Really enjoyed the second reading of this story—audio & eBook. I got a free trial of Audible in order to listen, but hate how Amazon has exclusives of certain authors which makes their works unavailable for free from libraries. ( )

You can also see my reviews on other books at jethplain.com

The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle #1)

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Succeeding Book: The Wise Man’s Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2)

Author: Patrick Rothfuss

“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names.
As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from hardest hearts. There are seven words that will make a person love you. There are ten words that will break a strong man’s will.But a word is but a painting of a fire. A name is fire itself.”

Kvothe is a genius. He’s almost great in everything except for girls and for times where his ego is clouding his mind. This book is the first part of the trilogy of how he came to be. A story within a story. Adventure, tragedy, comedy, “magic” and “dragons” this book has it.Most of the story happens when he’s at school too so it has that Harry Potter vibes too, which is a plus for me.Sure, there were some parts that I didn’t enjoy as much but only because they were dwarfed by other chapters! But everything that happens is essential in the moulding of our mysterious protagonist. At the end of the book, you’ll feel that you know him but there’s still so much more!
So if you like the things that I mentioned, go ahead and grab the book and you won’t regret it. ( )

Very enjoyable epic fantasy. A meandering tale told under the premise of describing a talented man's early history, so the story alternates between scenes in the present with the his childhood and teenage years. The switching back and forth is well done, with enough time in each storylines that the sense of development isn't lost and character integrity is maintained. Scattered through the early stories are hints about shadowy evil beings called the Chandrain, which soon becomes a focus of young Kvothe's life. The present also has hints of growing chaos and evil. The flashback parts of Kvothe's life are divided roughly into three parts; growing up as part of traveling theater troupe, surviving in the streets of a city slum, and early years at the University. There isn't much of a driving plot beyond growing up and the beginnings of a revenge fantasy, but it remains enjoyable and engrossing.

The good: With fabulous world building and engaging characters, this is epic fantasy on a good old-fashioned scale. However, the world is built largely told from the perspective of one person, which is a delight in the age of the multi-perspective story. I enjoyed the characters, enough detail and backstory on each, from Kvothe's apprentice Bast, to the smith's apprentice, to masters at the university. Such character building orients us without getting lost in detail or in caricature. The magic system is interesting, but we don't learn too much about it, except that it is both complicated, mysterious and draining. Yes, it's a thick book, but it didn't take long to finish because I was so interested, and curious in how the brilliant, talented Kvothe became an anonymous innkeeper hiding in his inn.

The bad: young Kvothe is a little bit of a Mary Sue and is brilliant at whatever he turns his hand to--acting, learning and academics, lockpicking, lying, magic and artificing. Unsurprisingly in the male-dominated epic fantasy world, the females are less interesting. Part of Kvothe's early story focuses on a mysterious and fascinating woman, and he returns again and again to the frustration that she is free with her affections with wealthy men. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a fifteen-year old character; in that sense, both the idealization and the fixation on her sexuality are appropriate. Still, the idea that women are not quite equal runs through the story and the societies we come across.

Overall, eworth reading. I'll be looking for the rest of the series.

I'll catch the next two for certain.

Update 6/18: It's funny how the memory of a book changes, or at least how certain aspects of the experience are highlighted into prominence or minimized into obscurity. This book was perhaps like caramel corn: a little is a fun treat, but it's very easy to overdose. I did go on to read the next book, which was even more problematic in terms of women and 'ethnic' characters. The third will remain near the bottom of the tbr list, out of a sense of compulsion and book OCD. ( )

First book of the Kingkiller Chronicle. This book is structured almost entirely as an interview of a man named Kvothe, an innkeeper in a sleepy medieval town in a fantasy world. After a brief introductory section in which Kvothe sneaks out of town to attract and destroy some nefarious dark creatures and rescues a man named Chronicler, he spends the rest of the book carefully telling the man about his life, from the start as a child in a traveling theater troupe to his teen years. Most of the book chronicles his time in a Hogwarts-type university teaching students about history, science, and magic. The book ends mid-story, so the sequels are quite necessary.

I like how magic is handled- it's just another branch of science essentially. Kvothe is of course a wunderkind, brilliant but arrogant, on his way to becoming a legend, which is why Chronicler is interested in him.

Good read, but not a quick one- 662 pages. My criticism is that the book is so long; I think the story could have been more concise, rather than spending 400 pages describing about a year of life in the university. But that's not a major complaint- I'm definitely on board for the sequels. ( )

Ако мога да цитирам едно друго ревю:
The world is about as strange and dangerous as a mashed potato sandwich. The protagonist is comically overblown wish fullfillment for people who weren't popular in college.

За хората, които я оценяват високо... ми пораснете. Ако искате. ( )