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nanashiame's review against another edition
2.0
For all its claims of diversion from storybook tropes, Name of the Wind reads like a dull middle of the well-worn-road tale, that leans heavily on predictable elements whilst simultaneously choosing for its main character a man who is so utterly, completely, irritatingly perfect, that what little satisfying worldbuilding there is was completely outshone by the glaring, overblown, little starlet that is our capital “H” Hero, Kvothe.
To touch upon the positive first, the world has some decently interesting components, primarily early on, like when the mechanics of the magic system, Sympathy, are described. There are also a couple of characters that had potential to be much bigger and better players than they were, such as Elodin, the crazy professor, and Auri, the girl who lives in the sewers beneath the school. The writing is decent (though it feels like at times the prose and poetry are going for that LOTR vibe, and missing the mark HARD), and the basic lore is generic, but serviceable. Additionally, the twist on dragons with the draccus was a relatively enjoyable section of the book. However, it took almost 500 pages of slogging to get to that point, which is a decent enough place for me to segue into the negatives.
The biggest most glaring negative is by far, by FAR, the main character, Kvothe. He is absolutely perfect in every way. He’s a genius, a musician, an actor, a lady’s man (at 15), and an absolute twat. His adult self, the teller of the story, is hardly better. He’s withdrawn, haughty, and insufferably mopey, but lucky for us, he’s maintained his pristinely cared for pride. Now, the book goes through pains to let us know that his life has been hard and filled with strife, but any antagonistic force thrown at Kvothe (be it nature, man, beauty, or beast) is merely there to prove how flawless at everything he is on the first try. Every time he gets in trouble at school, he’s promoted. Every time something goes wrong, or the odds look against him, he rises out even perfect-er. Any risk he takes is rewarded. He never has a true, significant failure, and the only enjoyment I could possibly eke out of this character was as a grotesque wish fulfillment power fantasy.
Yes, it would be fun if the teacher that hated me made me teach the class “if I’m so smart,” and when I taught the class, I was perfect at it and also managed to embarrass the teacher, and got away with it too. It’s fun as an isolated fantasy, barely, but a compelling main character it does not make. An inflated ego and skill set COULD make for an interesting main character (my favorite being Lestat from the Vampire Chronicles, who starts off his book by obnoxiously telling us just how damn pretty he is), but the world Kvothe is in doesn’t bring anything interesting out of him. He’s perfect, and he knows it, but see, he doesn’t have to be humble about it because in this universe, the truth is that he IS absolutely perfect. It’s insufferable.
Being in Kvothe’s head is agony. It’s like being asked to sympathize with the kid in class who disrupts everything just to make a comment to ensure that everyone in the entire world knows that they’re smarter than them. The enemies in this book are the ones who hate him for being perfect, and everyone else is completely charmed by his better-ness. We have to suffer over and over lines like “If you aren’t a musician, you won’t understand,” “If you’ve never been underground, I can’t imagine you can understand,” and “if you’ve never been poor, you’ll never understand.” In addition to that, he derails the tale over and over to reiterate “If this was a fairy story, then this would have happened, but it’s not, so THIS happened.” Every single derail is a weak attempt to separate the story from the tropes it’s blatantly copy pasting, but none of the details change the fact that this is a run-of-the-mill wish fulfillment hero story. So, what if you were caught by the hair instead of by the hand? So, WHAT if you carried the girl out of the fire over your shoulder instead of in your arms like a princess? There’s not enough discrepancy here to justify calling it different, let alone unique. Stories that use tropes have a valuable place in literature. Stop pretending not to be one, and stop thinking that not being one makes you better than everyone else. PLEASE.
And while we’re mentioning carrying a woman from the fire, let’s discuss women, shall we? The women in this book are barely characters. All of them are described with a hyper-feminine lens, and the attempts to expand some of their personalities just reveals the flatness of their characters. (But, god forbid, not the flatness of their chests, which have been described in detail, more than once.) The woman he saves from the fire is immediately smitten, and he has no problem oogling her everything, while story-wise it’s obvious she’s not even in the running to be his love interest. No, his love interest has to be more capital “S” Special for our capital “H” Hero. He finds his love interest when she sings a duet with him from the crowd (and this ISN’T a trope filled fairy tale?) and their first evening spent together consists of him deciding what flower she is, and her deciding what tree he is. Later, in the woods, she muses on whether he is like a wolf or a fox. (BARF.) Almost all the characters in the story are cardboard flat, but the women get it worst of all.
