The name of the Wind

[Anonymous No.17784362]

> Be me
> want to start reading as a hobby
> i like fantasy/fiction and so on
> look up what others think is good
> Almost EVERYONE says that "Name of the Wind" is in their top 5
> must be a good book
> i buy and read it
> meh

It was.... ok? But i don't get why it's apparently one of the very best. The MC is a mary sue (from page 1 he is the very best at everything at the same time), 90% of the book is how he has financial problems but still spends the money barely scrapes together like he is Mansa Musa. Behaves pretty cringy, especially when Denna is around. Denna is also meh.

In the beginning i got fired up pretty hard by reading about how he was this incredible guy that killed a king, destroyed a kingdom, survived some scary beings and didn't go mad etc. but the craziest thing that happens is that a fire spitting crocodile got high on sugar.

How is this one of the best books there is? I mean, i liked the writing itself (im a lit noob tho, so that doesn't mean much) and the magic system is pretty cool. The villians are also cool but you only see them in like 1 or 2 chapters.

Why is it so beloved? What am I not seeing? If everyone else likes it then it's probably me, fight? Do i need to read more books to understand the genius of Patrick Rothfuss?

[Anonymous No.17784485]

It's popular genre fiction. A light read meant to entertain.

[Anonymous No.17784542]

>>17784362
Still a mystery to me. Some anons tell me it's rather well written in english (I myself read the french translation), which in itself is admittedly a step up from basically 99% of published fantasy, but I cant imagine it's Proust levels of good either, so I don't know.
Also worth noting, the crazy, explosive success of the book wasn't a pure readers thing, I've heard serious publishers in interviews mention how the book had blown their minds and they instantly knew this was a best-seller waiting to happen... And yet I don't see it. I don't see what the hell in this book made it stand out so much from the 100000 other fantasy books published the same year.

[Anonymous No.17784569]

If you like fantasy start with The Hobbit - Tolkien is the father of modern fantasy. Sic-Fi, Asimov. Philosophy, The Stranger.

[Anonymous No.17784596]

>>17784569
Thank you friend. I haven't gotten into sci-fi but I was planning on reading dune and... Maybe some Warhammer 40k?

Do you have any other recommendations for fantasy? I am currently reading way of kings and I like it a lot. I heard malazan is good.

But I'm open to all literature as long as it's not horror or pure romance

[Anonymous No.17784601]

>>>/sffg/

[Anonymous No.17784674]

Him being the best at everything, I thought was going to be an interesting backdrop to the failure he would become in the future, this aspect of his story has not been written yet though. And I think this is supposed to be a trilogy, so maybe that won't payoff. And it get irritating how everyone loves him, sometimes for no more reason than they like his gumption. Survives fucking a fairy who always kills the men she fucks I like the idea of stories being mostly lies, and that the "true" story is either more interesting or less interesting. Any books that tell the "truth" behind the legend?

[Anonymous No.17784788]

>>17784362
>The MC is a mary sue (from page 1 he is the very best at everything at the same time)
The thing you have to remember is that this is the autobiography of a delusional narcissist. 90% of the stories about him in universe are pure bullshit by his own admission, and you're just going to take it on his word that he's done lying now? He's just taking this opportunity to recast his story in a better light, with more continuity this time. Obviously he's not an average joe, he's been around and seen some things and obviously managed to earn Bast's respect, but he never does anyone a non-marysue couldn't. If you're familiar with Kvothe's character and still take things like "and then I fucked the faerie queen so hard she realized she couldn't handle me and let me go" at face value, I don't know what to tell you.
>90% of the book is how he has financial problems but still spends the money barely scrapes together like he is Mansa Musa
Yeah, because he's a literal fucking retard that doesn't know dick except a couple of magic tricks he picked up as a kid, and a great sense of showmanship. He does stuff like complain to devi that he can't afford to take such a large loan, gets bullied into it anyway, and immediately pisses it away on nothing instead of holding on to it so he can just hand it back to her in a couple of weeks.

[Anonymous No.17785443]

>>17784485
Its this OP. And its not even good pop genre fiction.
Consider:
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
The Gormenghast trilogy
The Worm Ouroboros
The Once and Future King

The hobbit and lord of the rings mentioned by others are also very good.

