The Name of the Wind Review
4.5 Stars
By Tehlu’s beard this was the greatest fantasy novel I have ever read. Hands down, no exceptions, and I am a harsh critic. Everything about The Name of the Wind was absolutely breathtaking. So you might be asking, ‘where did it lose half a star?’… well, dear reader, read on…
Story Telling
5 Stars
There are many points to discuss in Rothfuss’ ability to spin a great yarn and I think it all comes down to his grand ability to invoke the emotion of the characters within the reader. Take for example Kvothe’s lute playing which is a recurring theme. Now, this point is going to make a lot of sense to the musicians reading this and it strummed a chord in my own heart (see what I did there) because I am an avid guitar player. Rothfuss’ doesn’t so much talk about the music so much as he talks about the emotional response to it. When Kvothe is learning to play, we feel the frustration, when he can’t afford strings we yearn with him to find the money so he can go on. There is a several-year gap where he cannot play, and when Kvothe see’s another man rocking out on the lute after all that time, we can empathize with his pure jealousy and lust to play for himself.
That is what Rothfuss does, he invokes a great empathy within the reader for what is happening within the story.
There is a great addition to this… when I was watching interviews with the author, he mentioned that he doesn’t even play an instrument, and yet he absolutely nails these emotional reactions. Too me, that spells a master craftsman of authorship.
The storytelling within The Name of Wind carries on this great empathetic mastery in more ways than just music though. Rothfuss invokes an emotional rollercoaster that envelopes all of the human emotions. We feel first love again with all its fear and excitement. The irreplaceable emptiness of family loss. The joys of victory and the anxiety of school. Whatever part of Kvothe’s story we are in, we are in 100% with him. I haven’t felt that kind of journey in a long time.
So what more can I say? Pat Rothfuss’ ability to tell a story is perfect, so perfect that I can safely say that he is the greatest author I have ever read – and I don’t say that lightly.
Characters
5 Stars
Every character in The Name of the Wind is so well rounded. It feels like you really get to know them as an individual and want to sit down and have a drink and a chat. Even the minor characters have this air about them and I think it is because Rothfuss drips information to us in such a subliminal way that before you know it, you’re invested in their motivations and laughing at their jokes.
There are several main characters, Kvothe, our protagonist, has been described in other reviews as ‘pure male power-fantasy’. There is a lot to be said about that description, but I think it also takes too much away from his finer details. He is a great storyteller, and let’s face facts, if he hadn’t led an interesting life then we wouldn’t be reading his story. At times his confidence can be overbearing, but it is well justified.
It took me a while to decide if I liked him or not. His emotional register seemed to flicker between maudlin and cocky, quite a bit, but, that is actually in keeping with the larger story. Even after having read the book, I feel like he’s actually not really that nice a guy… but I don’t hate him. In fact, he intrigues me, and that’s what good storytelling is about.
As we follow Kvothe’s life, we meet a great range of characters who are all colorful and interesting in their own right. Some you will hate, some you will love, and others leave you asking questions. There is too many to go into detail, so a simple summary will have to suffice.
Rothfuss’ character’s may as well be real people, that was my impression during the reading anyway. They are the beating heart of his story, they populate his fantastic world and breath life into it.
World Building
5 Stars
The world of The Kingkiller Chronicles is breathtaking in its breadth. I mean, imagine trying to explain our earth with all its complexities… that is literally what it feels like to try and do this. We have a magic system that is the most genius thing I have ever seen because it is rooted in real-world anthropology. A zoologist’s dream of crypto-creatures. Various cultures and religions, each vibrant and alive. And the best thing is, despite how broad and so detailed the world-building is, Rothfuss eases the reader in so there is no huge info dumping, nothing that feels awkward, and everything is presented just the way it should be. I won’t be able to explain Rothfuss’ world in its full, but let me try and explain a few slices of it.
Magic
I get really excited when I talk about Rothfuss’ magical system. You see, when I was writing Mythology Unveiled I was reading a lot of anthropological work, and one turn of the century book, The Golden bough by Sir James Frazer describes the magic in Rothfuss’ world. They even share the same name – sympathetic magic. So I got super excited when I started to see it work in the novel and started to think that Rothfuss must have read Frazer and thought ‘hmmm… I wonder what would happen if this was real?’
