Review: Patrick Rothfuss’s “The Name of the Wind”
by Miles Raymer
After myriad recommendations from trusted sources, I had high expectations for Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind. But now that I have finally reached the end of this torturous novel, I can safely say it has been a long time since I loathed a book this much. In my view, The Name of the Wind is an overblown, boring piece of tripe that deserves almost none of the praise it has received from fantasy readers around the world.
I should acknowledge that this book does have a smattering of good qualities. The worldbuilding is acceptable, even innovative in a few ways. Rothfuss’s prose is ghastly on the whole, but he does occasionally manage to churn out a clever turn of phrase (this could perhaps be attributed more to statistics than to skill, given the story’s length). The book contains some terrific descriptions of music (often difficult to capture with the written word) and musings on the nature of the musical mind. In some ways, The Name of the Wind fits the definition of a fine yarn–– “a long or rambling story, especially one that is implausible”.
That’s all I have to say in the book’s defense. Beyond those small strengths, I have nothing but enmity for this bloated mess of a book. I don’t often feel as if reading anything is a waste of my time, but I do genuinely feel like the time I put into this book could have been better spent doing something else––anything else. In my haste to move on to a more interesting read, I will restrict myself to a few core complaints.
One critical failure of this novel is that it’s all about one profoundly unlikeable person, and not in that he’s-not-so-bad-once-you-get-to-know-him sort of way. Kvothe (pronounced “Quoth”) is a prodigy in almost every imaginable fashion, a youth of many talents. Sadly, his best talent by far is being a complete sod. Though Rothfuss works tirelessly to make Kvothe a sympathetic figure, he proves himself to be an arrogant, obnoxious jerk at every turn. Having Kvothe tell his own story in the first person, instead of writing him in the third person, was a huge mistake; being inside this prick’s head is just the worst.
A friend of mine described this dynamic as “male power fantasy,” which I thought was spot on. Kvothe’s insufferable ability to weasel his way out of any tight spot––a quality that would usually endear a character to an audience––becomes a mockery of repetition and absurdity with each new episode. This is not because Kvothe doesn’t have serious problems to overcome, but rather because his attitude is so fucking smug. He’s a guy who has experienced extreme poverty but knows deep down that he is a superman, the kind of guy who would respond this way when warned that a woman might break his heart:
My heart is made of stronger stuff than glass. When she strikes she’ll find it strong as iron-bound brass, or gold and adamant together mixed. Don’t think I am unaware, some startled deer to stand transfixed by hunter’s horns. It’s she who should take care, for when she strikes, my heart will make a sound so beautiful and bright that it can’t help but bring her back to me in winged flight. (loc. 9296)
Since he is patently so much better than everyone else, all Kvothe needs is the proper training and resources, and nothing will escape his grasp. The worst part is that we never get a break from having to deal with this uppity asshole; the story never wavers from its singular focus on his checkered upbringing.
Another massive problem is that The Name of the Wind is tremendously dull. Hardly anything happens, and the book’s final act reads like the rising action of a halfway decent fantasy novel. I kept waiting for something to move the story forward, but all I got was a bland series of events designed merely to prove and reinforce Kvothe’s resourcefulness and cleverness. Nothing’s ever truly at stake because Kvothe always finds a way to minimize or obviate the consequences of his actions.
Perhaps the worst aspect of this book is how Qvothe and the other male characters think about and relate to women. Rothfuss writes like a guy who has only ever idealized the opposite sex and never really had the chance to get to know a woman as a real person. His language readily depicts women as vacuous objects made to be filled with male motivations and desires. Qvothe is unfailingly flirtatious but retreats from true sexuality at every turn; Rothfuss seems to think this makes him a gentleman rather than a lousy communicator and the very picture of disingenuousness.
Denna, Kvothe’s love interest, is a two-dimensional male fantasy come to life, the kind of woman whose smile is described as “a flower unfurling” and who says things like, “Don’t go quiet on my account…I’d miss the sound of your voice” (locs. 8030, 9244). Yuck! The way Kvothe relates to her would be comic if it weren’t so upsetting. He describes her as “the perfect audience [for a story], attentive and gasping at all the right moments” (loc. 12116).
Kvothe’s attitude toward his male rivals for Denna’s affection further reveals his view that she is nothing more than a conduit for his own greatness:
There is a part of her that is only for me. You cannot touch it, no matter how hard you might try. And after she has left you I will still be here, making her laugh. My light shining in her. I will still be here long after she has forgotten your name. (loc. 13741, emphasis his)
There’s no shortage of sexist language in this book, most of it implicit. But sometimes Rothfuss brings it right out into the open, such as this parroting of a classic patriarchal piece of nonsense:
“Good lord, you really don’t know anything about women, do you?” I would ordinarily have bristled as his comment, but Deoch was nothing but good natured. “Think of it. She’s pretty and charming. Men crowd round her like stags in rut.” He made a flippant gesture. “Women are bound to resent it.” (loc. 9859-67)
Tragically, I am not convinced that this series is irredeemable. Rothfuss drops lines here and there that suggest he might actually have a decent story to tell. It’s clear that Qvothe’s arrogance is intended to demonstrate the sophomoric failings of youth, and represents a high cliff from which he will eventually tumble to ruin. I wish this first book had contained some of that, rather than just stringing me along and counting on me to read the next installment. I imagine the second book might be better than the first, but after more than a month spent struggling to decide if it was even worth my time to finish The Name of the Wind, there is not a chance in hell that I’ll be returning to Rothfuss’s world anytime soon.
