The era of great fantasy is upon us. In fact, fantasy has escaped the domain of
Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts and has found its way to the main stream with
great novels. When the Lord of the Rings
trilogy hit the silver screen, the floodgates of fantasy opened and the rivers
that followed carried the Chronicles of
Narnia to movie screens and George R.R. Martin’s epic series, Game of Thrones, to televisions
worldwide. And now, hoping to capture us
with his own magic spells and fantastic tales is Patrick Rothfuss, a remarkable
storyteller and wordsmith who weaves a tale of adventure with just the right
amounts of sadness, joy, love and despair. In The
Name of the Wind, the first of what will be at least a three book series,
he introduces us to Kvothe, a man of humble origins who becomes a legend in his
own time.
Kvothe, now a humble inn owner known as Kote, tells an
incredible story of his beginnings as a boy traveling with a troupe of
performers, to his unlikely rise through the ranks in the magic university
where he learns the name of the wind itself. As his story unfolds, we learn
that the world he lives in now is becoming more and more frightening. The evil that lurks outside the doors of his
cozy inn is one that no one dares to speak of, but that Kvothe can’t
ignore.
The Name of the Wind is written for adults, but doesn’t have
Martin’s signature sex and violence. On
the other hand it doesn’t have the talking animals that Lewis wrote for his
nephews and nieces. Rothfuss’work fills a niche somewhere in the middle of
Lewis’ Narnia and Martin’s Westeros with language that tends toward the modern,
compared to the complex prose of Tolkein.
This is great fare for adult newcomers to fantasy fiction and it’s
appropriate for older teens, too.
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