I like the stylized writing because Kvothe is a performer, is very young and likes to show off 😅 But yeah his writing is good for most part and has a very good passages. When I read Guy Gavriel Kay's novels my mind was blown. Because he uses the bare minimum to convey the most vivid pictures ever
I agree with the four stars but for different reasons. I read it last year and my biggest issue was the plot, or the lack thereof. Of course, the main point people point out when someone mentions plot is that this is more of "character story." Which I'd agree with, but it doesn't excuse the very weird pacing for the second half of the book. You have a consistent growth for character goals except the overall plot, when the book finally decides it's time to get back to the plot it does a pretty bad job of giving any sense of payoff. That's my major issue with this book and the second one in the series as well. I do get the feeling that it's kind of its own style but it took me much longer than it should have to finish the first book because I got bored in the second half. Things that were done very well in my opinion, were the worldbuilding, as you mentioned. I also loved the writing; Patrick is really good at writing scenes with a poetic style. He is also good at getting you invested into the character, at least for me, the music scene towards the end of the book was one of the most beautiful scene I've ever read or watched for that matter. One last point on your comment on his friends. I agree, they are bland and blend together. I only remember one of their names, but I wouldn't count that as a negative. Simply because they are side characters, their purpose, at least as far as I can tell, is to give the MC someone to talk to and to help out when needed. When they are at the bar together it feels like a group of friends hanging out and I think that's all that matters here. Same goes for the professors. I do get that most people believe fleshing outside characters is essential, but it really depends on the story and what purpose they serve for the plot. In this case I don't think they matter. Also, I think it's a bad comparison to harry potter, the difference is that Harry's story and theme is centered around those friendships, Kvothe's does not.
I read a lot of fantasy and The Name of the Wind just made me roll my eyes on how some of the women were written. It had many good ideas on magic and I appreciate what the author was trying to do. If you like Susanna Clarke have you tried Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell?
I am in the minority of people who didn’t necessarily like this series. Sure, the writing is great. Weird thing is that I never experienced enjoying the writing in the book in which I hated the main character. I found Kvothe extremely obnoxious and irritating and the whole plot is basically Harry Potter but less fun…
Fantasy is generally not my genre. I'm typically a Sci-Fi/Weird Fiction guy when I read fiction. On top of that, I have a rule (or a guideline anyway) that if you can't say it in 250 pages, you're probably saying it wrong, and if you can't say it in 500 pages, you're definitely saying it wrong. However, I really enjoyed Name of the Wind when I read it. I haven't gotten around to reading any of his other books, though. I'm experiencing a similar thing to what you mentioned when I go back and re-read some old favorite books, which isn't something I do very often. So much of the emotion around reading a book is tied to where you are in life while you're reading it, I think. I absolutely devoured Dune when I read it in my mid 20s, but while there's a lot I love about it to this day, I'm finding my re-read to be a bit of a slog. In fact, I keep putting it down and then picking it up months later. I also read a bunch of Dragonlance novels when I was first growing into being a real reader at around maybe 10 or 11 years old. I went back and re-read the first book and it was absolutely awful. Terrible writing, bad pacing, and a completely hackneyed plot that lifted a LOT more than I'd realized from Tolkien in the clumsiest ways. It read like bad fan fiction. However, I also went back and read Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series and found it to be much more enjoyable than when I'd first tried to read it as a kid. And I've been reading and re-reading a lot of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion novels, and finding many of them much more entertaining than I did in my teens, even if they're not all especially well written (what do you expect for books that were sometimes written in as little as a week). It's really wild to read them now, with 30+ years of genre fiction & film under my belt, and see how much influence Moorcock has had on contemporary Fantasy & Science Fiction. So much more than I think he's often given credit for.
I generally agree with most, I mean no book is a perfect 5 stars realistically especially on a personal level. Small disagreement I did like the supporting characters and they felt distinct but they never impact the main story of Kvothe, other than the Ambrose heist encounter. The masters felt great as well like master Lauren, Kilvin. One of the issues I have with the books is that Kvothe is a Marry Sue, he is a master of all for no reason.
Honestly I could never understand Kvothe is Marry Sue logic. Sure he is extremely naturally gifted but not with everything, not to mention he is messed-up as person and character, he manages to do things but not before messing it more then few times. Plus story is from Kvothe who is for obvious reasons unreliable narrator. His state as innkeeper is definite proof he is not Marry Sue.
What does being messed up have to do with him being Merry Sue that's a conflation. Me being messed up and having trauma doesn't give me special abilities haha. But let me make my case here. 1/ He is the best bard 2/ An amazing artificer and inventory of one of the most groundbreaking devices of his age. 3/ Pretty good at names apparently if he has all those names now and in the future, literally naming Felurian out of nowhere. 4/ An amazing rhetorician 5/ A great rogue, he can sneak around and impersonate people 6/ He is a great medic, literally started his own thesis on the applications of some plants like arrow root. 7/ There is probably more. Kvothe has been at the university for 2 years, drinking and partying, also researching the chandrian, dating Denna 8/ Now he is a master swordsman. 9/ A poet and philosopher apparently as well. The only thing he is not good at is alchemy lmao. Oh and he is 17 btw. Not even savants which an outdated term, but not even savants can do this. @@glory4645
