The Name of the Wind
Ratings1,580
Average rating4.4
Immersive, beautiful world and prose occasionally shattered by an incredibly overpowered main character who gets through every problem with his plot armor.
what if a d&d player bragged about their character's backstory for 600 pages? jokes aside, loved it. one of the best first act's ive ever read, it does get boring halfway through during the magic school in my opinion, but besides that. this was great!
4.5
An amazing tale with a lot of intriguing details and captivating world building. The only thing lacking was a golden trio(
It's been a long time since a book made me feel this way. Every plot point, every word felt so intentional, I loved every second of it. I love Kvothe and can't wait to read more of his story.
A number of people have praised this book's writing style. They are correct. Though please don't mistake the prose for being “purple” or “flowery”. It is just beautiful and fitting. It requires no effort of the mind to understand. It's like emotions - you understand them naturally and you can't remain indifferent.
A number of people have praised the plot. They are also correct. There are layers to the plot, levels to the intrigue. Reading this book left me with an array of questions with different intensity and scope. And again, no indifference at all.
The book is slow. It has a self centered main character. It's the epitome of the chosen one trope. It made me almost unreasonably emotional.
I liked it. I will read the next book in the series. I will be sorry to see it unfinished. I will be sorry to see it finished.
Highly recommend.
It was a really good reading. I really appreciated how the main character, Kvothe, evolved through the book. Moreover, the storystelling was pretty unique. However, I can't give it 5 stars : this book miss two things : some twists and an interesting storyline. Maybe some people manage to be hooked to this, but I need some twists ! Hopefully, the writing was wonderful and the worldbuilding is perfect ! I heard the second book is better, so I'm sure to keep reading it.
I completely understand people not liking this book. There is very very little action, Kvothe is always getting in trouble or trusting people he shouldn't, he's a mega “simp” for Denna and just refuses to pick up flirtations from the ladies. All that being said, I feel sorry for you. I feel sorry that you didn't get to have the euphoric experience to be completely swept off your feet and Rothfuss carry your body through the doorway of his amazing magical world. His storytelling is just incredible. In the beginning I was thinking it was overrated due to literally nothing happening. The first day I read 70 pages. The next 2 days I read over 600 pages. It had me so hooked to the point that I would get angry with life coming in the way of my reading. I just wanted to read until my ass went numb. I can't even tell you specifics about the book that made me love this so much. It's just...amazing.
Nice world-building but I feel like this was a pretty aimless kind of high fantasy story. Maybe that's the point, I'm not sure—but I feel like after reading how clever and smart Kvothe is and how his only flaw is that he's reckless I kind of just stopped being interested and powered through sheer force of will. Kvothe should have sucked Bast's dick at some point. Feel like that would've spice things up maybe
An absolutely beautiful story and amazing characters.
At the beginning of the story, we are dropped into an unknown land and get presented with a mysterious character. We learn both from this world, its magic, and our mysterious character through tales of the past.
I love how the storytelling is executed and how the characters are constructed. I got myself rooting for/against most of the characters. Developing an emotional bond with the story.
All in all a must-read for everyone.
I knew from early on in my read that I would not enjoy this book but I don't DNF on principal because I'm a completionist and don't think that I have a right to comment on a book that I did not finish. So here I am and we are all worse off because of it.
The pervasive feeling I got as I was reading this book was akin to experiencing one long drawn out microaggression. Nothing was egregiously offensive or even outright bad but you still knew that it wasn't good.
I honestly believe that I would've liked this book more if Kvothe's story wasn't narrated by Kvothe himself. It had all the good bits you'd want from a fun fantasy zero-to-hero story except a likable protagonist. He and his voice were my main issues with this book, a huge problem for a reader who's reading experience hinges upon my love and sympathy for the main character.
Kvothe is unsympathetic. Kvothe buys into his own myth. Kvothe is smarter, more clever, more daring, more talented, more interesting than everyone else in the world. Which would've been fine... had HE not been the one to claim this.
The whole book feels braggadocios. Here's a compilation of Kvothe's greatest hits with zero self awareness! Flaws? What flaws? He's smug, he's arrogant, and he has this slimy false humility that I find off-putting. And we're supposed to believe that he has lost sight of who he was with that clunky ending? I don't believe it for one bit.
