The Name of the Wind

Image credit: QBD Books

Sometimes when one reads so many books, say in order to try and write a review every week, it’s inevitable that one will suffer a string of readings that are enjoyable, but do not quite spark that physical manifestation of glee that comes from a truly good book. You know the one: that deep warm feeling of excitement and comfort in your gut, that need to fill every single spare moment of your day reading as many pages as you can.

Recently I was going through one of these emotional dry patches with the last handful of books that I’ve read, but I am please to say that the drought has finally broken and, this week, I read a book that reaffirmed my love for reading and gave me that delightful feeling in the pit of my tum. This week’s book was Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind.

The story begins as a telltale classic fantasy in which a sleepy little town is thrown into a God-fearing terror when one of their own is attacked by a mysterious spider demon. It takes a turn when, shortly afterwards, a stranger comes to town hunting down a legend. The stranger, a scribe, is perusing the rumour that legendary folk hero Kvothe the Bloodless resides now as a innkeeper in a sleepy town and when he finds him, he asks to write down the great man’s story. Thus the real story of The Name of the Wind is a story within a story as Kvothe chronicles the beginnings of his epic adventures from his childhood as a Ruh trouper, to his unorthodox admission into the University, and his amazingly quick ascension through the ranks of students; leaning magic, saving lives, and searching for answers to horrific mysteries.

The Name of the Wind is truly one of the most exciting and remarkable books that I’ve read in a while. While, in many ways it resembles a lot of other hero-driven fantasy stories, what with schoolyard rivalries, a self-imposed quest, and being set in a world where magic and demons are real, the shining, central thing that sets it aside from other fantasy epics is the fact that it’s character-driven rather than quest/narrative driven. By this I mean that, because the majority of the tale is told by Kvothe he has complete control over the narrative events.

This makes everything doubly interesting as Kvothe, while seemingly a pretty reliable narrator considering he’s telling the true versions of local rumours and legends, does not paint an entirely heroic picture of himself, rather he comes across as a bit of an arsehole at times and it’s honestly refreshing to have a hero that does all these incredible things, but is also a little bit of a dick.

Image credit: Wikipedia

Rothfuss’ prose is crisp and clean, sometimes with frank and short sentences and sometimes with long, poetic phrases that are unique, yet feel right at home in the epic fantasy setting. He successfully creates this wonderful world that is both fantastic and simultaneously very close to that of our own. A little like Gormenghast, though here we do have magic and strange creatures and such, the book has this wonderful tone of high fantasy, yet it doesn’t dwell too often in that realm. Most of the adventures take place in small rural towns where magic is feared and a large potion of the magic that does occur is treated more as a science than something altogether mystical and unexplainable. So there is this great level of familiarity and realness in a world that is very unlike our own, and this makes the reading experience all the more delightful.

This is a truly wonderful book that fantasy-lovers of all types will devour and enjoy. Filled with tragedy, adventure, comedy, and the fantastic, I absolutely adored it. Needless to say, I am super keen to begin the next one!

The Name of the Wind was written by Patrick Rothfuss  and first published by Gollancz, Orion Publishing Group Ltd in 2007.