Review of Storm Front by Jim Butcher

I figured it was about time I ventured into Jim Butcher’s highly acclaimed Dresden Files series.  Book 1, Storm Front, turned out to be an absolute pleasure to hear.  Yes, hear.  It just doesn’t seem right to say read, when referring to an audiobook.  Lately, a lot of my discretionary time has been dumped into my own writing, so my book munching pace has slowed.  Thankfully, my workday commute isn’t getting any shorter, so a steady stream of audiobooks remains a rewarding part of an otherwise insanely bland ritual.  And, when a great narrator comes along, it adds even more joy to the experience.  James Marsters provided a marvelously convincing voice that oozed nuance and subtlety into Storm Front’s main character, Harry Dresden.  Marsters really had a great sense of pacing that complemented the writing talent of Butcher well.  From the varied tone and the occasional shortness of breath, to the faint rolling around of spit and sucking of his teeth, his vocalizations were just great.

Storm Front gets moving right away.  Harry makes his living as a wizard for hire, a sort of private investigator of the weird and unexplained.  He’s called in to offer his supernatural expertise to a Chicago detective concerning a grisly double murder.  From there, Harry sets to puzzling out who could be behind the crime.  Along the way, we’re happily submersed into Harry’s wizardly profession and the odd shortcomings that accompany it.  One of the most amusing of his limitations is that electronic devices seem to go haywire whenever he is near.  It puts some pretty tough constraints on his use of technology.  It’s also a neat way of making him seem like he’s stuck in the dark ages but in a present day environment.  He lives in a basement apartment of an old house, uses candles, doesn’t watch t.v. or have a cell phone, etc.  He keeps a couple of endearing companions, one a cat named Mister, the other – a mysterious ancient spirit named Bob that inhabits a skull on his book shelf.  Bob, while kind of a rascal, basically takes the place of a computer.  He provides a store of arcane knowledge so Harry doesn’t have to remember every esoteric spell or alchemist’s recipe.  Bob likes being let out, and seems to favor haunting a nearby sorority.  Harry’s magic ability is rooted in being able to manipulate energy on a quantum level.  He uses a staff to focus his power and a blasting rod.  Harry isn’t the stereotypical white-bearded old man sort of wizard; he’s in his thirties and subject to the same emotions and urges as the rest of us.  One other special gift he has is what he calls a third eye that allows him to see things that co-exist in another plane or dimension.  Lots of scary things apparently move about in this realm right on top of our own.

Pace and tension were handled superbly in Storm Front and the language is very sensory and smooth-flowing.  Harry seems to stumble from one incident to the next with barely a chance to shower and brush his teeth.  In one fight, he’s completely naked and has shampoo running into his eyes.  The funny thing though is that the action feels authentic and doesn’t degrade into melodrama or camp.

I’ve been disappointed in a number of other urban fantasy offerings that I’ve tipped my toe into, particularly those that over-glamorize vampires.  Not so with Butcher, he paints them in their true form and I love him for it.

If there’s any fault with Storm Front, it’s that its told from Harry’s point of view only.  This was great for understanding Harry but it made the prime villain seem a little mechanical.  Maybe the book was just too short to accommodate multiple points of view?  In any case, I’m hooked.

9/10

Review of The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

note:  I experienced this in audiobook form read by Nick Podehl

Kvothe’s telling of his life story continues in The Wise Man’s Fear, the marvelous second installment of the Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy.  In the prologue, we are returned to the pastoral yet somber setting of the Waystone Inn which is draped in a “silence of three parts” and Rothfuss again describes Kvothe as a “man waiting to die.”  The basis for this situation is still a mystery though.  In the opening chapters, Kvothe and his student Bast are considering what happened the night before which left one man and one “creature” dead on their tavern floor.  Their concern seems almost offhand, but Kvothe talks about performing an old chant to “make things a bit safer around here.”  Before this chant can get underway though, Chronicler joins the scene and we’re transported back to Kvothe’s much more engaging lay-it-all-out coming of age story that began in The Name of the Wind.