What else? The writing was fine, the world-building was subpar when compared to other fantasy novels I've read, the story was standard, the way the novel was structured felt clumsy and clunky, the female characters aren't seen as real people. Actually, none of the characters are real people except the great Kvothe, stealer of princesses, killer of kings, boy genius, wunderkind.
“You may have heard of me.”
Kind of a slow beginning but then it picks up towards that last 25-40% of the book. Definitely worth sticking with. Gets a 4 because the beginning was slow and I almost put it down. Glad I didn't though.
This is a storytelling masterpiece.
I tend do binge read (a lot) and although this book was the perfect excuse to do it I just wanted to linger on Patick Rothfuss words.
I'll be clear from the start, not much actually happens in this book. I won't say too much for fear of spoiling anything, but there's no actual clear major plot that the book focuses on. This is more like a biography.
I hate biographies. And I hate books where nothing much really happens.
I didn't gives a rat's bottom, because this was masterful writing. For the first time in a long time, I didn't want a book to end. I wasn't checking how much was left so that I could start on a new adventure. I was enthralled by the world created here, and the characters that were so beautifully fleshed out.
The writing from start to finish was such a beautiful, smooth flowing work of art, that reading every line was effortless.
Humour, anguish, day to day frustration, heroics, jealousy, grief. It's all here, but without making much of a big deal about any of it. It's written as just part of this persons life. It happens, then move on to the next part.
Every location was built with visual clarity and every character with emotional depth.
I absolutely adored this, and the only reason I'm not jumping straight into book two, is the hope that maybe book 3 will eventually be finished, so I'm stalling just that little bit to give more time for what looks like a pipe dream to eventuate.
What a way to tell (the start of) a story. Cannot wait to finish the second book and wait forever for the third.
Para começar essa resenha, acho importante ressaltar que alta fantasia não é o meu gênero favorito, muito menos um que eu goste, então eu tive muita dificuldade de ter uma imersão verdadeira no livro.
Eu fiquei com a sensação que muitas partes do livro eram desnecessariamente longas, com muita descrição (o que é algo do gênero literário mesmo), mas, principalmente, com muitas cenas que não levam a lugar nenhum e não têm importância nenhuma.
O livro, no geral, não tem uma missão, o personagem simplesmente vai ficar contando sobre a vida dele mesmo - outra coisa que dificultou minha imersão no livro, já que eu sentia que estava lendo para nada.
Isso muda um pouquinho literalmente no último capítulo que estabelece uma “semi-missão” para o segundo livro, o que confesso me deixou curiosa.
No geral, eu tive muita dificuldade de gostar do Kvothe, não é nem por uma questão da personalidade dele, mas simplesmente porque criei 0 empatia com tudo o que ele tinha para me contar (embora eu gostasse de ver as cenas dele sendo, principalmente, curioso quanto a coisas que ele era ignorante, infelizmente algo raríssimo, já que o autor decidiu fazer ele o famoso personagem principal perfeito em tudo).
Em compensação, eu certamente AMEI o Bast, sinto que ele traz a quebra de ritmo necessária para a história, assim como um lado menos “perfeito” de tudo aquilo que estava escrito.
Exatamente por isso, senti que as cenas que acontecem no presente são mil vezes melhores e mais agradáveis de ler do que as que acontecem na narração do Kvothe.
Por fim, eu sei q o livro é de 2007 e que portando certas questões como o machismo não eram tão discutidas, mas não podemos fechar os olhos para isso. O livro tem diversas passagens extremamente machistas, que inclusive me deixam muito incomodada para continuar lendo (como por exemplo a necessidade constante de comparar mulheres com presas selvagens). Eu entendo o autor querer trazer um “universo machista” já que ele claramente tem fortes inspirações na Idade Média, mas se isso não for para ser discutido e problematizado na narrativa, parece apenas uma desculpa fácil para escrever sobre mulheres como seres sexuais e selvagens.
