Posted: January 19, 2016, 10:55pm
This Winter Break, I had the absolute pleasure of being introduced to the series of novels – The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss. Being a fan of fantasy, I’m always looking for books that keep me riveted as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire did. The series is actually a trilogy with the final installment, The Doors of Stone, yet to be released.
The first book, The Name of the Wind, follows the protagonist Kvothe, on his journey from being a loved and protected child in his parents’ troupe to a prodigal Arcanist at The University. No fantasy is complete without a seemingly omnipotent and unbeatable villain and hence Rothfuss introduces the mythical Chandrian, who once they touch Kvothe’s life, will send him spiraling into some of the deepest struggles one can imagine. In the second book the journey continues as Kvothe gets introduced to more allies and more enemies at The University, makes more mistakes and stumbles into newer curiosities of the Arcanum. However, he is determined to hunt down the truth behind the Chandrian, a quest that gets eerier with no end in sight.
What has impressed me the most about the novels is how Rothfuss has built Kvothe’s character and how brilliantly transitioned him into an individual who has clearly been hardened by the ways of the world. Besides the strong plot, it is the sincerity with which one feels his fears and insecurities that makes the books unputdownable. The second book slows down the series a bit with a rather sizable portion dedicated to Kvothe’s tenuous relationship with his lady love but that is far from what would take me from not obsessing over the release of the final book.
So 2016 is already set to be eventful for me with The Doors of Stone and George RR Martin’s Winds of Winter in the offing. Come on now George! It’s been long enough.
Published on July 24th, 2017
Last updated on August 10th, 2017