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A review by m1keythed
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
5.0
4.75/5
What an entrancing and beautiful coming of age story. Upon starting Name of The Wind, I was a little wary of having any sort of expectations, simply because this is a very loved, and simultaneously divisive book. It took me a bit to get sucked into the story, but when it finally got its claws into me, (after about the first 150 pages), I was set in my ways.
I’ll get the obvious praise out of the way first. Pat Rothfuss is a wordsmith. His prose and dialogue are both polished to the maximum, and he is able to create poetry at every single page that he sees fit. While I don’t believe a lot of the dialogue is as realistic as he tries to make it, there is charm to it, almost like a fantasy version of an Aaron Sorkin screenplay, at times.
Then we come to the crux of the book, Kvothe. Easily the most divisive part of the book as well, from what I’ve seen. If you take the typical perfect, over-competent protagonist that can do no wrong, lightly varnish them with likable, inoffensive flaws, and constantly throw them through the wringer, you get Kvothe. Some people will not, and do not like this guy, which I can understand. Do I myself agree? No. I think it’s fun being inside his head, as unreliable of a narrator as he can sometimes be. I see him being called a Gary Stu very frequently, which I can somewhat understand, but again, do not agree with. I will admit that he can be very obnoxious, and seemingly arrogant, and is good at everything he puts his mind to. This would normally rub me the wrong way with the average fantasy protagonist, but with Kvothe, it works. And it works, because try as he might, being good at everything, Kvothe still gets screwed over constantly.
Another thing I would like to give props to Rothfuss for, is his ability use Kvothe’s unreliable narration in a way that both leads the reader on, and keeps many things ambiguous. We know that this man has the writing chops to create whatever scene he wishes, but he intentionally has Kvothe hide things from us, either because he is selfish, scared, or indifferent, which further adds to this man’s flawed nature. Too perfect, Kvothe is not, loathe as many people are to say he is.
The last thing I’ll weigh in on in this already yappified review, is the female characters. I won’t sugarcoat it, they seem to be portrayed in a pretty traditional fantasy way; serving girls at taverns, damsels in distress that need to be saved, the beautiful girl that could have any man she wants, but that our MC pines for. It’s all pretty standard, and perhaps eye rolling depictions for some. I personally didn’t have a problem with it, especially when we’re seeing this story from the eyes of a 15 year old boy, but I get the hate.
Regardless, I had a great time reading this one, even if it took more time than I would have liked to finish it, I am glad that I did.
What an entrancing and beautiful coming of age story. Upon starting Name of The Wind, I was a little wary of having any sort of expectations, simply because this is a very loved, and simultaneously divisive book. It took me a bit to get sucked into the story, but when it finally got its claws into me, (after about the first 150 pages), I was set in my ways.
I’ll get the obvious praise out of the way first. Pat Rothfuss is a wordsmith. His prose and dialogue are both polished to the maximum, and he is able to create poetry at every single page that he sees fit. While I don’t believe a lot of the dialogue is as realistic as he tries to make it, there is charm to it, almost like a fantasy version of an Aaron Sorkin screenplay, at times.
Then we come to the crux of the book, Kvothe. Easily the most divisive part of the book as well, from what I’ve seen. If you take the typical perfect, over-competent protagonist that can do no wrong, lightly varnish them with likable, inoffensive flaws, and constantly throw them through the wringer, you get Kvothe. Some people will not, and do not like this guy, which I can understand. Do I myself agree? No. I think it’s fun being inside his head, as unreliable of a narrator as he can sometimes be. I see him being called a Gary Stu very frequently, which I can somewhat understand, but again, do not agree with. I will admit that he can be very obnoxious, and seemingly arrogant, and is good at everything he puts his mind to. This would normally rub me the wrong way with the average fantasy protagonist, but with Kvothe, it works. And it works, because try as he might, being good at everything, Kvothe still gets screwed over constantly.
Another thing I would like to give props to Rothfuss for, is his ability use Kvothe’s unreliable narration in a way that both leads the reader on, and keeps many things ambiguous. We know that this man has the writing chops to create whatever scene he wishes, but he intentionally has Kvothe hide things from us, either because he is selfish, scared, or indifferent, which further adds to this man’s flawed nature. Too perfect, Kvothe is not, loathe as many people are to say he is.
The last thing I’ll weigh in on in this already yappified review, is the female characters. I won’t sugarcoat it, they seem to be portrayed in a pretty traditional fantasy way; serving girls at taverns, damsels in distress that need to be saved, the beautiful girl that could have any man she wants, but that our MC pines for. It’s all pretty standard, and perhaps eye rolling depictions for some. I personally didn’t have a problem with it, especially when we’re seeing this story from the eyes of a 15 year old boy, but I get the hate.
Regardless, I had a great time reading this one, even if it took more time than I would have liked to finish it, I am glad that I did.