Enfim, em uma média geral eu não achei péssimo, mas também não achei ótimo. Teve diversas passagens que me fizeram extremamente desconfortável, assim como me fizeram revirar os olhos para a falta de necessidade - mas ainda consegui me divertir, principalmente, com as cenas do presente.
This has been on my shelf for so long, and I am so glad that I finally read it.
I have to say I was unsure about this one at the start. It was a little slow. That all changed for me when I got to Kvothe's back story. It was so drawn in that I didn't even notice the size of this book. I didn't want to put it down. I have now joined the millions that want the next one released asap. Loved it!
Es un libro lento y pesado. Me cost?? unos cuantos episodios interesarme por la historia, pero luego me enganch??.
Por suerte era consciente de que se trataba del principio de una saga, porque no termina. Me he quedado un poco planchado al ver que, despu??s de tantas p??ginas y tantos d??as leyendo las aventuras del protagonista, termina con un ???Continuar??.??? En mi opini??n, aunque se trate de una saga, cada libro deber??a cerrar al menos una parte importante de la trama.
Con todo, tengo ganas de seguir leyendo la Cr??nica del Asesino de Reyes para descubrir todos los entresijos.
Ah, the name of the wind.
It's hard, when you skip a series that is so well known in one of your favorite genres, for years, because it's almost impossible to not hear tons of opinions on it, and that will inevitably shape your experience.
I struggled with what to rate this, because I was consistently underwhelmed by it. So why did I rate it 5 stars? Because it deserves 5 stars.
I hear three constant things about Name of the Wind. Rothfuss' prose is incredible, the series sucks because Kvothe is a Gary Stu/unreliable narrator, and the series is the greatest thing ever. I found the first to be true, and the second two to be false (in my opinion).
Firstly, I listened to this on audio, and that was a mistake because the prose is gorgeous and it is really hard for me to latch onto phrases in audio form. I will definitely be reading this physically at some point.
I don't understand where people calling Kvothe a Gary Stu comes from, he has a ton of flaws. He just also has hyper competences at some things. I can understand those things annoying you (particularly the beginning, where he's a kid and just learning a ton of shit super quickly and never forgets any of it even after not thinking about any of it for years after), but calling him a Gary Stu is willfully ignoring all the shit he does wrong. He's also not exactly an unreliable narrator, because many times he talks about unflattering things he did or how he wishes he did something different, or he talks about how he let some legend about him persist (if he was trying to make himself look better, he would just say, “yeah, that happened”)
The plot was meandering, and pretty bare bones, and Kvothe as a character I never particularly liked that much, although there are aspects that I really liked. At no point did the plot really kick into an overdrive where I was wowed, like in any of my other favorite fantasy series.
But that said, I was engaged at every single goddamn second of this book. I was not bored for a moment. Rothfuss is such a gifted writer, I cant believe it. I had thought, based on people's comments, he was going to be dense like Tolkien's (also beautiful) writing, and was prepared for a slog. But it's instantly readable, engaging, and thought provoking. Truly one of the best.
The worldbuilding was also pretty good, although it could have been better. We didn't get a lot on how the magic worked, or the layout of the overall world, but I imagine this is all expanded upon in Wise Man's fear and the eventual, perpetually delayed, Doors of Stone.
I can say that Name of the Wind was not what I was expecting. I don't imagine I will ever consider this one of my favorite series (but who knows, maybe book 2 will convince me!). But this book will stick me for a long time and I would recommend it to anyone who was trying out some fantasy.
I've heard some awesome things about this book, and those good recommendations from people I know it's what drove me to buy this book. The writing is beautiful, and it's what kept me reading. I can't deny Rothfuss has a way with words. You can actually see how much effort he puts in every sentence. It's like he doesn't waste his words! However, the story itself had an odd pace. I was bored most of the book, but some scenes were so incredible I felt like I was in the story. But those moments were few so I can't say I enjoyed the whole book. In conclusion, I think this book is good, but not for me. I will read the next book (and the novella) just because I already purchased them.
Exceptional! Was totally sucked in to the story and loved the characters! A brilliant way to spend my time
I loved it, I was hooked on the writing from the very beginning. I can't wait to continue the story in the second book and I lament the fact that there may not be a third and final book.