For all of these reasons, and many more, The Name of the Wind is a worthless sinkhole of verbiage on which I’ll not waste another word.
Rating: 1/10
Well said!
Thanks for reading!
This review nailed exactly how I felt and even highlighted the passage that grated me the most (the last block quote). Thanks for posting this
Hi Stephanie. Thanks very much for reading my review and glad to hear that some of my reactions aligned with yours!
We just drove from New York to Michigan and I was really excited to listen to this on tape. Thank goodness we had some podcasts though because I was barely able to make it through last stomach-turning drivel of chapter three without jumping out of the car on the highway.
The back cover has a review by The Onion A.V. Club that says to SHELVE IT BESIDE LORD OF THE RINGS. That someone can even mention this boring garbage in the same breath blows my damn mind.
Haha, totally agree! Thanks for this amusing comment and also for reading my review!
You can literally sum up pat’s books with one sentence: “Kvothe goes to the University to learn about the Chandrian but learns nothing. The end.”
Reading this review of Name of the Wind was exponentially more enjoyable than reading the book itself. Not kidding. At all. I am so glad this review exists because the rest of the Internet’s take on this horrible, horrible, horrible book was making me question my sanity…
All the praise/5 star reviews on Amazon and GoodReads – I’m genuinely confused how anyone could like this book at all. I don’t mean to offend those that do, but “god’s balls” this book was terrible.
It reads like some 4chan incel’s aspirational yet still pathetic D&D campaign …one where nothing actually happens. No urgency, no existential threat, no action of any kind, no character depth, no conflict worth any concern; just some insufferably arrogant wunderkind’s smug commentary on his daily life at a university with his boring friends, trite love interests, blah blah I’m seriously boring myself even trying to remember all the annoying details.
Oh? What’s that you say, Patrick? Kvothe’s impeccable grasp of sympathy shall be illustrated through his painfully lengthy descriptions of friggin MAGIC?!?! I. DON’T. CARE! It’s ok for it to just be magic, dude! Sure, create some basic rules about how it functions in your world… but don’t beat us over the head with it constantly. Ugh. So exhausting. Does anyone really want to read page after page about the details of Rothfuss’ fake physics/sympathy/alchemy? Let alone from some prick like Kvothe who knows more, knows it better, and can perform it better than anyone?
Oh Christ, I just remembered all the damn lute-playing. Sweet, merciful crap. Don’t even get me started on the damn lute. That bad 4chan incel’s D&D campaign comparison I mentioned earlier – not only is it that, but it’s like Rothfuss opted to role-play as a half-elf Bard, proficient in Lute. Oh, and to finish the comparison – it’s like he rolled an 18 in each character attribute. Bard’s are the worst. And why half-elf, you ask? Exactly.
Geez, sorry for my angry venting. Apparently I really needed this outlet after suffering through that damn book. Thanks Internet. …it was just bad. Really bad.
Haha, thanks for this lengthy and amusing comment! I really appreciate you reading my review and I’m glad it seems to have proven cathartic for you!
Same! I had to google ‘bad review’ just to find one. The wayward (vagabond) prince shows that he is super amazing in every way and then faces hardship (and forgets he knows magic and all these mind tricks). I thought they were being meta with tropes in a story about stories. I only had it playing in the background and it STILL managed to be repetitive and trite.
Yes, some of us do want magic systems too complex for our rational mind to call bullshit while we’re reading it. Also magic systems are fun toys to play with in my head. It was my interest going in and sure as hell my only interest the third time something “tasted better than anything I’d ever eaten.” You’re not a time traveler moving backward, it can only be the best one time. Yuck.
I’ve realized I waisted time on this book and should have just looked up its wiki, which it must surely have.
Oh sweet joyous of all joys I think I just found my tribe…
Reading your review and the original review pulled me out of a dark circle of hell the likes of which I never thought I would escape…
Also thought I was going nuts at being seemingly the only person in the world who was questioning this book from page 1…
For a terrifying moment there I thought I’d lost all ability to enjoy fantasy.
Thanks for the solidarity and the laughing out loud.
