Play Book Tag discussion

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is a fantasy bildungsroman (I just learned this word, so please indulge me) which follows a ginger-haired hero (don't get many of those) Kvothe. This is the first in a trilogy, The Kingkiller Chronicle.

When we meet him in the present day he is living a humble innkeeper's life, joined by a loyal assistant Bast. After he saves a scribes life, the Chronicler, from some killer spiders he agrees to let the scribe record his story. It's apparent early on that Kvothe has a mysterious and legendary past. Third person narration switches to Kvothe's first person narration as we head into the past to follow his life story as he recounts it to the Chronicler and Bast.

I have the least experience with fantasy. I started with the most commercially successful fantasy, Harry Potter (up to book 3) and took it a step further with Children of Blood and Bone. A friend recommended this book, and he's a huge fantasy fan, and I thought The Name of the Wind would be kicking it up a notch getting me into hardcore fantasy territory. But actual of those three titles I would argue that Children of Blood and Bone was the most hardcore, although highly accessible proven by its commercial success.

The Name of the Wind is really character focused, more coming-of-age than magic and high octane action. Without the fantasy tag it would fit quite snug in the literary fiction category. I loved Rothfuss' writing, he has a poetic and romantic style.

Kvothe is a great character, tragic and likable but proven to be infallible with glimpses into his hero traits.

I rated it 4 stars because I really struggled with the pacing.
At the same time, the pacing really helped amplify key moments in the story, so I can only assume this is intentional on the part of the author.
I would get lulled into a false sense of routine and then suddenly something would happen that would take my breath away. There was a moment pretty far into the book where a character is reunited with Kvothe and I actually gasped out loud and surprised myself because I didn't even realize I cared about seeing this character again.

Will read him again, but if you need immediate answers maybe not for you. Essentially you have to care about the main character Kvothe and knowing his story without much revealed in the first book.

I loved this book and the second-thinking of re-reading before the last FINALLY! comes out this year(fingers crossed!) Kvothe became a good friend to me as I recovered my several surgeries.

Nice review, I am glad you liked it!

And I Love the new word!!!!

I also really liked this book and hope to get to the second one this year!

I am trying to make more of an effort to get some of these super long books off my TBR!

I no longer remember when or where I first heard about this, but someone had recommended it so I kind of stuck the title in the back of my head. Then one day I was in the library checking out the books for sale for a dollar, and there was this hardback that had a somewhat familiar title. It looked ok, and how could you go wrong for a dollar? So I bought it on a whim, and wow, I couldn't put it down. It was only afterward that I remembered I'd heard about it somewhere.

My purchase of Outlander was similar - I was in Fry's (of all places), standing in line to pay, and there were paperback books on a shelf nearby. I read the blurb, it sounded good, and it was on sale for $2.99 so I bought it on impulse. Never looked back from there!

Is the hardcover you got for a dollar the cover I attached to this review? I had the paperback and the cover isn't quite as cool.

How is the 2nd book in terms of solving some open mysteries or how is it in comparison to the 1st book? Curious if it was close in pacing and content or if a lot more happens... it's 2x as long so I was worried about jumping into that too soon!

Meli-it's been a while but if I remember correctly a lot of the mystery comes together, however there are still open questions about where it all leads. Kvothe's back story to the Chronicler happens more often-but there is a lot of nothing..........read Mark Lawrences review on the Main Page of GR-it will give you an idea of book 2-no matter, you must continue! I insist!

It looks like the cover (I don't know where the book is now, somewhere in the attic I think). It was a book club copy, not a regular hardcover, so it was a bit smaller.

Book 2 is a bit slower paced, or maybe it's just that the part where he spends time with the Fae was just too long for my taste. The rest of it, however, was excellent. I rated them both 4.5 stars, that was back in 2010 and 2011. Fans are waiting impatiently for book 3 (book 2 was several years overdue). He was at The Last Bookstore in downtown LA a few years ago, I attended his talk and waited in line a couple of hours to get his autograph. He's a cool guy and I like his charity, World Builders.

Joanne wrote: "Meli-it's been a while but if I remember correctly a lot of the mystery comes together, however there are still open questions about where it all leads. Kvothe's back story to the Chronicler happen..."


Haha, OK then, it is settled!
Now I just need to find the time to read more books
😥🤣

I read thus last year and felt it was really Dickensian, leaning into literary fiction more than fantasy. Which was fine with me as I am really not overly enamoured of high fantasy.

I keep putting off reading the second because the third has not yet been published.

So glad someone else only recently discovered it.

I was lucky that when I discovered it, the second book came out shortly thereafter. Sometimes, though, I wonder if it would have been better to save it until book 3 is out! I will probably have to re-read 1 & 2 when it does!

Theresa wrote: "I read thus last year and felt it was really Dickensian, leaning into literary fiction more than fantasy. Which was fine with me as I am really not overly enamoured of high fantasy.

I keep puttin..."

Totally agree with that and there is mention that abandoning the rules of fantasy was intentional, but there is not much context or detail to that statement. I am guessing he said as much in an interview. Literary fiction, from the standpoint of character-driven plot and "good" prose, is fitting. Can't speak to the Dickensian comment because (GASP) IhaveneverreadDickens.... 😳