Title: The Name of the Wind
Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Year of publication: 2008
Genre: Fantasy — Noir Epic
My rating: 3.5 stars or B+
This book has been on my reading pile for almost two years: I’ve left it alone for a long, long time and to explain why, I’m going to quote the back cover.
‘I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.’
Doesn’t that sounds fantastic (though slightly Gary Sue-ish — is there anything Mr Wonderful can’t do?)? I knew nothing about this book but that people were raving about it and that the back cover indicated it was going to be a fantasy book of a different ilk.
And then there’s this next line on the back cover:
My name is Kvothe.
Me: I’m sorry, Cough? The name of the wind is Cough? Oh, come on. Back on the pile with you.
Kvothe: It’s pronounced Quothe, thanks very much. And I’m not the name of the wind, I’m looking for the name of the wind.
Me: You know, when you have to tell people how to pronounce–
Kvothe: Shut up and read the book.
So. We open at a quiet inn, run by a calm, red-haired man named Kote, who is, as we learn several times over the next few chapters, very tired. We also learn he’s much younger than the lines of care on his face would suggest, that he is covered with old scars, that he has an extremely cool sword, that there’s something a little different about his companion, Bast, with whom Kvothe shares a lovely banter-filled relationship (but who goes on about girls a lot, just so we know they’re Not Gay), and that he is occasionally mistaken for a famous hero named Cough because, gosh, he looks just like him.
Meanwhile, war is brewing and a creepy black spider-like thing has come out of nowhere and attacked a regular at the inn. Kote has seen and fought this sort of thing before and now–
Oh, I’m sorry. I just described the 50-page prologue. This is not in fact the story of a once-hero, wounded and beaten by his own heroics but bored unto death by normal life, forced to come out of hiding to once again save the world and confront his own past failings. The real story starts with Chapter 7. Actually…
Kvothe: It began when I heard her singing.
Me: Okay, that’s not too bad.
Kvothe: No, it began at the University.
Me: Well, that can’t be too long before you heard her singing, so…
Kvothe: I expect the true beginning lies in what led me to the University.
Me: Are you screwing with me, Coughie-boy?
Kvothe: But I suppose I must go even further back than that.
Me: Eight? You’re going to start when you were eight? What, did someone sign you up for a trilogy or something?
So, yep, forget the prologue and that interesting set-up and the interesting dynamic of a tired and beaten, and yet matured and still-strong, man past his glory days (if you can even be past your glory days at the age of 25) and the wonderful interplay between Kote and Bast. This is actually the story of how Kvothe becomes a hero. And it’s a good story; the writing is better than the average fantasy novel, there are humourous moments and bantering dialogue, Kvothe is on the wrong side of accomplished but does have a couple of flaws to balance it out, and there is plenty of stuff going on, if not particularly end-of-the-world stuff.
But.
But it is not the book that was set up in the first 50 pages, and it took me a long time to reconcile myself to that. And I never could quite shake the feeling that what I was reading was backstory. Very, very, very long backstory, with very little movement forward on the whole Chandrian plotline. This impression can’t helped be strengthed by lines towards the end like “…if you are looking for a beginning, look there” (it took you 598 pages to get to the beginning?) or, lord help me, “We have all the groundwork now. A foundation of a story to build upon”. A foundation? A foundation? 660 pages and all you’ve done is the foundation?
So that might be why I feel this novel was majorly (I should say ‘vastly’, Kvothe’s preference for ‘very’) bloated. It’s over 600 pages long, and by the time we get to the end, Kvothe has ticked off maybe one and a half items on the to-do list presented on the back cover and we’re still thousands and thousands and thousands of words away from getting back to the present, where Kote and Bast are.
Also? Telling me in advance what you’re going to do? Kind of ruins the suspense, Cough. And also? Two people in love with each other telling each other or others what they love about each other? Just as annoying in fiction as it is in real life, especially when it goes on for several pages over several different occasions. Show, not tell (and tell and tell) might be a valuable lesson and also might cut the word count a little.
That said, for fans of the big and chunky fantasy stories where characters have to worry about everyday things like what to eat and where to sleep and where relationships with others matter — specifically, I’m thinking Robin Hobb’s Assassin trilogy here — this is one of the better reads you’re likely to find in recent years. I just wish Rothfuss had followed Hobb’s lead — the first trilogy deals with the rise and fall and the second trilogy deals with the redemption, not this mixing of the two. That way, I wouldn’t have been introduced to Kote a long time before I get to actually read his story.
The next book in the Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy comes out in April 2010. It’s called The Wise Man’s Fear. It’s still backstory though.
Verdict
If you like Robin Hobb’s Fitz, I think you will also enjoy Kvothe. You might like to skip the first 50 pages and all the interlude chapters though. They might give you the wrong idea.
Interested in The Name of the Wind? Buy it from Fishpond.com.au, Australia’s biggest online bookstore. All their book prices are guaranteed better than Amazon and they do free delivery for orders over $49.