I agree with almost everything you say, but I think that the sexism you’re talking about isn’t the author being sexist, it’s just world building. I can’t be too sure, I stopped reading this book only 150 pages in, and my reason was because Kvothe’s parents were so awfully written. Made me think Rothfuss hasn’t ever heard a conversation between a couple before or even just spoken to a woman. Kvothe’s mom was so unnatural and why would parents with a young child have make out sessions in front of their kid, soo awkward. Glad there are some people who agree this book is sh*te
Thanks for the comment, Matt! Yes, I think it’s quite possible that Rothfuss himself is not an outright sexist, or at least that he did not intentionally inject sexism into his book. But, as you describe, he definitely comes off as someone who has little knowledge about the ways in which men and women tend to interact, and this greatly weakens his storytelling abilities.
I actually thought I had jumped into another dimension where logic and taste flow differently. I could not understand a lot of things in this new world, and two of these are the absolute adoration of seemingly the vast majority for the Harry Potter books and for this series by Pat Rothfuss. What strikes me as bizarre is that his fans laud him particularly for his prose, saying it’s the most beautiful thing they have ever read, but his prose was what I found most lacking! If you’re read great writing, no way would this pass as even good prose. It’s just — mediocre, at best. Quite amateurish. I am totally in the dark as to what it is in this and the HP series (and other popular things) that people like so much. Anyway, thank you for the review. At least now I know I’m not alone.
Hi Myra and thanks for the comment! Glad my thoughts on Rothfuss resonated with you. I have been encouraged by your response and the responses of others to this review; there definitely seems to be a solid contingent of folks out there who don’t think Rothfuss deserves the degree of praise he often gets.
That said, I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I love those books not because they are great literature or impressive world-building, but simply because they were a huge part of my transition from adolescence to adulthood, and also because I think the core values of Rowling’s narrative (kindness, tolerance, friendship) are solid. I also think she’s got a great knack for characterization, and the HP books contain a lot of wacky and memorable characters.
If you’re interested in a fantasy series that I think is top-notch, I would check out Ilona Andrews’s “Kate Daniels” series. These books seem silly at first glance (and are silly in some ways), and the writing is very basic, but the story, characters and world-building are phenomenal. My favorite fantasy series that I’ve discovered in recent years (and to give credit where due, my wife actually discovered it and then brought me into the fold!).
Happy reading!
Thank you for posting this recomendation!
I just googled “Hard fantasy” ’cause I’m bad at suspension of disbelief and this book kept coming up. I’ve been reading nothing but webcomics for years and I wanted to try books again. Then while this tripe was playing on audiobook I read the last chapter of the webcomic Raining Knives and it made me cry. I realized I didn’t just lack the patience for books, this one really sucks!
Hey Zach!
Thanks for this comment! Yes, I definitely do not think “The Name of the Wind” is a good choice for someone looking to get back into reading books!
If you’re into fantasy and cool magic systems, I highly recommend Ilona Andrews’s “Kate Daniels” series. The books seem silly at first glance (genre marketing urban fantasy), but the characters, story, and world-building are all top notch! There are ten books in the series, but each one is short and they get better and better as the series develops. The writing is very simple but also smart and funny. Hope you enjoy if you decide to give it a try!
Happy reading! 🙂
Thank the lord Jesus.
I Read this garbage a few years ago when my gushing fan-boy of a cousin recomended it. It was like Superman met harry potter and then decided to have a child via IVF using Tom Cruises sperm.
For me the blurb should read, “A disgustingly shallow tale that follows a compulsive liar with NPD who tells the fantasy life he never had to a naive simpleton in a pub. 1 *”
And i felt at odds because everybody loves it so, and every opinion i had of it was met with derision…
Although, i didn’t think it was overtly sexist, more just a guy with a lack of skills with the sex he fancies… Socially awkward perhaps. Regardless, what a load of bum nuggets that book was.
Haha, a load of bum nuggets indeed!
Thanks Dean for reading my review and leaving this amusing comment. 🙂
Thanks for writing this. I recently finished Robyn Hobb’s series of delightful and well written Farseer books and searched for what my next fantasy novel ought to be. NOTW was recommended. At first the writing was disappointing and I kept rereading lines that sounded like an adolescent boy wrote them. I kept reading and would read something I thought was sexist, would reread and try and understand how i might not be “getting it.” I think the author believes it adds humor to the character which is sad. Because it’s not funny. Ugh so annoyed.thanks again for giving us a place to rant
Thanks very much for this comment! I’m glad that I was able to articulate your reservations about this book, and it seems that quite a lot of other folks out there agree with us!
If you’re looking for a top-notch fantasy series, I recommend the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. These books seem silly at first glance––goofy cover art and urban fantasy is not a very well-respected genre. And while the writing style is admittedly not very complex, I think the world-building, character development, and ethical issues explored are all amazing. Plus the books are easy to read and fun as hell.
Happy reading! 🙂
Bit late to the party, but my god am I glad I read this review. Boring is an understatement and yes Kvothe is an arrogant prick. Thank you!
Better late than never, Kris! Glad you enjoyed my review and thanks for the comment! 🙂
Your review perfectly captures everything wrong with this book.
