Review: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
"The Name of the Wind"... wow. What can I possibly say about this monumental book that hasn't been said? It's the debut novel every author dreams of writing--so original, so sincere, and so rich/mature a voice that a reader can't help but be swept up and away for the 700+ story of one of the most REAL, memorable and sympathetic characters ever written. I was about to add "in fantasy," but that's dealing Kvothe (and Rothfuss) a gross injustice--this novel and that character stand up against any of the best-selling literary novels on the market today. The world may be fictional (and that's a part of the fun--how deeply, viscerally real this "fictional" place is, how well you know it and have familiarized yourself with its customs and conceits by the end), but I have rarely encountered such an intimate and utterly sincere memoir of any person--literary fictional or real--as I did in "The Name of the Wind."
Happily, Kvothe (for all his flaws and all that make him real/human) is extremely likable and bold for reaching out for a heavily entertainment-oriented demographic with such a personal and often times "uncool" gentleness in thought and attitude that is rare to see in a male character in American media today. I was both surprised and pleased that the general public has not only accepted this kind of a character into its heart, but loves him so fiercely that they voted Kvothe the third most popular character in all of SFF on suvudu.com's 2010 Character Cage Match. Not the most scientific of yardsticks, I'm sure, but the outpouring of love and empathy for this character over more typical amoral and/or uber-manly alpha-jerks was very heartening for me to see. If you're looking for a hero that is truly different, real and altogether more heroic than the various supermen that populate typical SFF novels, Kvothe and "The Name of the Wind" are exactly what you've been looking for.
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