The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1) in Who Wants To Be A Bibliophile

Jan 01, 2011 Kevin Xu rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: re-read, 35-until-becoming-an-aficionados

I heard a lot of hype and great things about this book from just about everyone and their mom in order to tell everyone else and their mom who has not read the book to read it so they can fall in love and rate it five stars. So I took a shot and check this book out of the library, ending up hating the book mostly because of the main character, Kovthe. Everything that he does to me might as well be a flaw, the flaw of being rational , not thinking of the consequences or the emotional effect it wo I heard a lot of hype and great things about this book from just about everyone and their mom in order to tell everyone else and their mom who has not read the book to read it so they can fall in love and rate it five stars. So I took a shot and check this book out of the library, ending up hating the book mostly because of the main character, Kovthe. Everything that he does to me might as well be a flaw, the flaw of being rational , not thinking of the consequences or the emotional effect it would have on others. I was wondering how many things that he does right then there is a flaw to follow right afterwards. I know he is still learning in this book, but where is his common sense or emotions (other than anger), I felt like he had it and throw it out the window. The main point is I felt that me as a reader does not fell sympathetic for his action, but hating it instead. He is like everything that a parent does not want their kid to become friends with or their daughters to even date. He is no gentleman. Overall, he is a very arrogant character that think he is better than everyone in everyone way possible, and he would do anything to get ahead, even if means killing you. So he is not a person to be trusted.

He is my version of Sword of Truth's Richard Rahl, Soldier's Son's Nevare Burvelle or Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Thomas Covenant, which I know a lot of people hate these three characters to death by wanting to destroy those books, but I loved those three characters. I understood where and why Terry Goodkind, Robin Hobb, and Stephen R. Donaldson was coming from. Hey, at least the book is well written and readable, which made me actually finish the book.

Also many compare this book to The Lies of Locke Lamora, which even the two authors acknowledge that, and have become good friends, appearing together at signings with two of the highest ratings and loyal fan followings.
For me, The Lies of Locke Lamora is a book that I quite enjoyed after many tries of finally able to read the book.

Also the book is like Lev Grossman's The Magicians. One is Kvothe is a mixed character just like the main character of The Magicians, Quentin, where both characters are in a love or hate relationship. Also both of those books are really hyped, but the difference is that The Magician is hyped up by all the literature crowd, while The Name of the Wind is more of fans/readers of fantasy all time favorite. The biggest difference between the two books is that The Magicians is not as well like, having an almost a star less in the ratings.

Lastly, this book has the highest rating of any book I have ever seen on Goodreads. It has even a higher rating and likes than any of the Song of Ice and Fire books, which is saying something, even though it is a lot more popular. It makes me feel like I am not ever going to understand the what is so great about the book, and Partick Rothfuss. I'm not a big fan of Partick Rothfuss himself as a person just like many who hate Orson Scott Card or Terry Goodkind, but that is another story for another time.

P.S. I am also not a fan of John Scalzi personal or for his books as his books for me directly mimics well known books.

P.S.S. If anyone that knows me, two of my favorite characters are Drizzt and Ender, who are both the opposite as a character to Kvothe, even though the first time I heard of Kvothe, even though I had the seen the book when it came out in the bookstore, was really the first and best SUVUDU cage match 2010. It had all the top characters from Science Fiction and Fantasy up against each other. Kvothe and Drizzt was fighting it out for the third and fourth place, and I could not believe that Drizzt lost. I had to check him out. Personally I think Drizzt would have won just because he is over infinite times better of character than Kvothe ever will ever be. ...more

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