The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles, #1)

by Patrick Rothfuss

[nannah]

First off, to the friend who recommended this book so highly and was so excited for me to read this: I'm so sorry.

(2.5)

The book begins as a scribe visits an inkeeper who, of course, is much more than your average inkeeper. He's this legendary Kvothe, who's done all this and that and who's all powerful, and the scribe has come to write down his story. So this book is the first part of Kvothe's story told in Kvothe's voice.

The writing is beautiful, and I'm easily absorbed into the story. I find myself thinking about the book when I'm not reading, which is great! But then there's so much I didn't like about it that overshadows what I liked about the book.

Kvothe is haughty as all hell and unbearable as an MC because of it. Most of the time, I can't stand him. The only character I began to like was Bast, one of the fae, who had a character that wasn't just limited to "jovial supportive character talking about women" or "empathizing supportive character talking about women". Sure he talks about women, but there was actual depth to him other characters lacked--their world was limited to their interactions with Kvothe. And yeah, yeah, it makes sense because this is Kvothe telling the story, but as a reader it wasn't such a fun experience, especially when the book is over 600 pages.

There's also a disgusting lack of women here--it's even pointed out by Bast at one point. If it's even pointed out by a character within your story, you should know you have a fundamental problem. Sure, there's the "love interest", Denna, who comes and goes because she's so independent, and Devi, a shady businesswoman, but one or two strong women in a story with, what? 25+ male characters does't make up for the difference.

Because for real, every girl or woman Kvothe meets is measured by how beautiful she is. When one girl sings beautifully while he plays, he naturally tries to find her afterward in the crowd. But the only girls he considers are the beautiful ones, because only pretty girls can have beautiful voices, right? Women are talked about like objects from the very beginning, and by every male character. God, it's wearying.

There's also a marked lack--and by that I mean absolutely zero--of nonwhite characters. How does this entire world exist but contain only white people? There's even people called the Ruh who have cultural identities based off nonwhite cultures in our world, but in Patrick Rothfuss's world . . . they're white. That's such a disgusting use of cultural appropriation.

So I'm sorry, friend, what I enjoyed didn't make up for what I didn't enjoy. :(