I can understand not enjoying a book that many others enjoy, but I really have trouble comprehending how The Name of the Wind is praised for its prose when the prose is exactly what was most egregious about it. The prologue, “A Silence of Three Parts,” is so flowery and overwrought that I almost put the book down then and there. Probably should have, but I gave it a chance. The rest of the book proved just as overwritten and over-concerned with meaningless minutiae.
Thanks. This has been cathartic.
Glad to hear it! Thanks so much for reading my review and leaving this nice comment. 🙂
Everything I also felt about this book encapsulated in concise, well written review.
Genuine literary trash.
Thank you so much for this review, I’m about 100 pages into this book and I’m really hating it.
Two very dear friends recommended it so I’m trying to finish it so I can speak to them about it, but god it’s so awful.
You’re right about the main character, he’s boring and arrogant as hell. The writing is so so sexist and awful, I’m glad I’m not the only one with this take; your friend’s “male power fantasy” review is spot on.
So far the world building has managed to be both bland and overwrought at the same time. I am so embarrassed for him. I can’t stand his writing, it’s so uneven, he should fire his editors into the sun, but maybe they only had so much to work with?
thank you for this review, and to all the others who wrote comments, this has been so cathartic as all I can find on the internet is 5/5 reviews!!
Let’s hope he never writes another world.
Hi Miri and thanks for this comment! It’s been really great to learn how this review has resonated with so many people over the last several years. Hope your next book is more satisfying! 🙂
Couldn’t have put it better myself. I had to blush and look the other way when my friend that recommended it asked me what I thought of it. Again, gushing fangirl of the books, thinks its literary genius.
“his eyes are like sharp as ice, his smile was as sharp as a steel”
Eeeewwwww stop giving this book good reviews. This book is just teenage angst cringe crap. People that use LOTR and ASOIAF in the same context as this garbage wouldn’t know a good book of it whacked them over the head.
Again sorry for the vent but the overabundance of 5 star reviews makes me question my worldview.
I’d also say that I have probably only put down 6/7 books before finishing in my life, but I’ve never been as glad to have done so as with this book.
Yep, totally agreed! Thanks Rob for reading my review and leaving this supportive comment. I hope your next book is much more satisfying! 🙂
Great review that highlights most of what I find tedious and annoying about this book.
Many other fantasy series with similar weaknesses (especially prose) at least feature richer, more creative fantasy worlds; a large cast of characters; and a real journey. Rothfuss plants his insufferable character in one place for almost the entire novel and writes as if “talented but poor boy is treated badly at wizarding school” is a fresh idea readers will find so enchanting they won’t require interesting narrative questions or anything else that might make for an engaging story.
Also a late addition to this page, but I only just finished my first read through. This is one of maybe three books I’ve ever read that made me think “surely there has to be others who disagree with how much praise this book has gotten,” which led me here.
Look, I had some fun with parts of the University section of the book. Maybe it’s my youthful enjoyment of HP coming back up, but more likely it’s something that actually frustrated me more, and that is just how derivative some of the elements of this world seemed to me.
This isn’t a big issue by itself. Some of the greatest stories trade off of well known tropes and still manage to stand out as original tales. But this is just dripping with elements of so many other great works. I found it ironic that OSC is quoted on the back when Kvothe seems like Rothfuss’ attempt to create an unbeatable Ender-like winner. But he didn’t give his Ender any stakes or even a remote semblance of a personality.
The derivatives don’t stop there for me. A lot of you have cited sexism in various parts so I feel that’s well covered, but I’ve got another problem with who I guess we’re calling the love interest, Denna. She’s Inara…without money or formal training. Our main character dances around her while she’s constantly with other male characters. He stubbornly refuses to admit his feelings for her. She probably feels something for him to, but hey, she can’t stop what she’s doing. Rothfuss lazily says it’s because she’s poor, which is agonizingly insulting, and rolls right over a perfect opportunity for these two characters to bond over their destitution. Instead Kvothe is content to just decide he understands because, well he understands everything else right?
Well, not right. One of the more jarring sequences is when Elodin talks about names with Kvothe towards the end. Maybe I misread the beginning, or maybe I’d just been so conditioned to believe that Kvothe was all knowing, but I had to reread the page and a half when Elodin is babying an explanation of names to Kvothe, whose only response is to repeatedly claim “I don’t get it.” Did….did you not start to learn about this like, awhile ago? You get music, math, alchemy, magic alchemy, medical science, stagecraft, speech craft. But now all of the sudden this topic is entirely foreign to you?
I realize that being critical of this book is nothing new, but I was frustrated. I’m not prepared to say I wasted my time, or that Rothfuss is an objectively bad writer. But what really made me decide to post this is a desire to see if anyone else found elements of the story insultingly derivative. Not for their simplicity but more for their transparency and subsequent failure to tap into their source.
Hi Ron and thanks for your comment! I am too many years removed from this book to know if I agree with you particular criticisms, but in general if someone is complaining about it I tend to assume they have a good case. I hadn’t considered the comparison of Denna to Inara from Firefly––that’s an interesting observation!
