Series: Book 1 in the The Kingkiller Chronicles series
Rating: ****
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Literary, United States, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy, Epic, Paranormal & Urban, Literary Fiction, Lang:en
Summary
The riveting first-person narrative of a young man who
grows to be the most notorious magician his world has ever
seen. From his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to
years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime- ridden city,
to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a
legendary school of magic,
The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that
transports readers into the body and mind of a wizard. It is
a high-action novel written with a poet's hand, a powerful
coming-of-age story of a magically gifted young man, told
through his eyes: to read this book is to be the hero. **
Amazon.com's Best of the Year...So Far Pick for
2007: Harry Potter fans craving a new mind-blowing
series should look no further than
The Name of the Wind--the first book in a trilogy
about an orphan boy who becomes a legend. Full of music,
magic, love, and loss, Patrick Rothfuss's vivid and engaging
debut fantasy knocked our socks off.
--Daphne Durham
10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Patrick
Rothfuss
Q: Were you always a fan of fantasy novels?
Q: Who are some of your favorite authors?
Favorite books?
Q: What are you reading now?
Q: How did Kvothe's story come to you? Did
you always plan on a trilogy?
Q: What is next for our hero?
Patrick Rothfuss's Books You Should Read
The Last Unicorn
Neverwhere
Declare
Beatrice's Goat
Blankets
See more recommendations (with comments) from Patrick
Rothfuss
Starred Review. The originality of Rothfuss's
outstanding debut fantasy, the first of a trilogy, lies less
in its unnamed imaginary world than in its precise execution.
Kvothe ("pronounced nearly the same as 'Quothe' "), the hero
and villain of a thousand tales who's presumed dead, lives as
the simple proprietor of the Waystone Inn under an assumed
name. Prompted by a biographer called Chronicler who realizes
his true identity, Kvothe starts to tell his life story. From
his upbringing as an actor in his family's traveling troupe
of magicians, jugglers and jesters, the Edema Ruh, to feral
child on the streets of the vast port city of Tarbean, then
his education at "the University," Kvothe is driven by twin
imperatives—his desire to learn the higher magic of
naming and his need to discover as much as possible about the
Chandrian, the demons of legend who murdered his family. As
absorbing on a second reading as it is on the first, this is
the type of assured, rich first novel most writers can only
dream of producing. The fantasy world has a new star.
(Apr.)
Amazon.com Review
A: Always. My first non-picture books were
the Narnia Chronicles. After that my mom gave me
Ihe Hobbit and
Dragonriders. I grew up reading about every fantasy
and sci-fi book I could find. I used to go to the local
bookstore and look at the paperbacks on the shelf. I read
non-fantasy stuff too, of course. But fantasy is where my
heart lies. Wait... Should that be "where my heart lays?" I
always screw that up.
A: Hmmm.... How about I post that up as a
list?
A: Right now I'm reading
Capacity, by Tony Balantyne. He was nominated for
the Philip K Dick award this last year. I heard him read a
piece of the first novel,
Recursion, out at Norwescon. I picked it up and got
pulled right in.
Capacity is the second book in the series. Good
writing and cool ideas. Everything I've like best.
A: This story started with Kvothe's
character. I knew it was going to be about him from the very
beginning. In some ways it's the simplest story possible:
it's the story of a man's life. It's the myth of the Hero
seen from backstage. It's about the exploration and
revelation of a world, but it's also about Kvothe's desire to
uncover the truth hidden underneath the stories in his world.
The story is a lot of things, I guess. As you can tell, I'm
not very good at describing it. I always tell people, "If I
could sum it up in 50 words, I wouldn't have needed to write
a whole novel about it." I didn't plan it as a trilogy
though. I just wrote it and it got to be so long that it had
to be broken up into pieces. There were three natural
breaking points in the story.... Hence the Trilogy.
A: Hmm..... I don't really believe in
spoilers. But I think it's safe to say that Kvothe grows up a
little in the second book. He learns more about magic. He
learns how to fight, gets tangled up in some court politics,
and starts to figure unravel some of the mysteries of romance
and relationships, which is really just magic of a different
kind, in a way.
From Publishers Weekly
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