The Name of the Wind / Chapters 13-24 discussion

[John]

I haven't had a lot of time to read lately, so it's been kind of slow going for me. I'm up to Chapter 24 now.

So the Edema Ruh got massacred for "singing the wrong kind of songs"! Apparently we're dealing with some kind of Fae mafia here. In any case it was pretty brutal.

The one thing that continually bugged me in this section is that Kvothe is living in squalor for 3-4 years, and he never even considered seeking out Ben for help. I mean, I suppose there may be reasons why he wouldn't want to...but they should at least be addressed. As it is, it seems like he's just forgotten about Ben.

Hoping to get a bunch of chapters read over the weekend...I'm very much looking forward to seeing him finally get to the University!

[Rinn, (Retired mod) Captain of the SSV Normandy]

Me too, or rather I managed to get a book I'd been waiting for for ages, and decided to read that first since I knew it would be a quick one =)

The massacre really shocked me. Their way of life was so peaceful and exciting - but I guess with the way Kvothe is now, I should have expected something like that. I really hope his parents spent their last moments together, and not doing chores, just like Kvothe hoped.

He does say that Ben was hundreds of miles away etc, but he DID have 3-4 years - I agree here, he could've spent some time building up the strength and money to make the journey.

I'm currently on Chapter 35 - some are really short - and I definitely plan on spending this weekend reading in the garden, since it's meant to be hot hot hot! I've just gotten a new job, so I'm doing lots of extra hours for training, which is another reason I haven't read this as much as I'd like to.

[John]

He does say that Ben was hundreds of miles away
Oh he did? I must have missed that part -- that explains it then. I was really kind of confused about why he didn't even think of it... :D

I just finished the part where Trapis has told the story of their god defeating the devil (I forget their names). That was really cool. I like the mythology story-within-a-story thing.

[Nic, Wormhole Technician]

I was totally caught up in the excitement of Kvothe's life with the troupe and i didn't see the massacre coming at all. I found it shocking too, but that chapter got me really excited for this book.

I really enjoyed this part of the story in general, but especially the music elements; losing himself in the forrest and playing the lute incessantly was described beautifully to my mind.

It's such a rude awakening for him when he gets to Tarbean, a fairly typical tale of an innocent soul arriving at the big city to meet with a huge downfall. I felt so sorry for him here, i imagined him as a sad lonely child, ripped from the wonderful, comfortable life he had and thrown into a truly awful situation.

The question of Kvothe and Bast's relationship gets answered here too, where he's referred to as his student, which was what i would have put my money on. I was quite surprised at what some other people speculated at!

[Rinn, (Retired mod) Captain of the SSV Normandy]

I have to say, even though I'm a big fan of fantasy, it's not too often that a series totally grips me. Often fantasy novels can be hard to set your teeth into, what with all these new worlds, creatures, all this new terminology - but I feel that this series has just the right mix of the familiar and the new and fantastical to make it so brilliant and easily accessible =)

[Nic, Wormhole Technician]

Yeah, i totally agree. I'm actually quite far past this now. I've been reading this so quickly, just one more chapter! so addictive! I've tried to slow down to keep pace with the discussions, i've even finished 3 other books trying to sidetrack myself but i'm still just breezing through, it's so easy to read. I'm not a particularly fast reader, maybe 20 to 40 pages per hour, but the words just fall off the pages.

[Nick]

I'm loving it, I stayed up super late last night because I just couldn't stop (there was a bunch of small chapters so I had the whole "just one more.." disease). I felt really bad for him while he was in Tarbean, he just couldn't catch a break but that was excellent story-wise, probably set him up to be tough and fight to survive which will get him through.

I am fascinated by the Chandrian ( and trying really really hard not to read spoilers online). They murdered his whole troupe because his dad was creating that song about all the (sort of forbidden or at least not talked about openly) stories so they seem fairly ruthless. Setting them up as the main antagonists for the chronicles. I'm going to have a hard time not diving right into book 2 after this one (looks like book 3 isn't out yet, have to wait).

Bast is also really interesting, he doesn't know alot about Kvothe's past(or at least childhood) so they aren't as close as I once thought and it seems to maybe be a more formal teacher/student relationship.

[Nick]

Also I originally wanted an infodump at the beginning (and while we are getting some of the stories/religious backgrounds) the currency and some of the places are just mentioned and not explained but I am really finding it no problem to follow along, because its told from his perspective you only need to be concerned really with what is happening to him in the moment. No info dump needed!

[Freya, Dragon Rider]

I am suffering from the 'Just one more page' syndrome and have completely charged onwards, so I might save my discussion for the end discussion as I don't want to accidentally spoiler through here!

I do like that just when something seems to be going well, something happens to throw you off a bit, which keeps you on your toes reading it, making you want to find out what on earth is happening!

[John]

Oh, I just got to the part where he says Ben is hundreds of miles away -- it's chapter 25 :)

[Rinn, (Retired mod) Captain of the SSV Normandy]

John wrote: "Oh, I just got to the part where he says Ben is hundreds of miles away -- it's chapter 25 :)"

Oops! Oh well, only one chapter out and I guess it wasn't a spoiler so it's okay ;)