Kvothe returns for another year at the Arcanists’ University across the river from the town of Imre, re-joining many of his friends.  He’s still sharp as ever and plows his way through higher learning.  He’s still on a quest to find out about the Chandrian (the demonic beings that killed his parents) and finally he’s still in pursuit of the lovely and restless Denna.  When he learns of an item she held dear that was entrusted to another for repairs and then withheld from her, he takes it upon himself to retrieve it.  This leads to a precarious situation that could result in his expulsion… so Kvothe’s friends think it best that he take a term off from the University and wait for things to settle.  It’s only when Kvothe is convinced that Denna is in trouble that he decides to take their advice.  He follows her trail, bringing with him a voucher from a nobleman that attests to his musical talents.  He ends up in the city of Severen and presents himself to its highest authority, Maer Alveron.

Kvothe performs some extraordinary duties in the service of Alveron, allowing him to put his developing arcanist’s abilities to the test.  This section formed the real meat of Wise Man’s Fear.  His biggest task involves leading a small group of mercenaries along the main route to the north to apprehend a host of bandits that have made recent travel and trade troublesome to say the least.  When they catch up to the bandits deep in the Eld forest, Kvothe proves himself as a magus to be reckoned with.  Not long after, they encounter a faerie queen named Felurian; she’s a siren and Kvothe answers her call, adding a whole new category to his education.  During his time in the fae world, Kvothe encounters a being called the Cthaeh (pronounced Cathay), who has the gift of seeing all possible futures and who enjoys tormenting people by revealing the worst outcomes.  Kvothe learns something about the Chandrian and about Denna but he takes flight before the Cthaeh has a chance to reveal any more.

Kvothe catches up to his mercenary companions, resting up in a nearby town.  The most endearing of these is an unassuming guy named Tempi who hails from the land of Ademre.  The Adem people have some weird customs including the use of hand gestures as a form of expression.  Their fighting abilities are renown, sort of a cross between the sword skills of a samurai and the fluid hand-fighting abilities of a Shaolin monk.  They follow a guiding principle called the Lethani which sounds very much like the Ancient Egyptian concept of Ma’at, “acting rightly.”  Rothfuss goes into great depth about the Ademre culture which I found really interesting and believable.  Kvothe accompanies Tempi to Ademre to stand by him in the face of disciplinary action as a result of revealing too much of the Ademre “ketan” fighting art.  Kvothe’s sincerity wins over the head of the ketan school and he is given over to a teacher named Vashet (the hammer) to see if she can determine if he’s worthy to continue his ketan training.  Kvothe advances his fighting skills and makes new friends, but he’s compelled to investigate the Cthaeh’s premonitions concerning Denna’s well-being and continue his quest to hunt down and kill the Chandrian.

After Kvothe leaves Ademre, he comes across a band of thieves impersonating a troupe of Edema Ruh.  When he discovers all the wrong they had done, he takes the law into his own hands.  While I felt a grim sense of justice concerning his actions, I also thought he was a bit too extreme for a character of his sensibilities.  I guess I learned that Kvothe has a darker side that comes out from time to time.  Come to think of it, he has a mad laughter that takes hold of him during traumatic experiences too.

Back in Imre, Kvothe finally has a pleasant moment with Denna but it’s short-lived and sort of falls flat.  Then, she’s off again.  Argh!  Come on Rothfuss!  Finish what you started; the sexual tension is wearing thin…

At the end of the story, we’re brought back to current events at the Waystone Inn.  Kvothe has just run up against a new threat and things don’t go so well for him.  Later, he tries to call on his “namer’s” ability to open a magic lock on his own chest and his attempt fails.  Something traumatic surely has affected him, something that occurred between the events of the story he’s related so far and his current life as an inn-keep.  Rothfuss hasn’t revealed what that traumatic thing is yet, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the subtitle of the series “Kingkiller” and his rival Ambrose Jakis.

