[Review] The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Title: The Name of the Wind

Author: Patrick Rothfuss

Published: March 27th, 2007

Publisher: DAW Hardcover

Series: The Kingkiller Chronicle (Book #1)

Source: I purchased a copy from a bookstore

Blurb from Goodreads: 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.

Review

My thoughts: This books is huge! At first I though I wasn't gonna be able to finish it. The edition I read had 872 pages and this is definitely the longer book I've ever read. It took me like a week to finish. But I enjoy and daydreamed about it the entire week I spent reading it. I'm going to keep it short, because there are no words to describe this book properly. 

Rothfuss create such an amazing world! I love how immerse I was in Kvothe's adventures. Besides, there's is so much more than just the story of one boy... It has so many characters, everyone with their own personality and each one plays a role in this book. I just adore how everything was built. There is a new language, there's magic which you can learn at university! I love the possibilities in it. Kvothe is a character you can relate to because he's been through so much. He has lost his parents and he's been looking for his mythical killers ever since. It's a journey, with so much to enjoy about it. I'm not really up for books like this, because I'm a fan of fast-paced book, stories you can read in a day. But this one, I loved. It's my exception. I absolutely loved it. 

The best: Descriptions. I absolutely adored how everything is so easy to picture while you are reading The Name of the Wind. It's a tale of tales. There's so much in this book, a whole new world, a new reality, even a new language. Everything is so well written!

I would recommend it for: Everyone who enjoys epic tales. This is one of the best fantasy books I've read. If you like whole new worlds and adventures, this is the right book for you.

Rating:

Quotes:

“It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.” 

“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.” 

“You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.” 

About the author: 

It all began when Pat Rothfuss was born to a marvelous set of parents. Throughout his formative years they encouraged him to do his best, gave him good advice, and were no doubt appropriately dismayed when he failed to live up to his full potential.

In high-school Pat was something of a class clown. His hobbies included reading a novel or two a day and giving relationship advice to all of his female friends despite the fact that he had never so much as kissed a girl. He also role-played and wrote terrible stories about elves. He was pretty much a geek.

Most of Pat's adult life has been spent in the University Wisconsin Stevens Point. In 1991 he started college in order to pursue a career in chemical engineering, then he considered clinical psychology. In 1993 he quit pretending he knew what he wanted to do with his life, changed his major to "undecided," and proceeded to study whatever amused him. He also began writing a book....

For the next seven years Pat studied anthropology, philosophy, eastern religions, history, alchemy, parapsychology, literature, and writing. He studied six different martial arts, practiced improv comedy, learned how to pick locks, and became a skilled lover of women. He also began writing a satirical advice column which he continues to this day: The College Survivial Guide. Through all of this he continued to work on his novel.

In 2000 Pat went to grad school for English literature. Grad school sucked and Pat hated it. However, Pat learned that he loved to teach. He left in 2002 with his masters degree, shaking the dust from his feet and vowing never to return. During this period of time his novel was rejected by roughly every agent in the known universe.

Now Pat teaches half-time at his old school as an assistant-sub-lecturer. He is underpaid but generally left alone to do as he sees fit with his classes. He is advisor for the college feminists, the fencing club, and, oddly enough, a sorority. He still roll-plays occasionally, but now he does it in an extremely sophisticated, debonair way.

Through a series of lucky breaks, he has wound up with the best agent and editor imaginable, and the first book of his trilogy has been published under the title "The Name of the Wind." 

Though it has only been out since April 2007, it has already been sold in 26 foreign countries and won several awards. 

Pat has been described as "a rough, earthy iconoclast with a pipeline to the divine in everyone's subconscious." But honestly, that person was pretty drunk at the time, so you might want to take it with a grain of salt.