Title: The Name of the Wind: The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One

Author: Patrick Rothfuss

Page Count: 722

Series: The Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 1

Publishing Date/Publisher: 2008 by DAW Books, Inc.

Format: Paperback

Review:  This book is the first installment of a long saga.  Although I am not usually partial to such lengthy epics, I found this one to be rather enjoyable.  The beginning was a bit slow, but I was assured by one of my colleagues (the one who made the initial recommendation) that it would soon pick up speed if I invested a little time.  She was absolutely right, and I soon found myself drawn into a tale of loss, betrayal, love and resilience.

At times I found this story to be rather stressful.  The storyteller, Kvothe, relays many near death experiences, and there are many moments when he is facing imminent danger.  He always manages to come out on top due to his own cleverness and resourcefulness, but I still found myself experiencing secondhand anxiety.  To me, this is the mark of a very talented writer, and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the fantasy genre (and has a lot of spare time and/or patience to get through a long book).

I was not as keen on the chapters that took place in the “present”, but these were added sparingly throughout the story, so I cannot gripe about them too much.  I will probably get to the second book in this series eventually, but due to the lengthy nature of each book, I will probably wait until my next maternity leave to tackle it (hopefully a couple years from now).  Considering that the author still has not released the third and final book of this series, I am in no rush to get through the second.

Reader: Bekah

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