K-SCORE: 94
Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Spoiler Level: Minor (nothing compared to just reading the back)
The flaws in The Name of the Wind are substantial jagged cracks, splintering the surface of the story and working their way across every page. It features a protagonist who is far too intelligent, far too skilled, and far too young to have the essential dramatic weaknesses that drive conflicts. The frame narrative is oppressive, often cheating by telling you how you should feel about a section of the main story right after you just read it. There’s hardly any balance to the plotting, as Rothfuss will spend hundreds of pages in an area or with a topic of seemingly little importance and then just a paltry few in key locales with characters you want and need to know most. If you’re hoping for a rounded story, one that ends in a definitive spot leaving little left up in the air, look elsewhere; Rothfuss hard cuts after about 700 pages. The back of the book is the worst back of a book I’ve ever read, and it’s not even close. With all that in mind, I still can’t deny that The Name of the Wind is one of the greatest novels I’ve ever read. Rothfuss’s strengths are in places that matter most, and when he triumphs, he does so so powerfully it leaves you breathless.
“a profound love of music that somehow I can hear through the text”
The story is told in the first person by the gifted genius protagonist Kvothe (pronounced Quothe (more or less)) and follows his childhood, education, and first adventures with magic, music, friends, women, institutional learning, and villainous demons called Chandrian. It’s a story within a story; Kvothe is older (thirties) and telling the tale of his young life to a man named Chronicler and his apprentice amidst mysterious and world-rending present day conflicts.
Normally I would lambaste a story whose protagonist is incomparably brilliant and good at everything like Kvothe. You don’t root for a character to succeed because he or she is naturally gifted. You root for them to overcome obstacles and to power through adversity. (See Rudy) With so many talents, Kvothe should be able to effortlessly conquer whatever his fantasy world throws at him. Yet it never seems to work out that way. I can’t quite figure it. Kvothe has enough conflicts overlapping all the time and there are challenges so huge and circumstances so complex, that even a savant stumbles. That’s the fun in the story! You get to see how he balances and works through issues in his world that, were they his only problem, would be trivial, but taken together feel overwhelming. I loved Kvothe despite his arrogance and sympathized with his feeling that the weight of the world was perhaps just a little too heavy for his shoulders. At times I was frustrated that he was facing conflicts I myself would have avoided easily - things like having to live on the streets for years on end, finding himself tremendously in debt to a loan shark, missing engagements, and getting whipped for insubordination at his academic institution (okay, maybe that would have happened to me as well), but I came to accept that recklessness and impatience, if anything, are his defining faults.
“Rothfuss’s strengths are in places that matter most, and when he triumphs, he does so so powerfully it leaves you breathless.”
It’s a singular journey, told by Kvothe about his life and his life alone. The only character who seems to jump in and out regardless of where he goes is Denna, and even with their future always hanging in the balance I was pleased with the way that she fluttered nearby and flirted with him, mixing coy humor with honesty with understandable fear. The others, from his first tutor Abenthy to Trapsis the orphan caretaker to the barkeeps where he gets his golden pipes to the masters of the university, are excellent as well. I was attached to them immediately, laughed at their idiosyncrasies and believed in their realism even in this fantastical world.
Two systems of magic coexist wonderfully in The Name of the Wind. Naming holds the key to the big series mysteries and is pleasantly unknowable, rare, and powerful. Sympathy is incredible. The work Rothfuss must have done to iron out all the rules for it really shows, and I’m particularly partial to a consistent type of magic - something with boundaries, something that can be studied, something that makes you think that if you were transported to the world, you could work to master it without innate abilities. No chosen one nonsense, no deus ex magica. Conceptual magic that melds with the mystical settings, the fantasy beastiary, the historical myths, and the characters in the rest of the universe.
Brilliant dialogue, powerful themes, titillating mysteries, a profound love of music that somehow I can hear through the text - there is so much about this novel that is so good that I easily ignore its flaws. Actually no, I don’t ignore them. I love the book with them. I’ve done a lot of writing myself and never have I written anything I consider to be perfect. You can refine and edit, endlessly redraft, and at some point you still have to float your story out there and hope it catches some favorable winds. My favorite stories are not usually the ones so deftly crafted that they reject criticism of any kind. My favorite stories are the ones where I trust that the creator cares as much about storytelling as I do and has a unique vision he or she means to see through. That’s what Rothfuss has done. I’m glad he found a way to get his dream into my hands. If he stays the course on this series and match this level of dedication on future projects, he could end up being one of my favorite writers far into the future. And those problems I mentioned will slowly fade away as he naturally hones his craft. I’m really looking forward to The Wise Man’s Fear.
Just don’t read the back. Seriously. Not ever. Never read the back of anything published by the imprint Daw Books. It’s nothing but arrogance and spoilers. Trust that The Name of the Wind is a fantasy tale worth your time without knowing any tidbits of plot ahead of time.