KKC Readalong 2025: Prologue and Chapter 1
First off, I am reading my newest copy of Name of the Wind which was personally rebound for me by my friends! Pictures will be posted later this month. It is the 10th anniversary edition, so any page numbers I include will be from that edition.
I'm a day early but here are some thoughts.
This book is so achingly familiar to me and yet every time I reread it, I find new things to discover. There are so many layers to the characters, the writing, the world. . . I'm blown away.
The prologue is probably the best one I have ever read. It feels like an overture, setting the mood, setting the scene, creating the atmosphere in literally a page of writing. It feels like poetry, a page where the sound of the words matters as much as their meaning.
I also want to say, I don't think Doors of Stone can end any other way than with a line that is something along the lines of, "a man ready to live." If Kote is still hiding from his past, if he is still "ready to die," then it is a tragedy (1). And while there is tragedy baked into the story at a core level, I would argue hope is the center, is the driving force and the inevitable end of the book.
Kvothe and Kote need to become one. His present and past selves need to meet and he will be another version of himself, possibly with a new name. Names are so important, Kvothe has had so many names, he is likely to have another by the end of Doors of Stone (I say like we have a release date of this book).
To jump back from my DoS theories, the first chapters stresses the importance of storytelling immediately. Not just that, the first story features the Chandrian. Some of the stories were hear about them later appear early on, like blue flame as a sign or how many members there are or what their origin is (3, 6). The combination of them being so central to Kvothe's story and being the first story the reader hears in the entire work indicates them being essential to the series.
Now for a negative. Wow, does the sexism start off immediately. The first chapter in and no women are named, while 8 men are. The women who are mentioned? "A beautiful girl" who Bast uses as an excuse for not doing homework (12) and "There are a few young wives in town. A scattering of daughters" (14). The women are talked about only in relation to men and don't have any names. While this does change, I really do not fault readers for putting this book down due to the sexism. The start does not make one hopeful about their portrayal throughout the series. As much as I love these books, I am not about to pretend it is without flaws.
I will read more today and I will probably be posting pretty regularly with my updates!
