The Name of the Wind: Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 1
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I don't know what took me so long before I gave that series a try, but thank gods I finally did. I truly don't know that I've ever read a fantasy book I found as impressive as this one. It's not even the setting (though I really want to learn more about it) or the characters (I love Kvothe, and I love Auri), but the way Patrick Rothfuss writes about them. In hindsight, I find that a lot of fantasy writers are very good storytellers, but that doesn't necessarily makes them also incredibly good writers per se. Like Michael Ende and Neil Gaiman, Rothfuss seems to be good with both, and so the only flaw with that series to me is that it is still not finished and who knows how long I will have to wait for the third book to be published. I don't want to spoil anything, so to summarize things, the Kingkiller Chronicles is the famous Kvothe retelling his own story from his very humble beginnings as a young kid in an Edemah Ruh (wandering artists and performers with a quite bad reputation in the "civilized" society) family. When an arcanist joins the group, Kvothe finds out out that his talents include much more than musical artistry, so when the (inevitable) tragedy strucks, he already has done the first step on a voyage that will end with him being called the most powerful wizard of his time.
I should note that I usually prefer books with a strong female lead and a reasonable dose of romance in the mix. But after I got through the first 50 or so pages of this book, it blew my mind! The intro takes a while and when I reread this book the last few times I usually skipped it. But once you get past it, Rothfuss manages to create a world that is simply enthralling - his style of writing makes it easy to relate to the main character and really envision the world and circumstances he lives in. Also, it is great how I (nearly) never felt that a scene was unnecessary or a description longwinded. Rothfuss manages to get everything down to the point - maybe made easier by the fact that the narrator/main character can actually tell us that something would be unimportant and answers questions the reader might have for Bast/Chronicler. (This never appears forced; it simply fits into the flow of the story!) I have not read any "epic fantasy" in a long time that got me this excited and Rothfuss manages to leave just enough questions unanswered that you wait for the next book impatiently but don't feel like the story was left hanging in the air. In a way I guess I'm lucky that I discovered this book rather late and could go on to reading the second one nearly right away - because now I'm waiting impatiently for the third one and just hope that it won't take as long as the second one did (4 years!!!) or even longer if Rothfuss doubles the number of pages again...
What a BOOK
Posts
I don't know what took me so long before I gave that series a try, but thank gods I finally did. I truly don't know that I've ever read a fantasy book I found as impressive as this one. It's not even the setting (though I really want to learn more about it) or the characters (I love Kvothe, and I love Auri), but the way Patrick Rothfuss writes about them. In hindsight, I find that a lot of fantasy writers are very good storytellers, but that doesn't necessarily makes them also incredibly good writers per se. Like Michael Ende and Neil Gaiman, Rothfuss seems to be good with both, and so the only flaw with that series to me is that it is still not finished and who knows how long I will have to wait for the third book to be published. I don't want to spoil anything, so to summarize things, the Kingkiller Chronicles is the famous Kvothe retelling his own story from his very humble beginnings as a young kid in an Edemah Ruh (wandering artists and performers with a quite bad reputation in the "civilized" society) family. When an arcanist joins the group, Kvothe finds out out that his talents include much more than musical artistry, so when the (inevitable) tragedy strucks, he already has done the first step on a voyage that will end with him being called the most powerful wizard of his time.
I should note that I usually prefer books with a strong female lead and a reasonable dose of romance in the mix. But after I got through the first 50 or so pages of this book, it blew my mind! The intro takes a while and when I reread this book the last few times I usually skipped it. But once you get past it, Rothfuss manages to create a world that is simply enthralling - his style of writing makes it easy to relate to the main character and really envision the world and circumstances he lives in. Also, it is great how I (nearly) never felt that a scene was unnecessary or a description longwinded. Rothfuss manages to get everything down to the point - maybe made easier by the fact that the narrator/main character can actually tell us that something would be unimportant and answers questions the reader might have for Bast/Chronicler. (This never appears forced; it simply fits into the flow of the story!) I have not read any "epic fantasy" in a long time that got me this excited and Rothfuss manages to leave just enough questions unanswered that you wait for the next book impatiently but don't feel like the story was left hanging in the air. In a way I guess I'm lucky that I discovered this book rather late and could go on to reading the second one nearly right away - because now I'm waiting impatiently for the third one and just hope that it won't take as long as the second one did (4 years!!!) or even longer if Rothfuss doubles the number of pages again...
What a BOOK