Mirabell
08-Aug-2009, 13:11
Once every few years, a new star rises from the murky depths of the fantasy mainstream. His or her work is subsequently hailed as original, new, groundbreaking, mostly inaccurately. In 2007 the rising star was a young man named Patrick Rothfuss. His debut novel The Name of the Wind made a deep impression upon the scene and had success far beyond the usual circle of fantasy readers. However, while the book is certainly an outstanding read, a huge amount of fun, and quite smart, much of the hype that has aggregated around Rothfuss? novel, the first in a projected series of three (we know how that usually works out?), is not due to any specific excellency of his but to the dire and formulaic writing that dominates much of this genre. (...) Rothfuss does not break much new ground, if any. He does, however, rise above many of his colleagues, since his is a smart and self-reflective take on well-worn material. (...) The book is a solid read, but Rothfuss proves himself a smart writer, who is aware of many undercurrents of his genre and turns that awareness into constructing devices of his book. If you like fantasy, you can?t really bypass this book. If you don?t, I guess you could be unhappy with many genre trappings that Rothfuss kept and reproduced. The Name of the Wind is, perhaps, not a very good book, but a very enjoyable one. It?s worth reading.
rest of the rambling review here Waystones: Patrick Rothfuss’ “The Name of the Wind” shigekuni. (http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/waystones-patrick-rothfuss-the-name-of-the-wind/)
Volume two of his series is coming out at the end of August.
rest of the rambling review here Waystones: Patrick Rothfuss’ “The Name of the Wind” shigekuni. (http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/waystones-patrick-rothfuss-the-name-of-the-wind/)
Volume two of his series is coming out at the end of August.