The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 1) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "IT WAS FELLING NIGHT and the usual crowd had gathered at the Waystone Inn..." (more)
Key Phrases: old cob, sympathy lamp, sympathetic bindings, The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss, E'lir Kvothe (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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

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10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Patrick Rothfuss

Q: Were you always a fan of fantasy novels?
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.

Q: Who are some of your favorite authors? Favorite books?
A: Hmmm.... How about I post that up as a list?

Q: What are you reading now?
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.

Q: How did Kvothe's story come to you? Did you always plan on a trilogy?
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.

Q: What is next for our hero?
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.

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Patrick Rothfuss's Books You Should Read

The Last Unicorn

Neverwhere

Declare

Beatrice's Goat

Blankets

See more recommendations (with comments) from Patrick Rothfuss

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--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: DAW Trade; Reprint edition (April 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756405890
• ISBN-13: 978-0756405892
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (612 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,164 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 1 in The Kingkiller Chronicle Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

564 of 608 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth your precious reading hours, March 19, 2007

By	Robin Hobb "Robin" (Tacoma, Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 1) (Hardcover)

It seems to me that every year there are more books I want to read and less time for me to read them. Because my time is limited, I'm guilty of picking up the books by my favorite authors first, and fitting in new authors only when it's convenient.
Due to a stroke of luck, I've had an advance copy of The Name of the Wind by my bedside for over six months, just waiting for me to open it. Unfortunately, deadlines of my own kept getting in the way. But in a way, it's lucky that I didn't crack this book until just a few days ago. If I'd had this tale to distract me, I'd have been even later getting my work done.
I loathe spoilers, so I'm not going to discuss the plot of this book. I will say it has all the things that I demand of a book. The characters are real, the action is convincing and it has a compelling story to tell.
One of the things I like best about this book is that the magic is absolutely rooted in the book's world. Nothing seems contrived; the consistency is excellent.

The characters are very well realized. That means that when the protagonist does something clever, it's believable. And when he does something youthfully dumb, it rings just as authentically true. Because the characters are real and the magic is true to its own world, I closed this book feeling as if I'd been on a journey with an entertaining new friend, rather than sitting alone looking at words on a page.
This one is well worth some of your precious reading time. I'll wager that the books to follow it will also be.

Robin Hobb

128 of 156 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Debut Novel - Best Fantasy Novel - In Years, May 23, 2007

By	James D. DeWitt "Alaska Fan" (Fairbanks, AK United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 1) (Hardcover)

This is the kind of novel that fantasy readers dream of reading. It's the kind of novel would-be writers dream of writing. Excellent writing, deeply complex characters, careful revelations and wonderful plot twists. I haven't enjoyed a debut fantasy novel this much since Barry Hughart's "Bridge of Birds" or Rosemary Kirstein's "The Steerswoman."

The protagonist, Kvothe, is seemingly hiding as an innkeeper. But there are nasty creatures about, that may or may not be attracted to him. After Kvothe rescues a bard, he ends up telling the bard his life story. So you get the back story on a nearly-mythical wizard, mixed with increasingly dark events happening in the present. It is an extremely effective way to to tell a story. It certainly kept me up all night. And I can truthfully say I savored each of the 660 plus pages.

Maybe the best part is that Rothfuss, in his blog, says all three books in the trilogy are written, and will be released at one year intervals. I can't wait.

This is about as good as high fantasy gets. An imaginative, powerful and compelling story that is exceptionally well told. My compliments to Mr. Rothfuss. And my very highest recommendation to readers.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre Yet Strangly Compelling, April 29, 2009

By	Robert MacGrogan (Florida) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fantasy readers have a tendency to hand out five-star reviews like Mardi-Gras beads. To me a five-star review is the sort of thing that should be saved and passed out sparingly only to the very best books that come along. The Name of the Wind is definitely not among the best.

My paperback copy was over 700 pages long and I found it amazing that so little could happen (in the first in a series, no less) in so long a book. A young man loses his parents, lives as a beggar in a big city for a few years, attends a university, learns some magic, and gets into a few scrapes though nothing he can't easily get himself out of. And then the story simply stops.

Epic fantasy this is not. No battles are fought, not cities fall, no kings are dethroned, no quests are undertaken. The comparisons to the Harry Potter books are apt as far as they go, but they are actually probably unfair to the Potter books. In each Harry Potter book our heroes engage dark forces in battle and the stakes are very high. Not so in The Name of the Wind. Also, despite their many flaws, the Harry Potter books do at least have very clearly drawn characters. I couldn't tell you the first thing about any of Kvothe's friends or professors at the university.

And yet, somehow I was completely engaged through all 700 pages. I can't even say why, but I was concerned about Kvothe and wanted him to do well and to learn the skills he needs for his inevitable battle with those dark forces that are but the vaguest shadow in the background of this book.