Fantasy fans across the land are all painfully aware of the excessive amount of time Patrick Rothfuss is taking to complete the third book in his Kingkiller trilogy, The Doors of Stone, with the wait now exceeding a decade! However, while a release date may still be out of sight, Rothfuss recently said he was willing to release both the prologue and a full chapter of his upcoming novel live on his Twitch page. But, as always, there was a catch.
Patrick Rothfuss frequently talks about his long-awaited novel on his Twitch page. Occasionally, he’ll answer questions about the book, or discuss his creative process. During a recent stream, Rothfuss said that he’s always down for a risky wager and promised his entire Twitch chat that he would provide a first glimpse at The Doors of Stone if they were able to raise $100,000 before he could defeat the Ender Dragon for the first time in Minecraft; that is not a quick or easy task, especially for a self-confessed inexperienced player like him.
“In a fit of hubris, I bet the chat that I could beat the Ender Dragon before they raised $100,000 on my team page. I dared them,” he wrote in a blog post. “I taunted and cajoled…I told them if they won, I’d read them the prologue of Book Three. And thus the deal was made.”
However, before he could complete the game, life got in the way and he ultimately forgot about the deal he struck with fans. “But forgetting doesn’t make a wager go away. And, to make a long story short, after picking up my playthrough on my stream two days later, I lost.”
"Yes they’d won wager. I would read them the prologue. Absolutely. They had it. Fairly fought and fairly won."
But the story doesn’t end there. Rothfuss decided to make a second wager and raise the stakes even higher: if his readers could raise $333,000 for his Worldbuilders charity, he would would alsoprovide a full, spoiler-free chapter of The Doors of Stone! Thankfully, the high threshold was reached unbelievably quickly by readers hungry for more Kingkiller content, meaning Rothfuss will now have to give us the reward we’ve all been waiting for.
So what exactly are we getting? Firstly, we’ll see him release the prologue of The Doors of Stone, followed by an entire spoiler-free chapter of the novel. I imagine this will be some kind of side stories rather than a heavy plotting chapter. Finally, Rothfuss will share some pages of his upcoming Kingkiller graphic novel illustrated by Dan Dos Santos.
Patrick Rothfuss previews a page of his new Kingkiller graphic novel
Rothfuss is no stranger to writing comics; his previous work includes a Rick and Morty and Dungeons & Dragons crossover comic. This new one is set in Temerant and appears to be the story of Jax stealing the moon, a story told by Hespe in the second Kingkiller book, The Wise Man’s Fear. You can check out a page here.
Of course, now that the wager has been met, we can expect to see a couple more pages from this comic in the next few days. Be sure to keep an eye out!
If you want to donate to Worldbuilders — a charity run by geeks that helps support humanitarian causes around the globe — you can do so here! The current fundraiser ends on Wednesday, December 15. Rothfuss will present his Kingkiller teasers on Tuesday, December 14!
I wrote a blog where I talk about the outcome of a little wager I made. If you're curious about that, here's the deets:https://t.co/Gclhzwyl8T pic.twitter.com/lHlIVNLUtB
— Pat Rothfuss (@PatrickRothfuss) December 13, 2021
It’s going to be a busy stream, that’s for sure!
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