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nwhikerThe Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.
My immediate bias: I loved this book. It isn't perfect but I just loved it.
My word of warning: it starts out slow, so you have to stick with the first few chapters. But then...
The language is beautiful, it's so very well written, clear, concise, and yet never obscure to where you wonder what the eff the author is trying to say.
The story is compelling, a young man telling the story of his early life, but he's self aware enough to not gloss over things when he's been a jerk. And -in a departure from many "when I was young and stupid" tales- he doesn't use humour to make the sting of his past arrogance bearable, he tells it all, in detail, with no self-pity or self-deprecation. It's really well done, because he was an arrogant jerk but seeing where he's ended up, you don't resent that, all the while being -at least I was- a bit horrified at his arrogance.
The neutral: the magic system. Eh. I've read better, I've read worse.
Now, the less than awesome stuff.
The book tells only the beginning of a story. There is still not quite any THERE there, the rest is only hinted at and I hope to find that in the next book. This book felt like some serious set up and world building, and I do hope that the next ones live up to the character.
Women. Oh my good, I'm so sick of the portrayal of women in 90% of fantasy, and this isn't much better. The love interest is... well, I didn't find a single thing interesting about her, she's perfect, boring, and bland. There is one good, imo, woman in the story and it'll be interesting to see if she shows back up (for the record, white fonted, that would be Devi, the money lender.).
The main character, Kvothe, himself. I don't mind the arrogance, see above, but I do get a bit bored at main characters who are So Supremely Awesome. I get that they have flaws, blah blah blah, but it's boring when they're the best at this, the best at that, and so on. See: Potter, Harry. Yawn. I'd have been happier with a Kvothe who really sucked at a few things aside from humility.
A definite recommend from me, though. It's been on my list of things to read for A While, but I try to wait on fantasy books until at least book 2 is out, which took several years. I don't know when book 3 is due out, and I'm concerned because the author just published a novella which isn't book 3. Ah well.
My immediate bias: I loved this book. It isn't perfect but I just loved it.
My word of warning: it starts out slow, so you have to stick with the first few chapters. But then...
The language is beautiful, it's so very well written, clear, concise, and yet never obscure to where you wonder what the eff the author is trying to say.
The story is compelling, a young man telling the story of his early life, but he's self aware enough to not gloss over things when he's been a jerk. And -in a departure from many "when I was young and stupid" tales- he doesn't use humour to make the sting of his past arrogance bearable, he tells it all, in detail, with no self-pity or self-deprecation. It's really well done, because he was an arrogant jerk but seeing where he's ended up, you don't resent that, all the while being -at least I was- a bit horrified at his arrogance.
The neutral: the magic system. Eh. I've read better, I've read worse.
Now, the less than awesome stuff.
The book tells only the beginning of a story. There is still not quite any THERE there, the rest is only hinted at and I hope to find that in the next book. This book felt like some serious set up and world building, and I do hope that the next ones live up to the character.
Women. Oh my good, I'm so sick of the portrayal of women in 90% of fantasy, and this isn't much better. The love interest is... well, I didn't find a single thing interesting about her, she's perfect, boring, and bland. There is one good, imo, woman in the story and it'll be interesting to see if she shows back up (for the record, white fonted, that would be Devi, the money lender.).
The main character, Kvothe, himself. I don't mind the arrogance, see above, but I do get a bit bored at main characters who are So Supremely Awesome. I get that they have flaws, blah blah blah, but it's boring when they're the best at this, the best at that, and so on. See: Potter, Harry. Yawn. I'd have been happier with a Kvothe who really sucked at a few things aside from humility.
A definite recommend from me, though. It's been on my list of things to read for A While, but I try to wait on fantasy books until at least book 2 is out, which took several years. I don't know when book 3 is due out, and I'm concerned because the author just published a novella which isn't book 3. Ah well.
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