Hey blogger, I’m not sure how qualified you are to criticise TNOTW but I feel like you’re one of those guys who’d agree that the earth is flat and that birds are spy drones. I love how you have a set of dumbasses in the comments agreeing to this bullcrap, which I’m sure are just fake accounts you made yourselves, because no one with half a brain would agree with this retarded POS of a review. There’s no male power fantasies in this as most of your alt accs have pointed out, there’s felurian who is strong af and potrayed so well in TMF and some of the chandrian are said to be women. You judge the story and the author before it’s even completed.
*Sighs* May the stars watch over your dumbass brains cos you definitely can’t.
Hi Simmon. Just wanted to say thanks for reading my review and taking the time to comment. I’m glad you enjoyed Rothfuss’s book––always happy to hear a different perspective from my own!
I’m disappointed that you decided to use such aggressive and disparaging language in your comment. I don’t mind that you don’t agree with me, but there’s no need to be so hostile simply because of my opinion about a book. I hope you’ll take this into consideration if you comment on my blog again, or elsewhere.
Also, I can assure you that all of the comments on this post are genuine. Your accusation that I created “fake accounts” is both baseless and false. There appear to be lots of folks out there who agree with my critiques of this book.
Hey, sorry about that Miles, I wasn’t in my right mind when I made that comment.
I came here to apologise, It’s nice to see you replying to comments on an old post.
I agree that having a different opinion should not be met with such harsh comments, I know it sounds weird, but I’m truly sorry for posting that. I do strongly disagree with many of the points being made, but everyone’s entitled to their own opinion and I have to respect that.
I do hope you find the time to read the next book of the series to better frame your opinion on the story. And it’s totally alright if nothing changes too, once again, sorry for being too aggressive.
Wow. Simmon, your response just totally upgraded my level of hope for humanity! I really appreciate you leaving this follow-up comment and wholeheartedly accept your apology. To my knowledge it’s fairly rare that people in your position are willing to reconsider their approach, so you have my appreciation and respect for having done so!
For my part, I’m sorry if my critiques set you off in some way. After reading through my review again, I can see how some of my language was probably a bit too flippant or dismissive in a way that could be upsetting to someone who really loved this book. I’ll keep that in mind when writing future reviews. As a book-lover, my highest priority is for people to find works of literature that they can connect with and benefit from, and if you feel this way about Rothfuss’s work, I think that’s terrific!
Again, thanks so much––this really made my day!!! 🙂
Are you Rothfuss in disguise?
No haha
So rightt! It’s good to know I’m not the only one!
Just to push back a little so this echo chamber doesn’t turn into a circle jerk.
While i have to admit that my eyes glaze over when Pat starts waxing poetic about women, whats inherently wrong with having a power FANTASY?That’s what fantasy is for, it’s the name of the genre. Is it really suprising that a man who writes fantasy would write a fantasy book from the male perspective? Do you think women are immune from injecting their own cringey perspectives when they write? Does it make you angry that a lost of people resonate with the sentiment? I can agree that this book suffers from a lot of misguided ideas, but from bestseller to 1/10, he’s word building is “ok”? Kinda feels like you’re not being objective here err tbh, there’s a lot of good world building in the book, and i wont even comment on the book being bloated. That’s just like seing you didn’t like the book cause it was long, and that’s not criticism. Again i personally disliked it, but does every single piece of art and media need to be distilled to a panacea of blandness that tries to appeal to anyone. This killed the movie industry, executives who want to focus group the ever living shit out of every script until it turns into a 3 hour commercial. You can not like someone else’s fantasy and still acknowledge that its good. Giving this book the worst possible score is simply proof that you’re incapable of being objective. The prose i solid if a bit overdone and writing a glory tale about an individual is an established trope. I feel like people here hate everything that doesn’t reinforce their own sensibility. This book is a solid 5/10 on world building alone. Anyway, thats my opinion.
Hi Lubomyr and thanks for your comment! I appreciate you taking the time to read my review as well as the respectful way that you make your argument. I think you’ve got some good points. My responses here:
1. Regarding the question of power fantasies, I think I agree that there’s not anything inherently wrong with this (really depends on the execution), but I also think it’s something a lot of people find distasteful––myself included. It’s not really the fact that Qvothe had power that bothered me, but rather how arrogant he was. I think the passages I cited demonstrate this, and my natural reaction in life as well as literature is that I’m uncomfortable with people who are that arrogant having a lot of power.
Also, I totally do not think female writers are immune to this; I’m actually reading N.K. Jemisin’s “Broken Earth” Trilogy at the moment, and a lot of it feels like “female power fantasy” to me in a way that has made me increasingly uncomfortable as I’ve made my way through the series. I commented on this a bit in my review of the second book, and plan on exploring it more in my review of the third.
