The Name of the Wind

Before starting The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss, one should be aware that the series's completion seems uncertain at this time. Its first volume came out in 2007 and the second was published in 2011 but third book is still on its way. In this year's July, Rothfuss's editor, Betsy Wollheim, wrote that she has never seen a word of book three and she believes the author has not written anything for six years. Her words may have been colored by her frustration but Rothfuss sure has been taking his time.

I still borrowed The Name of the Wind when I came upon it to see what was so special about the series, what all the fuss was about. I have seen the novel mentioned quite a few times although those mentions have been mostly about waiting for the third book.

The Name of the Wind has an interesting beginning: I couldn't tell where it was going. It was in no hurry to get to the point, just casually strolling about until arriving to the actual story which is a now-innkeeper Kvothe dictating his biography to a chronicler. Telling stories is a big theme in the novel: quite a few times someone even tells a story within Kvothe's narration.

The novel is essentially a coming-of-age story like fantasy books often are -- way too often, I would say. I feel that most of the time when you pick up a fantasy novel, especially if it has only one viewpoint, it's a coming-of-age story. I find that reading the by-the-dozen Forgotten Realms books can thus be refreshing since their protagonists tend to already be competent.

I got a feeling Rothfuss almost made Kvothe too good -- he's an incredibly fast learner and has a great memory -- and then had to backpedal hard and invent all kinds of unreasonable character flaws and hardships to not make things too simple. One of his flaws is naivety although that is to be expected since he's so young in the novel's story. He's particularly blind to ill intentions and vindictiveness of people. You'd think even with his naivety Kvothe would eventually learn. I hated every time Kvothe thought he was done with his enemies but then said things would get worse in the future.

I didn't like any other reference to future events either. That's definitely a downside for having the novel be told as something that has already happened.

The Name of the Wind was a passable read. Based on it I don't see a reason to yearn for a third book other than maybe to see the trilogy finished -- the story is clearly spanning over more than one book as this one didn't feel self-contained at all. But maybe my opinion will change once I get to read the second book, The Wise Man's Fear.

One thing I wished there had been more is information how the novel's world is governed. I didn't learn anything about rulers and all that. Is everything in the book's map the same country and so on. Maybe Kvothe originally being of Edema Ruh, who are the traveling folk version of Rothfuss's world, has something to do with it. Always having been on the road made him perhaps not care about lords and nations.