THE NAME OF THE WIND by Patrick Rothfuss
Told in Kvothe's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.
The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.
A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.
Title: THE NAME OF THE WIND
Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Series: The Kingkiller Chronicles #1
Source: Audiobook from Audible
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: March 27, 2007
Rating: 2/5 stars
Purchase:
I listened to this as an audiobook and I would suggest that you do the same. The narrator was very good and probably the only reason I actually made it to the end of this 18 hour novel. And I saw it was the same narrator for the next one so I almost picked it up but it is 42 hours and I really don't care enough to listen about this pompous douche for another two days. Also, I would have had zero idea how to say Kvothe if it hadn't been for the narration, so yes, I recommend it as an audiobook, but not as an actual novel.
Honestly, my main issue with this one is that I didn't get why this story was so important to be told. At the beginning of the book, we aren't given much back story to Kvothe except the tiny tidbits that the Chronicler gives us as to why he was searching for him. And this is BARE MINIMUM. I knew basically the guy's name. That's it. And that's fine if you are going to tell an interesting story, but oh my god. This was not interesting. I realize that it is over the course of three days so of course the first little bit isn't going to be the most interesting part of the story, but it was so boring I was almost in tears. I didn't (and still don't) care that Kvothe is the specialist little snowflake in the world and so super duper smart and awesome at everything he does and is just so awesome and AWESOME. Like I do not care. I wanted him to have interesting merits, not just be amazing because he is the main character. He has like zero flaws in this story except sometimes he has a bit of a temper and does things without necessarily thinking, but OMG. I could not STAND HIM.
At like 95%, a story is told about Kvothe from an outsider's perspective that really beefs him up to seem (even more) awesome and I wish with all my heart that this had been told at the beginning of the story (instead of whatever meaningless story had been told by that old dude at the beginning) because then I would have been interested in learning more about Kvothe. But even so, this story is so slow. SO SLOW. We learn like 16 years of his life in this book and all the "action" you are expecting and promised? Doesn't happen. There are maybe two interesting things that happen during the course of this novel and one of them is during an interlude.
And oh god the interludes. They do nothing but remind you there are other people around. It is a little jarring to be taken out of the story to go to the present that I just couldn't handle it. Because nothing happened during this time?? Like only at the final interlude did something "important" to the story happen, and even that was minimal imo. I feel like this book serves no purpose other than to get us to the next book. But Kvothe isn't interesting enough to make me want to even look at the next novel, let alone read (or listen) to it.
I am so disappointed by this. It has SUCH a high Goodreads rating and is typically the kind of book I THRIVE on. But no, instead we get a douche of a main character, a stupid ass love interest, and a sad but boring childhood that made me want to tear my eyes out (even though I was listening). I was hoping for something more magical and more .. interesting, but instead all I got was disappointment and apathy.
At like 95%, a story is told about Kvothe from an outsider's perspective that really beefs him up to seem (even more) awesome and I wish with all my heart that this had been told at the beginning of the story (instead of whatever meaningless story had been told by that old dude at the beginning) because then I would have been interested in learning more about Kvothe. But even so, this story is so slow. SO SLOW. We learn like 16 years of his life in this book and all the "action" you are expecting and promised? Doesn't happen. There are maybe two interesting things that happen during the course of this novel and one of them is during an interlude.
And oh god the interludes. They do nothing but remind you there are other people around. It is a little jarring to be taken out of the story to go to the present that I just couldn't handle it. Because nothing happened during this time?? Like only at the final interlude did something "important" to the story happen, and even that was minimal imo. I feel like this book serves no purpose other than to get us to the next book. But Kvothe isn't interesting enough to make me want to even look at the next novel, let alone read (or listen) to it.
I am so disappointed by this. It has SUCH a high Goodreads rating and is typically the kind of book I THRIVE on. But no, instead we get a douche of a main character, a stupid ass love interest, and a sad but boring childhood that made me want to tear my eyes out (even though I was listening). I was hoping for something more magical and more .. interesting, but instead all I got was disappointment and apathy.
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