Author: Patrick Rothfuss (Author's Site)
Page Count: 722 pages - Softcover
Publisher: DAW Books
Publication Date: April 2008
Review originally written 8-20-2008
After finishing Name of the Wind I read that this novel had been announced with a truely staggering amount of fanfare, but I can truthfully say that when I first picked it up I had not heard any of it. Rather, I started reading this book because I am a fan of Tad Williams. I pulled it off the shelf of my favorite used bookstore because of the interesting name, and quickly discovered that the first page of accolades contained a glowing review by Tad Williams. That was enough incentive for me to pick it up. True to the reviews Name of the Wind is an excellent story, although I am hard pressed to explain just what makes it excellent.
All the elements of a completely conventional fantasy series are present: mysterious mythological villains, a plucky young hero whose family is brutally murdered leaving him to fend for himself, a full-blown sorcerer's school, a mysterious young maiden with a shadowy past. Later in the book we even discover a dragon and hidden catacombs. While all these elements should add up to a standard generic fantasy series, Rothfuss manages to blend them together in a unique way to create a thrilling and intriguing story that proved difficult to put down.
That is not to say that I read through the entire 722 page novel in a single sitting. This book was good, but it wasn't that good. The beginning of the novel in particular moved along at a very sluggish pace right up until Kvothe entered the University. Likewise, the lectures on magic read very much like a textbook instead of a fantasy novel. Luckily Rothfuss seemed to realize this and chose to include only a few small snippets of these fairly tedious lectures, leaving the rest up the the reader's imagination. These few slow areas aside, the rest of the novel reads rather quick for a book over 700 pages. Rothfuss is very talented at making slow scenes (like the numerous scenes with Kvothe wandering alone through the forest) go by fast. Other fantasy authors such as Tad Williams or Robert Jordan would have their characters happily wander through giant forested areas in some sort of transcendentalist fugue state for chapters at a time, but Rothfuss clearly knows when less is more. Hopefully he will keep this technique through the next two novels, as it looks like they will contain considerable amounts of travel.
While reading through the novel I only noticed one glaring error, and that is a testament to both the author and the editors at DAW. This error occurs on page 268 of the paperback edition, when Kvothe first meets his antagonist Ambrose. When Kvothe enters the University Archives he meets a boy sitting at the entrance desk, and they trade a few words back and forth. Kvothe then begins referring to the boy as Ambrose, without any explanation of how he suddently knows the boy's name! The addition of a single sentence could have fixed this, but it was apparently overlooked. As far as errors go, it wasn't that large, but it still pulled me out of the narration and forced me to reread the entire page to see if there was a sentence or two I missed.
So my question remains: what makes this novel good? Much of that answer is tied up in the main character Kvothe. There is something about his character that is slightly unlikable. Kvothe is a child prodigy, and he clearly knows it. This makes him rather confident of himself, even arrogant at times. Much of this first book involves Kvothe coming up with grand schemes and then managing to pull them off. This on its own isn't a bad thing. It is thrilling to read about Kvothe playing the part of a noble to score a new wardrobe off a hapless tailor or tricking his way into the University. That alone is not what makes this book different, for there are many fantasy novels with main characters who do just that. (I deem them "Rogue Novels") What makes this book interesting is when Kvothe fails at something and his reaction, since he is clearly unused to that happening. These failures of his give the book more realism. It makes the novel more interesting, since the reader doesn't really know if Kvothe will succeed or fail at his latest stunt.
There is no real conclusion to this book, which I expected since it is merely the first in a trilogy. Much of this book, as interesting as it is, merely establishes the characters who will come to the forefront during the next book or two. Even with no conclusion, it is still a great read that is well worth your time, provided you enjoy reading epic fantasy. The only real drawback I can think of is that I will have to wait nearly a full year for the next book in the series to arrive.
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