After over 14 years of waiting, one fan of The Kingkiller Chronicle decided to pen his own Book 3, titled The Third Silence — and it’s available to read for free online.
Created by Patrick Rothfuss, The Kingkiller series began with The Name of the Wind (2007), which follows Kvothe, a recluse innkeeper with a troubled, mystifying and tragic past. Over the course of the novel, he recounts his life and the myriad events that shaped him. And that just scratches the surface. It continued a few years later with The Wise Man’s Fear (2011), which further continued Rothfuss’ story. He went on to write a number of companion novels, includingThe Slow Regard of Silent Things (2014). His most recent addition to the Kingkiller universe was The Narrow Road Between Desires, which released in 2023.
Of course, he’s been working on the third and final novel in the series, The Doors of Stone, for almost 15 years now. For some fans, the wait has been so long that they’ve given up. Others still hold out hope that Book 3 will one day be released. For one fan, simply waiting or giving up wasn’t enough — he decided to pen his own Book 3, consisting of over 300,000 words and 113 chapters. The writer of this big project is A.I. Rothington. “I wrote this because I love these books,” he explained on the book’s official website. “I’ve carried Kvothe’s story with me for over a decade, and at some point the weight of the unfinished tale became something I needed to set down—not by forgetting it, but by finishing it myself. This is what that looks like: one reader’s attempt to follow the threads Rothfuss laid and weave them into a conclusion that feels earned.”
“The Third Silence is a fan-written completion of The Kingkiller Chronicle. It is not written by, endorsed by, or affiliated with Patrick Rothfuss, DAW Books, or Penguin Random House. All original characters, settings, and story elements from the series remain the intellectual property of their respective rights holders.”
The book is finished, but not finalised, and the author invites edits and suggestions. “This book is revised based on reader feedback. Every report—whether it’s a typo, a continuity slip, or a pacing suggestion—gets read and considered.”
It’s also worth noting the use of AI in this work — given the controversy surrounding AI, it’s important for us to point this out. This book is not a direct product of artificial intelligence; Rothington is transparent about his use of AI as an aid. “A note on process: the editorial revision of this manuscript was aided by Galleys, an AI editorial framework I developed alongside this project. Galleys doesn’t write prose, it reads like a demanding editor, identifying structural weaknesses, pacing issues, and prose patterns that a human eye might miss after the hundredth read-through. If you’re a writer, you can find Galleys at galleys.ai. It made this book sharper, and it might do the same for yours.”
The Third Silence can be read for free here.
Not read 'The Kingkiller Chronicle'? You can pick up the collection for a discounted price here.
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