But I'm writing this review anyway for fun. Don't judge.

In 2007 Patrick Rothfuss, now an established writer, published his critically acclaimed debut novel Name of the Wind. A graduate of University of Wisconsin and former winner of the Writers of the Future competition, Patrick Rothfuss received the Quill Award for best sci-fi/fantasy in 2007.

After a long while of hearing a lot about this book, I decided to put it to the test to see if the raves are justified. The truth of the matter is I don’t think they are.

There are two plots featured in the book, both following the main character Kvothe. The plotline that the book starts out with, stars Kvothe(pronounced Quothe) as an innkeeper, his friend and student, Bast, who isn’t exactly human, and a scribe, Chronicler. Later, Kvothe begins to tell the basic and unoriginal story of his childhood and the narrative shifts to that storyline. The young and gifted boy becomes orphaned and is thrust into an adventure, realizing dreams and hurdling challenges.

This is just the first book of the series The Kingkiller Chronicles and therefore the conflict with the magical beings that slew his parents, the Chandrian, is not resolved. In fact, the climax of the book has nothing to do the Chandrian. This seemed a very strange choice to me. Up until the last point of the book the focus is on the Chandrian and Kvothe’s desire for knowledge and revenge. You expect the climax to actually have something to do with that.

I would have preferred if the focus were on the storyline where Kvothe is older and an innkeeper. The appearance of strange creatures that only Kvothe knows about, and Kvothe’s mysterious background contribute to a mysterious atmosphere. Nothing in that secondary storyline was resolved either and, as I found this storyline more exciting, that was a disappointment.

I’ve broken the book into four general areas; writing, plot, characters and originality.

First is writing. While most everything I have written in this review is negative, the book was well written. Patrick Rothfuss is obviously a very gifted writer and, at least for me, his ability to tell stories saved the book. With all the flaws of a dull plot, the book was written extremely well and actually made the plot readable. I give the writing of this book a 4.5 out of five stars, and it deserved it.

Next comes the plot, my biggest problem with the book and sadly one of the most important factors. It was dull and there is no getting around that. Kvothe as a child was a genius and gifted in many, many ways and for the first part of the book that was basically all that was established. The plot then continued on with minimal twists and a high predictability rate. When reading, while Rothfuss tried to make it an area of doubt, I knew Kvothe was going to make it into the University and later, it was obvious he was going to get the certain award he wanted for his playing of the lute. His writing made some parts of the book enjoyable, though, and the subtlety of other parts of the plot was cleverly placed or surprising leading to my plot assessment of 3.0 stars.

Characters and character development are important factors in stories. A flaw I find in many books is the lack of flaws in characters. That problem was very evident here. Simply said, Kvothe has no flaws. A perfect character is not at all realistic and, therefore, can ruin the believability of the rest of the book. I don’t think the “Mary Sue” main character went that far and ruined the book, but it did definitely take away from it.

Another complaint about the characters in this book is the presence of only one main female character. Denna makes an appearance early in the book and is described such that you have the feeling she will return. She does, now a beautiful and mysterious grown woman. Kvothe falls in love with her and, while it is never expressively stated that she returns that feeling, it seems to the readers she does or will. After all, she is the only female main character in the book. These complaints lead to a rating of 2.0. I feel just a few minor changes in character and character development would have improved the book.

The last category is originality. The book definitely didn’t draw directly from any other books but there were the occasional reference or hints of inspiration. Nothing much was new exactly, and while the killing of his parents reminded me slightly of “Star Wars” and Kvothe’s time in the university was similar to Hogwarts and Harry Potter, it didn’t seem old per se. Therefore I give The Name of the Wind, a 3.0 for originality.

Average out the five categories and you get 3.125 stars. I would have given the book somewhere between three and four stars without the category method. Interesting how that worked out.

Would I recommend the book? It depends on to whom I am recommending it. Someone who liked the Harry Potter books might also like The Name of the Wind and other fantasy lovers might also enjoy Patrick Rothfuss’s debut novel. So even though my recommendation here in this paragraph is vague and unhelpful, I hope the review itself shed light on this very popular book.

It must also be said before I close that I did not read the second book in the series, The Wise Man’s Fear released March 2011. Upon reading it, I may discover it changes my opinion of the first book. View this review only as a review of The Name of the Wind as a stand alone novel.

-John Toomey
www.johntoomeywriting.webs.com