The Name of the Wind is a epic fantasy book written by Patrick Rothfuss which Kvothe the hero of many tales is the owner of the Waystone Inn who works under an assumed name and who many think is dead is found by Chronicler and is convinced to tell his life story. Each book in the series is intended to be one day of Kvothe telling his story which will take three days and will tell the reader the truth of who Kvothe is and why he is know as the King Killer.

I stopped reading The Name of the Wind at 300 pages which is roughly half of the book and I have no intention of finishing this book. Normally, I would not write a review for a book that I didn’t finish because I can’t judge the whole story but considering I feel like most people like if not love this book I feel like I should post some form of a review.

The story started out strong with Kvothe at the Waystone Inn as there was a mystery about the world and the characters the inhabit this world. The world building is good at the beginning informing the reader about the world through conversations and description that don’t involve just info dumping. However, when Kvothe starts telling his story the pacing and anything interesting grinds to a halt. We are given tons of information about his family and childhood which is good for backstory and world building but gives us no character growth or plot. When Kvothe’s family is killed I thought that the story would pick up again but it never did. As for Kvothe as a character his is far too arrogant and experiences no lasting consequences for any of his actions. Not all characters should be likable but I should want to root for them and honestly I wouldn’t care if he lived or died.

Ultimately, I stopped reading the book when I started to hate all of the characters and that the plot felt like it didn’t actually exist. I feel like around 200 of the 300 pages I read could have been removed from the book and the story would not suffer. Though this might not be true if I finished it but I don’t like forcing myself to read things that I’m not enjoying. I do think if the books are ever turned into a TV show or movie that I would like it much more as I would have visuals to connect with.