Hello everyone!
Since it's Thursday, and since I'm done doing official (and less official, but no less important) tasks for the day, I finally have time to sit down and type up this blog post.
Of course the problem here being that I had just bawled my eyes out after not one, but TWO consecutive books I read that literally emptied my tear ducts for the foreseeable future. I honestly have no idea how this happened.
One, I didn't anticipate that there would even BE tears, especially since I was simply rereading a book I had been presented with years ago by my parents after nagging them, incessantly, about having nothing to read.
Yes, I was THAT child.
Anyway, I wasn't expecting to be bowed over trying not to sob like a big baby as I read it. Not fair! I don't remember shedding ANY tears over it originally!
But I digress.
Today's review isn't about me crying crocodile tears, but about The Name of the Wind.
To start off, allow me to explain something:
I did not, actually, know that this was the same book I had passed over after it first got published and translated, until I started reading it and it struck me as familiar. What happened was that, when I saw the huge book in a store and read the back of it, nothing on there struck me as worth my time, especially since I believe what I was reading at that point was also some form of fantasy. In any event, I didn't think about it anymore until my birthday, when my best friends presented me with a physical copy of the book, and then entreated me to read it so I could review it.
Challenge accepted!
So then I let the book stew there from May/June this year until the beginning of this week, when, after a girl's night out, I was asked if I'd read it yet.
Well, no. Not at that point.
I did, however, finish it yesterday!
So here we go. Brace yourselves, because, no, winter isn't coming, but Kvothe has arrived.
Our story begins at an inn where, as stated by the author Patrick Rothfuss, a man is preparing to die. Which in itself is an interesting beginning for a book, considering it's supposed to be a trilogy and whatnot. So then what happens is that, first, we learn that some huge spider-like monstrosity attacked one of the farmers in the area, and that said innkeeper is more than he seems. This is proven by the arrival of a man simply named the Chronicler (he writes down life stories), who unveils the innkeeper Kote as Kvothe, someone who is a living legend.
And thus, we begin the story, in Kvothe's own words.
The narrative then takes us to the very beginning when Kvothe was just a boy and travelled with his troupe, the Ruh, and performed. This wouldn't be anything extraordinary if not for the fact that they pick up a tinker/arcanist along the way, Ben, who begins teaching young Kvothe the arcane art of sympathy (aka magic, but this magic is tied to the world around us) and general education.
This will eventually lead Kvothe to further his studies, but not before his whole troupe is slaughtered by beings named the Chandrian, something out of a children's fable but ultimatly very real, who have done this because Kvothe's parents were working on a new song, which was about them.
For a time afterwards, Kvothe survives in the wild until the strings on his father's lute break and he is forced to go into the nearest town, where he ends up staying ... I think three years? Not in a wealthy manner, mind you.
Kvothe joins the other beggars in the streets, until the time when he once again hears a story about the Chandrian, after which he decides to attend the University.
That's when things start to unravel with a greater speed, because he has a number of problems when it comes to said University: one, he doesn't have a patron, two, he doesn't have money, three ... you get the idea.
But being clever and rather quick on his feet, he convinces the Masters to accept him on probation, and from there, the adventure begins.
This includes, but isn't limited to, his lessons to become an arcanist, his expulsion from the Archives (basically a library to give every booklover heartburn), his various stages of love/hate with different Masters, and most importantly his feud with fellow student, Ambrose.
You have to remember, Kvothe is what, fourteen or fifteen at this time? Potentially sixteen, but I wouldn't count on it.
So he's also a teenage boy full of hormones and his own problems, and he tends to get in trouble a lot more than he stays put. I mean, he gets whipped twice (in my memory), he makes enemies of the Masters, he can't read books ... yeah, wow.
And yet he also advances through ranks a lot faster than normal, which earns him not only envy of his fellow students, but also intrigue from the Masters. Through all this, he also has to deal with his money issues, which he sort of bounces through by borrowing and then playing the lute and a lot of other things. He's resorceful, is what he is.