The Wise Man’s Fear succeeded in making me empathize a great deal more with Kvothe.  He really grows on you.  The story moves ahead smoothly and has more exciting moments than were in the first book.  The only complaint is that I felt there should have been more plot advancement of current events.  There was a surprise at the end but I was hoping to maybe see Haliax wander into the Waystone.  I’m really looking forward to the next installment.  No announcement of a publication date as yet though

9/10

Review of Book 1 – The Name of the Wind

Review of Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick

Douglas Hulick has made an impressive entrance into the heroic fantasy realm with his debut novel, Among Thieves, the first in what is to be a series.  The book had me enrapt until the end.  I loved the intricately crafted plot turns, the pacing, the descriptions, the dialogue, the complex characterization, damn… there really weren’t any flaws to speak of.  The backdrop reminded me of Scott Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora.  Both tales drop us into a dynamic cityscape that is overrun with thieves, spies, and murderers.  Through the principal character, we’re lead on a difficult journey that tests him to the core.  The principal character in Among Thieves is named Drothe.  He’s a clever rascal and a pragmatist but he also clings to a certain sense of honor that sets him apart from the other Kin of the underworld.  He serves as a “long nose” for a crime-lord by posing as an informer for another.  He also smuggles relics on the side.

The story opens with Drothe discovering a note in an ancient script during an interrogation.  He can’t decipher what it says but he believes it must be terribly important since the guy was willing to die for it.  Tracking down the note’s origin leads him on a chase for an ancient book known as Ioclaudia’s Journal.  Turns out said journal is being sought by all the big dogs in the underworld because it’s believed to contain secrets about a powerful type of magic that may hold the key to killing the Emperor who’s in a never-ending cycle of reincarnation.

Hulick’s descriptions of the city of Ildrecca, with its various cordons and markets, reminded me of Old World Cordoba, Marrakesh, or Cairo.  Much of the action is spent chasing down Ioclaudia’s Journal and then funnily enough, hiding it again.  Drothe has great misgivings about delivering it into the wrong hands even though he desperately wants to be rid of it.

While there’s some magic use in the story, Hulick keeps it from taking over.  There’s clear rules and limitations and Hulick sticks to them.  I thought Drothe’s night vision was a cool touch but it was never abused to the point of sacrificing tension.  In fact, Drothe has a great deal of trouble and pain landed on him in spite of his gift and other seeming advantages.  Drothe tends to be a bit brash in his handling of things and he leans on his strong-arm friend Bronze Degan to watch his back.  The story had a satisfying end and sets the stage for great stuff to come in future volumes.

On the whole, Among Thieves had a nice immersive quality, great tension and intrigue, and flowed smoothly.  Hulick did a fantastic job getting the cant of the Kin to sound authentic.  Also, it’s clear he has a good deal of knowledge when it comes to sword-play.  The action scenes were expertly choreographed and believable.  The next installment, to be titled Sworn in Steel, is due out in June.

9/10

Review of The Gunslinger – The Dark Tower I, by Stephen King

note:  I experienced this in audiobook form, narrated by George Guidall

I’ve heard good things about Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, so I figured I’d check it out for myself.  The first in the 7 book series is titled The Gunslinger, after it’s central character.  The book is fairly short in length and would really be more aptly classified as a short story I think.  The story opens with the Gunslinger, Roland, traversing an open wasteland in pursuit of a figure he calls the Man-in-Black who always seems to stay a day or two ahead.  King does a great job of pulling us into a bleak eerie setting and introducing his enigmatic hero.  The imagery evokes the Old West and resembles a Clint Eastwood Man With No Name movie.  The out of nowhere town of Tull that Roland rides into is a weather-beaten place filled with gritty weather-beaten folk.  He orders two hamburgers at the saloon and you can just feel the onlookers aching to partake.  Roland asks if anyone knows what lies beyond the mountains to the west.  He also asks about the Man in Black, whom he knows must have passed through town before him.  No one is willing to talk, but a woman named Alice whom he takes upstairs *cough* reveals a strange secret to him – a warning from the Man in Black.

Later, the Gunslinger attends the town church service and takes the hint that he’s not welcome.  He goes to speak to the preacher, a woman named Sylvia.  She tells him another secret about the Man in Black…under duress.  The situation escalates and Roland finds the town has turned against him at Sylvia’s fiery religious rousing.  She’s apparently convinced everyone that Roland is the devil.  A bloody fight ensues and Roland makes it out with barely a bullet to spare.