So what is sympathetic magic? It’s an idea that two separate objects can influence each other by association. Voodoo dolls are a pretty typical example. You make the doll, add some hair or a photo of the victim, and there is the link. You poke it with pins, and the linked object (person) feels stabbing pain. In The Name of the Wind, it works the same way, but Rothfuss ramps it up by asking questions like ‘how variable can the strength of the link be?’ For example, let’s say there is a voodoo doll, but the only link you have is a really old photo. Would the magic be as strong as if you had blood, hair, and a recent photo all attached to the doll?
It’s fun. The sympathetic magic system in The Name of the Wind is really enjoyable and it is presented in a way that’s actually interesting. Plus, because we know how it works, we can really appreciate when Kvothe uses the magic to get out of situations.
But it doesn’t end there, because in this world, sympathetic magic is more of an advanced science, and real magic is a system that works on naming. By calling the true name of a thing, you can command it, and this too has a lot of history in our real world. This side of magic is seen and hinted at a little in the first book, but I really haven’t seen enough to pass judgement…
But my-oh-my am I looking forward to seeing how it goes in the rest of the series.
Cultures & History
Although there are a plethora of cultures both existing and extinct in The Name of the Wind, we only ever really see one region of the world (that being within the Commonwealth). But the fact remains that there are all these other places and people and history out there and it gets sprinkled throughout the story to add spice. We have people from other lands speaking foreign languages. We hear histories of places and hints of greater wheels moving in the background. The world is rich with religion and Rothfuss shows us in glimpses the corruptions, the purity, the dogma and the superstitions.
Culture is used as another way to bring a spark of life to the world. There are festivals that make you feel like you are alive on the streets. Each town and city seems to have its own unique customs. We get to experience the life of a travelling troupe, the bitter trials of homelessness, and the stress and anxiety of university. Rothfuss takes us through big cities to small towns and everything in between. Everything feels real, nothing is out of place and the world is given to us as if it really is. That is a kind of magic of itself.
Creatures
Dragons and demons and razor-blade-legged-spiders, oh my!
I never felt like the fantasy creatures in The Name of the Wind were a really central thing. Most of the world is populated with familiar animals like horses and dogs, but every now and then, we get to see something really cool. For example, our hero runs into a dragon, or, as he knows it, the common dracus. And seriously, it turns dragon fantasy on its head because instead of your typical trope dragon, we’re looking at something that reminds me of a giant monitor lizard. And if you think about it, that’s kind of what a dragon would actually be like. I’m not going to ruin the book for you, but that part of the book is awesome.
Rothfuss throws in narcotics, a burning town, and a dragon all into the mix at the same time.
Story Line
4 Stars
And now we have come to where Rothfuss’ writing falls to its knees with the crushing loss of half a star (can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?).
People hate to admit it, but stories do in-fact follow a pretty well established structure. It’s just hard wired into our brain to consume a story in certain ways. In a nutshell, the structure looks like this: Beginning (hero runs into a problem) – Middle (hero tries to work through the problem) – End (Hero solves the problem).
But The Name of the Wind isn’t presented to us this way and I think it is because of Rothfuss’ lifelong background as a D&D player. The book is presented in the way you would play a game, just with more structure. We follow Kvothe as he grows up slowly and undergoes all sorts of awful adventures, but there is no defined moment of ‘and so begins the quest!’ So, I was left at times thinking, “Wow, this book is so great, but when is something going to happen?”
Meanwhile, everything was happening… but it was happening in a ‘real-life’ kind of random way, and not the story structure way I was expecting.
You could argue that there is an overarching story structure. I will concede that. There are some big-bad chandrian evil guys at the start, and they do something (no spoilers here) that sets Kvothe off to go find them. But that plot line is a real slow burner and is often forgotten about.
So, is Rothfuss’ storytelling style really an issue? Only slightly. The fact remains that the story is SO original, the setting is SO breathtaking, the characters are SO amazing, and the writing is brilliant. Even the sometimes directionless plot pulls you in because it feels so real.
Final Thoughts
I don’t get much time to read these days (hot-tip: audiobooks rule and save me a lot of time), but I can assure you that I will be making time for the rest of The Kingkiller Chronicles. I said it once and I will say it again, The Name of the Wind was the best book I have read in a long time… maybe the best book.
What do you think? Have you read the book? Did you like? Hate it? Let me know by leaving a comment below!
Oh, and if you want a free copy of my own epic fantasy, The Black Witch, sign up below and I will email it to you!
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