{"id":46526,"date":"2026-11-10T23:21:36","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T04:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46526"},"modified":"2026-11-10T23:21:36","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T04:21:36","slug":"review-of-the-narrow-road-between-desires-by-patrick-rothfuss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46526","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Narrow Road Between Desires, by Patrick Rothfuss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Narrow Road Between Desires<\/em><\/p>\n

by Patrick Rothfuss
\nread by Nick Podehl
\nwith Patrick Rothfuss<\/p>\n

Recorded Books, 2023. 4 hours, 15 minutes.
\nReview written May 17, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

How did Patrick Rothfuss publish a novella without me noticing? (Oh. That was the year I was on the Morris committee and mainly reading debut Young Adult books. But still.) And how dare he write a novella? He really really needs to give all his time to writing the third book of his trilogy, The Kingkiller Chronicle<\/a><\/em>!<\/p>\n

This book was set in the universe of that trilogy, about a side character, Bast. There’s an author’s note at the front that you probably shouldn’t read this book if you haven’t read the other, but I think I’d disagree – I find I’ve completely forgotten what part Bast plays in the other books, and I enjoyed this one just fine. [And I definitely have to reread the other two books if I ever hear that the third book is finally to be published.]<\/p>\n

Bast is an otherworldly character, known to the village as a lazy young man who works at the inn. But the children of the village know him as someone they can get a favor from or who will help them solve a problem – for a price.<\/p>\n

This story sees Bast solve multiple problems and receive multiple forms of payment – and it all intricately comes together by the end. The payments for some favors enable him to solve a bigger problem – and it’s good fun spiced with magic. How much is magic and how much is cleverness? That’s not entirely clear.<\/p>\n

In fact, the plot was intricate enough that I feel like I missed some things here and there – which I think is entirely my fault for listening while I’m doing other things. I’m tempted to purchase a copy – to go with his other books in my collection – and read it.<\/p>\n

This novella was expanded from an earlier short story, which Patrick Rothfuss talks about in an Author’s Note. But my favorite part is when he tells a story about his kids. He was telling his younger son “The Three Little Pigs,” and afterward, his son asked for a story about the “Big, Good Wolf.” And Patrick Rothfuss turned that into a reflection that he firmly believes that stories don’t need Bad Guys. I hadn’t realized that he writes all his books with this premise, but I’m delighted to learn it. Yes, bad things happen and there’s a bad person in this novella – but they’re an off-page character.<\/p>\n

Side note: I used to rant about this when I discovered that they tried to put bad guys into the Winnie-the-Pooh<\/em> Saturday morning cartoons. They try to turn Heffalumps and Woozles into bad guys! In the books<\/em> there are no bad guys! But all the Saturday morning cartoons had them – even Winnie-the-Pooh<\/em>, for crying out loud! You don’t need them, and I love learning that Patrick Rothfuss has long been writing books with this premise.<\/p>\n

So, this is a short adventure back into Patrick Rothfuss’s detailed fantasy world and his magical, evocative writing. I give you permission to start here, but you will want more. And his biggest weakness is that he’s slow to produce it. [Please stop writing novellas and write the third book! Please!]<\/p>\n

patrickrothfuss.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Fiction\/narrow_road_between_desires.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss read by Nick Podehl with Patrick Rothfuss Recorded Books, 2023. 4 hours, 15 minutes. Review written May 17, 2026, from a library eaudiobook. Starred Review How did Patrick Rothfuss publish a novella without me noticing? (Oh. That was the year I was on the Morris committee and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-fiction-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46526"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47205,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46526\/revisions\/47205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}