The Name of the Wind

Title: The Name of the Wind
Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 662
Why I read it: heard it was good
Grade: C-

Synopsis:
Told in Kvothe's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature. A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard. 

My review:
So many people have said this was an excellent book, and I can see why they'd think that.  It's well written, and Rothfuss definitely has a way with words.  You can really visualize what he's writing.  But I really didn't like this book.  It's not the longest book I've read--not even close, but it felt like it.  I felt like I was reading this forever, and that as I got near the end, more pages were being added on to the end.

It should not have taken nearly 700 pages to tell this story.  If someone were telling me about their life, and they got this wordy, I'd tell them to just get on with it already.  Get to the point!  It took so long to get anywhere, and meandered along, and got sidetracked, and I just wanted to stick to the trail.  Besides that I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again.  Kvothe looks for Denna, he looks for her some more.  He can't find her.  Also, he doesn't have any money.  He doesn't know how he'll be able to pay for the next term at school.  Repeat for three or four hundred pages.

I know there was more in there, and if some of the repetition could have been skipped, I may have been more interested.  There were some good parts.  There were some parts that I loved, but as my family can attest, I got really ornery while reading this book because it was never going to end.  I just knew I was going to be reading it forever.

Kvothe was an interesting character, and as arrogant as he was, I didn't dislike him.  I was rooting for him.  I honestly didn't care much about the secondary characters.  I feel like I didn't even really know them.  That's the problem with first person narration.

I probably wouldn't recommend this one, but I know that many fans of fantasy adored it, so what do I know?