The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1) in The Sword and Laser

Apr 04, 2011 Joanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, favorites

Oh I loved this book! Great new epic series. A little slow to start but when Kvothe starts telling his story you're immediately hooked. ...more

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May 12, 2010 Andrea rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, magic-school

I love stories. I love books with stories within stories. I'm usually very impatient, even with books, but since I knew that Kvothe was telling his story, and that stories deserve to be told well, I was practically serene as he spent time building his story, spending a long time in the city waiting to snap out of his grief-stricken stupor. And Patrick Rothfuss rewarded me by never letting the story lapse too long without a little action and by placing characters with interesting stories to tell, ...more

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Sep 26, 2011 Harold Ogle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bard, magic, fantasy, faeries, orphan

I enjoyed this book, which I can attempt to succinctly describe as a combination of Feist's Magician with the excessive detail of John Norman or Robert Jordan and the magic system of Ursula K. Le Guin, as written in the accessible style of David Eddings. That said, there are an awful lot of tells that this was a first novel - particularly Rothfuss' tendency toward "kitchen sink" writing (as in, "Everything and the kitchen sink"). It seems like he didn't exclude any darling idea. The Name of the I enjoyed this book, which I can attempt to succinctly describe as a combination of Feist's Magician with the excessive detail of John Norman or Robert Jordan and the magic system of Ursula K. Le Guin, as written in the accessible style of David Eddings. That said, there are an awful lot of tells that this was a first novel - particularly Rothfuss' tendency toward "kitchen sink" writing (as in, "Everything and the kitchen sink"). It seems like he didn't exclude any darling idea. The Name of the Wind labors at times because it's trying to include everything, as if Rothfuss was worried that he might not ever write another book, and so this was his one shot to get everything published.

As usual, I'm participating in the National Novel Writing Month (the annual November ritual to write 50,000 words/82 pages of new fiction), and so I was acutely aware that, after the first 50,000 words in The Name of the Wind, no actual plot had happened. Rothfuss takes a very long time to get the story really going, taking the first hundred pages or so to establish the present - a suspiciously elaborate inn in a secluded backwater village - and the past, where the protagonist, Kvothe, was born and raised, showing nearly effortless excellence in all things. In this respect, this book actually reminds me a bit of Grossman's The Magicians, in that it follows an unabashedly egotistic genius and the trouble he finds even though everything comes tremendously easily to him. In comparing the two, I found Kvothe more accessible, but that may have been in large part from the familiar fantasy trappings.

The book has many familiar fantasy tropes wrapped up into one story: the performer who learns a wide range of useful abilities through a traveling circus (Silverberg, Powers, Anthony, even Pullman), the street urchin who learns survival skills and instincts (Gygax's "Gord" series, countless others), the young prodigy earning the emnity of others through his academic brilliance (Feist, Grossman, Le Guin), the simple innkeeper who is more than he seems (just about everything), the legendary monster that everyone believes is just a fable but is actually true (actually, Rothfuss provides TWO of these in this novel), the wacky loon who is actually wise beyond others' understanding (Dragonlance, Shakespeare, everybody), and on and on...

As a result of this slow start, I found this really hard going at first. Eventually the familiarity of the tropes lulled me into acceptance, and then I was able to begin to appreciate how satisfying his revisiting/rehashing those tropes is. Rothfuss does a reasonably proficient job at inserting some doubt as to the outcome of the particulars at times, even though the framing story of the inn reduces the tension quite a bit - we know he survives, after all. So it is an impressive mashup of fantasy that you've almost certainly read elsewhere. By the end of the book, I was reading it compulsively and exclusively. ...more

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May 08, 2020 Megan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-supernatural

3 in parts, 4 in others? Well, this was slow to get in to and had some significant pacing issues, imho. Could have really benefited from some tighter editing. Once we got further into Kvothe's story, and especially his teenage years at university, I was pretty invested. Which is good, because (view spoiler). I think the big positives are the world building ...more

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Apr 28, 2008 kvon rated it it was amazing

Shelves: re-read

The development of a hero, from savant circus performer/troubadour, to penniless orphan, to student of magic. (Not a spoiler, you learn most of the hero's path early in the story.) Told as story within a story, with interesting things happening around the various frames. Book one of a trilogy. Rather obnoxious hero, engaging style. Interesting magic system, similar to Lord Darcy. Includes bards, dragons, demons, crazy wizards, a cute loanshark, druggies, nasty nobles. ...more

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Jul 15, 2008 Laurie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2010

This was an excellent fantasy novel. It is framed as the re-telling of a life story by an innkeeper, who is much more than he appears. There isn't always a lot of action in this long book, but the story is so well told and the characters are all very interesting. I am looking forward to the rest of the books in this series with high hopes. ...more

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