Melissa "Dog/Wolf Lover" Martin's Reading & Ramblings: The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

MY NAME IS KVOTHE I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.

So begins a tale unequaled in fantasy literature--the story of a hero told in his own voice. It is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man's search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

5 STARS

IT WAS NIGHT AGAIN. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.
The most obvious part was a hollow, echoing quiet, made by things that were lacking. If there had been a wind it would have sighed through the trees, set the inn's sign creaking on its hooks, and brushed the silence down the road like trailing autumn leaves.

This is only part of the prologue to THE NAME OF THE WIND that drew me right in, the whole prologue was so beautifully written it pulled me right into the book.

I would never had found this amazing book if I wasn't watching a youtube video about books and then looking it up on goodreads to see that so many of my friends loved it. I immediately bought it and I'm just blown away. I CAN. NOT. BELIEVE this was Patrick Rothfuss debut novel! Who writes like this? Why can't I write like this? Ye gods, this book is beyond amazing, Rothfuss writing style is amazing. It flows... like water, I have only thought this once before reading a novel.

This is a big tome of a book with 700 + pages and there is not one moment of boredom or dragging. NOT. ONE. MOMENT.

I am totally in love with Kvothe The Bloodless! He is telling his story from his Inn to a chronicler. We get to learn about Kvothe's story from when he was a child. There is a tragedy in young Kvothe's life and he lives on the streets for a few years, he finds some friends and they help each other. Kvothe does have to resort to stealing and begging but what would you do when you have nothing, but he is a smart boy and he is kind. He finds a way to help himself out and decides he's going to University :-) But it's the little kindnesses of people and Kvothe himself that touch my heart.
He turned his back on me and started to tidy his workbench rather aimlessly, humming to himself. It took me a second to recognize the tune: "Leave the Town, Tinker."
I knew that he was trying to do me a favor, and a few days ago I would have jumped at the opportunity for free shoes. But for some reason I didn't feel right about it. I quietly gathered up my things and left a pair of copper jots on his stool before I left.
Why? Because pride is a strange thing, and because generosity deserves generosity in return. But mostly because it felt like the right thing to do, and that is reason enough.

Brings a damn tear to my eye. Well, a lot of the book brings a tear to my eye and of course I wanted to kill a certain person named Ambrose but we won't go there!

Kvothe plays the lute :-) He's very good at it and it helps him out on many occasions when he is strapped for money when he gets into University. And get in he does, through being smart... he's so smart to do the things that he does to get into the University and to stay there. I mean a poor boy who walked around part of his life without shoes and just trying to make it through the nights outside in the freezing cold with little to eat. He made it and he struggles and he's fierce and he's a hero!!!!! Every time someone brought him down he came back up! He never gave up! He is the best kind of hero, a kind person but he does get the best of some evil people when he has to and I love it, oh how I love it.

I'm really glad Kvothe found a couple of really good friends at the school because he had so much against him. So many bad things would happen, but like I said, he would find a way to rise back up. He even found a love interest but it didn't really get to go anywhere but that is another story.

Let me just throw in two more EXCERPTS -->I can't help myself, the book has so many good stuff it's hard to pick just a few.

I paused. "However, at this moment I have two jots in my purse and nowhere in the world to get more than that. I have nothing worth selling that I haven't already sold.
"Admit me for more than two jots and I will not be able to attend. Admit me for less and I will be here every day, while every night I will do what it takes to stay alive while I study here. I will sleep in alleys and stables, wash dishes for kitchen scraps, beg pennies to buy pens. I will do whatever it takes." I said the last words fiercely, almost snarling them.
"But admit me free, and give me three talents so I can live and buy what I need to learn properly, and I will be a student the likes of which you have never seen before."
There was a half-breath of silence, followed by a thunderous clap of a laugh from Kilvin. "HA!" he roared. "If one student in ten had half his fire I'd teach with a whip and a chair instead of chalk and slate." He brought his hand down hard on the table in front of him.

You can't help but be proud of Kvothe and his determination to get what he wants and doing anything to get it.

Another part showing how nice and good he is, he gives a simple girl a charm to make her feel better.

"Now it's tuned to you," I said. "No matter what, no matter where it is, it will protect you and keep you safe. You could even break it and melt it down and the charm would still hold."
She threw her arms around me and kissed my cheek. Then stood suddenly, blushing. No longer pale and stricken, her eyes were bright. I hadn't noticed before, but she was beautiful.
She left soon after that and I sat for a while on my bed thinking.
Over the last month I had pulled a woman from a blazing inferno. I had called fire and lightening down on assassins and escaped to safety. I had even killed something that could have either been a dragon or demon, depending on your point of view.
But there in that room was the first time I actually felt like any sort of hero. If you are looking for a reason for the man I would eventually become, if you are looking for a beginning, look here.

For the love of God, if you haven't read this book and love these kinds of high fantasy novels, READ IT! If you have had it on your shelf debating on reading it, READ IT! If you have never heard of it up until now, buy it and READ IT! It's one of the best and it's on my favorites list now... just look on Goodreads, there it is, under favorites!

There are soooo many wonderful characters in this book, even the ones we only meet for awhile. And yes there are evil ones, but that's the way of a great book. Simply amazing!