THE NAME OF THE WIND
Patrick Rothfuss
DAW Hardcover
Fantasy
ISBN-10: 075640407X
ISBN-13: 9780756404079

• Read an Excerpt

With THE NAME OF THE WIND, Patrick Rothfuss has propelled himself instantly into the fantasy elite, unraveling a story that is beautiful, mythic and dark. This is the debut fantasy work that all writers wish was theirs and that all readers wish had a quicker follow-up.

Kote is the owner and operator of a tavern residing in a town that is slowly becoming obsolete, where business is practically nonexistent. His nightly endeavor is to serve spirits and stew to the same handful of people while stories and legends are shared. When one of the townsfolk comes into the tavern bearing the corpse of a Scraeling, a spider creature with legs like razors, he begins to fear the worst.

Kote, who is far more than a simple tavern owner, holds a secret that he doesn't want revealed. However, his true identity has been figured out by a biographer who discovers that Kote is actually Kvothe (pronounced "Quothe"), a notorious magician who is praised as a hero and likewise reviled as a villain all across the world. And presumed to have been long dead.

Now found out, Kvothe tells the biographer everything --- about his life as a young boy with a traveling troupe of players, living as a feral child on the streets of the faraway port city of Tarbean, and his education at the legendary school of magic.

Kvothe's goal is simple: to discover the secret magic of naming but also to delve into the mysteries of the Chandrian demons who were responsible for the murder of his parents.

Rothfuss has an exceptional grasp of his story. While this is no streamlined A to B telling, the novel hones in on details yet never does so at the expense of propelling the story forward. It seems that every item mentioned bears weight to the tale and shares in its support --- so much so that to extract them would collapse the work in on itself. His language is simple, and he doesn't flaunt a vast vocabulary, but he has a spectacular way with the turn of a phrase that sets the scene vividly in your mind.

The story itself may contain some cliches common to the fantasy genre, but the author provides just enough tweaks to make them both comfortably familiar and strikingly new. There are very few portions of the story that seem too standard or found too often in other tales. For the most part, the work is vibrant and exciting.

As a character, Kvothe is outstanding. He is dark, brooding and intelligent to no end. Sometimes it may seem that he knows far too much, but then again he is a student  from the most legendary magic school in the world. His retelling of his life is gripping and told with a true storyteller's voice.

THE NAME OF THE WIND is the mountaintop for fantasy work so far this year. All other novels, especially first ones, will have an extremely difficult time in finding a way out of the shadow of this extraordinary tome. Rothfuss has sent up major flares that will serve as a warning to the big names like Martin, Goodkind and Jordan. Whether you are a reader of fantasy or simply a lover of a great story, you owe it to yourself to take up THE NAME OF THE WIND and spend some time with brilliance.

   --- Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.

© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.