2. You complain that I’m not being objective in my assessment of the book, so I just want to point out that a critic––professional or otherwise––is not supposed to be objective. Our job is literally to read something and make an assessment of it based on our personal viewpoints and experiences with other books. So my review is just the opinion of some guy on the Internet (not at all objective), which hopefully means you can just brush it off if you don’t agree. 🙂
3. I have a long track record of absolutely loving very long books, as well as very weird ones, so I can assure you that I didn’t give this book a low rating because of its length or because it appealed to a certain kind of niche audience.
4. I honestly did not find the worldbuilding in this book to be that impressive, at least compared to other really good fantasy and science fiction books I’ve read. It’s been about five years since I read the book so maybe I’d change my mind if I read it again, but maybe this is just an area where we disagree about the quality of Rothfuss’s imaginative work.
5. Ultimately, my ratings are made based on a gut feeling (there’s no systematic way I do them or rubric that I use), and what made this a 1/10 is that not only did I have objections to some of the ideas presented, but I also hated reading the book and was often bored. Again, these are totally subjective factors that just have to do with my personal experience, but I hope you’ll take my word for it when I say it was my honest appraisal of the book.
Thanks again for your comment and I’m glad you enjoyed this book more than I did! 🙂
1/10 is too high of a rating
I 100% agree with every point you make!
I had a theory that Rothfuss paid for all the good reviews, but I’ve got a friend (who normally has pretty good taste) say that they liked this book, even going as far as saying (with a straight face) that the prose were the best part!
I was honestly stunned to silence. Rothfuss must have very deep pockets.
The worst review ever written.
I can feel your envy.
I just finished listening to the the unabridged version of this novel. I too came to it by recommendation from others who I trust though I don’t think I was as disappointed as the criticism above. Although the points raised did resonate strongly.
The conceit of this book is what gets in the way for me; a story so detailed in its regurgitation of conversation and nuance as to be completely unbelievable. It just takes me right out of it. Memory does not work this way. I mean this guy recalls, to the cent, what he paid for every damn thing throughout his entire existence not to mention the word, smell, taste, sound, feeling on the day he paid two copper whatevers for a plate of eggs. GMAFB! And in this way I don’t know how to separate who was more tedious, the author, or the character. I guess both.
It’s like one never-ending trope of hardship and disenfranchisement, like right up until the final chapters where he’s still, literally, being beaten in the public square! I get it, he’s suffered! FFS. And with no pay off whatsoever.
World building, schmurld-building. This was a slog 95% of the time for me and, for now at least, I don’t have any interest in seeing where it’s going to lead.
Thanks Phil for reading my review and leaving this comment! I had not thought about the relationship between the level of detail in the story and how memory (actually) works. Very interesting and useful criticism! 🙂
I’m on my fourth attempt at reading this novel. My partner and some good friends really rate it, so I am trying to give it a fair shot. However, it is proving a challenge … Call me a snob, but the prose is agonizingly bad. I’m cringing every third paragraph at how desperately the author is trying to be clever. I only got about eight pages in before the protagonist had “sighed without realising it” for the second time. I don’t know if that was meant to be a callback (to what, exactly?), but it came across to me as lazy editing. Then there are the utterly baffling descriptions of one character reading a panoply of simultaneous conflicting emotions on another character’s face. I just don’t think faces work like that. I’m going to force my way through it so I can talk about it with my loved ones who enjoyed it, but I think it’s going to be a painful experience.
Fourth attempt??? Ouch. If the book hasn’t been able to keep your attention by this point I’m not optimistic about your prospects. But I admire your perseverance! 🙂
I’m on a long trip and this is the only book I have with me, God help me. I’m almost finished and still don’t care about any single part of the story, I just wish Ambrose would finish him and put me out of my misery. Thanks for the spot-on review and the laughs!
Thanks for reading and leaving this comment, Jodi! I hope your next book is more rewarding. 🙂
Thank you so much for this review! Two people who I definitely trust(ed…) with book recommendations praised this book so I went ahead and, the optimistic fool I am, bought both volumes at once (regrets).
I’m only about 150 pages in but I already hate it A LOT. This came as a surprise as everyone else apparently hypes this book?! So I was like, why am I hating it? Am I wrong? The rampant overt and subtle sexism, the exaggerated, pompous prose, the boring and non-relevant eternal frame story, the aggravatingly flat and inconsistent characters, Kvothe being an arrogant ubermensch, and most of all the immensely boring story and also bad storytelling — it’s just so icky to me! But everyone else loves it, so??
But then, I found your review and reading it was honestly cathartic. For every point you make, I internally screamed “Yes!! This guy gets it!!!”. Thank god I am not the only one who just doesn’t enjoy this in the least.
As somebody else already remarked, your review was more enjoyable than those 150 pages I read, so thank you!
I already had a feeling that I best just give up on the book even though that’s something I don’t like doing, and your review reassured me that this is the right decision.
