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A review by branson
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
5.0
To me, fantasy as a genre has its own lore — meta-rumors almost. The lore is not just of the great things that happen within the stories, but of the stories themselves.
When I seek out a story of fantasy, I find myself carrying expectations from such lore. These expectations can be quite innocuous. I find myself expecting adventure, magic, and creatures of the imagination amongst other devices.
But at times, expecting magic makes it less magical.
—
The Name of the Wind feels like my first real brush with fantasy. In a sense, it is. I have not read much fantasy prior. Yet somehow, my expectations for fantasy weighed heavy with me going into the book. For example within The Golden Compass, using magic to unlock a door was just so. This is not the case with The Name of the Wind.
Rothfuss took his time to remind me of what my expectations for fantasy were going into the book. He spun tales with kernels of truth early on. Conversations in taverns and entertainers reflect the lore of the world. These tales were largely the form I might expect a fantasy story to take.
But then, others remind our main character, Kvothe, that the magic and beasts within the stories he hears are just not so. That is, these stories are not all they are chalked up to be. "Real magic” does not exist. The same goes for heroes, adventures, and beasts. However, they do come from somewhere.
And Rothfuss is eager to show us where that might just be.
—
Rothfuss at first convinced me that he was casting aside my expectations to tell his take on the elements I thought I was familiar with. But by the end I realized that he was not giving me just his version on the fantasy elements of old.
Rothfuss was setting the foundation for making all the elements I expected feel magical again. He broke down my expectations just to build them back up again. These were the elements of old as I hoped to encounter them.
What does magic, adventure, and a story of a hero really feel like? Who are these character archetypes, really? How do fantasy stories propagate through the world?
Rothfuss did not feel as if he were subverting any given trope. He was writing them it as originally intended — each, the real deal.
When I seek out a story of fantasy, I find myself carrying expectations from such lore. These expectations can be quite innocuous. I find myself expecting adventure, magic, and creatures of the imagination amongst other devices.
But at times, expecting magic makes it less magical.
—
The Name of the Wind feels like my first real brush with fantasy. In a sense, it is. I have not read much fantasy prior. Yet somehow, my expectations for fantasy weighed heavy with me going into the book. For example within The Golden Compass, using magic to unlock a door was just so. This is not the case with The Name of the Wind.
Rothfuss took his time to remind me of what my expectations for fantasy were going into the book. He spun tales with kernels of truth early on. Conversations in taverns and entertainers reflect the lore of the world. These tales were largely the form I might expect a fantasy story to take.
But then, others remind our main character, Kvothe, that the magic and beasts within the stories he hears are just not so. That is, these stories are not all they are chalked up to be. "Real magic” does not exist. The same goes for heroes, adventures, and beasts. However, they do come from somewhere.
And Rothfuss is eager to show us where that might just be.
—
Rothfuss at first convinced me that he was casting aside my expectations to tell his take on the elements I thought I was familiar with. But by the end I realized that he was not giving me just his version on the fantasy elements of old.
Rothfuss was setting the foundation for making all the elements I expected feel magical again. He broke down my expectations just to build them back up again. These were the elements of old as I hoped to encounter them.
What does magic, adventure, and a story of a hero really feel like? Who are these character archetypes, really? How do fantasy stories propagate through the world?
Rothfuss did not feel as if he were subverting any given trope. He was writing them it as originally intended — each, the real deal.