The Name of the Wind

Title: The Name of the Wind

Author: Patrick Rothfuss

Publisher: DAW Hardcover (2007)

Genre(s): Fiction, Fantasy

Length: 672 pages

Synopsis:  Times are grim at the Waystone Inn.  There are few patrons at the bar each evening, and the rooms, though neat and comfortable, are empty.  There are bandits on the road and war looming in the distance.  But for Kote the innkeeper, none of this has much to do with him.  He can only shrug and accept the hardships of current times with the rest of the townsfolk and listen as his few customers spin tales of Kvothe the Bloodless and Taborlin the Great beside the fire.  Chronicler, a man who collects and records the great stories of the world, had heard all these before, and when he arrives at the Waystone, he’s come for a story of a different sort: Kote’s story, a story from a lifetime away that even now is bleeding into the present.

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion: I picked up this book a year ago after catching the tail-end of an NPR interview with the author.  I hadn’t heard of him before, but listening to him describe this book, I added it at the top of my reading list.  He talked about fantasy as a genre, and the kinds of fantasy we read as young people, complex stories that nonetheless follow unspoken rules of archetype and story arc.  He wanted to write books like that, he said, new stories that still have that familiar fantasy scope.  I knew immediately what he meant, particularly when he started listing books in the same vein and I recognized some of my own favorites.  So I downloaded a copy onto my Kindle to read on the long flight from JFK to Dublin and off I went.  I loved this book the first time I read it, and I loved it again when I re-read it this past week.  Or rather, as I listened to it.  Though the Kindle text-to-speech function is nothing like the thrill of an audiobook, it does make for conveniently hands-free reading.  Despite the robotic drone of the e-reader, Rothfuss’ words came to life, weaving a story that is unselfconsciously aware of its status as just that: a story.  It is, in essence, a story about a story, and all the stories that were spun off from a central truth.  It’s a fairy tale that doesn’t feel cute, a mystery that doesn’t dwell on the unknown.  It’s plot rather than character driven, as there is really only one character with any great sense of depth and understanding.  This, of course, makes sense as he is both hero and narrator, literally telling his story to an attentive audience, and, of course, an attentive reader.  I’ve also read the sequel, The Wise Man’s Fear­, which I did enjoy but shall discuss at length in its own review.  For now, content yourself with settling in to listen to a tale that is wonderfully rich, uniquely magical, mildly disconcerting, and, of course, just a little bit tall.