Hi Anna! Thanks so much for reading my review and leaving this kind comment. I really appreciate it and I’m glad you found my take on this book to be validating of your experience. I’m sure your next book will be more rewarding. 🙂
Thank you for your reply! I put the book back to the shelf after reading your review and felt relieved that my intuition and your text including the comments saved me from another 500 boring pages. I’m already enjoying another book!
I also picked up on a recommendation you made to someone else (Kate Daniels) and have it bookmarked — someone who came up with such an apt analysis of the faults of TNOTW seems a trustworthy source 🙂
I hope you enjoyed lots of great books since that harrowing read (if you don’t already know it, I can recommend the Wayfarer series from Becky Chambers) and am looking forward to reading more of your reviews!
Hi Anna and thanks for writing back! I am SO excited that you are going to give the Kate Daniels series a try. I love those books dearly. I have reviewed all ten of them on my blog here, so if you have anything fun to report as you work your way through the series, I’m hoping you’ll leave comments. Also, if you want to get an email notification each time I publish a new post, you can sign up for that here: https://tinyletter.com/words-and-dirt
I have not heard of the Wayfarer books but will check them out. Thanks for the recommendation and happy reading! 🙂
Thank you for letting me know I’m not the only one who hated this book.
Personally, I often liked the prose, but I HATED Kvothe, who was a perfect neckbeard Mary Sue. Everyone thinks he’s SO amazing and brilliant, and the only people who don’t like him are the ones who are envious of how amazing and brilliant he is. Not only can he do everything, he can do all of it better than anyone else. He addresses his love interest (who is not a noblewoman) as “M’lady,” and she LIKES it. She’s an incel’s dream girl, not least in that she’s set up as Kvothe’s prize to win or lose. A “Becky” who uses “Chads” for their money but secretly wants to get with the protagonist, if only he can earn her.
Reading The Name of the Wind made me dislike Rothfuss as a person, and all I know about him is that he wrote this book. I have a feeling that Kvothe is his idealized vision of himself, operating in a world that treats Kvothe the way Rothfuss thinks the world should treat him.
Hi Jim and thanks for your comment! I think the incel connection is apt, although when I first read this book that term wasn’t yet in the cultural mainstream (or at least I had never heard of it). Regardless of Rothfuss’s actual values or intentions as a writer, I think he certainly spun a yarn that appeals to the incel mindset.
This review is a small, hopeful light in a universe of darkness. Seeing how well-reviewed this book is was confusing. Kvothe the Gary Stu is one of the least likeable characters in all of fiction.
Hi Jay and thanks for this kind comment! I really appreciate it. 🙂
While I agree with some of the arguments you make, I have to say we perceive the novels very differently and come to completely opposite conclusions about the same points. However, what I came here to say is that the way you use direct quotes from the books really takes away from your review. Most of them are taken out of context and only support your argument because you present them to mean something different than they did in the original source.
For example, when you say that “[h]e describes her as ‘the perfect audience’ …”, you imply that this was the descripiton given for how Denna is in general, ever the perfect quiet listener only paying attention to Kvothe. That’s not how it was used in the text, though. Kvothe was quite literally telling a story in that scene and she was quite literally listening and reacting to the life-or-death situation he was describing. Similarly, Kvothe’s response to Deoch telling him to be careful about Denna is told in a joking manner – Kvothe says it with a smile, using hilariously pompous vocabulary; Deoch responds with laugher. On the same note, Denna telling Kvothe not to go quiet on her account isn’t something Denna frequently says to indicate what Kvothe has to say is more important that what she does; in that scene, she is trying to apologize to him for teasing him for speaking too much. And lastly, Kvothe’s attitude towards Denna suitors isn’t some misguided belief about his own greatness. That guy is like a kicked puppy, like a freaking rain-soaked rat. He’s cradling that little piece of hope that Denna actually likes him enough to keep being his friend in his arms like it’s the last thing he has. He’s actually a bit pathetic in this scene if I’m being honest.
All in all, it’s really a shame that you aren’t using better quotes or aren’t making better arguments with what you use because while I really like those books for various reasons, the way Pat treats female characters (Denna in particular) is really quite problematic and you could’ve presented that without the biased intepretation of the source material. Still, I disagree with your opinions on Kvothe’s character, the plot’s slow pace, the worldbuilding, or the writing style, so this review really isn’t for me, but I wanted to point out the issue with your quotes.
