Child Prodigy. Student. Mason. Wizard. Murderer. Gypsy. Has-been.
Kvothe is a living legend. An extraordinary man who has the misfortune of outliving his own glory. By a stroke of (mis)fortune, Kvothe meets The Chronicler, a legendary scribe who is eager to hear Kvothe’s story, as told by the legend himself. And so begins the Kingkiller Chronicle. A three day journey through the life of Kvothe. Throughout this story, Kvothe struggles to deal with insurmountable odds; demonic powers, crushing poverty, ruthless enemies, and his own ego all threaten to destroy him at any moment. Truly, a less remarkable character would perish. Since its publication ten years ago, Patrick Rothfuss’s book has developed a cult following, with TV and film studios nipping wrestling one another to earn the rights to take the story the screen. Now let us see why. World Building: This is, undoubtedly, not the strongest point of the Kingkiller series. Patrick Rothfuss’s work is really a different beast from many other works in the genre. Brandon Sanderson, for example (who will definitely be discussed on this blog) creates organisms, planets, laws of physics and chemistry as part of his world building. In other words, he creates worlds… Rothfuss does not do this (nor does he aim to). It would be unfair, however, to not highlight some of the book’s strengths in this category. Kvothe’s world does have a significant and well thought-out magic system. Sympathy (a sort of physics/magic hybrid) plays a big role in Kvothe’s story. Moreover, these creative elements of the Kingkiller world are easy to understand. Score: 8/10 Characters: This is a character driven story. Through and through. And in that regard, there is nothing, literally nothing, that compares to the Kingkiller Chronicle. After reading this book (and its sequel), I feel like I know Kvothe. I feel like I have traveled with him. I feel like I have sat on the other side of the counter at the Waystone Inn and listened to his story. Sound crazy? Well, don’t judge too quickly. I’ve spoken to other readers who share this sentiment. It is truly remarkable that such an unrelatable character (a red-headed gypsy wizard) is so relatable. This is partly the case because, as mentioned earlier, nothing comes easy for Kvothe. This conveniently leads us to the plot… Score: 10/10 Plot This is definitely a character driven story. Yes, some amazing things happened. Yes, Kvothe goes to some strange and interesting places. Yes, Kvothe makes great friends and terrific enemies. But what makes the book such a great read is not the events themselves, but how Kvothe responds to those events. If you are looking for colossal battle scenes with thousands of swords clanging against one another, this is probably not the book for you. That does not mean that the book is slow or boring, quite the contrary in fact. The pace is excellent and the events are meaningful, in the way they influence the development of the character. It is worth mentioning in this section that the narrative voice changes from first person to third person at certain intervals. Kvothe tells the story in his own voice, but hes actually in an inn telling his story. When the plot cuts back to the inn the narrative voice changes. Score: 10/10 Writing So far as writing is concerned, Rothfuss has no equal in this genre. Anyone who has read this book will tell you there are moments where it feels like the words dance off the page. I don’t need to dwell here, because this point is really straight forward. The only thing I will say is that I wish he was able to do this amazing work a little faster, as fans have been waiting for book three in the trilogy for over a decade! 10/10 Final Score: 38/40 Final Thoughts If a book scores higher than 4.5 on Goodreads and has thousands upon thousands of reviews, there has to be something special about it. This book is special. I think that most people who read this book will leave feeling like the know Kvothe, and that says a lot about the wonderful job that Rothfuss has done with this book. Leave a comment below!
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AuthorBenny Adams is a fantasy and science fiction blogger, aspiring writer, and mediocre husband and father.
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