Review | The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle #1) by Patrick Rothfuss

Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Published: April 2008 (2007)
Publisher: DAW
Pages: 722
Format: Paperback
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Supernatural
Rating: ★★★★★

[Show Synopsis]
Synopsis
Told in Kvothe's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen. The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature. A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.

Review
I couldn't believe how good this book was! It is the best book I've read since the beginning of the year. I couldn't put it down and ended up reading the whole thing in less than 2 days.

I really liked the opening and was hoping the story was starting from there, so I was a little disappointed when the story actually did start, but it didn't take me long to get into the new storyline. The plot kind of reminds me of Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones. The bulk of the story takes place in a magic school and has some of the intricacy of Game of Thrones along with the adventure and enemies.

I liked how Kvothe is represented as a minority. Just one more thing stacked against his favor that he has to overcome. Plus, stories where the main character is some sort of gypsy always seem to have that added sense of mystery and adventure to it. It's also one of the easiest groups of people to add to a universe. Gypsies always seem to be similarly portrayed in any universe, so no need to create a whole new ethnic group or race and have to explain the details to the reader.

I also like Kvothe's personality--very confident, very persuasive. He seems to have a silver tongue. It seems to me though that this is foreshadowing some sort of fall. At some point, his tongue is going to get him into trouble and it's going to cause him to turn into the present-day Kvothe that is telling the story.