Hi Ryan and thanks for this comment! I really appreciate your thoughtful and respectful criticism of my review. I don’t personally think that I was taking these quotes out of context, but there’s a lot of room to interpret when it comes to these sorts of judgments. I think your opinions are valuable and I’m glad you took the time to share them here. 🙂
I received NOTW, TWMF and SRST as a gift from someone I trust. I am on page 97 as I write this. For myself I am enjoying the prose, but I am also a prosaic speaker/writer, and am perfectly aware that there exist many listeners/readers who have a low tolerance for over-prose. So, whereas a part of me observes that he is building the scene in 4K resolution, I can also say that the frame rate is most certainly not 60 FPS. Additionally, I strike my foot upon certain concepts he develops that make me think he is my doppelganger, in the event that I were to try to write a fantasy / high fantasy story. So, IF I were to do so, he is showing where the nth writer in the genre has staked out a small parcel of land in a particular turn of trope, particular turn of quintessential fantasy scene, etc. For the Gary Stu phenomenon, he is usefully lighting the way how to Not write a character that I would be able to glean or harness resonance from. There is also an irritating or troubling anachronism. He proposes that this world is approximately on par with Hogwarts, which should have had all of its modern sciences by the … 1700’s? 1600’s? But I don’t think he’s trying or *aiming to be placing his narrative in a parallel world of the 1600s. More reading is needed. The ICD-10 diagnosis I would assign here is “Inflammation of the prose”. I assign, and feel qualified to diagnose this, because I know I have it, and I know that I have to keep it in check if I do endeavor to write something that balances several things readers are seeking. So far, this has been a useful manual how to do some things, and how to not do other things.
Haha, “inflammation of the prose” is brilliant! Thanks for your thoughtful and amusing comment, reader! 🙂
It seems absurd to me that one could not realize the beauty of the Name of the Wind and the purpose of the tale. For those who concern themselves with length, the book takes only three days to read if you give it the required attention. Additionally, Kvothe is a magnificent character, reminiscent of the Count of Monte Cristo, though his education is not provided so simply by Abbe Fair but must be earned through blood sweat and tears. How the beautiful writing, magic, and tropes are lost upon you I cannot be sure aside from your confirmation of idiocy and lack of wisdom. You have earned my contempt in this review, and have also failed to provide sufficient proofs for your claims. It seems as though the only problem you had was that it was long, but I mourn that it was too short. How long does it take one to read a volume of that size? Under no circumstances should the busiest of fellows fail to read the book in a month unless they suffer from abhorrent laziness and laxity, or that dreadful condition of inability to read.
Hi there and thanks for your comment! I always appreciate hearing criticism of my criticism. I would hope, however, that you would never hold someone in contempt simply for disagreeing with you about a book. Whoever you are, you have my respect, and I’m glad you enjoyed this book so much more than I did. Take care! 🙂
May I fear that next you will strike the Belgariad from its hallowed position? Or perhaps will you fail to appreciate the Lord of the Rings, the Screwtape Letters, John Carter of Mars, or some other genius work?
I have always had a conflict with the phrase “Mary Sue” when describing a character. I always found it a vapid dismissal with no real criticism a lot of the time, especially when used against female characters.
How f*cking ever
Kvothe could not make me think of any description. Now I am a massive fan of Warhammer so I am not opposed to overpowered and sometimes unlikable characters, however Kvothe does it in a way that makes my skin crawl.
I listen to audiobooks while I play more long term games, and I had to pause my game of Medieval 2 Total War so I could hold my head in my hands for a solid minute when I heard that Kvothe learned a whole language in a day and a half.
I resent this book for that alone, because my Picts were in the middle of killing Romans, a full time job as you can imagine, and this book forced me to interrupt that. For shame, Patrick.
Any other descriptions* Sorry, typed this on a phone.
I’m a bit late here, but god I really neede to find if I was crazy. Yes, I also started these books because they are soooo praised. And at the second try, I could finish the first and half of the second (which is already longer than all the Narnia series, I think). And I can no more.
I am soooo bored. I wanted to finish so that I could start with something else, but really, here I stop.
OMHO I admit that I found the world building really interesting, and the prose having a lot of style. Really. I admit it. But that does not make a story, or at least it is not enough to make an interesting story.
Let us imagine a Harry Potter where there is no Voldemort. The world is original, interesting and full of detail. But without Voldemort there is no conflict, there is nothing to happen to the characters. Remember when Haley Joel Osment told Bruce Willis how to tell a story? There must be _things_ happening. From time to time at least.
The worst part is that there _is_ a conflict in the form of the Chandrial. They are interesting and full of misery. But the author keeps forgetting about it most of the time to focus in classes and lute lessons.
Even more, every time something finally happens (a trial, a trip) the author goes over it in a couple of paragraphs. Really? Really?? Yes let us have some more chapters of “we went to the archives and found nothing”.
Good to know I’m not alone.
I’m listening to the audiobook currently at chapter 84/92 wondering where is the amazing story that people have praised. The lengthy descriptions and exhaustive dialog i have suffered in hopes of some great payoff seem like dividends never to be collected. I stopped listening to find a review like this, if only to satisfy what was creeping in the back of my mind…. that this book is terrible. I shall continue, if only to have closure, but these final 2 hours are only an attempt to find salvation in a journey that has ineptly limped to the back of the shed to be put down.
This review is so angry and mean…
Everyone commenting here is so angry and mean…
Not liking the book doesn’t make it bad… Just means you don’t like it.
Jeez everyone on this blog needs to relax