The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
(Book #1 of The Kingkiller Chronicle series)
Rating: 🍁🍁🍁🍁
Overall: Had it not been so freaking huge, this would have been a one-sitting read for me. Not perfect or original, but solid and enjoyable, with an engaging story full of believable, mostly likeable characters.
The Good Stuff:
1) Rothfuss did a good job of creating a believable world for his characters to play in. It's not super-original, since you could probably substitute it with almost every other epic fantasy world and not disrupt the story too much, but it has enough depth to support the story and is internally consistent. There are also just enough twists on the traditional tropes to keep it interesting (dragons - that's all I'm going to say about that).
2) If you've read many of my reviews, you know how I tend to feel about most literary representations of adolescent boys. If not, let me sum up - painful, annoying and stupid. Rothfuss manages to give us the story of an adolescent boy who doesn't piss me off. This is a remarkable accomplishment. While he's not perfect (though he thinks he is), Kvothe is certainly believable given his experiences and abilities. Did I like him? Not really - I'm not a big fan of people who think they're too special to follow the rules because REASONS. But I understood him, and could empathise with him, and ultimately could respect the decisions he made even if I didn't agree with them.
3) I enjoyed the 'story within a story' narrative style. Seeing who Kvothe was going to become, as compared with the Kvothe we meet within Kvothe's tale, is fascinating and hugely compelling. How does he end up at the inn? Why can't he perform sympathetic magic any more? How did he meet and become connected to Bast? Where are the 'demons' coming from, and what's Kvothe's role in it?
4) The magic system was great. It was easily comprehensible, as well as comprehensive enough to make the story work. I also loved that you had to go to university to learn it, it wasn't just something you were born with (though obviously some people had a greater aptitude than others).
5) Rothfuss's treatment of Denna's difficulties was refreshing. Or rather, his treatment of Kvothe's response to those difficulties. One of my favourite scenes in the entire book was when the guy whose name I can't remember calls Kvothe on his privileged judgement of Deanna's relationships with men.
The Not-So-Good Stuff:
1) That being said, Denna/Deanna/Dianne/whatever the heck her name was (can you please just pick one?) annoyed the heck out of me. Or rather, Kvothe's perceptions and reactions to her did. Other than the fact that she's beautiful (albeit unconventionally), and has an inner light, what exactly draws him to her? She's kind of a blank slate as far as what we're told as readers. Yes, they have long conversations, but we're never given any insight into her thoughts on things or even her place in the world. Who is she? What makes her so compelling to every male ever? Why should I care what happens to her?
2) Apparently there are no unattractive women in Kvothe's world. At least, none worth mentioning. There's Denna the nebulous, Devi the wicked, Fela the voluptuous, Mola the medical, and Auri the cracked - all of them are attractive, none of them interact (except for Mola and Auri), and they all lust after Kvothe. Super.
3) Future Kvothe is pretty heavy-handed with the foreshadowing in Past Kvothe's story, to the point where I wanted to stick my head into the story and say "yes, we get it - bad things are coming - move on to those things already".
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