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: #491 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 736 pages

Amazon.com
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

Best new writer
This is the second best fantasy novel I have read and I hold aginst the author only the one flaw that he held off publishing the rest of the work. I recommend to anyone that they read the book but that they do so until the rest of the series is published unless they want to suffer a rather painful withdrawal. Besides a wealth of good characters Patrick created a wonderful world and has the admirable restraint to avoid monologues about it unlike other writers and leaves much open to the imagination and to later sequels. The one notable absence in this book is government. So far he has managed to almost completely ignore the leaders of the land in a way that I imagine must be intentional.

A brilliant new beginning
I've been an avid fantasy reader for years and have often observed that even though personal tastes are completely subjective, there are a number of points that an author must hit/avoid in order create a truly magical masterpiece. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in my opinion they are:

1. Magic must make sense - we all grew up imagining mysteries and miracles, and although a lifetime of scientific education proved the impossibility of most of them, fantasy books give us a much needed escape from reality and in most cases physics. Nevertheless I am only willing to suspend my disbelief so much, so when a writer asserts that in his world some people can levitate without a good rationale for those abilities, I can only accept so much. Even magic must have rules and authors have to follow them throughout the story.

2. Super Human With No Equal Syndrome - even Superman had kryptonite, but many authors forget that making their hero all powerful and invincible takes away layers of complexity. The same applies when heroes gain their abilities overnight without having to really work for it. After all natural talent can only give you so much.

3. Protagonist /Antagonist Complexity - I believe there are no truly evil people just as there are no truly saintly ones, therefore creating a completely immoral antagonist or virtuous protagonist can only come out fake. Many authors believe that by portraying their anti-hero as a baby-killing-world-destroying-money grabbing degenerate overcompensates for glaring plot holes. A person is molded from childhood by years of positive and negative reinforcements and the aftermath of those experiences is what we see before us in his adult version. So I find it unpleasant when the author expects us to make up our minds about the validity of his interpretation of a protagonist or antagonist without providing any background or reason for such iniquity.

4. Balance between storytelling and other attributes - many authors believe that by either adding too much action or erotic (this is the new trend I've been noticing) scenes, they make their books edgy and entertaining. Wrong. I am not a fan of prolonged narratives and overly flowery speech, but reading page after page of filler material just can't pass for literature. When all these elements are combined properly - you get magic and the author's vision unravels before your eyes.

This is getting quite long so I guess I'll stop the count and move on to the actual review. The Name of the Wind is the first book in Patrick Rothfuss's first trilogy series. Through a series of events, a famous Chronicler stumbles upon an ordinary innkeeper whose life story has been told and retold, embellished and understated and who is believed to be long dead. His name, Kvothe, has been feared, admired and glorified by both high and mighty as well as lowly and poor. The Chronicler convinces Kvothe to tell the truth of his legendary exploits - the story that is to be completed in three days. In this part of the tale, Kvothe tells of his difficult childhood, the path that eventually lead him to the University. Kvothe is extraordinarily bright and determined with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a painful mystery surrounding his parents' murder. The interesting traits in Kvothe's character are that he is both audacious (sometimes bordering on aggressive) and at the same time incredibly generous and kind. The struggles he went through just to survive on the streets as a young child have made him suspicious and resilient without taking away his empathy and humility. But at the University was where his real troubles finally began since Kvothe found himself playing in the wide sea full of dangerous predators rather then a small pond he was used to.

I think Patrick Rothfuss created a truly remarkable story. His writing style is very unique and he cleverly alternated between present-day and flashbacks into Kvothe's past. Kvothe is special but in no way omnipotent. His youth and inexperience show in his actions and behavior, but throughout the book you observe the progression of his character to eventually grow into the mythical man he has become. There is a good balance of tragedy, humor, romance and action to tantalize any taste. A highly recommended read.

Good read, slow at times.
Good book. Sections of it were difficult to put down, however a couple spans were difficult to wade through. I'm really looking forward to the next book.