The Name of the Wind
Description
The originality of Rothfuss's outstanding debut fantasy, the first of a trilogy, lies less in its unnamed imaginary world than in its precise execution. Kvothe ("pronounced nearly the same as 'Quothe' "), the hero and villain of a thousand tales who's presumed dead, lives as the simple proprietor of the Waystone Inn under an assumed name. Prompted by a biographer called Chronicler who realizes his true identity, Kvothe starts to tell his life story. From his upbringing as an actor in his family's traveling troupe of magicians, jugglers and jesters, the Edema Ruh, to feral child on the streets of the vast port city of Tarbean, then his education at "the University," Kvothe is driven by twin imperatives—his desire to learn the higher magic of naming and his need to discover as much as possible about the Chandrian, the demons of legend who murdered his family. As absorbing on a second reading as it is on the first, this is the type of assured, rich first novel most writers can only dream of producing. The fantasy world has a new star.
About this Author
Patrick Rothfuss is the bestselling author of The Kingkiller Chronicle. His first novel, The Name of the Wind, won the Quill Award and was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Its sequel, The Wise Man's Fear, debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller chart and won the David Gemmell Legend Award. His novels have appeared on NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction/Fantasy Books list and Locus' Best 21st Century Fantasy Novels list. Pat lives in Wisconsin, where he brews mead, builds box forts with his children, and runs Worldbuilders, a book-centered charity that has raised more than six million dollars for Heifer International. He can be found at patrickrothfuss.com and on Twitter at @patrickrothfuss.
Reviews
Praise for The Kingkiller Chronicle
"The best epic fantasy I read last year.... He's bloody good, this Rothfuss guy." --George R. R. Martin, New York Times-bestselling author of A Song of Ice and Fire
"Rothfuss' Kingkiller books are among the most read and re-read in our home. It's a world you want to spend lifetimes in, as his many fans will attest." --Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of Hamilton
"Rothfuss has real talent, and his tale of Kvothe is deep and intricate and wondrous." --Terry Brooks, New York Times-bestselling author of Shannara
"It is a rare and great pleasure to find a fantasist writing...with true music in the words." --Ursula K. LeGuin, award-winning author of Earthsea
"The characters are real and the magic is true." --Robin Hobb, New York Times-bestselling author of Assassin's Apprentice
"Masterful.... There is a beauty to Pat's writing that defies description." --Brandon Sanderson, New York Times-bestselling author of Mistborn
"[Makes] you think he's inventing the genre, instead of reinventing it." --Lev Grossman, New York Times-bestselling author of The Magicians
"This is a magnificent book." --Anne McCaffrey, award-winning author of the Dragonriders of Pern
"The great new fantasy writer we've been waiting for, and this is an astonishing book." --Orson Scott Card, New York Times-bestselling author of Ender's Game
"It's not the fantasy trappings (as wonderful as they are) that make this novel so good, but what the author has to say about true, common things, about ambition and failure, art, love, and loss." --Tad Williams, New York Times-bestselling author of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn
"An extremely immersive story set in a flawlessly constructed world and told extremely well." --Jo Walton, award-winning author of Among Others
"Hail Patrick Rothfuss! A new giant is striding the land." --Robert J. Sawyer, award-winning author of Wake
"Fans of the epic high fantasies of George R.R. Martin or J.R.R. Tolkien will definitely want to check out Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind." --NPR
"Shelve The Name of the Wind beside The Lord of the Rings...and look forward to the day when it's mentioned in the same breath, perhaps as first among equals." --The A.V. Club
"Rothfuss (who has already been compared to the likes of Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, and George R. R. Martin) is poised to be crowned the new king of epic fantasy." --Barnes & Noble
"I was reminded of Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, and J. R. R. Tolkien, but never felt that Rothfuss was imitating anyone." --The London Times
"This fast-moving, vivid, and unpretentious debut roots its coming-of-age fantasy in convincing mythology." --Entertainment Weekly
"This breathtakingly epic story is heartrending in its intimacy and masterful in its narrative essence." --Publishers Weekly (starred)
"Reminiscent in scope of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series...this masterpiece of storytelling will appeal to lovers of fantasy on a grand scale." --Library Journal (starred)
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