Synopsis
4.5 out of 5 stars
I had read and heard glowing reviews of The Name of the Wind long before officially picking it up to read. That said, it was not what I had expected. At the advent, we find our protagonist wasting away as an innkeeper despite all he claims to have accomplished in his youth. One day, he rescues a lone chronicler from a group of bandits (or was it a supernatural being?) and offers him shelter at his inn. The Chronicler (I don't believe his name is revealed to us) recognizes Kvothe as a renowned hero whose story the world knows mere wisps of. After some coaxing, Kvothe indulges The Chronicler by relating his tale. He starts by recalling his family, who were Ruh or people who are typically traveling troupes made up of immediate family and a couple of stragglers here and there. One particular straggler that Kvothe's troupe adopt is an old man learned in the ways of alchemy and sympathy (a form of magic). His name is Ben, I think. I may very well be wrongly applying his sci-fi predecessor Obi-Wan's name and confusing it as his own, but I do believe his name is Ben. I digress. "Ben" develops a close relationship with and teaches the ever-curious Kvothe in the ways of the old world and by the tender of age of twelve, he has learned all his mentor had to teach him astonishingly quick. Ben departs the group shortly thereafter when he falls for an innkeeper (I think). Young Kvothe's family roam, performing for all kinds of people before one day, as Kvothe is running some errand or other, his family is murdered by what he believes were Chandrain, beings he previously thought mythical. Understandably, he subsequently makes it his life's mission to avenge his parents. He acknowledges that in order to see his plans through, he must first study up on what little Chandrain literature exists, and for that he attends the prestigous University. There he thrives academically, but doesn't do as well socially: a feud between Kvothe and fellow student Ambrose is borne out of the formulaic superiority contest that creates numerous hurdles for our story lead. Kvothe regales The Chronicler with details of his first love and lessons learned.
I previously mentioned that The Name of the Wind wasn't quite what I had expected, and that's because we spend more than half of the book at the University. I had assumed that his time as a student at the University, while significant, would be play a small part in the overall story. Instead, I got QWC-ed (I watched Goblet of Fire before I read the book and when I finally did was baffled to find that the events of the Quidditch World Cup accounted for half of the story).
As you can very clearly tell from this poor excuse of a review, my recollection of the events and details of the book is shoddy at best, but I would still wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who enjoys slow-burn fantasy. I ought to note that its very possible that I'm branding The Name of the Wind as "slow-burn" because it took me quite a while to get through this one as I was experiencing my umpteenth reading slump of the year, and it could be the fast-paced read various critics have made it out to be.
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