Occasionally we resurrect old reviews to show what we thought of a book when it was first published. Today it’s the turn of Patrick Rothfuss’s debut novel, The Name of the Wind. The review first appeared in May 2007.
How often is it when you pick a book up meaning to try the first few pages, but keep reading until you’ve read a hundred pages?
In my case, not as often as it used to. There have actually been very few in recent years. Lies of Locke Lamora was one. ASH:A Secret History was another. The Name of the Wind is the latest.
It isn’t perfect. It does have flaws, more of which later. But it has so many plusses. And for a debut novel it is very impressive.
The story is told as a tale within a tale; the recounting to a chronicler of the lead character’s life-story from his early childhood to adolescence. Kvothe is a boy-genius whose parents run a travelling-circus troupe. From a very early age he is trained in circus skills, theatrical techniques, slight of hand and playing the lyre – skills no doubt useful to Kvothe’s future life and plot development. With the arrival of Ben Abenthy, a typically grumpy mentor, he adds a knowledge of science, magic (here referred to as ‘sympathy’) and chemistry. And being a child genius, he absorbs all of this like a sponge by his early teenage years.
The world turns, and as is often the case, Kvothe’s happy childhood is overturned. He finds himself without a family, destitute and begging on the streets of the city of Tarbean. This is clearly a character-building situation and is difficult yet simultaneously the making of Kvothe. Eventually Kvothe manages to better himself and make his way to the university city of Imre. Schooling in the subjects of sympathy, engineering and medicine, Kvothe makes friends and enemies amongst the staff and students at the University and supplements his tuition by playing the lute at the nearby Arts theatre. He falls in love with a mysterious woman and then loses her.
In essence this story takes over 600 pages to unfold.
Reading such a brief outline gives the initial idea that we have read this story before. It is a rite of passage novel, a story with a young hero whose genius leaves him destined for greater things, a quest novel, a romance… many of these aspects have been covered before. But what Rothfuss does supremely well here is that these oft-used fantasy elements and combine them skilfully into a riveting plot.
The places are also familiar: universities with decrepit buildings and hidden rooms, rooftop hideaways, waystones with special meaning, mountains. The world building is quite impressive, though, as the book is predominantly from a first-person narrative, not too broad. The visual also has a sense of history: something which will appeal to many readers.
The book also taps into many of the basic emotions used by fantasy archetypes: love, hate, revenge, loss, jealousy.
All of these elements should resonate with fans of the genre, and will I suspect make the book popular, in the same way that Star Wars took well known elements of SF and Fantasy and made them popular, or JK Rowling wrote in the Harry Potter books.
The characterisation is interesting. Like Rowling, there are a range of good and bad archetypes – the grumpy mentor, the loving parents, the mean school-bully with more money than sense, the selfless charity worker – so that Rothfuss needs to spend less time on character development and can emphasise plot and pace more. That’s not to say that there isn’t character development – Kvothe’s character is, in turns, naïve, omnipotent, arrogant, self-absorbed and mercurial. Whilst feeling a little annoyed myself that the lead character is so adept (can he find everything so easy?), Rothfuss tempers this by having him make mistakes.
The other characters in the book also have flaws; though whether these are real flaws or just the perception of a young Kvothe, may be explained in later books.
The ending was surprisingly quick, though clearly a useful place to stop before the second book.
In summary, an impressive debut with old-style resonance. Not as stylish as Scott Lynch’s Locke Lamora, nor as ‘in-your-face’ as Hal Duncan’s Book of all Days, this leisurely romantic debut has a timeless aspect that suggests it will become a favourite for many.
Rob Bedford’s review of this book is HERE.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
656 pages
Published by DAW, April 2007, and Gollancz UK, September 2007.
ISBN 10: 075640407X
ISBN 13: 978-0756404079
Comments by Mark Yon / Hobbit, May 2007