Of course we also have to meet his lady-love, Denna, whom originally he had met while travelling to the University proper, but remeets after she completes a song with him during a contest, and this time he actually does fall head over heels.
And does nothing.
Pretty much, what he does is scamper after her like a lost puppy and becomes friendzoned forever, not to mention I didn't understand what made her worth all the trouble. As far as I was concerned, Denna was just annoying to me because she was so inconsistent.
But the interesting stuff starts happening when there are again reports of the Chandrian (one of whom, the Haliax, is apparently Lanre, a hero from another story/myth who went mad and bad after his wife died, and can't die because of power he amassed to himself) and Kvothe goes to investigate. With Denna, whom he finds at the scene, of course, though he doesn't find the Chandrian themselves. He learns about a vase/jar that the patriarch of the family which was killed (yep, more death) had unearthed from what he deduces was once an old fort (again, this is calling for those old myths and whatnot ... I suspect we'll learn more in the next books), and they run into a dragon.
Except this one eats trees and is stoned on poisonous maple which is actually a drug.
You read that right.
Kvothe manages to kill it, but loses Denna again as she, fickle creature that she is (honestly, how can men have ANY good perception of women with these kinds of heroines?) has once again disappeared, and he returns to the University only to have Ambrose destroy his lute.
This results in Kvothe calling on the name of the wind and ending in front of the Masters again, though he doesn't get expelled, just gains a patron in the form of the nuttiest of the lot, Elodin, who is a Master Namer.
While this is going on, we sometimes have interludes of Kvothe, the Chronicler, and Bast (Kvothe's apparent student and, if I'm not mistaken, a satyr because he does have cloven hooves instead of feet) talk over what Kvothe has already told, bicker on occasion, eat, and the like.
They also get interrupted once when a weird man walks into the inn, whom Chronicler recognizes as one of the highway robbers who had robbed him earlier, but who is apparently ... not himself.
Actually, after being beaten to death by an iron rod, it's revealed he was possessed by a demon, or a close example of a demon, and we get the feeling that, combined with the spidey-things, the lands are becoming less than safe again, which spurs Bast to try and get Kvothe back to his usual self, not an innkeeper, but someone who is capable of great deeds. To this end, he later explains to the Chronicler that HE was the one who left the rumour about Kvothe to lead him here, and that he must do what Bast tells him to do, no more, no less. Otherwise, there will be consequences.
And on that happy note, we leave the inn as night deepens, and Kvothe still remains the man waiting to die.
This book was in the same measures good, bad, infuriating, and arresting. I can't quite decide which is prevalent, but I do know it kept me reading until I devoured it. I also know I needed a dose of Catherine Gayle afterwards to reset my brain, but that's beside the point.
In general, I liked it. It has a kind of fantasy I like, not to mention the pace was fantastic, with just enough description not to burden the story (let's remember that Terry Brooks makes me break out in hives), brilliant dialogue that moved things along, and a unique world.
Kvothe, at times, annoyed me because he seems a bit too perfect for the hero of the story, but then again I'm hoping more of his flaws will come to light later on. Some of the minor characters could have been fleshed out a little bit more to my liking, and my opinion of Denna is fairly known at this point I suppose.
I think the main sort of bump I sensed in this was that the story of Kvothe and the real-time happenings at the inn clashed too much on occasion - I can understand that the 'demons' somehow connect to the story, but at this point, since we know so little of them, they're more of a nuisance than anything else. It would have perhaps made more sense for there to be another draccus or something similar, since that would connect with Kvothe's own story a bit more.
But the style itself is very readable, and Rothfuss seems to understand how to draw readers into his world and keep them there. For my part, I'm anxious to figure out more about the Chandrian, the fact that they seem to be living, breathing myths, and why Kvothe can't do sympathy anymore.
That one was a kicker, and I can't wait to hear that story.
All in all, however, it was more of an enjoyable read than anything else, I suppose, and I'm going to try and get my hands on a copy of the sequel, The Wise Man's Fear, as soon as possible!
xx
*image not mine
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