Roland continues on his journey to the mountains and on the way he meets an innocent boy named Jake.  Apparently Jake was transported to the wasteland from modern day New York City, although he can’t articulate the name and other specifics.  When Jake describes his former surroundings and daily routine, Roland is unable to relate.  This basically tells us that Roland and Jake are caught in a place that is pinched off from the real world… almost like what you might encounter beyond a Bermuda Triangle space-time warp.  We learn a little more about Roland’s past, namely his rough upbringing as a student to a Gunslinger named Cort.  We also get a sense that Roland has genuine concern for Jake’s welfare and wants to help him get back to his place and time.  They follow a rail-track on a hand-pump-cart and end up passing through an old mine at which point the track turns into a rickety roller-coaster.  On the other side waits the Man in Black… taunting them.

When Roland finally catches up with the Man in Black, the two of them have a chat.  The Man in Black does a Tarot card reading and tells Roland he must seek the Dark Tower.  There he will find all the answers and there he will be able to set things right with the world.  That’s basically how the story leaves off.

Considered on its own, The Gunslinger wasn’t that interesting.  But there certainly seems to be some interesting things ahead.  The character of Roland was quite intriguing and I loved the eeriness of the Old West setting.  On the downside, I found some bits to be revolting (and unnecessary), notably Roland’s extended chat with Sylvia.  While Roland’s quest to find the Dark Tower is revealed, there’s a lot of unanswered questions.  I understand that subsequent installments are more action packed and exciting.  I’ll keep reading, so we’ll see.

7/10 (so far)

Review of The Iron Druid Chronicles, books 1-3, by Kevin Hearne
book 1 – Hounded
book 2 – Hexed
book 3 – Hammered

Kevin Hearne is a new writer on the paranormal/urban fantasy scene and he brings a refreshing new angle to this heavily trod genre of late with his marvelously conceived main character, Atticus O’Sullivan, a 2100-year old druid living in present day Tempe, Arizona.  Celtic myth and legend have always intrigued the hell out of me.  After spotting the catchy covers for Hounded, Hexed, and Hammered while browsing at Barnes and Noble, and then reading their enticing jackets, I was hooked.  I went with the audio versions, and I’m glad I did.  Narrator Luke Daniels did a terrific job of handling a diverse cast of characters.  One of the most endearing of these is Atticus’s dog, an Irish wolfhound named Oberon.  He reminded me a bit of Scooby-Doo.  Atticus and Oberon are able to communicate mentally which often results in very amusing dialogue between the two.  It’s also a great advantage for coordinating efforts when facing off with their enemies.

The Iron Druid Chronicles gets its name from an iron amulet that Atticus crafted over the centuries and bound to his aura.  It serves as a ward against hostile magic directed at him.  It also has a number of charms enabling reflex-like speed to do things like boost strength or see thru magic glamours (he calls this one his faerie specs).

As the last druid of his kind, Atticus has a load of other awesome abilities at his disposal.  For example, he’s able to draw energy from contact with the Earth to increase his speed and strength, never tire out while running, and rapidly heal himself as necessary.  He can shape-shift, call on elemental beings for favors, and create bindings between living things and natural materials.  In addition to his magic talents, Atticus can fight with all the skill and savage intensity of a Celtic hero of old with the benefit of 2000 years of martial experience.  He isn’t an immortal like Highlander Connor MacLeod though; he’s simply stopped the aging process at the tender age of 21.  His secret is a special tea he developed with his druidic herbal knowledge called Immortali-Tea.  He sounds like a real badass but Atticus actually exudes an amiable sweet boyish manner and his quick-witted mind has adapted well to the culture of the current times as he has transitioned from one period into the next.

The narrative of the books is almost entirely in first person from Atticus’s point of view, so it proceeds in an easy to follow conversational manner.  To partake in the character development and understand the intertwining behind the various major conflicts which tumble from one book into the next, the books should definitely be read in their published order.  Hearne does a fine job of revealing bits and pieces of Atticus’s past, explaining his system of magic, and filling out the structure and expanse of the world as the narrative moves ahead.  There’s a whole mess of supernatural beings running around in Hearne’s world; he doesn’t stop with the Tuatha De Danann of Celtic myth.  Figures from several other ethnic pantheons and cultural traditions are pulled from and sometimes re-imagined in a new light.  It seems a bit overcrowded and chaotic.  Fortunately, many of these Old World gods are content to stay in their own plane of existence with little if any intrusion into present day human affairs.  Others, namely those of the paranormal variety, coexist with humans.  They generally try not to draw too much attention to themselves but not to the extent of denying their basic nature.  Included are the usual suspects:  werewolves, vampires, witches, and demons.

