Patrick Rothfuss teases a tragic ending to The Kingkiller Chronicle

What will become of Kvothe in The Doors of Stone? Author Patrick Rothfuss doesn’t want us to rule anything out. “I want you to be afraid.”

Beginning with The Name of the Wind in 2007 and continuing with The Wise Man’s Fear in 2011, The Kingkiller Chronicle books by Patrick Rothfuss have enthralled fantasy fans, selling over 10 million copies worldwide. Fans are still waiting for the third and final book in the series, The Doors of Stone, with Rothfuss’ editor recently saying that she has “never seen a word” of it.

That’s nearly a decade fans have spent wondering how the story concludes. As it end up, Rothfuss himself has hinted that it may end in tragedy.

A few years back, not long after the release of The Wise Man’s Fear, Rothfuss spoke to Los Interrogantes about The Doors of Stone. So far as fantasy epics go, The Lord of the Rings is an example of one that has a more-or-less happy ending — at least pretty much everyone lives through it — but things may go in another direction for Kvothe, the talented young sorcerer at the heart of The Kingkiller Chronicle.

“You guys haven’t really considered the third option, have you?” Rothfuss said. “I thought about that a lot working on the second book. I need to make you all really aware of the possibility that he does not win.”

"And it’s really hard to go against that, because every fantasy story, every movie, most everything you’ve consumed in your story diet. Of course you win in the end. And the thing is, it doesn’t matter what actually happens. If I don’t make you aware of that possibility, I’ve failed as an author. I need to make you acknowledge the very real possibility that this is it. That there is no happily-ever-after for him. Otherwise, all you’re doing is waiting for the happy ending. And I don’t want you waiting for something. I want you to be afraid."

Of course, as Rothfuss points out, a sad ending wouldn’t be a shock either, since the whole story is told in flashback form, with a dried-up Kvothe recounting his tale to a historian. “This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone because it’s right there at the beginning of the book. He ends and the inn. He’s used up, he’s a broken man.”

There are a lot of questions to be answered in The Doors of Stone. Who is the King that Kvothe kills? Does Kvothe find the Chandrian? Who is Master Ash? What’s behind the Doors of Stone? All of these and more are set to be answered in the final installment, but how will Rothfuss decide to round off Kvothe’s journey specifically?

All we have to do is wait until The Doors of Stone comes out, however long that might be. In the meantime, Rothfuss most recently worked on a Kingkiller story in the form of a podcast. Also, at some point in the future, we might be getting some live-action adaptations.

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