Novelish

“The Kingkiller Chronicle, Day One”
ISBN: 978-0756404079 | Pages: 662 (hardcover)
Author: Patrick Rothfuss

Sometime last year, in a thread on the NaNoWriMo forums, a user commented that they don’t mind clichés if they’re done well and in a fresh way.

The “in a fresh way” part is obviously important here, but something about stumbling into a fantasy world that you feel like you know is kind of comforting. You’re already aware of many of its characteristics, rules and limitations - any small variations of the generic setting can be easily digested as you go along. If a wizard or elf or goblin or troll comes along, you immediately have some idea of what that might mean.

(These “preexpectations” all began with Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I suppose, and were reinforced by the numerous fantasy epics released since then.)

I mention all this because I think it’s one of the main reasons I like The Name of the Wind so much. It has a lot of the things that are unsurprising in a high fantasy novel - largely stereotypical inns and innkeepers, a troupe of traveling performers, a school of magic, an ancient evil - but it manages to remain original at the same time.

The first thing that sets it apart is the writing itself. It’s done in first-person perspective (except for a few interludes scattered throughout), something that’s rare in a high fantasy novel. Robin Hobb is another fantasy writer who seems to prefer first-person, of course, and her writing has similarities, though The Name of the Wind contains less narrative summary.

The Name of the Wind is also faster-paced, despite being 662 pages - something Patrick Rothfuss says was intentional:

I probably have a 100,000 words I’ve trimmed out of this book alone. Sometimes it’s whole chapters and scenes. Sometimes it’s just snipping a few unnecessary words out of a sentence. But the goal is always the same, make the book clearer, cleaner, faster.

Like Robin Hobb’s books, the story in The Name of the Wind is very much a character-driven one. Some people dislike the narrator, Kvothe (and, indeed, it may be difficult to enjoy the book if you’re one of them), but you can’t say he hasn’t led an eventful life:

I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make minstrels weep.

Oh, and let’s not forget that he’s rumored to have killed an angel on top of all that. Many of these deeds are left for later books in the trilogy, but Kvothe gets plenty of excitement in the first volume all the same.

Kvothe’s story begins when, as a child, he watches an arcanist call forth the wind; wanting that kind of flashy “storybook magic” for himself, he sets out to learn the secret of it. I liked that it started right at the beginning, and in my experience, giving a character some powerful desire is one of the most important steps to making them “live.” (Come to think of it, maybe this is what the characters in Labyrinth were lacking.)

Many of the scenes not only try to be funny but actually are, perhaps due in part to the author’s experience with writing a satirical humor column. Reading about some of Kvothe’s public performances as a musician had me giggling uncontrollably. (Literally.)

Speaking of performances, I loved that well-written songs, often rhyming, were included in the text and not conveniently passed over as so many authors choose to do.

Lest you should think The Name of the Wind is composed entirely of funny songs, I should mention that plenty of terrifying creatures populate the pages, too: demons of every sort, the Fae, and the shamble-men who roam fields in autumn, to name a few. But even as the people of different regions fear one or another of these beyond all else, all are laughed at in some other part of the world.

All except the Chandrian, that is.

The mysterious Chandrian are feared universally - and perhaps with good reason. Learning more about the Chandrian becomes another major goal of Kvothe’s, for other than the blue fire that usually surrounds their appearances, hardly anything is known about them.

And then there are angels. Just what we ought to think of them remains to be seen, but it’s clear they aren’t quite as, well, good as is usually the case. One irritatingly righteous story told by one of the characters bares a striking resemblance to the type of thing you find in the Bible of our world (and I find it hard to believe that wasn’t intentional).

Finally, on a slightly unrelated note, the sense of impending doom (or, if not doom, at least impending something-large-and-significant-and-quite-possibly-relating-to-the-Chandrian) was built wonderfully in the final pages. The climax and subsequent conclusion work surprisingly well, considering the trilogy was originally written as one book.

I should probably mention that I’ve read only a handful of high fantasy books, and I prefer other genres these days. The Lies of Locke Lamora, apparently a cross between Robin Hood and Ocean’s Eleven, is often compared to The Name of the Wind and is considered superior by many. I haven’t read it yet.

But having said all that, out of everything I have read, The Name of the Wind is my favorite high fantasy novel since Tolkien.

And including him is hardly fair.

A note on the type

The font in the books appears to be Bembo, but I emailed Patrick to ask how he liked to format things while actually writing it. I know it’s an odd question, but I love fonts and typography. Pat replied that he uses Microsoft Word, with:

Wider margins so I can write comments, Times New Roman so it’s easy on the eyes, and extra lines between paragraphs so there’s some pleasing white space to write in.

Text size is 12, single-spaced and with half-inch indents on the first line of each paragraph.

See also:

• The Name of the Wind on Fantasy Book Critic
• Author’s website
• Author’s blog
• Excerpt of The Name of the Wind