The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
I randomly picked this book up in WHSmith last Summer before I headed out to Spain on a family holiday. I like to read a lot of different books, I'll read pretty much any genre - pretty much like my music tastes, so my reasoning for picking up the book was just that I needed to take a book away with me.
Reading this blurb made me think it was something like Lord of the Rings. I was wrong.
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.
The story is easy to get into from the first instance. Rothfuss has an easy style where he paints the scene without over complicating and running the risk of boring the reader. As a reader you instantly becoming engrossed in the story and want to know just what is going on. Why is there a strange spider like creature? Who is Kote and why does he seem to know things but hide that knowledge?
As the story develops it is not hard to become attached to the young Kvothe (note before I referred to Kote, this is the same character) and the ordeal he goes through at such a young age, you want to be able to help him, even though that evidently will not happen. Each setback makes you willing something good to happen for him, and you mentally curse his enemy's and praise his friends. Rothfuss has such an easy way of engaging the reader and enabling you to develop that link. The switch between past and present is easy, and doesn't confuse the reader, as some books can easily do. The past and the reflection allows the reader to become acquainted with the main character and build that relationship up, the switch to the present makes you question just what has happened for Kvothe to get to where he is now.
So what is The Name of the Wind all about?
The main character is Kvothe. We are first introduced to him as an adult, and going by the name Kote running an inn in a sleepy little village full of superstitious and simple people.
An unexpected event occurs to a member of the village in which a strange creature attacks, the simpletons of the village immediately think that it is a Demon - although Kvothe knows otherwise. The wheels are set in motion and we begin to learn little snippets about whom exactly Kvothe is.
It is not until the arrival of Chronicler - a highly reputed recorder of events - that we get into the swing of things and learn about Kvothe's life. Chronicler wants to record Kvothe's life - which after reluctance Kvothe agree's too.
And so the story becomes a reflection in where it is told through the view point of Kvothe himself.
We learn about his young age, his family, his troupe, his thirst for knowledge, his ability to grasp concepts quickly.
We learn of the traumatic event in which Kvothe ends up having to fend for himself, then his turn of luck as he takes the steps to achieving something that no one has achieved before - to get into the University - before he has even come of age!
We travel with him on his journey through University, his eagerness to learn, the rivalries, the foolish pride and gullibility.
He experiences his first love - at this stage in the story, it could be his only love.
Along the way we also learn of the history of the world in which Kvothe lives in, of the Chandarin, Lanre, the Amyr, the reasoning behind the children's rhymes.
All this information is given to us in perfect spoon sized snippets not overloading, thus creating a rich tapestry of Kvothe's life. As a reader you fly along with the highs, and dip with the lows as though the story was your own, at emotional points, you do feel genuinely choked up with either pity and pain or joy. At the same time Rothfuss pulls you out of the reminiscing and brings you to the here and now, switching from the first person to the third with ease. We then watch and see how Kvothe is acting now, and wonder even more how things have come to be, before we are thrown into the past again.
The story has an excellent construction, it doesn't linger too long on insignificant details, but at the same time it gives you all the details you need in order to see the scene in your mind clearly. It flows easily, with even the changes in past and present fitting perfectly and not breaking up the story.
At the end we are left thinking - what happens to Kvothe for him to become known as Kvothe the Kingkiller?
To which the answer is - we need to get our hands on the next book!
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