REVIEW: THE NAME OF THE WIND by Patrick Rothfuss

Title: The Name of The Wind

Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Series: The Kingkiller Chronicles #1
Genres: High Fantasy, Adventure
Publisher: Penguin Group
Source: Physical book
Pages: 662

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BLURB: 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.

HANNAHCASSIE's REVIEW

EXPECTATIONS: I have seen this book being really hyped on booktube and because I learned to avoid hyped books I had no interest in it whatsoever at first. But then I saw it in my bookshop for really really cheap and decided oh well, it costs almost nothing I might just give it a try.

THE WORLD: We are back in high fantasy in this world so forget the world as you know it. In this universe magic exists. Even more, magic warriors and magic names that draw trouble... it all is real. But what I loved the most was University. No it is not the simple university as you and I know it. It is university were you study magic and become a wizard. Well actually, you learn the names of things and then control them. It's not Harry Potter type of magic for sure but it is amazing on it's own nevertheless.

CHARACTERS: So this story is told by our main character and actually takes time only up to him being few years into university. The rest of the story will come in the next book. So let's meet our main character - Kvothe. We get to know him first as a boy, his family and everybody he knows belong to a traveling troupe who perform in every town. But they are not some self taught wanna be actors, no they are actually professional. However, one day a horrible thing happens and Kvothe is left on his own. Eventually he ends up finding his way to one of the big cities where he lives as beggar for a few years till he finally decides he wants to go to university. But ah my lovelies, you have no idea how much you fall in love with Kvothe in this book. I usually do not like reading about children but Kvothe's story...I just could not put down the book. It was just gorgeous, full of adventure and when we get to University...oh my oh my it is truly my favorite part. I just adore it, the magic, the adventure, the...did I already say magic? :D Ah, it was a truly treat to my mind.

But Kvothe is of course not the only character in the book. Actually there are sorta three Kvothes: the child, the young adult and old Kvothe telling the story. I loved both the child and young adult Kvothe but I do not love the old Kvothe just yet. He is different and I do not like him this way. I really hope he will become who he was in his youth once again.

And so additionally to Kvothes we have his friends who I also adore, teachers, residence of cities...I like them all. Except for one and that is Denna. Oh boy oh boy how much I dislike her. She is just so annoying, one of these supposedly mysterious beauties who are finding themselves and blah blah. This is one and the biggest minus of the book for me.

ROMANCE: I try to ignorite it because of my dislike of Denna but yeah...Kvothe is madly in love with her and of course Denna does not care so you get the idea...

GOOD: Magic. University. Magic. Yeah....I love so much about this book!

BAD: Denna and old Kvothe. I dislike them both so far and only hope things will get better in the next book.

OVERALL: Absolutely adore the book, could not put it down! And I already got the second book so review will be coming soon too!

LAURA'S REVIEW

EXPECTATIONS: I read this book long time ago and I remember I didn't have many expectations. It was more like "I'll risk it" I guess. I confess I had to read the book twice.

THE WORLD: The world in this book is quite intricate but I have a feeling we only get a glimpse of it in the first book. It's a magical world a bit like Middle Age England with its legends of magical creatures etc. In this world magic exists but it's like... science-based magic, like Alchemy. And there is a University of Magic where you can go to learn, that's where the majority of the book sets.

CHARACTERS: Our main character is Kvothe. We start by knowing him as a legend, someone everybody in the kingdom knows about but nobody knows how his fame came to be. So that's when a young writer asks him to narrate his story and there it all begins. We get to see his childhood and unfortunate fate, his adolescence + young adult life while studying magic at the University... and it's beautiful. His characters is very 3D and well developed. Another character of certain importance is Bast who seems to be Kvothe's friend and disciple. Then we have Denna, the romantic interest. Mysterious woman who never lets any man too close to hear heart and who wanders around playing music... I don't know her deal but she wasn't very memorable, even though Kvothe is fascinated by her. Last but not least we have the antagonist, Ambrose Jakis, who comes from a wealthy family and it's basically an annoying twat. He thinks he's better than all the poor kids who make it to University.

ROMANCE: Kvothe is smitten with Denna like... it's not even a spoiler since it's written in the very first chapters. The romance was very meh though, I'm not invested at all.

GOOD: The world building and the characters are amazing. They're both very complex and intricate. The plot is a bit slow at first since everything is very unfamiliar but it gets better (and re-reading is always an option).

BAD: I had to re-read the book a second time because the 1st time I didn't even get half of the things I was supposed to. It's a complex world and a complex protagonist and sometimes I was just lost but after re-reading I enjoyed it much more.

Also the romance part was completely unnecessary. I don't know if it will get more relevant or better in the next books but in this one it didn't contribute to anything.

OVERALL: 4 stars. After reading it for the 2nd time I was able to understand and get many more things from the world and the plot. If you see you're not very into it the 1st time I recommend giving it a 2nd chance just in case.

                                                           

What do you think about THE NAME OF THE WIND?