I think, in closing, a quote will serve my points best. After all, who better to tell you who our main character is than Kvothe the Bloody Perfect, himself?
“Most students took at least a month [to learn sygaldry] …Some students took an entire term.
Start to finish, it took me seven days.
How?
First, I was driven. Other students could afford to stroll through their studies…I on the other hand, needed to climb the ranks…quickly.
Second, I was brilliant. Not just your run-of-the-mill brilliance either. I was extraordinarily brilliant.
Lastly, I was lucky. Plain and simple.”
This quote was from page 335. Have a happy 350 more!
This story had potential to be fine; average at least, but I’m sorry to say that Kvothe sucked the life out of all of it every. Stupid. Step of the way, and I am glad to be rid of him.
To touch upon the positive first, the world has some decently interesting components, primarily early on, like when the mechanics of the magic system, Sympathy, are described. There are also a couple of characters that had potential to be much bigger and better players than they were, such as Elodin, the crazy professor, and Auri, the girl who lives in the sewers beneath the school. The writing is decent (though it feels like at times the prose and poetry are going for that LOTR vibe, and missing the mark HARD), and the basic lore is generic, but serviceable. Additionally, the twist on dragons with the draccus was a relatively enjoyable section of the book. However, it took almost 500 pages of slogging to get to that point, which is a decent enough place for me to segue into the negatives.
The biggest most glaring negative is by far, by FAR, the main character, Kvothe. He is absolutely perfect in every way. He’s a genius, a musician, an actor, a lady’s man (at 15), and an absolute twat. His adult self, the teller of the story, is hardly better. He’s withdrawn, haughty, and insufferably mopey, but lucky for us, he’s maintained his pristinely cared for pride. Now, the book goes through pains to let us know that his life has been hard and filled with strife, but any antagonistic force thrown at Kvothe (be it nature, man, beauty, or beast) is merely there to prove how flawless at everything he is on the first try. Every time he gets in trouble at school, he’s promoted. Every time something goes wrong, or the odds look against him, he rises out even perfect-er. Any risk he takes is rewarded. He never has a true, significant failure, and the only enjoyment I could possibly eke out of this character was as a grotesque wish fulfillment power fantasy.
Yes, it would be fun if the teacher that hated me made me teach the class “if I’m so smart,” and when I taught the class, I was perfect at it and also managed to embarrass the teacher, and got away with it too. It’s fun as an isolated fantasy, barely, but a compelling main character it does not make. An inflated ego and skill set COULD make for an interesting main character (my favorite being Lestat from the Vampire Chronicles, who starts off his book by obnoxiously telling us just how damn pretty he is), but the world Kvothe is in doesn’t bring anything interesting out of him. He’s perfect, and he knows it, but see, he doesn’t have to be humble about it because in this universe, the truth is that he IS absolutely perfect. It’s insufferable.
Being in Kvothe’s head is agony. It’s like being asked to sympathize with the kid in class who disrupts everything just to make a comment to ensure that everyone in the entire world knows that they’re smarter than them. The enemies in this book are the ones who hate him for being perfect, and everyone else is completely charmed by his better-ness. We have to suffer over and over lines like “If you aren’t a musician, you won’t understand,” “If you’ve never been underground, I can’t imagine you can understand,” and “if you’ve never been poor, you’ll never understand.” In addition to that, he derails the tale over and over to reiterate “If this was a fairy story, then this would have happened, but it’s not, so THIS happened.” Every single derail is a weak attempt to separate the story from the tropes it’s blatantly copy pasting, but none of the details change the fact that this is a run-of-the-mill wish fulfillment hero story. So, what if you were caught by the hair instead of by the hand? So, WHAT if you carried the girl out of the fire over your shoulder instead of in your arms like a princess? There’s not enough discrepancy here to justify calling it different, let alone unique. Stories that use tropes have a valuable place in literature. Stop pretending not to be one, and stop thinking that not being one makes you better than everyone else. PLEASE.