Atticus keeps a law firm on retainer to help him finesse his way out of hard to explain situations that his druidic activities sometimes get him into (like when wolfhound DNA is found in the wounds of a recently slain park ranger near his home).  The firm is run by Gunnar Magnusson, alpha of a pack of werewolves that have claimed Tempe as their territory.  Gunnar is a real Viking, reputed to have come across to North America with Erik the Red.  Atticus usually deals with Hal Hauk though, Gunnar’s second, or another associate, Leif Helgarson, an ancient Icelandic vampire.  Hearne explains the unusual association of the vampire and the werewolf pack as a result of having a common enemy, Thor.

In Hounded, Atticus is roused from his laid back decade long seclusion as the proprietor of a new age book shop in Tempe.  Rather than cut and run, he decides to make a stand vs. Aenghus Óg, a Celtic god who’s been hunting him ever since Atticus made off with Aenghus’s favorite magic sword centuries ago.  Minions sent by Aenghus and meddling by other Celtic deities keep Atticus busy.  Ultimately, he and Aenghus go mano a mano.

In Hexed, Atticus must confront the aftershocks stemming from his fight with Aenghus Óg.  A couple of nasty demons got loose during the battle.  It also attracted the attention of other supernatural beings who perceive Atticus as a real threat or want to ally with him and use him for their own selfish ends.  A group of Bacchants (worshipers of Bacchus, Roman god of Wine and Ecstasy) from Vegas invade and a coven of German witches known as the Hexen are drawn in as well.  The Hexen have crossed paths with Atticus before (they partnered with the Nazi’s during WWII) and are eager to bring him down this time.  Meanwhile, Atticus agrees to take on an apprentice, Granuaile, has a romp with The Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of death, and manages to continue eluding the police who link him to a number of strange goings-on.

In Hammered, Atticus journeys to Asgard, realm of the Norse gods, after having finally given in to his vampire friend Leif Helgarson’s long standing call to help him kill Thor.  Yes, really.  Talk about turning a popular heroic icon on its head, lol.  Apparently – despite his celebrated stature as a vanquisher of evil – Thor is one hell of a gigantic douche-bag.  An assassination squad is assembled to take him down.  Each member of the squad tells a sob story of Thor’s treachery which lends a degree of justification for their dire plan.  Unfortunately, I didn’t buy into any of it at all.  The image of Thor as a capricious trickster was – to me – preposterous.  It would’ve been completely plausible if Hearne instead had used Loki for this role.  Thor might be a crass oaf at times, but he has a good heart and he just plain kicks ass.  To completely invert his standing as Hearne does was asking too much.  Not only that, the actual fighting lacked tension, so the story sort of fell flat.  There were other lesser problems too.  Atticus has a bar chat with Jesus that was corny and out of place.  A number of pop-culture references and analogies were clunky and distracting.  Granuaile has but a brief appearance early on which was a shame since there is ripe material to build on with her.  If anything, I think Hammered should’ve had a hefty number of pages spent on Granuaile’s continued training and Atticus’s relationship with her.

Needless to say, Hammered wasn’t quite on par with the first two books.  Aside from shortcomings noted already, I think the basic problem was Hearne tried to shove in and juggle too many other diverse mythic elements and the result was an eclectic mishmash with little hint of the original druid flavor that is the standout strength of this series.  I’ll keep reading because I love the character concept of Atticus.  I just hope the main story gets back on track.  The next installment, Tricked, is due out April 24, 2012.  Reportedly, more books will follow.

Hounded 8/10
Hexed 7/10
Hammered 6/10

The Iron Druid Chronicles (so far…)
7/10

Review of Firebird by Jack McDevitt

note:  I experienced this in audiobook format, narrated by Jennifer van Dyck.

