Jean-Paul’s rating: 4/5 stars

“The Name of the Wind” is book one of most likely three books in “The Kingkiller Chronicle” series, the third book not having been released yet. Its composition is split into two timelines. There is the present time where an older and somewhat broken spirited Kvothe recounts the stories of his youth to a Chronicler named Devan Lochees whom Kvothe stumbles upon while dispatching some otherworldly spider creatures. Then there is the past where a majority of the text takes place as Chronicler dutifully records the events of Kvothe’s youth in Kvothe’s own words.

This is a wonderfully paced book with rich and full characters. The most delightful thing about the book, and where most fantasy novels fail miserably, is that there are also a number of well written and fully developed female characters as well. Mad props to Rothfuss for accomplishing this seemingly insurmountable feat. I joke. Slightly. There’s still the token love interest, Denna, but she is far from your normal fantasy love interest, though of course, she’s those things as well. Denna is smart and talented and ambitious and making her way in this male-dominated world the best she can. But there’s also Devi, a morally questionable and powerful moneylender, and Fela, a shy and possibly crazy woman who exchanges gifts with Kvote that contain delightful, if only imaginary, wishes and dreams hidden in them, and Fela, whom Kothe kind of cruelly uses to get what he wants, There are also male characters galore, of course, and they are also well written, but they mostly play second fiddle to the women.

Kvothe is a most intriguing character. He goes from idyllic childhood (well, my idea of idyllic anyway) to tragedy to being lost within himself to rekindling that fire within himself. Throughout book one, his motivations are clear, but there isn’t a hint of how he came to be as broken as he is in the present time. There are only seeds planted of the hero that he is to become, though, we are only really told that he is a hero or a villain or somewhere in between. And that gets to one of the main themes of the book: what is truth? Who is the real Kvothe? It is made clear that there is a lot of myth surrounding him, some of it true and some of it false and some of it bordering on true. Who is to judge? Kvothe? We have to assume yes, but it is also clear that he is not quite all there anymore and has been fed the tales of his own life for an indeterminate amount of time so who knows what is capital T truth anymore? Throw Bast’s little book ending adventures into it as well and danger signs go up. Truth is likely not to be found here. I do not know at all if this was Rothfuss’ intention, but incorporating truth from fantasy in a fantasy is brilliant if it was.

My only real complaint about the novel is one of pacing. Throughout, the pacing is excellent. Then, it’s thrown a little sideways by a little jaunt that Kvothe takes. The part that ends with the draccus for those who have read the book. The conclusion of it is satisfying, but the getting there part is a bit meandering and somewhat off flow with the rest of the novel.

This is a wonderful book and I greatly look forward to reading the next in the series. And the third if Rothfuss doesn’t pull a George R. R. Martin on us. (Sorry George, I love you, please finish the next novel soon!) It is a must read fantasy for those who love the genre. It even offers a lot to those who are not the typical fantasy fans.

Good news everybody! They are making the Kingkiller Chronicle into a TV series and my pretend best bud Lin-Manuel Miranda is executive producing it! No release date yet, but it’s going to be on Showtime. Which boo, but whatever.