Product Description

The riveting first-person narrative of a young man who grows to be the most notorious magician his world has ever seen. From his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime- ridden city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that transports readers into the body and mind of a wizard. It is a high-action novel written with a poet's hand, a powerful coming-of-age story of a magically gifted young man, told through his eyes: to read this book is to be the hero.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1585 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 736 pages

Amazon.com Review
Amazon.com's Best of the Year...So Far Pick for 2007: Harry Potter fans craving a new mind-blowing series should look no further than The Name of the Wind--the first book in a trilogy about an orphan boy who becomes a legend. Full of music, magic, love, and loss, Patrick Rothfuss's vivid and engaging debut fantasy knocked our socks off. --Daphne Durham

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10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Patrick Rothfuss

Q: Were you always a fan of fantasy novels?
A: Always. My first non-picture books were the Narnia Chronicles. After that my mom gave me Ihe Hobbit and Dragonriders. I grew up reading about every fantasy and sci-fi book I could find. I used to go to the local bookstore and look at the paperbacks on the shelf. I read non-fantasy stuff too, of course. But fantasy is where my heart lies. Wait... Should that be "where my heart lays?" I always screw that up.

Q: Who are some of your favorite authors? Favorite books?
A: Hmmm.... How about I post that up as a list?

Q: What are you reading now?
A: Right now I'm reading Capacity, by Tony Balantyne. He was nominated for the Philip K Dick award this last year. I heard him read a piece of the first novel, Recursion, out at Norwescon. I picked it up and got pulled right in. Capacity is the second book in the series. Good writing and cool ideas. Everything I've like best.

Q: How did Kvothe's story come to you? Did you always plan on a trilogy?
A: This story started with Kvothe's character. I knew it was going to be about him from the very beginning. In some ways it's the simplest story possible: it's the story of a man's life. It's the myth of the Hero seen from backstage. It's about the exploration and revelation of a world, but it's also about Kvothe's desire to uncover the truth hidden underneath the stories in his world. The story is a lot of things, I guess. As you can tell, I'm not very good at describing it. I always tell people, "If I could sum it up in 50 words, I wouldn't have needed to write a whole novel about it." I didn't plan it as a trilogy though. I just wrote it and it got to be so long that it had to be broken up into pieces. There were three natural breaking points in the story.... Hence the Trilogy.

Q: What is next for our hero?
A: Hmm..... I don't really believe in spoilers. But I think it's safe to say that Kvothe grows up a little in the second book. He learns more about magic. He learns how to fight, gets tangled up in some court politics, and starts to figure unravel some of the mysteries of romance and relationships, which is really just magic of a different kind, in a way.

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Patrick Rothfuss's Books You Should Read

The Last Unicorn

Neverwhere

Declare

Beatrice's Goat

Blankets

See more recommendations (with comments) from Patrick Rothfuss

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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The originality of Rothfuss's outstanding debut fantasy, the first of a trilogy, lies less in its unnamed imaginary world than in its precise execution. Kvothe ("pronounced nearly the same as 'Quothe' "), the hero and villain of a thousand tales who's presumed dead, lives as the simple proprietor of the Waystone Inn under an assumed name. Prompted by a biographer called Chronicler who realizes his true identity, Kvothe starts to tell his life story. From his upbringing as an actor in his family's traveling troupe of magicians, jugglers and jesters, the Edema Ruh, to feral child on the streets of the vast port city of Tarbean, then his education at "the University," Kvothe is driven by twin imperatives—his desire to learn the higher magic of naming and his need to discover as much as possible about the Chandrian, the demons of legend who murdered his family. As absorbing on a second reading as it is on the first, this is the type of assured, rich first novel most writers can only dream of producing. The fantasy world has a new star. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Fantasy readers-a notoriously discerning group-tend to dole out praise judiciously, which makes the reception of The Name of the Wind, the first volume in Patrick Rothfuss's The Kingkiller Chronicle, that much more remarkable. Critics are already throwing around comparisons to some of the biggest names in fantasy, including George R. R. Martin, Tad Williams, the recently deceased Robert Jordan, and even Tolkien. They praise Rothfuss's fresh take on the genre's conventions, particularly a shifting narrative that keeps the action moving. At nearly 700 pages, The Name of the Wind isn't meant to be knocked off in a weekend. But readers who pick up Rothfuss now-and, according to critics, that won't be a small number-can say they knew him back when.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Splendid
Let me just say that this book is a work of genius. It is really all you need to entertain yourself for a while. The story is so good and just keeps getting better as you read, through all 700 pages. At the end I literally felt like I wanted to read about 2000 pages more of it. And for anyone who starts reading now, you don't have very long to wait for the second book. Believe me, you WILL be waiting for the second book.

Sucked me right in from the start, and never let me go
First a word on length. The Name of the Wind, in case you didn't notice, is over 700 pages long. That might sound overly long or daunting, but it actually works very well for this book. I took it with me on vacation thinking that I would never read a book that long from front to back in about a week's time. Boy was I wrong!

Granted, I'm probably a faster reader than most, but this book is a quick read. The chapters are short, which helps pull you through at a good clip. There's lots of action and dialog without a great deal of internal dialog or exposition to slow things down. As a reader I found myself constantly wondering what was coming next and looking forward to finding out.

The Name of the Wind actually represents two stories. There is a third person current events type of story which wraps around a first person narrative. The Kingkiller Chronicle part is the latter story told by one of the characters introduced in the former. That's where the Day 1 thing comes from - it's the first day of a multiday telling, and focuses on that character's youth to latter teen years.

Basically, you have two parallel tales working to keep you engaged. I, for one, think it's been fantastically done through this point, and I'm eager to get on to the next book in the set. I find myself missing the characters and the world since finishing this first one. I can't think of any book I've read in a long time that has sucked me in like this.

good but not great
The beginning of this book is wonderful. I was drawn immediately to the main characters, the writing is very good, and the story engaging. The book starts in the present and then focuses on Kvothe's early years with his family. The evil force (this is fantasy after all, there has to be a dark side) are the Chandrian, a group of demonic beings with a hidden agenda. The Chandrian are described so well you can feel their malevolence.
Once Kvothe gets to the university, the book drags. There is only so much I can read about the mysterious love of Kvothe's life. Kvothe is fascinated by her, but the author's portrayal of Denna reads more like an adolescent's fantasy woman than an actual person. She is wooden, unsympatheric and uninteresting. Fortunately, towards the end, the story picks up again and I will certainly read the next one. Maybe Mr. Rothfuss will kill Denna off and focus on the adventures and the evil Chandrian that he described so well.
One other note. This book is not as complex and well written as the Song of Ice and Fire series, but it is not as bleak either. Rothfuss is like a $20 bottle of wine, where Martin is a single malt scotch.