I came across Firebird while browsing some recent sci fi picks on Audible.com.  Mainly, I wanted to get a taste of what sci fi writers are writing about lately.  The genre seems to be in a bit of a decline in popularity compared to fantasy and paranormal, which is rather surprising if you consider all the fascinating sci fi ripe things happening lately, such as:  the Kepler telescope’s numerous new planet discoveries in the “Goldilocks” temperature zone (which suggests liquid water and the possibility of life), CERN’s recent OPERA experiment with its mind-blowing evidence that neutrinos travel faster than light, discoveries of “rogue” planets that wander the galaxy (perhaps outnumbering the stars) and Y-dwarf stars that are cool enough to touch; not to mention stunning and rather scary new observations of black-holes in action.  The jacket for Firebird described a mystery about vanishing interstellar space yachts and I couldn’t resist a look.  I picked up a couple other recently published sci fi books as well for a fair sampling but Firebird looked to be the most interesting so I started with that.

Firebird is actually the 6th installment in McDevitt’s Alex Benedict series, though it is the first one I’ve read and my first exposure to anything by McDevitt.  Alex and his female associate, Chase Kolpath, are basically a couple of antiquities dealers and finders of lost artifacts – a futuristic tomb-raider team.  They live in the far future, approximately 9000 years hence, on a planet called Rimway.  Earth has long since expanded into star systems throughout the galaxy and interstellar travel is accomplished by hyperspace jumps.  I was curious about what sort of drive system was allowing the jumps but this level of detail was skipped over.  McDevitt puts his story far enough into the future that such things are treated as ordinary and accepted.  The story starts off with Chase and Alex beginning an investigation into the mysterious disappearance of a famous physicist named Christopher Robin some 40 years earlier.  He had some controversial theories about alternate multiple universes and black holes and some conspiracy related to that surrounds his disappearance/death.  Alex wants to dig around in Chris’s past a bit to stir up interest (and therefore prices) for Chris’s personal items.  Before his disappearance, Chris was doing experiments with a number of old space yachts.  Apparently, he was on to solving the long running mystery of lost space vessels that reappear and then fade out of existence again.  A few such sitings even described passengers pounding on the windows.

The investigation leads Chase and Alex to a dangerous planet called Villaneuva.  When first colonized thousands of years ago, Villaneuva quickly grew into an extremely popular spot based on its lush climate (think Flotsam Paradise in The Fifth Element).  However, a huge intra-stellar dust cloud passed through Villaneuva’s star system and despite plenty of advance warning, the bulk of the inhabitants decided to stay and ride it out.  Idiots.  Sadly for them, a cold darkness descended on the world and lasted 300 years.  After the cloud finally passed, the Artificial Intelligence units (bots and boxes) on the lifeless world looked for a way off.  But the planet was shunned.  Pretty soon these AIs – or most of them anyway – with nothing really to do, started going stir-crazy.  Later attempts to land on Villaneuva were met with intense hostility.  All this transpired 7000 years ago.  Apparently, the AIs are still there and more hostile than ever.  A search for Chris Robins’ notebook drives Chase and Alex to venture onto Villaneuva and risk dealing with these hostile AIs.

The story was well-paced and accessible.  Some sci fi writers tend to use too much technical detail and explanations of “projected science” that muddle a good story, but McDevitt handled this aspect well.  Unraveling the mystery surrounding the missing ships kept me turning the pages.  McDevitt also successfully interweaved the secondary Villaneuva story that asks the question on whether AI can advance into truly sentient life.  Should AIs be treated like real persons and have rights?  It’s a question that’s certainly been explored before, but McDevitt’s handling of it was even more engaging than the primary story.

I tend to enjoy good character development over plot.  McDevitt seems to focus more on plot in Firebird.  As a result, Alex and Chase came off as sort of mechanical to me.  It was hard to become emotionally invested in either one since McDevitt doesn’t really delve into their psyche’s.  Most of the narrative is from Chase’s PoV, but she never gets past her immediate thoughts and reactions.  Now, it may simply be that this is the 6th book in a series featuring well established characters?  Perhaps they’ve already been fully fleshed out and colored?  Or maybe McDevitt just doesn’t do a lot of character development?  In Firebird, Charlie, an AI box, had more personality than Alex.  Chase wasn’t much better – she actually seemed a bit aloof.

