Posted by 
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is a good read for anyone looking for a Storyteller Epic. I admit, that when I first started reading the book, I was a little turned off by the writing style and confusing way that things started but after getting past the first few chapters, it started to make sense and I was able to get into the story and the characters
What confused me the most was figuring out the main character. This was difficult in the beginning because he is living a double life. Or, more accurately, he is living a different life. Literally, he is being a different person from the person that you learn he is and the dissonance between the two can make things rather confusing at times. The other issue is that the story is taking place in two different times. There is the first person story that is taking place in the present and then the third person story that is taking place in the past and is the majority of the book. This adds a level of frustration to reading the story because you have some vague knowledge of what takes place in the future but you have to plod along with the past Kvothe. At the same time you are invested in the story of the past Kvothe and trying to see how his passed turned him into the man in the future that you have met and how it is still tormenting him and guiding his life. The frustration isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it adds tension to the story, but it can make you impatient at times.
The story itself is complex yet simple. It is simple because you already have the bare bones of the map to what happens, but at the same time you are learning and coloring all of the blank areas of the map as the past story unfolds and even adding new parts as the future continues around the story. This creates a novel pallet for the story to unfold on and makes it an interesting read.
The one problem that I am having is that the next book is taking a long time to come out. I don’t want to say that this is the next George R.R. Martin scenario but the authors attitude is similar, if a touch more flippant, where demand for the next story. On the one hand, this is a super complex story and I can appreciate the time and frustration it must take to keep everything cohesive. On the other hand, as a reader, I really wish that he would hurry up and get the next book out. But as a writer, who doesn’t even want to touch a story like this with a stick that could reach the moon, I have to give him props and I’m willing to wait it out. That being said, the wait should be over here soon, hopefully, so maybe this is a great time to try this series.
Look here for the Amazon version:
If you would like to take a look at my own publications, click the link below or head to my Bibliography page by clicking the link at the top of this page.
J.G. Johnson 