The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Amy 

fantasy

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss did not come anywhere near my expectations.  It fell very flat for me.  I do not remember how it made its way onto my To Read list.  I had the impression it was an epic fantasy. It’s rated 4.55 stars on Goodreads out of 235,000 ratings!  That’s seriously high!  Two authors I follow on Goodreads had rated it highly.  Then, a friend finished it and gave it 4 stars and then another friend gave it 5 stars.  I was so eager to read it!  However, I am, apparently, completely missing the point and joy of this novel.  I almost gave it up after 200 pages because it bordered on boring.  But, I figured it had to get better with all these high ratings. Alas, I’m sorry to have wasted so much time on this 662-page book.  There is nothing epic about this novel to me.  In reading others' reviews for this book, it seems that readers either loved it or hated it.  The lovers are the large majority.  However, I do feel a little vindicated that I'm not the only one who wasn't impressed.

This is the life story of Kvothe....well, the first third of his life story...a young man of humble but happy beginnings who loses his family and life as he knows it, through no fault of his own.  He tells his own story to a writer and the story is interrupted occasionally when the reader is brought back to the present-time of his story-telling.  There is magic and fantasy woven throughout.  There is a mystical university and odd professors.  There is a bit of adventure.  It sounds like my sort of book.  But, it's not.

Sure, it was interesting sometimes.  But, the main character was pompous and foolhardy.  Granted, he had some serious knocks early in life that weren’t his fault. But once he made it to the University, practically every troublesome situation he brought on himself.  The supporting cast included some fun characters but there wasn’t enough of them and I grew tired of Kvothe, the ultra-talented.  Yes, it was his life story but I found it slow-paced, too long in the telling, and anticlimactic.  And, not a single question was answered in the course of this tome.  Although, I did learn that Auri’s hair was gauzy, if nothing else, since he mentioned that about a dozen times—nearly every time Auri was in the story.  Perhaps that’s why he couldn’t describe Denna accurately—he could never find the right adjective for her hair.  Okay, I’m being snide, but….seriously?!

Yes, I feel that long books have to work harder to earn their high praise.  If an author is going to tell such a long tale, making me spend a lot of my time reading it, it better be worth all that time.  There are too many good books in the world to be wasting time better spent reading something more enjoyable, in my opinion.

So, I’m very obviously in the minority on this one.  I have no interest in reading the sequels nor do I care what happened or will happen to Kvothe.