The Name of the Wind

I know. It's a shitty title. But (and this is a massive but) The Name of the Wind is perhaps the best fantasy novel I've ever read. It was so good that I started to despair after reading it because I know with cruel certainty that I will never, ever be able to write something that pointed.

The novel tells a story within a story. The main character's name is Kvothe. He has even reached his thirties yet, but he's become a legend, and as the first page of the novel tells us, he's "a man waiting to die."

The rest of the novel jumps back and forth between Kvothe's present day exploits (or lack thereof- He's been horribly diminished) and the story he tells of his past to a man named Chronicler. Because the flashbacks that make up most of the story are told in first person, the speaker, in this case Kvothe, is able to interject his own opinions whenever he pleases. Each time the story seems to be veering toward predictable yet entertaining genre staples, Kvothe reminds us that his story isn't like a fairy tale, and then something surprising happens.

The greatest strength of the book is that it follows genre conventions yet still manages to keep the reader nervous. Bad things happen just as they do in most fantasy stories, but the difference here is that they don't happen when they're supposed to. They catch you by surprise. Better still, I have never rooted for two potential lovers to get together more than Kvothe and the lady he circles through the whole book.

All in all, great stuff.

9.6/10