The Name of the Wind

By Patrick Rothfuss

The Witcher may have stolen a few key themes from this…

The Ugly Truth:

Sticking with my theme of being forever honest, I must admit this book fell strongly in the one-star category for the first 200 pages. Given the name of the series, The Kingkiller Chronicles, and the high ratings on Goodreads, I only assumed that this book would transport me to an amazing mystical world where I would instantly be lost within the pages. Unfortunately, it instead brought me to a run-down bed and breakfast with a man who seemed to have lived far better days and was simply waiting to die… not exactly the action I was hoping for when I first opened the pages.

To just offer a few more warnings to those who may begin to embark on this adventure, be wary of the way it is written. The novel’s title, The Name of the Wind, should be enough of a hint that it shows this is written more in poetic prose rather than your classic fantasy book scribblings. It took me a solid five chapters before I really understood what the heck any of the characters were speaking about, and even then, it took me five more chapters to recognize the significance of some key storylines. 

The last thing that catered towards my “oh shit, this might be one star” was the structure of the story. The book starts in the third-person before it shifts to being told in the first-person as the protagonist recounts his tales from childhood and early youth that led him to where he is now (again dear reader, where he is at the start of the book is nothing really to write home about, so you are confused about why he is getting any credit at all). Given this, you will find yourself bouncing around a few different timelines that are, unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you want to look at it, connected and, therefore, incredibly important.  

Now, after I got over all the above barriers, I will admit I found myself getting more immersed in the world and, pretty quickly, the characters themselves. For fans of The Witcher, Kvothe is your man (and, yes, I did imagine a Henry Cavill look-alike while reading). Similar to the new hit Netflix series, Kvothe discovered he was uniquely gifted from a very early age, blessed with quick wit and the ability to understand “the power.” Naturally, and as it happens in most fiction novels, our leading man experienced a horrific tragedy in his past, which spurred his tale forward and toward the ominous but interesting “University.” It was here that the book really began to pick up pace, and I found myself enjoying reading about his newfound friends and, of course, love interest, as well as the many lessons he began to learn at the school for the gifted.

It was also at this school for the gifted that we learned Kvothe was pretty much in a league of his own. Some might say Rothfuss took the narrative a bit too far and made his leading man basically untouchable by others. However, I think there were enough moments of struggle that allowed me to see not an “absurdly gifted” person but someone who used their street smarts to their advantage. In fact, I was very intrigued by a large majority of Kvothe’s actions and found myself wishing to witness a few more of his daring adventures.  

Unfortunately, just as I began to get into the novel, it ended. Which is no issue knowing that there is an entire series to follow, right? Wrong. Unfortunately for us, Kvothe’s story is told in only one more novel and has never been picked up again. AKA read at your own risk, but know that you will enjoy this if you give yourself over to it.