The riveting first-person narrative of a young man who grows to be the most notorious magician his world has ever seen. From his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime- ridden city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that transports readers into the body and mind of a wizard. It is a high-action novel written with a poet's hand, a powerful coming-of-age story of a magically gifted young man, told through his eyes: to read this book is to be the hero.
Amazon.com's Best of the Year...So Far Pick for 2007: Harry Potter fans craving a new mind-blowing series should look no further than The Name of the Wind--the first book in a trilogy about an orphan boy who becomes a legend. Full of music, magic, love, and loss, Patrick Rothfuss's vivid and engaging debut fantasy knocked our socks off. --Daphne Durham

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10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Patrick Rothfuss

Q: Were you always a fan of fantasy novels?
A: Always. My first non-picture books were the Narnia Chronicles. After that my mom gave me Ihe Hobbit and Dragonriders. I grew up reading about every fantasy and sci-fi book I could find. I used to go to the local bookstore and look at the paperbacks on the shelf. I read non-fantasy stuff too, of course. But fantasy is where my heart lies. Wait... Should that be "where my heart lays?" I always screw that up.

Q: Who are some of your favorite authors? Favorite books?
A: Hmmm.... How about I post that up as a list?

Q: What are you reading now?
A: Right now I'm reading Capacity, by Tony Balantyne. He was nominated for the Philip K Dick award this last year. I heard him read a piece of the first novel, Recursion, out at Norwescon. I picked it up and got pulled right in. Capacity is the second book in the series. Good writing and cool ideas. Everything I've like best.

Q: How did Kvothe's story come to you? Did you always plan on a trilogy?
A: This story started with Kvothe's character. I knew it was going to be about him from the very beginning. In some ways it's the simplest story possible: it's the story of a man's life. It's the myth of the Hero seen from backstage. It's about the exploration and revelation of a world, but it's also about Kvothe's desire to uncover the truth hidden underneath the stories in his world. The story is a lot of things, I guess. As you can tell, I'm not very good at describing it. I always tell people, "If I could sum it up in 50 words, I wouldn't have needed to write a whole novel about it." I didn't plan it as a trilogy though. I just wrote it and it got to be so long that it had to be broken up into pieces. There were three natural breaking points in the story.... Hence the Trilogy.

Q: What is next for our hero?
A: Hmm..... I don't really believe in spoilers. But I think it's safe to say that Kvothe grows up a little in the second book. He learns more about magic. He learns how to fight, gets tangled up in some court politics, and starts to figure unravel some of the mysteries of romance and relationships, which is really just magic of a different kind, in a way.

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Patrick Rothfuss's Books You Should Read

The Last Unicorn

Neverwhere

Declare

Beatrice's Goat

Blankets

See more recommendations (with comments) from Patrick Rothfuss

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Loved it for the story, was enchanted by the prose
Comment: I thought I had already reviewed this book. Must be that the reviews are only good for the version you bought. This is an awesome book. I have read Jordan, Martin, MacMasters, and many others. I loved many of them. This book beat them hands down. Some of the paragraphs were so artistically worded I reread them over and over. I might be a bit obsessed with words. (example: "Treading Trodden Trails" in the Dave Matthews song to me is perfection. It says everything it needs to say and is poetry too!) But I truely loved this book and so far everyone I have shared this book with has loved it as well. I see some negative reviews in here and personally I can't understand them. For the genre this is an awesome book. It isn't Harry Potter, it isn't King of Thrones. The first is light and fantastical, the other is dark and mid-evil. I loved both of them as well. This is is somewhere inbetween in a thoroughly fleshed out world of it's own. I am sure this review does not do it justice, but I did want to make sure I said what I thought about it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not at all Impressed
Comment: I read the reviews, saw that a debut fantasy novel had broken into the mass-market paperback bestseller list, and, obviously, I bought the book.

I nearly finished it.

John D. MacDonald, in his introduction to Stephen King's "Night Shift", speaks about author intrusion. He defines it like this: "Author intrusion is a phrase so inept the reader suddenly realizes he is reading, and he backs out of the story. He is shocked back out of the story."

I've seen many forms of author intrusion over the years, when good writing goes bad. Never have I been so shocked out of a book by an actual bit of the story as I was with "The Name of the Wind".

SPOILERS AHEAD!









Before I begin, I should point out that the "dragons" in this particular tale are herbivores. Initially, I gave a bit of credit to the author for at least flouting that particular fantasy convention when he'd failed to defeat so many others. How he used it is another matter entirely and what prompted me to stop reading. Now that I've got that out of the way, our herbivore dragon eats trees that are used to make a euphoria inducing drug. To put it another way, if the sap from maple trees, instead of being boiled down into syrup and candy could instead be boiled down to make cocaine or some other heavyweight drug, this would be what the dragon ate. Then, seeing the dragon stoned out of his mind, our hero decides to feed the dragon enough of the boiled down substance (as he found a sack of it) to cause the dragon a lethal overdose. It doesn't work, at least not immediately, and the dragon begins swaying toward a small town.

