Hey there, internet! Belle says it best - I just finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.
First off, let me just say that I've been looking for a high fantasy novel to love the way I love this novel my whole life. Gosh, TNotW, where have you been all this time? I guess I've been pretty unfortunate with this kind of story in the past; you know, page upon page of wordy description, language so elevated that you need a stepladder to even begin to understand...
Luckily for me, this wasn't one of those books! Rothfuss has this really wonderful skill of using perfectly understandable and readable language to create a world just as vivid as any other high fantasy novel I've ever read. Only, this time, the pages seemed to fly by rather more effortlessly.
I will admit that the beginning was a tad bit slower than I would have liked, but it soon gives way to the full force of Rothfuss' story-telling ability. The further into the book I got, the more I understood the need for the opening to be such a different pace to the rest. This, I think, is another of Rothfuss' great talents: foreshadowing and recalling pieces of information placed so subtly that you probably ought to read the whole thing again. And again.
Another factor which really cemented my high opinion of this book was the balancing of the elements of fantasy and romance. Really, when I'm searching for a good fantasy novel I'm not really thinking about romance particularly, and I know quite a few people who might hesitate to read something billed as 'fantasy romance'. TNotW surprised me by inadvertently-not quite-sort of falling into this category. Though, for the love of good books, don't let this stop you reading it. Whilst romance does play a part in the narrative of the story, it is by no means the driving force of the novel. It's natural. It has its own place in the writing.
I think saying any more about this might begin to constitute spoilers, so I'll leave it at this: The Name of the Wind is, in my humble opinion, a wonderfully written novel which deserves to be read by as many people as possible. I especially recommend it to fans of the fantasy genre in general, fans of urban fantasy, Harry Potter fans, etc. People who like adventure, school stories, coming of age, magic, music - you name it, we've got it.
TNotW gets five stars from me!
Happy reading! Keep on BakingBookies!
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