The Name of the Wind

I asked a few friends of mine for some reading recommendations. The first I got was the Jeeves series of books by P.G. Wodehouse, the second was "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss.

Recommedations made, my reading order had been decided.

The Jeeves books I'll get into later (truthfully, I thought I'd already written about them), but right now I want to spew vitriol against The Name of the Wind (hereafter referred to as NW for short).

Full disclosure: I have very little interest in fantasy books. I recognize their essential similarity to my beloved super hero comics, and I'm even told fantasy books are folded under the speculative fiction umbrella. I personally define speculative fiction as "our world with a twist, an 'if only', a 'but this'- and that being the case fantasy books tend to require an exponential number of such twist/only/this's that I hardly think it's a fair comparison. But whatever.

Also important to note that, in consequence of my lack of interest, I haven't read much fantasy. I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy in grade 8 (my only accomplishment during my year of home schooling), and made a half-hearted attempt at the Silmarillion (I haven't touched the thing since). The Hobbit had been read to me by my mother, and that's the only reason I'm going to humour this first-of-an-unnecessary trilogy that's just come out... though I will certainly be waiting at least a month before I go see it. I've read all the Harry Potter series, some entries had been read to me, but the effect is near enough to the same thing. The Narnia books were also read to me.

That, I believe, is the extent of my fantasy knowledge, again, discounting more modern set "science" fantasy. If it has technobabble in place of magic, that's science fiction/fantasy, and I'm much better versed in it (Doctor Who, I'm looking at you). Star Wars certainly has fantasy elements... you know what, forget this disclaimer. I've got enough fantasy knowledge to stand by my problems with this NW book. Even if I didn't, I would certainly be able to discuss it through my more general literary/story-telling sensibilities.

The novel is by one Patrick Rothfuss, it's his first, and it's a monster at 662 pages. Page counts are impressive right? They sell, right? It seems to me rather an exercise in self importance to have this novel reach this page count with so little story actually taking place within its pages. It's mind boggling to me how little seems to have actually happened in this book, how little actual 'story' has actually taken place.

The first problem is that it's never been decided what the story for this novel is. Supposedly it's the coming of age of this character Kvothe, as told by an older Kvothe, now living in hiding at an inn, to a master storyteller or somesuch. There is some problem that needs to be faced in this present, but we're only given the barest of glimpses at it. Something around five or six such interludes that marginally suggest that there even is some mystery in the present-to-the-future. During the telling of Kvothe's backstory (i.e. the main narrative) they have various characters tell tales of the world's history or it's own maybe fiction. The stories within the story actually are the best, most satisfyingly constructed stories. They have a beginning, middle, and end. Strange though that may seem. Climax and denoument and whatnot.

There's actually an infuriating interlude near the end of the novel that makes my point for me. Kvothe says that he's just about finished the difficult work of constructing the ground work for his story. Well, to borrow Scarlett O'Hara's excellent catchphrase, Fiddle-dee-dee! No, you don't get to be a novel whose sole job is to set up for the sequel. Not at this size.

There is so much half formed in this book, the qualities of young Kvothe are those of any three (four?) protagonists for three separate novels. He is, among other things, a master musician, a student of medicine, and a student of a sort of magical blacksmithing. Again, among other things! Too many, in fact, that we never really get to EXPERIENCE any of them. We're told that he spends two hours a day in the medical, uh, faculty, learning and practicing that craft. We even meet a potential love interest/friend from the medical school. Or maybe she's an enemy. Or maybe she's... nope, she's nothing. She gets introduced, several hundred pages later she goes with Kvothe to treat another character (who didn't end up even needing any medical treatment..) with very little introduction and very little effect on the story (though this character, Auri, actually has LOADS more significance than this medical student girl). An efficient story-teller would have excised this medical stuff completely, or mentioned it only EVER in passing. To have, my best guess, 30-40 pages of the medical school stuff in a 662 page book is to have no effect on the story.

If this character becomes important in the later novels (of this "Kingkiller Chronicle Trilogy" only the second novel is even out yet, so there're no guarantees of anything) then I can understand the use of her. Understand, not excuse, because it still adds nothing to the actual story of this novel in my hands.

This is one instance of a systemic problem in the novel, one of a lack of focus. The lack of depth in the characters is astounding. Kvothe's best friends at the University are Wil and Simmon. Besides being privy to their introduction we don't get to SEE them become friends. We're just told that they are. Best friends, in fact. We're told some of their background, but it never has any baring on the story. They hardly even hang out together, but at least we know they're the best friends of the main character at this point in his life. Again, if they do something significant in the next novel, that's great for that novel, but it doesn't do any good here.

There's the girl from the library (Archives) who Kvothe met on or around his first day. She comes back later to play at the damsel in distress to get saved, as well as a sort of accomplice when Kvothe breaks into the archives. Those are two interesting parts, important to both this novel AND setting up for the next. She's probably in 40-50 pages (if we're lucky).

The character Denna is the actual love interest, and according to the Your Mileage May Vary section on tvtropes.org she's part of the novels "romantic plot tumour". She has a lot of pages devoted to her. A lot. And that's fine! She's important to the story... I think the hearing about all the times Kvothe went out looking for her was probably completely irrelevant and wasted space in the book. Denna has a vastly disproportionate amount of the story devoted to her, but all it does is make me question what these other women are doing popping up in the story at all. These are the main characters/leading ladies of entirely different novels, and it seems Rothfuss wanted to shove them all together for his opening act.

I would probably be more forgiving of all this if Kvothe, when telling the professional story teller who he's dictating his life story to, hadn't yelled at this storyteller/writer, asserting that Kvothe himself was a master storyteller born and raised with a travelling troupe of showmen and that if this guy writing everything down changed even a word of what he was being told... I forget if he threatened the guy or just threatened to tear up the story. Either way, it was crazy irritating at the time, and then when Kvothe goes on to tell this mish-mash of mental wandering. Pfeh!

The antagonism between Kvothe's equivalent Snape and Malfoy (the characters Hemme and Ambrose) is, once again, hardly touched on through the course of the book. They show up every couple hundred pages, do something villainous (or just plain spiteful, an act that therefore hardly needed recording) then exuent stage right. Neither one could really be called the villain of the piece. There ISN'T any villain to the novel. There are some villainous characters, some of which provide a problem for our hero, but nothing over arcing.

There's a very fun battle with a draccus (sort of a dragon thing) near the end of the book. I guess that's the climax. It just sort of appeared while some other mystery was busy not getting solved this novel.

The history of this world and the intricacy of the rules of its magics are both impressively thought out. No question about that. But the story...

And now, as a petty final jab, here's an excerpt from p.54:

"My father was a better actor and musician than any you have ever seen. My mother had a natural gift for words. They were both beautiful, with dark hair and easy laughter. They were Ruh down to their bones, and that, really, is all that needs to be said.

Save perhaps that my mother was a noble before she was a trouper. She told me... (the passage goes on.)"

So, uh, maybe save that "and that is all that needs to be said" stuff for when you're actually done saying stuff. You monster.