Patrick Rothfuss: Work on The Doors of Stone is progressing, but “not fast”
By Dan Selcke
With Game of Thrones ending in the very near future, everyone is wondering what show is going to succeed it in the hearts and minds of viewers. I don’t know if Showtime’s take on Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicle will be that show, but it is almost eerie how many similarities there are between Rothfuss and George R.R. Martin, the writer of A Song of Ice and Fire. Hear me out: they’ve both written vibrant fantasy series with incredibly dense worldbuilding, they both have magnificent beards, and they’ve been working on the next book in their series since 2011 with little to show for it even as the fans beg for more.
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Rothruss recently appeared on the Barnes & Noble Podcast to promote a comic book he’s working on: Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons. While I’m sure there are lots of people eager to hear about that, he also weighed in on The Doors of Stone, the third and presumably final book in his Kingkiller trilogy. “I never talk about deadlines anymore. I say, ‘When it’s ready I will bring it to you,’ and until then, trust that I am working,”
"Kingkiller, my work on the books, is—again, it might seem strange for people to hear—but nobody laments the lack of tangible progress more than me, in terms of the next Kingkiller book. But things are moving forward, if not fast—again I’ve never promised fast, ever since I knew what I was good at professionally. I made promises very early on in interviews where I’m like ‘Yeah, I’m going to do these books one a year.’ But I was an idiot. I had just been published for like two months, I had no idea what I was talking about."
Again, the “it’ll be ready when it’s ready” is very similar to the tack Martin uses when talking about The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series. Maybe the two are mind-melding. Or could Rothfuss be an alternate version of Martin from the past? Or Martin is Rothfuss from the future? This is fantasy we’re talking about. I’m open-minded.
“But I am moving forward,” Rothfuss continued. “More importantly, I’m finally getting my life sorted out so that I can go back and approach my writing and my craft with the joy that I used to feel back in the day, when I was just an idiot kid playing D&D or working on my unpublishable fantasy novel.”
Rothfuss also talked a little about the original outline he wrote for the Kingkiller Chronicle way back when, and how it changed considerably in the telling. Again, this is very similar to what happened with Martin’s original outline with A Song of Ice and Fire. If there were a drinking game where you spot similarities between these two authors’ careers I would be plastered by now.
Finally, Rothfuss touched on Showtime’s TV adaptation, which isn’t actually an adaptation of the books but rather set before the main events. “The TV show is always sort of a source of unexpected delight,” he said. “I have such respect for the writers’ room that they’ve put together, really genuinely lovely people.”
Anyway, if the pattern continues, that show will turn into a genre-defining monster hit, and we’ll be eagerly anticipating the final season around 2028.
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h/t Newsweek