That's when I quit reading.

If you, Mr. Rothfuss, want to take this seriously, we can do business.

I need a hero who's human. Not in a literal sense, you can use aliens, but someone who doesn't have a talent in every area. The scholar/musician/magician/swordsman you've created here just doesn't jive.

I don't care about how poor our hero is in terms of actual numbers. Knowing that someone is poor and may not be able to afford what he desperately wants is enough. Pages and pages of poor defenseless trees are wasted over telling us, exactly, how poor Kvothe is at any given time. I'm not his accountant or a tax collector and therefore this information is wasted on me.

Despite my disdain for certain aspects of this book, I must acknowledge that the author does show some promise. Don't buy this book, and you should therefore probably avoid the rest of the trilogy (if only to avoid feeling the need to read this particular book to see where it all started) but, I think, we should keep an eye out for whatever is done after this trilogy.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Fresh high fantasy from a jaded reader
Comment: The Name of the Wind is an excellent novel. Rothfuss's voice flows smoothly, lyrically, without being flowery. The character is complex and changes throughout the novel. The plot is intriguing and unpredictable. Certainly, some things are expected - he is legendary and therefore perfect, he attracts women like bees to honey, he started as a poor nobody to become the most powerful man in the land (i'm assuming), etc. Can you have a high fantasy hero without at least some of the cliches? The important thing is that Rothfuss teases us with the storyline, hints and reveals darker turns that keep me uncertain about Kvothe's true nature. I am even interested in the double storyline, and usually I get bored and skip either the future or the past vignettes.

I have read a lot of fantasy novels over the years. I have read at least one book from most of the popular high-fantasy writers, and in the past few years I have become bored and jaded by the choices out there. Either the book is terribly predictable, the characters are flat, or the writing style doesn't suit me. I can find practically put together Eragon from sections in different novels.

That being said, this is the first new fantasy book I have read for years. I have finally found a fresh voice in fantasy, and I look forward to the next novel.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: True Poet and Brilliant writer
Comment: THE NAME OF THE WIND by Patrick Rothfuss



I just finished reading THE NAME OF THE WIND from DAW Books by Patrick Rothfuss. He is a true poet and brilliant writer. THE NAME OF THE WIND is a very intriguing book about a fascinating character: Kvothe. This fantasy is set in a realistic medieval-type world, not our own, and is quite believable. It chronicles the life of a famous man who has an epic tale to tell. He is in hiding in the beginning of the book, a non-descript innkeeper in a backwater village.

The truth is that he is a very famous/infamous man known far and wide for his exploits. The novel tells of his early years, growing up as the son of the best traveling performers in the land, then after a harsh and lonely time in a brutal city, his eventual admission into The University where he hopes to learn real magic--and much more.

This is not Harry Potter at Hogwarts. This is a truthful look at the life of someone with no money or safety net. Kvothe has to use his wits and hard work to make his way in a world that crushes most people down. This novel is about what determination and skill can accomplish--but it's about so much more. THE NAME OF THE WIND is a deep look at human nature and how forces shape a person into what they are, and what they're going to become. It's a poignant and captivating study of a most remarkable person.

I was very entertained by this lengthy book (662 pages in hardcover), and savored the moments when I could read it for long periods. Life interrupted me several times, as I had deadlines related to my own novels or stories, so it took longer than it should for me to finish reading. Also, I read the hardcover version, which is quite heavy and not very portable. The paperback is now out and I would advise picking that one up--as many people have making it a New York Times bestseller.

Now I look forward to reading book two: A WISE MAN'S FEAR, coming out soon.

If you're interested in epic novels that get to the heart of what it means to be a hero, and the cost of that path in life, THE NAME OF THE WIND will give you hours of entertainment, and a depth that most novels rarely achieve.

Paul Genesse
Author of The Golden Cord
Book One of the Iron Dragon Series
www.paulgenesse.com

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Genius...pure genius
Comment: Rothfuss's writing is so witty and eloquent the pages fly by. He gives a new spin to the classic tale of heroes and dragons. Really, there's not enough praise in the universe to describe his tome of extreme excellence and sheer kicka$$ery!
So, I'll give you a few examples of its appeal:

1. I have never been able to pick a favorite book before. Now I'm possessed by the demon of Patrick Rothfuss fandom every time someone asks. I should probably cut back on that, though. My family is getting the "It's time to call the exorcist" gleam in their eyes. But fear not, holy water could never destroy my love of "Name of the Wind"!

2. I read NOTW a year ago before passing it along to my friends. I still haven't gotten it back and all my friends loved it!

In the interest of full disclosure, some may think that the book moves slowly. I completely disagree, but I understand where they are coming from. Rothfuss fleshes out his world completely, realistically, and interestingly. I would listen to a description of dirt if this man wrote it.

Honestly, just go buy it.

*waves hands* shoo!

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