Review: The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss

Kvothe is a hero and a legend.  It says so on the back of the book.  Yet the story opens in a backwoods tavern and it takes us a while to learn who Kvothe is (or not, depending on how quick you are).  As he begins his lengthy tale, we realize that this book covers his childhood and adolescence; he is not yet the great hero that is lauded and derided in songs and stories across the country.  It leaves me wondering, how did he get to that backwoods tavern?  What happened?

We’re not going to know yet, so let me review this book first.

Patrick Rothfuss has been hailed left and right as a fantasy god.  Very few people dislike this book.  I’m not one of them, I loved it.  I can tell I’ll be reading it again when book two comes out next year.  In fantasy novels, I love two things; complex characters and complex worlds.  So it was important that I liked Kvothe most of the time and I found him to be a very believable teenage boy given a brain that is much too skilled for his age.  I wished the best for him even as I dreaded the worst, and the foreshadowing meant I always knew the worst was coming.  He is generally full of young hormonal male feelings, but as the story is told through his older self, they didn’t get to me that much.  I found the world, and the history Rothfuss created, to be interesting and I can’t wait for it to be fleshed out further.  I really hope Kvothe feels his Ruh blood and goes wandering about just so we can see a bit more of this world.

I don’t think this book is the best fantasy ever written, but Rothfuss has a lot of potential.  This is excellent for a first time fantasy novelist and as I said, I just can’t wait until the next two are released so I can find out what happened.  Firmly recommended to all fantasy fans and anyone interested in experimenting in the genre. Buy this book on Amazon.