Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Series: Kingkiller Chronicles #1
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Magic, Assassins, Action, Adventure
Review:
In "The name of the Wind" is a breath of fresh air for me in terms of the fantasy genre after being saturated with J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance and I think Patrick Rothfuss hit a the mark on this initial installment of the Kingkiller Chronicles trilogy.
The Name of the Wind tells the story of the notorious Kvothe (pronounced as "quothe"), the red-haired man who ended his adventuring days to live incognito as an innkeeper. But when a historian called the Chronicler appears on his Inn, Kvothe accepted the opportunity to tell the story of his life.
As he goes on telling his story, it was reveal that Kvothe has a tragic childhood as his parents where murdered by a legendary dark wizard. After his parent's death he spend years as a street urchin to which he develop is "streets smarts skills". Seeking to avenge his parent's death, he enters a school of magic and developed his skills.
An interesting concept that I think Mr. Rothfuss has introduced on this book was the how he change views from a first-person narration (during Kvothe's recollection) to the third-person views (interludes at the inn) which has a similar feel to George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. Despite this impressive writing innovations, there are some flaws that I think hurt this books rating for me (too much redundant description of small things (Kvothe's penchant for describing how many coins he own, etc.) which could have been summarized.
Overall "The Name of the Wind" is a good first installment to a great series but will hold off my final judgement until I have read all of the books, but this book is good on it's own but it might get better if we can read the whole series (like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings).
