The Name of the Wind
In Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind, Kvothe recounts his early life, his life prior to becoming both hero and legend. His time spent in a traveling caravan, living as a street urchin, and as a student in the University. It is a story of loss and hardship, tinged with romance and endless fantasy.
Rothfuss’ novel wasn’t bad, but it would have been far better if he addressed these issues. First—pacing. The novel is extremely slow; it only picked up in the final quarter. I feel as though the majority of this problem stems from a number of long, unnecessary chapters and passages that add nothing of value to Kvothe’s tale. If they were removed, the novel would be far stronger. Second; style. The novel is extremely redundant at times—Rothfuss pummels small details into your head over and over again. A prime example would be the shape of Kvothe’s secret place when he was still living in Tarbean. I also felt as though Rothfuss struggled through combat scenes—not only was his writing particularly redundant during these scenes, but he was uncomfortably vague. It made me wonder if he had conducted any research prior to writing these chapters/passages or if he simply struggles with visualizing combat.
Third; characters. The minor characters are all bland and one-dimensional. An example would be Master Arwyl who works in the Medica. He is a strict, grandfatherly-looking man. Little more may be said of him. Although he is the main character of the novel, Kvothe isn’t any better. He is completely lacking in personality, which has led me to conclude that we are supposed to both pity him because he has been dealt a bad hand, and like him because he is so painfully unlucky. I was also bothered by the fact that he was good at everything—absorbing information like a sponge and excelling at anything he puts his mind to. It’s unrealistic—people are always bad at something, but this character was not (really) presented as having any flaws. It made it impossible to relate to him. Occasionally, the way he spoke struck me as being a bit condescending as well. By expressing that we could not understand certain things if we had not experienced what he had, Kvothe alienated those who listened to/read his story. He ensured that I did not like him and did not become invested in his story and his hardships. As a result, I will not be continuing with the remainder of the trilogy.
Rating: 3/5 stars
