The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss

Deep below the University, there is a dark place. Few people know of it: a broken web of ancient passageways and abandoned rooms. A young woman lives there, tucked among the sprawling tunnels of the Underthing, snug in the heart of this forgotten place.
Her name is Auri, and she is full of mysteries.
The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a brief, bittersweet glimpse of Auri’s life, a small adventure all her own. At once joyous and haunting, this story offers a chance to see the world through Auri’s eyes. And it gives the reader a chance to learn things that only Auri knows...
In this book, Patrick Rothfuss brings us into the world of one of The Kingkiller Chronicle’s most enigmatic characters. Full of secrets and mysteries, The Slow Regard of Silent Things is the story of a broken girl trying to live in a broken world.

To paraphrase what Rothfuss says himself in the foreword - you might not want to read this book. If you haven't read his two main works The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear it will make next to no sense and even slightly spoil them.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a very odd book. Main character Auri as we (slightly) know from the two main books set in Temerant lives in the darkness and the quiet beneath the university. She walks in rooms and halls long forgotten and abandoned. She finds the right names and places. She knows which day is a good day for making soap.

This book is madness. It spans less than a week. Barely anything happens really. But yet so intensely much does. This book is fantastic. I loved it. I love it still. Rothfuss is an ingenious man and his writing is superb and I'd love to read several more books like this in between his main ones.

Be warned that it is a very different sort of book. Be warned that it might enthrall you entirely.

THE SLOW REGARD OF SILENT THINGS Tales from Temerant by Patrick Rothfuss illustrated by Nate Taylor ISBN13: 9780756410438 159 pages / Published on the 28th of October, 2014

Review by Iben Jakobsen, BoB, 2014