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I’ve been hearing about this book for some time. It’s a favorite of the Writing Excuses guys. It’s been mentioned in a few other places from time to time. So I decided when I got my Audible.com account I’d get it and give it a listen.

The novel is about a larger-than-life character named Kvothe living a very small life in the corner of nowhere with a mysterious sidekick who practically worships him. As the novel unfolds we’re given the beginnings of Kvothe’s life story which I assume will be told out over a series of novels. Rothfuss’ narrative is descriptive, even poetic at times, but also quite accessible. One can sense a great deal of weight to the world, even though we see so little of it. Details are dribbled out slowly.

The book lives up to the hype. Rothfuss has done an excellent job. He’s created a character in Kvothe that we like, care about, and cheer for, even though he can be a bit stupid at times. At least his stupidity is in line with his established personality. The story is actually a story within a story. The book begins and ends (and is interrupted by) a frame-story to explain why the main character is telling us his life story. It’s a master-stroke, since the question of “how did Kvothe come to this” is as burning a question as anything in his life story. Indeed, there are times when it’s the only story still pulling the reader along.

I say that because there are times when Kvothe takes too long on certain parts of his life. His life at the University gets tedious at times, as does his continual pursuit of a young woman who he connects with, but can never be with. Perhaps it’s because this particular aspect of the story is somewhat painful. Rothfuss couldn’t have more accurately described the romances of my teens and early twenties any better had he been riding around in my head all that time. But just because Kvothe behaves like me (I’d say “realistically”, but who knows if my experiences were typical or not) doesn’t mean I want to read half a book about someone else being the same breed of idiot.

Rothfuss has an interesting way of building tension and suspense. Most writers do so by hinting at a mystery to be revealed. Quite the opposite here: Rothfuss tells you well in advance what is going to happen. little asides, such as, “That may be part of the reason why so-n-so tried to kill me,” or “Soon I’d come to realize just how foolish I had been” are sprinkled liberally through the story. Knowing where things are headed then puts you on alert for it. The realization of those hints come sooner or later–or perhaps not at all. Or when they do come, you’re still left wondering “Was this what he was talking about, or is there something worse still to come?” It’s brilliant. You think you know what’s going to happen, and yet you don’t. Not really.

Kvothe is a lot of fun as a character. He’s a genius who can be totally clueless about some things. He’s got his quirks and foibles. He’s entirely moral, and yet a bit of a rogue nonetheless. He has a talent for finding trouble, and yet it all stems from either established weaknesses or circumstances that explain his temporary lapses in judgment. He doesn’t just “get a case of the stupids” like happens far too often in other works. He’s likable and believable, even while doing incredible things.

The praise for Rothfuss is well-earned. This story would have fallen flat in lesser hands. He’s taking significant risks with the story, and the risks largely pay off. Yes, I got bored at times, and I’m not in a hurry to rush out and get the next novel, but the story is compelling nonetheless, and I know I’ll be back once I’ve “rested up” a bit. I know it will be time well spent.

The Name of the Wind

This is the second book in a series. My review on book one: The False Prince, can be found here.

My family loved The False Prince, the first book in this series. It’s one of the few books we’ve all wanted to listen to (my wife usually uses my reading to the kids as a means of getting things done), and rearranged our schedules to make sure we get to it. So we had high hopes for the next book, The Runaway King. The battering of Sage/Jaron continues! Nielsen seems to enjoy inflicting trauma on her main characters.

But I digress. In this novel our protagonist from the first book is back, now as King Jaron. He’s finding the kingdom in a bigger mess than he realized, with much of the difficulty stemming from intrigues within his own court. Not sure who to trust, and faced with a serious threat to his life, he does what he does best: pretend to be someone else. This time he attempts to infiltrate a group of Avenian pirates threatening to destroy the kingdom to get to him. As he gets closer and closer to his goal he is increasingly forced to make difficult choices between his country, his own life, and the people he cares about.

In this book Nielsen manages some difficult characterization. Jaron has changed–he has to! Yet he’s still Jaron at heart, with all the good and bad that entails. He still makes many of the same stupid mistakes, and for the same reasons. He’s still more stubborn than is good for him. And he’s still got the same noble heart that refuses to compromise what he believes for his own comfort and expediency. He’s still a rogue, but still a lovable one.

This book is populated with many of the same characters from the first, along with a bunch of new characters every bit as memorable. We learn more about the political situation among the neighboring countries and within Jaron’s court. Plotlines from the first book come back to complicate matters. There is more than enough intrigue to drive three books.

We know all along that somehow Jaron will not just survive, but prevail. But Nielsen does everything she can to put that in doubt. Very little is easy, and she does what she can to continually ratchet up the tension. My kids never wanted to let me stop reading. And when the novel hits its cliffhanger ending they nearly wanted to form a lynch mob. My wife has pledged that we will no longer start reading a series until all the books are out. The idea of waiting until next March is painful.

I enjoy Nielsen’s work. She has a straightforward style that maintains just enough level of detail that clues don’t stand out, but without slowing the pace of the story. She’s writing suspense, and she knows it. She understands it. She wants you to keep reading, and she makes it hard not to. But she does so by creating characters we care about and putting them in situations that test their hearts. Everything else, especially setting, is secondary and treated with almost austere economy. Some might even argue the setting is too sparse. She certainly relies on her reader to fill in a lot of the detail, and yet the level of anachronism is surprisingly low. I had a particular time period/technology level in mind, but most of the details that challenged that did not do so jarringly, though I suppose it might for some.

My family and I loved it, and you can bet we’ll be in line come next March to pick up the third and final installment. But she’s set herself up a fairly difficult task. Twice now she’s had the resolution of the book come through Jaron pretending to be someone else. It’s worked so far, but if the third book goes down that same road again I will be very disappointed unless she manages to make it make perfect, inescapable sense. I’d much rather see Jaron rise to the occasion as king and put more trust in his grown cabal of friends than resort to the same plotline yet again. Twice worked, but a third time may lose me.

And yet it will be difficult for her not to. The books so far have been in first person. Describing his perspective of others going off on missions to rescue his loved ones won’t be very exciting. Political thrillers in first person can be difficult. And yet the circumstances that ended the second book will make it very difficult to just run off again–and I may find it very disappointing if he does. But we shall see. So far she has not disappointed.

(Incidentally, this weekend she revealed the cover for the third book. Very intriguing…)