The original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard are some of the very best pulp sword and sorcery.

Nothing against genre fiction though. I read as much genre sci-fi as they are able to print out and I love it. Goodreads is a useful resource for finding book picks. Also looking through the amazons read the first chapter feature is a must. If the first 2-3 pages in the book don't draw you in don't read it. There are enough great books for you to get sucked into before you get jaded like me and be willing to suffer through mediocre reads.

[Anonymous No.17786883]

>>17784362
Anon try reading The Lies of Locke Lamora, now that's some proper Oceans Eleven shit right there, couldn't put it down once I got 3 pages in

[Anonymous No.17786965]

>>17786883
stop at the first book, trust me.

[Anonymous No.17787005]

>>17786965
yeah this. the 2nd was a slog, the 3rd oof. The first one was lightning in a bottle though.

[Anonymous No.17787028]

This is the author’s self-written bio:

> Patrick Rothfuss was born in Madison, Wisconsin to awesome parents who encouraged him to read and create through reading to him, gentle boosts of self-esteem, and deprivation of cable television. During his formative years, he read extensively and wrote terrible short stories and poetry to teach himself what not to do.

> Patrick matriculated at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, initially studying chemical engineering which led to a revelation that chemical engineering is boring. He then spent the next nine years jumping from major to major, taking semesters off, enjoying semesters at part-time, and generally rocking the college student experience before being kindly asked to graduate already. Surprisingly enough, he had enough credits to graduate with an English major, and he did so grudgingly.

> Patrick then went to grad school. He’d rather not talk about it.

> All this time Patrick was working on “The Book,” as he and his friends lovingly titled it. When he returned to Stevens Point he began teaching half-time while trying to sell The Book to publishers. In the process, he disguised a chapter of The Book as a short story and won the Writers of the Future competition in 2002. This put him into contact with all the right people, and after deciding to split The Book into three installments, DAW agreed to publish it. In March 2007, The Name of the Wind was published to great acclaim, winning the Quill Award and making the New York Times Bestseller list.

> All this success was wonderful. Patrick eventually had to stop teaching in order to focus on writing, though he screwed that up by having an adorable baby with his adorable girlfriend. He started a charity fundraiser called Worldbuilders and published a not-for-children children’s book called The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle in July of 2010 through Subterranean Press, which was adorable, and seriously isn’t for children.

> After a great deal of work and a few cleared throats and raised eyebrows from his patient editor, Wise Man’s Fear came out in March 2011 to even more acclaim, making #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. Life continues to rock for him, and he’s working hard on writing the final installment of the series.

As you can see, he’s a gigantic narcissist, and it shows in his writing. Kvothe is his self-insert.

[Anonymous No.17787057]

The Gary Stu MC put me off as well, I started and stopped the book multiple times, currently reading it and intend to finish it this time. For a "smart" character, he does retarded stuff pretty frequently. You're a magic kid living on the streets and you never once try and use that magic to improve your life? I mean steal a loaf of bread or something at least. It also doesn't help that I can't stand child characters that are written to basically be small adults which is the whole premise. I still really enjoy it for the sake of the prose and world-building. Some of it's kind of stupid, but I can't deny that Rothfuss does a good job at writing a flowing text that manages to teach readers about the world without beating them over the head with it. I will say though, the first few chapters of him recounting his education as a kid are kind of an exposition dump, but it's probably the most readable exposition dump I've ever seen.

[Anonymous No.17787085]

>>17786965
Yeah, I almost made the mistake of buying both at the same time. Good thing I only bought the first book

[Anonymous No.17787164]

>>17784788
I used to think similarly... that the frame narrative would somehow cleverly and gradually expose Kvothe as an unreliable narrator and a fraud. But lately I think this is just giving Pat Rothfuss way too much credit. The guy doesn't know what he's doing, and >>17787028 is way more likely.

[Anonymous No.17787567]

>>17787028
>nine years jumping from major to major
>nine years

[Anonymous No.17787715]

>>17784362
Depends on how refined your taste is. If you like classic fic and subtlety, and don’t need a plot point happening every five seconds than you will probably like it. Otherwise you’ll probably not like it.

