The Name of the Wind

Book Title: The Name of the Wind

Author: Patrick Rothfuss

Series: The Kingkiller Chronicles #1

Date Started: May 16th 2020

Date Completed: May 23rd 2020

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

I've been hearing good things about this book for years, and honestly it was the size putting me off more than anything. Yet here we are; I read it in a week, for hours at a time because I simply didn't want to stop. It's the kind of book where I was completely immersed within seconds and looked up to find it an hour had already past. So I would say ten more minutes, and then it would be another hour later. Oops?

My mind is taken up with a lot of story theory, particularly around structure, at the moment. And The Name of the Wind turned out to be an exceptional cure for that. It, somehow, breaks all the rules and fulfils them at the same time. It seemingly has no goal, it wanders everywhere, it's like an epic with no end, only fuelled by secrets and mystery. And that works so well and I can't quite work out why - and that's its own kind of magic.

The world is vibrantly rich, mixing a lot of the staple elements of high fantasy since Tolkein with other things too. It feels familiar enough to sink into, with enough of its own uniqueness to be exicting. Book lovers aren't really rare, and music and theatre play their parts in exposition a lot of the time, but it's so nice to see these things weighed in so heavily and so personally in a protagonist. Instead of just giving the world a bit of flavour, it colours it completely.

Kvothe, himself, is a great fantasy hero. He's a good person but with all the thrilling ruffian qualities of an alluring fantasy protagonist. Yes, I'm inclined to a lot of the things he is so of course find him engaging, but he's compelling from so many standpoints - and we're only a third of the way through his tale up until his mid-20s! This is in no small part to do with the fact that all the characters are investable, even if they aren't likeable. They feel like complimenting or opposing forces to him and his journey, and to the world in general.

I don't feel like I've made the best job of praising this book; I was honestly considering not writing a review at all and just leaving a five-star rating, but being stuck indoors with no paid work for the foreseeable future is as good an excuse to attempt a review as any. The Name of the Wind was exactly what I expected and more. I may be putting off The Wise Man's Fear for a while, in no small part because of its length, but also because the final book still hasn't been released and I can't see myself being able to hold back for too long.