Book #11 completed! "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

Ok so this was a "borrowed" book. Eleven books into this adventure and I still don't completely understand why people read for "fun". As such, I am trying to branch out and hit different genre's to see if something catches my interest for the long term. The first role of the dice in into the "sci-fi fantasy" realm. Now with any well written article (not that I am saying my reviews are "well written" but you are the sucker that is reading them so haha to you) a writer tends to acknowledge their own personal biases as to let the reader know that there may be some slant to their story. Mine in this case (outside of the lack of understanding of why people read when they don't have to) is "Gentlemen Broncos".

Yeah, I know - you probably are thinking "what the Hell is he talking about now" right? Ok, so I am bored one night and I go to Blockbuster to see if they have any interesting movies. On a side note, yes I still use Blockbuster and not Netflix because I refuse to plan ahead as much as movies by mail requires. Anyway...so I'm at Blockbuster and there is this film called "Gentlemen Broncos"
, which is not porn for further clarification. It was made by the people who directed "Napoleon Dynamite". Now, I was not a huge fan of Napoleon Dynamite when I first saw it but it turned out to be one of those movies that you think are stupid but you end up quoting it to your friends, family, and co-workers all the next week. Given that experience, I figured I would give "Gentlemen Broncos" a try. The story's premise deals with the cut throat world of science fiction fantasy writing and people stealing each other's ideas, bad (and usually self illustrated) cover art, and a lot of just general dorkiness. I suppose I should not have expected much more from the people who brought us "Napoleon Dynamite". Ergo, I thought the movie was stupid but I keep referencing it whenever the topic of sci-fi fantasy comes up. Shocker I know....

So I see the cover to "The Name of the Wind", with the absolutely ridiculous drawing of the main character Kvothe on it, and IMMEDIATELY my mind goes racing to that movie. And it's a long book too (think Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire long for a reference) and I am sure that this is going to either be absolutely miserable or so far out in left field that I am going to write pages and pages bagging on it. Turns out, I was wrong. Now this has only happened once or twice before (me being wrong) so it's kind of a big deal.

Like I said, I really liked this book but I need to point out some of the lesser points first, mainly because that is how I roll. First off, the copy I have is a first edition hardback and has the ridiculous drawing on the front of Kvothe. Do you remember back in the day when grade school made you put a book cover on your textbooks and a lot of people used brown grocery bags to do this? I so wanted to make my own "book protector", which would have really been protecting me from feeling like a total....I guess a total "Gentlemen Bronco" lol.

Second, the story has a lot of similarities to Harry Potter. I did not pick up on it right away but about half way through the book I kept thinking "this is just like Harry Potter". I hope the author guy does not get sued or whatnot because he is obviously a copier. Well, fair being fair, I probably have to say that it might be my slanted opinion based on the "Gentlemen Broncos" movies that is causing these kinds of thoughts. But oh well, it's my damn book review so :P

Ok, those were my two biggest faults of the book. Outside of that I think it is a really great book. It deals with the story of Kvothe, who is a legend and hero in this fantasy land. During the course of the book, Kvothe recants the story of his life to a scribe who will be writing a sort of biography about him. He starts with his childhood where he traveled with his parents in an acting troupe. From this he learns to act, play instruments, about people in general, etc. The troupe picks up a guy who becomes Kvothe's mentor and teaches him about science and magic. Then parents get killed, he is homeless and gets out of that by going to.....a school for magic. It's not really just a school for magic but that is taught there. He meets people, falls for a girl, loses girl, explores the underground passages and caverns that cover the university grounds (sound like "Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone" yet?-and yes I know that is the British title for the book tyvm), gets in trouble for using magic, saves people, finds same girl, loses same girl, finds her again-you get the point.

Now this is the author's first book and it is extremely well written. He put a lot of time and thought into creating this fantasy world that Kvothe lives in and there are no obvious or disjointed sections as you would expect to see in such a ambitious project. It was one of those books that I wanted to finish in one sitting, much like that of the "Harry Potter" series. I have come to find out that this is supposed to be book one of a trilogy and the next book is expected to be out this year. I definitely will read the second book.

Oh and in my research I found out that they fixed the ugly cover! Check out the new one (as it is a New York Times best seller and all):

Picture was supposed to go here but I don't know what I am doing so it is at the top. You get the point.

Ok so for the official review, I give said book:

Vroom, Vroom, Vroom, Vroom (4 out of 5 Vroom's on the motorcycle scale of awesomeness)