The Book: The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
The Story: This is the first part of a three part series. The second and third haven’t been released yet, so even after reading this hulk of a book, only a third of Kvothe’s story is known.
Kvothe is this kind of hero in his culture. Or a demon. Or a fantasy. All depending on who you talk to. In the “present” timeline in the book, he’s changed his name to Kote and is working as an innkeeper in some remote location, hiding away from the world. He kind of just seems like this normal guy until the Chronicler stumbles upon him and asks him for his story that we find out what his life has been like up to this point. Kvothe tells the Chronicler that his tale will take three days to tell and that it must be recorded exactly as he tells it. And off he goes.
He was born into a trouper family with the ability to learn almost every subject very quickly. He is in plays, learns magic, music, history, legends, chemistry, tons of good stuff by his parents and by his mentor Abenthy. As a young kid, he ends up penniless on the streets and learns to fend for himself and basically just makes it through. When he feels like he’s old enough and “ready,” he heads off to university. Antics ensue. Love stories, dragons, heavy drinking, magical everything, good music, mean professors, crazy people, hidden doors… the whole bit.
The “three days to tell this story” and three books in the series is no coincidence. This is only the first day of Kvothe’s talking, so really we don’t get much further than the end of his time at University. The series is called The Kingkiller Chronicles, and we didn’t get the reason for that name yet, so I’m assuming that there’s even more good stuff to come.
What I Thought: I know that I’ve mentioned this book on my blog several times and even gave it away in a giveaway earlier this month. I read it last year on the recommendation of a friend and was seriously blown away. I convinced the girls in my bookclub to read it for this month’s book so I re-read it so I’d be ready to discuss.
It was just as good the second time through.
I am not really into fantasy. It’s just not my thing. This is not your typical fantasy book.
What struck me over and over was the genuinely good writing. He wrote in an almost conversational tone. I really did get the feel that I was just sat down with the main character and he was telling me his life story. That being said, the writing was beautiful and it flowed and parts of it were genuinely touching. There were a couple parts about his parents that really did bring tears to my eyes. His relationships with his friends and then with the girl that he has a little old crush on… just plain old good writing. I just felt, by the end of this book, like I knew these characters and I couldn’t wait to learn more.
The plot itself was somehow believable even though it involved magic and dragons and demons and other fantasy stuff. I get annoyed when I’m reading books and the words are so unfamiliar that I can’t remember from one chapter to the next what they mean. While there were “made up words,” they just melded into the story in such a way that I was comfortable with them.
The pacing was great. It is admittedly a long book, but at the end I still wanted more. I could go on, but I can feel myself gushing. For me, this hit all the right notes and I’m sure that this won’t be the last time that I visit ol’ Kvothe.
Conclusion: This is just unnecessary. Read this book. Right now.