![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
...and unfortunately I'm starting to get bored with it.
I wanted to like it, but I find that I no longer have the attention span for 700+ page books. The minutiae about Kvothe's early life are starting to become excessive. So he grew up with a traveling troupe and then became a beggar...so what? Seriously, it's a character biography, and the only semblance of plot so far (besides the ingenious framing device) is the sprinkling of random unfortunate events that turn Kvothe's life from peaceful and normal to angsty. (Dead Parents/Doomed Hometown? Check. Hardscrabble life as an orphan on the streets? Check.) The narrative itself is somewhat intrusive at times, too; since it's Kvothe commenting on his own life, he occasionally interrupts, like when he talks about mental defenses in response to trauma--at which point my reaction was, "Thank you, Mr. Psychologist. Can we get back to the story now?"
I'm also a little annoyed by how Kvothe likes to go on about how intelligent he is. He learned all the hard sciences over a span of several months when he was eleven years old (which makes me, an ex-premed college student, splutter in rage), he's a musical genius, he can learn a language in a day and a half...seriously, is this Gary Stu territory or what? (Oh, and Kvothe is also physically attractive, of course. Red hair "like fire," smoldering green eyes that change shade depending on his mood...yup.)
The Name of the Wind makes me think of The Conqueror's Shadow in some ways. I (admittedly) like stories about badass anti-heroes just fine. However, The Conqueror's Shadow handled Corvis Rebaine's backstory in a clever way, by dropping flashbacks every so often that give us a glimpse into a past and letting us connect the dots for ourselves. There's just enough information to give you an idea of what motivated Rebaine and how he came to be the way he is, and nothing more. The Name of the Wind, on the other hand, is the opposite. The whole thing is smothered in details that could have been simplified or even omitted without affecting the story. The way the first few chapters were set up (which also could have been shortened, in my opinion) makes the reader expect an origin story, not a biography. I was expecting a tale about Kvothe the Anti-Hero, not Kvothe the Child Genius and then Kvothe the Poor Beggar Orphan.
I wanted to like it, but I find that I no longer have the attention span for 700+ page books. The minutiae about Kvothe's early life are starting to become excessive. So he grew up with a traveling troupe and then became a beggar...so what? Seriously, it's a character biography, and the only semblance of plot so far (besides the ingenious framing device) is the sprinkling of random unfortunate events that turn Kvothe's life from peaceful and normal to angsty. (Dead Parents/Doomed Hometown? Check. Hardscrabble life as an orphan on the streets? Check.) The narrative itself is somewhat intrusive at times, too; since it's Kvothe commenting on his own life, he occasionally interrupts, like when he talks about mental defenses in response to trauma--at which point my reaction was, "Thank you, Mr. Psychologist. Can we get back to the story now?"
I'm also a little annoyed by how Kvothe likes to go on about how intelligent he is. He learned all the hard sciences over a span of several months when he was eleven years old (which makes me, an ex-premed college student, splutter in rage), he's a musical genius, he can learn a language in a day and a half...seriously, is this Gary Stu territory or what? (Oh, and Kvothe is also physically attractive, of course. Red hair "like fire," smoldering green eyes that change shade depending on his mood...yup.)
The Name of the Wind makes me think of The Conqueror's Shadow in some ways. I (admittedly) like stories about badass anti-heroes just fine. However, The Conqueror's Shadow handled Corvis Rebaine's backstory in a clever way, by dropping flashbacks every so often that give us a glimpse into a past and letting us connect the dots for ourselves. There's just enough information to give you an idea of what motivated Rebaine and how he came to be the way he is, and nothing more. The Name of the Wind, on the other hand, is the opposite. The whole thing is smothered in details that could have been simplified or even omitted without affecting the story. The way the first few chapters were set up (which also could have been shortened, in my opinion) makes the reader expect an origin story, not a biography. I was expecting a tale about Kvothe the Anti-Hero, not Kvothe the Child Genius and then Kvothe the Poor Beggar Orphan.
