I read The Name of the Wind way back in 2010, back then I didn’t have a blog and the initial review I did on Goodreads was less of a review and more of a monologue . So with a blog now in place and less reading being done by me lately there’s no better time than this to review this epic fantasy masterpiece .
Book Quotes:
“You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
Book Succinct:
Series : Kingkiller Chronicles Book #1 / Pages : 662 (paperback) / Genre: Epic Fantasy
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.
learn more about this book at : goodreads & Amazon
What I Liked :
The first impression most people will draw from reading this book is the similarities it shares with the Harry Potter series .However the similarities exist for about 25% of the whole book and even there Kvothe’s life is macabre and filled with trials and tribulations unlike anything Harry Potter books ever displayed.
The writing in the book is probably unmatched in it’s poetic style by any writer of this generation and the closest I can think of in terms of author with similar writing style is probably J.R.R Tolkien and in terms of Fantasy books that is highest of high praise that can be bestowed.
Book Quotes:
“When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
Rothfus takes a detailed approach with his world building albeit slow in the building process the final result comes across as a beauty to behold .Meanwhile he also amalgamates this world with countless lores, myths, religious systems , languages, a well executed magical system and songs to create a truly vast universe for his story .
Kvothe the main protagonist develops in each passing page as he becomes this over-the-top most notorious wiz of the Kingkiller Chronicles world and he is well fleshed out for the readers to like him , nearly all secondary characters are well integrated into the story and make up for a very stellar cast with one particular character named Auri becoming one of the most charming part of the book .
What I Didn’t Like:
When describing all the myths and various systems of his world Rothfus’s writing can bog down the reader sometimes , and it really starts feeling a little over-detailed sometimes and the story at more than one time feels to be in stasis.
If you are also one of those people who wants their story to be told in a linear way then there maybe some pages worth of tales and poems and songs that may make you feel as if the story has deviated from it’s course .
Book Quotes:
“Bones mend. Regret stays with you forever.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
The main heroine in this story was also very unlikable to me , so much so that I wanted her to die (harsh , I know , but she got on my nerves) . Rothfus obviously didn’t want her to be unlikable but she came across as more unlikable to me than the various baddies .
Conclusions:
Patrick Rothfus emerged as one of the most significant fantasy writer of this generation after this book gained a lot of mainstream success. On a personal level this book is one of the rare ones that I managed to read immediately after it’s release and before it gained the massive popularity . I accept that there are things that may make some readers dislike this book , but to me it’s one of the best in the genre
Book Quotes:
“Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady. Their lives are hard enough, and it never hurts to be polite.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
Check out some of my other reviews:
- BOOK REVIEW!! Dark Matter , by Blake Crouch .
- Book Review – The Dark Tower (Dark Tower series , book #7 ) : by Stephen King
- COMIC BOOK REVIEW !! FINAL DAYS OF SUPERMAN , BY PETER J. TOMASI
- BOOK REVIEW: Skin Game (Dresden Files #15 ) by Jim Butcher
Have you read “The Name of the Wind”? Do you plan to ?
share your thoughts on the comments below
A.B.A.B - ablogaboutbook 
Great review Rash, I loved this book, just so good.😀
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Yep , this book bought me back to reading epic fantasies so it is a very important book for me personally
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Ah, definitely, Game of Thrones did the same for me.
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I actually read Game of thrones pretty late , my first was LOTR , then after about 8 years Name of wind , then first law and then Game of thrones , and honestly I don’t regret the reading order
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Game of Thrones was my first but it took The First Law trilogy, The Broken Empire trilogy and The Warded Man to cement my love of fantasy/grimdark and realise it was the genre for me.
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Well I have yet to read a lot of fantasy but I’m working on it and I do enjoy reading them more than anything else so yeah I could say that Fantasy is my genre as well
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