Why The Doors Of Stone Is Taking So Long

June 30, 2024

The Doors of Stone, the third book in Patrick Rothfuss' The Kingkiller Chronicle, has been in the works for 12+ years. When will Kvothe's story end?

Summary

The release of "The Doors of Stone," the final book in Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy, has been delayed for over a decade, leaving fans in anticipation.
Rothfuss faced personal tragedy and struggled with meeting deadlines, causing further delays in the completion of the series.
Despite the lack of progress on "The Doors of Stone," there is hope with the upcoming release of a new novella in the Kingkiller Chronicle universe, providing some content to ease the wait.

The wait for The Doors of Stone, the third and final book in Patrick Rothfuss' The Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy, has been ongoing for over a decade with fans still waiting for news of its release. Rothfuss has always planned the main Kingkiller Chronicle story - i.e. the one of how Kvothe became a "Kingkiller" and then an innkeeper - to be comprised of three books. However, with the first, The Name of the Wind, released all the way back in 2007 and the second, The Wise Man's Fear, in 2011, there's still no sign of book number three.

The Doors of Stone title was revealed many years ago, but like George R.R. Martin's The Winds of Winter, there's still no release date confirmed. In the years since The Wise Man's Fear, Rothfuss has written two stories in the universe: the novella The Slow Regard of Silent Things, which centers on Auri, and the short story The Lightning Tree, focusing on Bast, were both published in 2014. Despite the growing popularity of the book franchise and various attempts to adapt the series into a show or movie, there has been little movement on the third book and the long wait for The Doors of Stone continues.

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The Doors Of Stone Was Originally Planned For 2009 (But Changes To The Wise Man's Fear Started The Delays)

Personal Tragedy Also Affected Rothfuss' Progress

Rothfuss initially had ambitious plans for The Kingkiller Chronicle series: with The Name of The Wind finished and set for publication in 2007, the author planned to deliver the second book a year later, and the third and final book just a year after that. Yet, despite hopes of having The Doors of Stone released by 2009, The Wise Man's Fear hadn't come out by that point. This was explained in a post on PatrickRothfuss.com, with the author writing about the many revisions needed for the second book. He discussed having not written to such a tight deadline before, and being unable to complete the story on time:

"When I finally sat down to work on the book, I realized the draft was *much* rougher than I remembered. The truth was, I’d been focusing all my energy on Name of the Wind for years while book two just sat their gathering dust. It was pretty shabby when I took a close look at it. Aside from the roughness of the draft, my other problem was the fact that I’d never written to a deadline before. I was going from 14 years of being a hobby writer, straight into being a bestseller, and it was a huge mental adjustment. I was also a bit of an emotional wreck because my mom had died just a few months before the book came out."

Rothfuss continued to discuss how he put off his editor for a long time, until eventually she read a draft of the story, and pulled The Wise Man's Fear from the schedule. This was to allow Rothfuss the time he needed to complete the book, which ended up coming out in 2011. That, of course, had a major knock-on impact on The Doors of Stone, which not only didn't release but also had to take more of a backseat once again while the second book could be finished, and that's continued to reverberate for the 12 years since.

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Patrick Rothfuss Has Explained The Doors Of Stone's Delays

Rothfuss' Sudden Success Has Made The Deadlines Harder To Meet

Rothfuss has discussed The Doors of Stone's delays a few times over the years. In a 2015 interview with Christopher Paolini, he said that he had turned attention from another spinoff, The Tale of Laniel Young-Again, in order to focus on the third book, despite having around 75% of that story written (which would itself further explain The Doors of Stone delays). There was no publication date at the time, but he did so it needed "a lot of work." However, in a Facebook post from 2020 [via Newsweek], Rothfuss' editor, Betsy Wollheim, stated that she hadn't seen any of the book, and believed he hadn't written anything in years.

Rothfuss himself has spoken openly about his struggles with finishing the book and the impact it has taken on him mentally. In a Twitch stream [via Reddit] the author discussed the pressure of finishing the book and the importance of getting it right:

"I absolutely care about finishing the book... I feel bad about [not giving people what they want] all the time. It's one of the things that's f**king me up, I'm in a lot of therapy right now... I went from fiddling around with a book that I just liked to work on and I knew would never be published... then it's like 'hey a million people are disappointed in you because they want this book.' If I didn't care about the book, you'd have it by now... I owe everyone who loved the book something beautiful.

There Is A New Kingkiller Chronicle Novella - Which Is Actually Good For The Doors Of Stone

Rothfuss' Continued Work In The Franchise Offers Hope

There hasn't been movement on The Doors of Stone's release date, but there is a new book in the Kingkiller Chronicle's universe coming in 2023: The Narrow Road Between Desires. The novella, due for publication on November 14, will be an expansion of The Lightning Tree, telling a story about Bast covering a single day. Given parts of this story were already written, then it was presumably easier (relatively speaking) to finish it before The Doors of Stone, and allows for something to help fill the gap and ease the wait. While this could be frustrating, it does mean Rothfuss has made good writing progress on a Temerant project, which should be a positive for The Doors of Stone.

Source: Patrick Rothfuss, Christopher Paolini, Newsweek, Reddit