Overall, Firebird was a nicely constructed futuristic mystery and the ending was undeniably satisfying.  It glassed up my eyes and made me smile.  Despite my impression of shallow characterizations, McDevitt certainly seems a very capable writer in the genre and tells a good story.  I’m curious enough to read more of his work and I’ll surely have to start with the first book in the Alex and Chase series.

7/10

Review of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

note:  I experienced this in audiobook form, read by Nick Podehl

The Name of the Wind is a deeply engaging debut novel, from new fantasist Patrick Rothfuss.  It is rather unique in that most of the story is told in first person by the main character, Kvothe, to a scribe known as Chronicler (his actual name is Devan).  Kvothe has assumed a new name and taken up a quiet life as an Innkeep in a small town presumably to escape from a notorious past.  He seems content in his mundane new life but also rather depressed.  In fact, he’s described as “a man who is waiting to die” in the Prologue.  Though he’s isolated himself from the world at large, stories involving Kvothe’s past adventures have caught up with him and the retellings have become largely distorted and unnerving.  He looks upon Chronicler as his means to set the stories straight.  But while Chronicler is anxious to get to the juicy bits, Kvothe says it’s important to start from the very beginning to truly understand how he earned his renowned reputation.  And so the story begins.  Wind is actually the first in a trilogy of books and as such has the secondary title – The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One – referring to Kvothe’s first day of honest re-telling to Chronicler.  When asked about the story’s scope, Rothfuss writes:

“This story started with Kvothe’s character. I knew it was going to be about him from the very beginning. In some ways it’s the simplest story possible: it’s the story of a man’s life. It’s the myth of the Hero seen from backstage. It’s about the exploration and revelation of a world, but it’s also about Kvothe’s desire to uncover the truth hidden underneath the stories in his world. The story is a lot of things, I guess. As you can tell, I’m not very good at describing it. I always tell people, “If I could sum it up in 50 words, I wouldn’t have needed to write a whole novel about it.”  I didn’t plan it as a trilogy though. I just wrote it and it got to be so long that it had to be broken up into pieces. There were three natural breaking points in the story… Hence the Trilogy.”  — from 10 Second Interview – A Few Words with Patrick Rothfuss on Amazon.com

The world Rothfuss paints is easy to slip into.  It doesn’t differ much from the familiar late-Medieval/European Renaissance/Elizabethan era type setting found in so many other books in the fantasy genre.  What gives it a special flavor though is its strange history which involves an elder race and a terrible centuries long conflict called the Creation War.  There’s a tragic love story involving some powerful beings followed by terrible repercussions and betrayals.  Dark remnants of this strange past may be encroaching on the present.  We meet one in the form of scrael, badger-sized spiders of living stone, that attack Chronicler shortly after he chances upon Kvothe at a campfire one night.  The mystery behind their emergence brings a whole new level of eeriness to the story that really draws you in.  We also meet Bast, who’s described as Kvothe’s student, but seems more like a demon-familiar and a hanger-on from the glory days.

Kvothe’s driving motivation is revealed early as he relates his life story.  While still a boy, Kvothe’s parents are murdered by a group of demonic beings known as the Chandrian led by a shadow-wrapped figure named Haliax.  Kvothe is told his parents were murdered for “singing entirely the wrong sort of songs.”  Kvothe’s life is spared for reasons unclear, but the experience totally alters him.  He sinks into depression and survives only by soothing his heart with music.  Yet, he does not succumb to melancholy for long.  The pain of his loss is tremendous, but he is driven from the abyss by a fierce desire to understand why his parents were murdered so casually.  Who were these demons?  Kvothe makes it his life mission to solve the mystery.

Kvothe possesses a beautiful mind.  Not only does he excel at music, but he has a natural gift for solving challenging problems and a bottomless thirst for knowledge.  He endeavors to master the secrets of the physical world and to delve beyond it and learn magic of the sort in story and song.  He comes across as arrogant but never snotty or snooty.  He’s just extremely intelligent.  Kvothe started his education on the road with his parents’ thespian troupe.  A road companion named Abenthy took him under his wing and began to teach him the basics of Sympathy which whetted Kvothe’s appetite to learn magic.  Sympathy relates to creating bindings or links between things on a metaphysical level to accomplish astonishing feats like starting a fire from a distance.  It’s an interesting system and Rothfuss leads us into it gradually and as thoughtfully as if we were learning it too.

