Book Review: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

It’s a been a long time since I've enjoyed a fantasy book this much. I’ve read a lot of fantasy and so much of it is just derivative and formulaic and brings nothing new.

I usually have a number of different books on the go at once across different devices and different locations. One book on my for phone for reading on the bus, a physical book for at home on the couch, one on my Kindle for reading in bed. Once I’d started The Name of the Wind I had to stop everything else I was reading until I’d finished it because it was so engrossing.



Considering the outline of the story there’s nothing to set this apart from any other stock standard fantasy story. But something Gestaltian happens with this book and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Kvothe is a young boy with an aptitude for music and survival. He’s intelligent and has the ability to talk his way out of just about any situation. The character is somewhat of a male ‘Mary Sue’. He’s good at everything he tries his hand at and always comes out the better for his few mistakes.

That’s not to say the story doesn’t take him to some very dire places, because it does, but his ability to always come out on top is somewhat unbelievable. But then, what else do we read fantasy for except to be transported to universe where unlikely things happen.
The hints of a bigger mystery throughout are what really hooked me. I need to read the next part, I need to understand the Chandrian and I need to know what happens!
I both like and loathe the temporal structure. Old Kvothe is telling the story of young Kvothe, so we know that he survives all his adventures up to this point. I don’t like having that spoiler hanging over the story. But it’s been written so well that I look forward to the interludes from Old Kvothe because he’s in the middle of his own adventure and I know that eventually it’s going to link up with young Kvothe and we will have a complete whole.

This is about as close to a perfect fantasy story as you can get. It even has a dragon.

5 out of 5 impeccably played lutes.

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