The Narrow Road Between Desires
The Kingkiller Chronicle #0.6 • Book 2
by Nate Taylor
Why You'll Love This
Bast finally gets his own story — and it turns out the most charming side character in the Kingkiller Chronicle runs on a logic most humans can't quite follow.
- Great if you want: a fae character study that expands the world sideways, not forward
- The experience: intimate and fleet — one day, one character, zero filler
- The writing: Taylor channels Rothfuss's mythic cadence while making Bast's voice distinctly his own
- Skip if: you're waiting for main-series plot movement — this delivers none
About This Book
There are characters who exist to serve a story, and then there are characters who deserve a story of their own. Bast—the fae companion from Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle—falls firmly into the second category, and Nate Taylor finally gives him his due. Set within a single day, The Narrow Road Between Desires follows Bast as an unexpected gift throws his carefully balanced world off-kilter. For a creature who understands obligation, exchange, and the ancient logic of debt better than almost anything else, receiving something for nothing turns out to be far more dangerous than any bargain gone wrong. The stakes are intimate and the emotional current runs surprisingly deep.
What distinguishes this as a reading experience is its compression and precision. Taylor's prose carries the lyrical rhythm the Kingkiller world demands without ever feeling imitative, and the single-day structure creates a kind of pressure that suits Bast's restless, mercurial nature perfectly. At 240 pages, the book wastes nothing—each scene earns its place, and the story moves with the same nimble confidence as its protagonist. Readers who love Rothfuss's world will find this an uncommonly satisfying return to it.