The Name of the Wind

I recently finished listening to the book The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.  It was pretty good, although, I am betting if I was browsing books at a store, this would not be one I would choose.  It was nice though to have something a little different.

My biggest complaint comes with the way the book starts.  Rothfuss does not introduce any of the characters and he drops us into a small town.  It seems like we are going to follow one character, but instead, it turns out to be the unassuming innkeeper who is the main character, Kvothe.

There are two stories happening throughout the book.  The first is Kvothe’s story about his early life through his time at the University.  The second is the present time inside the inn, where his student is trying to convince the Chronicler to try and get Kvothe to remember his time as a hero.  For some reason I felt that we would find out that Kvothe was actually hundreds of years old or something, since he has done so many things.

The other thing I did not like was the way Rothfuss would go into detail about the way his magical system worked.  I know that some people really enjoy this sort of thing, but not me.  I like my magic to be pretty magical and mysterious.  I like to know that there rules to it, but I do not want them to be almost scientific.  Whatever, I guess this is a minor complaint.

I did love the comedic moments in the book.  When Kvothe is making fun of Ambrose, it had me cracking up in the car.  I probably looked a  little odd.  Also, there are plenty of deeply sad parts, especially when the bad keeps piling on Kvothe.

A quick aside about the guy reading the book, Nick Podehl.  He does an okay job, but I could do without all the accents (except the Russian one he does for Will and Master Kilvin, I cannot remember what country they are from or what language they actually speak).

Author: Ngewo

2 thoughts on “The Name of the Wind

  1. Check out the 2nd book- The Wise Man’s Fear. The audio version is like 40 hours long, but it’s worth a listen if you mostly enjoyed the first one.

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