And while we’re mentioning carrying a woman from the fire, let’s discuss women, shall we? The women in this book are barely characters. All of them are described with a hyper-feminine lens, and the attempts to expand some of their personalities just reveals the flatness of their characters. (But, god forbid, not the flatness of their chests, which have been described in detail, more than once.) The woman he saves from the fire is immediately smitten, and he has no problem oogling her everything, while story-wise it’s obvious she’s not even in the running to be his love interest. No, his love interest has to be more capital “S” Special for our capital “H” Hero. He finds his love interest when she sings a duet with him from the crowd (and this ISN’T a trope filled fairy tale?) and their first evening spent together consists of him deciding what flower she is, and her deciding what tree he is. Later, in the woods, she muses on whether he is like a wolf or a fox. (BARF.) Almost all the characters in the story are cardboard flat, but the women get it worst of all.
I think, in closing, a quote will serve my points best. After all, who better to tell you who our main character is than Kvothe the Bloody Perfect, himself?
“Most students took at least a month [to learn sygaldry] …Some students took an entire term.
Start to finish, it took me seven days.
How?
First, I was driven. Other students could afford to stroll through their studies…I on the other hand, needed to climb the ranks…quickly.
Second, I was brilliant. Not just your run-of-the-mill brilliance either. I was extraordinarily brilliant.
Lastly, I was lucky. Plain and simple.”
This quote was from page 335. Have a happy 350 more!
This story had potential to be fine; average at least, but I’m sorry to say that Kvothe sucked the life out of all of it every. Stupid. Step of the way, and I am glad to be rid of him.
chilliam_mc's review against another edition
slow-paced
4.0
None of the plot points I thought would happen happened… I’m starting to understand why everyone is pissed there’s no 3rd book haha. Although it was pretty boring and uneventful, it was objectively good writing, storytelling, world building, and characters. So I can’t give it below 4 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
lorenzosivilotti's review against another edition
5.0
A masterfully woven story, full of tantalizing mystery and emotive depth, as intricately woven as a spider’s web.
9/10
9/10
pantsuitparty's review against another edition
1.0
Hooo wee this is some pulpy crap. Could have been trimmed down to 300 pages.
cebleyl's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I enjoyed it despite its insufferable sexism
monzillareads's review against another edition
3.0
I don’t think I’ve ever rolled my eyes so much while reading a book. Have a few gripes with this book but one of the bigger ones is that it’s female characters and descriptions of them are so incredibly weak.
rkaufman13's review against another edition
3.0
I almost put this down on multiple occasions.
Kvothe is, like, the smartest guy ever, and the first half of the book is pretty much dedicated to how smart he is. He learns codes in five minutes, magic in a week. Oh, and because of his amazing, brilliant, perfect parents, he also learned before the age of 11 everything there is to know about horsemanship, acting, singing, playing the lute, etiquette, sleight of hand, and God knows what else.
I didn't put the book down because the frame story--the FRAME STORY--was more interesting than Kvothe's ridiculous narrative. Come on, Rothfuss. Get it together. Here you have the same guy, who suddenly doesn't want to be found...a mysterious servant/student, and spider demons. Much better.
Kvothe's stuff got a lot better once he ran off to the small town north of the University to investigate the wedding. But that was most of the way through the book.
I will probably pick up the second book in the series despite my griping. But I almost feel like you could read the intro, get to the Tragic Plot Point In The Hero's Backstory, and then skip ahead a hundred pages without missing much.
EDIT: Haha, no I'm not going to read the second one. I just read this review (yes, there are spoilers). Amazing.
Kvothe is, like, the smartest guy ever, and the first half of the book is pretty much dedicated to how smart he is. He learns codes in five minutes, magic in a week. Oh, and because of his amazing, brilliant, perfect parents, he also learned before the age of 11 everything there is to know about horsemanship, acting, singing, playing the lute, etiquette, sleight of hand, and God knows what else.
I didn't put the book down because the frame story--the FRAME STORY--was more interesting than Kvothe's ridiculous narrative. Come on, Rothfuss. Get it together. Here you have the same guy, who suddenly doesn't want to be found...a mysterious servant/student, and spider demons. Much better.
Kvothe's stuff got a lot better once he ran off to the small town north of the University to investigate the wedding. But that was most of the way through the book.
I will probably pick up the second book in the series despite my griping. But I almost feel like you could read the intro, get to the Tragic Plot Point In The Hero's Backstory, and then skip ahead a hundred pages without missing much.
EDIT: Haha, no I'm not going to read the second one. I just read this review (yes, there are spoilers). Amazing.
nicnev's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5