Long, yes. Indulgent at times, yes. Impossible to put down, absolutely. Rothfuss has a gift for making you feel like every detail matters, and mostly it does. Denna remains a frustrating character and I think that's entirely intentional.
by Patrick Rothfuss
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. A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.
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Long, yes. Indulgent at times, yes. Impossible to put down, absolutely. Rothfuss has a gift for making you feel like every detail matters, and mostly it does. Denna remains a frustrating character and I think that's entirely intentional.
The magic system alone is worth the price of admission. Sympathy, naming, sygaldry — it all feels like it has real internal logic and cost. The story is Kvothe building his own myth while clearly knowing how it ends. Devastating in retrospect.
Rothfuss writes prose that makes other fantasy novelists look careless. Kvothe narrating his own legend is a clever conceit that gives the story a melancholy weight from the very first chapter. The University sections are the best depiction of magical academia since Hogwarts. Just be prepared for the wait on book three.
Stephanie Garber