Ultimately, what Kvothe truly wants is to learn the magic of Naming, so he can control the wind, call down fire and lightning, and split stone like the storied magician of yore, Taborlin the Great.  After the death of Kvothe’s parents and a brief period spent living as a grubby shoeless urchin, Kvothe sees an opportunity to advance his mission by entering a prestigious University that stands across the river from the town of Imre.  He wheedles his way in by impressing the school masters with his brilliant mind.  Kvothe proceeds to develop his skills and expand his knowledge and he meets some interesting people, friend and foe alike.  At this point, the story almost bears resemblance to Harry Potter and Hogwarts.  Though I think Kvothe’s origin and world seems quite a bit more believable.  The idea of masters who each specialize in some specific area of arcane knowledge is not new but Rothfuss does a fine job of presenting it in an utterly convincing way.  Memories of a long ago read book by Lyndon Hardy titled Master of the Five Magics also came back to me, though again, I think Rothfuss presented his material in a fresh way and much more convincingly.

While Kvothe does not suffer from a lack of wits, he fights a continual battle with poverty.  And while he gets his foot in the door at the University, he must struggle for ways to earn borrow or steal the coin he needs to keep up with tuition and expenses.  He’s also quite prideful and loathe to accept any charity or borrow from his friends.  Eventually, he does go to a moneylender for aid, takes advantage of his musical talents to give himself a means of support, and takes on some physical work as well.  Aside from his quest for knowledge, he is very interested in the University because of it’s fabulously vast library.  He believes he will find answers to a thousand questions concerning the demons who killed his parents hidden some where in its ancient tomes.

Kvothe crosses paths with a number of intriguing young women, a few of whom offer compelling love interests.  The first is the moneylender named Devi who turns out to be the most interesting of the lot; the second is a student named Fela who serves as a Scriv, someone who works in the University library’s protected archives – a place that Kvothe desperately wants to get into; and finally, there is a singer named Denna who appears to live off the support of one gentleman sponsor to the next as suits her whim.  While not described as a whore, Denna unfortunately fits that profile to a tee and is by far the most annoying and aggravating woman who enters Kvothe’s tale.  Of course this means Kvothe develops the strongest liking for Denna, and he suffers for it immensely.  It’s not really Denna’s fault.  Kvothe simply is a bumbling idiot when it comes to relationships with women.  Kvothe’s puppy-love pursuit of Denna is a bit like chasing after a goal that keeps turning a corner and getting away.  I really hope the agony doesn’t persist into the next book.  Devi seems like a much better match for him.

Kvothe performs some impressive heroics in the story which foretell bigger things to come.  He seems rather brash and fearless about it and he pays the price accordingly.  Still, you can’t help but cheer for him.  By the end of Chronicler’s first day of scribing, I was longing to learn what happens next.  The book didn’t end there, though.  The narrative switches back to third person and the present.  A strange visitor happens into the Waystone Inn that night which continues the sense of eerie wonder and dread that began with the scrael attack.  Something sinister is after Kvothe.  Also, more than ever, we want to know why Kvothe’s holed up and living a simpleton’s life and not out battling dark forces with all his learned skills and natural ability.  What happened to Denna, Fela, and Devi?  Did Kvothe pair up with any of them?  Is Bast one of the Amyr?

Originally published in 2007, Wind is a hefty piece of work but well worth reading.  The writing itself is extremely good and flows nicely.  Straightforward, just the right amount of description, and completely accessible.  On the downside, it seemed filtered or tamed down for a younger audience, similar to Brandon Sanderson’s style.  The next book, The Wise Man’s Fear – The Kingkiller Chronicle:  Day Two – is more weighty still, but the immersive first-person narrative should make it go down smoothly.  Kvothe’s life-story is deeply realized, full of emotions, conflicts, and heroics.  I will definitely keep reading.

9/10

Review of Book 2 – The Wise Man’s Fear