading rather than the first read. But until then, this stays. May our wait for The Doors of Stone get closer.


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