[Anonymous No.17788082]

>>17787164
Yeah personally I just find the unreliable narrator thing to be a gimmick to set up for a cheap "NO WAY" ending. It'd work on a smaller scale, maybe, if some guy was narrating smth for a chapter and it later proved untrue, for example, but slogging for 3 bulky volumes of lies just sounds stupid.
Either it's not happening and it's just all self-insert or it's happening and going to sound just as dumb as an "it was just a dream, bro" type of ending.

[Anonymous No.17788216]

>>17784362
he's not the best at anything, he's 2nd best in a lot of things

[Anonymous No.17788252]

>>17787028
I saw him at a convention QnA and after a while he actually refused to take a question from somebody because they were white and "there were too many white people asking questions". The guy is a cunt of the highest order.

[Anonymous No.17788335]

Compared to fiction books in general it's a below average novel with decent writing. Compared to the absolute bottom of the barrel sexy vampire YA dogshit that the fantasy genre has become it gets into the top percentile on prose alone. I would never suggest it to anyone though since the third book will never be relased, the author is a narcissistic cunt and will probably Foster Wallace himself

[Anonymous No.17788339]

>>17784362
Why is this thought of as the "greatest" modern fantasy work?

[Anonymous No.17788364]

>>17784362
The main selling point, at least the ones I've heard, is people telling how it took the author 10 years to write the book. They're praising that, but I on the other hand think that's the reason why I dislike the book. Every single chapter feels like it was written and rewritten dozens of times, with conflicting ideas and narratives, so that it feels like it was written with someone with a Bipolar disorder. One chapter the author is the absolute god at everything he does, then the next chapter he forgot everything, and is so dumb. One chapter he doesn't know anything about sex, the next he's literally a sex God making fairies have thousands of orgasms. It seems the author keeps forgetting what he wrote all the time due to so many revisions.

[Anonymous No.17788534]

>>17784362
It's shit, OP. You can say it. It's garbage trash and I hate it and I hate it even more because it's on all the fucking lists.

[Anonymous No.17788550]

>>17784362
>Denna is also meh
Denna is beautiful and strong and the best and I don't care that she has sex with old men for money

[Anonymous No.17788565]

>>17784542
it does the self-insert stuff really well. Lots of normies got their first taste of a power fantasy and they liked it

[Anonymous No.17788567]

>>17784362
dude they’re all trash, never purchase a modern day YA fantasy novel. they’re word peddlers, their books are over a thousand pages and they manage to communicate nothing, no interesting ideas, no believable or likable characters, etc. just stupid tropes and platitudes

[Anonymous No.17788843]

>>17788565
I guess that's understandable. I'm a fairly old reader, as far as fantasy goes. Felt rehashed and hollow to me, but I suppose it could please younger/less experienced readers.

[Anonymous No.17788870]

It is horrendously overrated, and the second book crosses the line into being actively bad. Like I get what Rothfuss was going for, but it seems like he forgot himself halfway through and his story just turns into him having a wank.

[Anonymous No.17789086]

>>17788843
it doesn't matter if it's rehashed if the readers haven't read the thing it's a rehash of

[Anonymous No.17789128]

>>17789086
Yeah that's what I was agreeing with

[Anonymous No.17789137]

>>17789128
I know, I was agreeing with your agreement, I'm just so confrontational that everything I say comes across as an argument even when I'm agreeing.

[Anonymous No.17789162]

>>17787028
>>17788252
He sounds insufferable.

[Anonymous No.17789274]

>>17789162
And suddenly, the book and Kvothe (MC) make sense

[Anonymous No.17789542]

>>17784596
Malazan is pretty good if you want an 'epic' style of fantasy.

Some say it can be difficult to follow, but after starting the series I don't think it's too difficult to get into.

Try reading a few chapters and see if it's your thing.

[Anonymous No.17789562]

>>17787028
What a whiny, self-deprecating bitch.

[Anonymous No.17789567]

>>17786965
Even the first book goes downhill after the 60% mark if I remember correctly. Before then it was pretty good.