It’s been a long wait for the next book of Patrick Rothfuss, and now it has finally arrived! (Or at least it will arrive soon, but I got my hands on an early copy by chance) But it is not the long awaited third part of his “Kingkiller-Chronicles”. It is a tie-in, a side-story to Kvothe’s time at the University. The story is all about Auri, the mysterious woman living in the abandoned catacombs underneath the University and who later on becomes one of Kvothe’s rare friends. And to take it up front: No, the book doesn’t expand on the story of Kvothe. Rothfuss himself mentions this in his foreword, beginning with the strange sentence "You might not want to buy this book.". He’s right in that many fans of the Kingkiller series are most likely going to be disappointed by this book, for it neither furthers the story of Kvothe, nor does it resemble a story in the traditional meaning. Nevertheless you should have read at least “The Name of the Wind” before starting with this book, for there is no exposition of any kind in "The Slow Regard of Silent Things". I’m going to try to explain it all in the following part.But where to begin? "The Slow Regard of Silent Things" is one of the few books that after finishing them made me stop and think about what exactly I just read. Then I read the quite detailed afterword by Rothfuss and said to myself “Wow, he’s saying exactly the things I spontaneously would have written myself!” He admits that a “normal” story should have. His book doesn’t have any of that. Because it isn’t a normal story.he writes, and he’s right in that. Many of his fans surely will be offended because they expected something completely different. Maybe I can prevent some of the coming outrage with my review here. For those who expect a thrilling storyline, clever dialogue, action, magic and all those things Rothfuss provides in his other books, will be severely disappointed. But those who are willing to get into something new, something most people haven’t read for a long time or even at all, those will find a beautiful and capturing story.So what is the book about? Well, we are following Auri for seven days while she prepares everything for a visit from Kvothe (supposedly, because she only calls him “he”, never mentions his name). For this she has to tidy up her little realm and find a present for Kvothe – as you remember from Name of the Wind, Auri always brought a gift for Kvothe. Even if I wanted to spoil anything now, I wouldn’t be able to do so, for there is literally nothing happening throughout the story that is worth spoiling. Auri manufactures soap for eight pages. She makes a candle for six pages. What would be nothing but boring in any other book, is all but this in Rothfuss’ book. I guess it can’t be described in a better way than “The journey is its own reward” here. For we see the world through Auri’s eyes and Rothfuss uses a wonderful kind of language to make this world come alive and spin a story that may look banal and insignificant on the first glance, but that really becomes something living through the vivid narrative style.Auri is best described as a person with OCD. She’s driven by an obsession to make all rooms and things “right”, that they match each other and harmonize – to make them “happy”. That’s because Auri sees a personality in every room and in every object, a personality that can experience feelings and have different moods. She even gives those rooms and things affectionate names, like her glow-stone that is called “Foxen”. And because Rothfuss describes this world in such a wonderful way, those things indeed come alive for the reader and one gets to feel for them, maybe even more so than for some “real characters” from other stories - Auri's interaction with the objects in her life sometimes touched me in a way few other books could achieve with "real" characters.Auri is a broken person (Rothfuss says so himself in his afterword) who is used to her life in complete loneliness. She draws happiness from the fact when things match and gets sad when things are out of place. And although (or maybe because) Auri is such a broken person, it is surprisingly easy to identify with her. Don’t we all sometimes have bad days (“burning days”, as Auri calls them) when nothing seems to go the right way? And then something small happens that makes us happy again. Auri’s life consists entirely of those small moments, and that’s why the whole story is composed of them. Small moments that may seem totally insignificant to some readers, but to Auri they mean the world. And those who are willing to get into "The Slow Regard of Silent Things" will feel with Auri. Everyone else should keep away from the book because chances are they will be disappointed.Long story short: "The Slow Regard of Silent Things" is different. It’s not a fantasy-story in the common sense or even a real story at all. And nevertheless I loved it because Rothfuss manages through his magical language to make a lovely world come alive – a world in which nothing really exciting happens but that can enchant the reader nevertheless. And the book has exactly the right length for this, because over its about 150 pages, the reader can get involved with Auri but doesn’t get bored by the lack of real story.But those who expect something along the lines of “The Name of the Wind” will get disappointed and maybe angry. That’s why I’ll stick to the words of a friend of Rothfuss who gets quoted in his afterword:. So I give the full 5 points. Because "The Slow Regard of Silent Things" is a refreshingly different kind of story that takes you on a touching journey through Auri’s world, the like you won’t get to read elsewhere.The nice illustrations in the hardcover should also receive a praise, for they add to the immersion and help to get lost in Auri’s little realm beneath the University.[This is a translation of the original review in German found on my blog: http://klingenfaenger.blogspot.de/201...