One word to describe this book-incredible! Where has it been my whole life?
This book made me feel all the emotions known to man and others that haven’t been discovered yet.
What made me really love this book?
The fact that it is so different. It's unlike anything I've ever read before. I actually wasn't expecting it to even be the way it is. Going into this, I expected an epic fantasy book with lot's of action, plotting, lot's of magic use and maybe a very evil, undefeatable villain.
Did I get any of that?
Well no.
Does that mean it's not a great epic fantasy book with incredible world building?
No.
Do these facts imply that there was simply no action, plotting or magic system?
No.
Yes, there was action, a magic system, a fair amount of plotting and great world building, but what really sets this book apart from others? What makes it really special to me?
The fact that's it's a memoir about the main character Kvothe. Don't think that fact makes it a great book? Just read it and find out for yourself and if you don't like it, then I guess this book is not for everyone.
Plot
The book tells the story of Kvothe, the most notorious wizard known to man. Some refer to him as Kvothe the kingkiller or Kvothe the bloodless and with the amount of rumours surrounding him, one cannot be about sure what truly happened. When a scribe crossed paths with crossed paths with Kvothe, there was an interesting turn of events. The two soon reached an agreement; Kvothe tells his story to the scribe for it to be documented.
I was a bit disappointed when I realized that was how the book was going to go, but then I got sucked up into the story and forgot he was even telling it to someone. And the best part is that you could see them take a break while he was telling the story, and sometimes they even talked about what happened in the story.
World building
It was like watching an artist paint a picture and finally seeing all the pieces fit together. It didn't even feel like info-dumping.
I have a very good knowledge of the world, cultures and traditions, languages, myths and different currencies. I found nothing questionable about the world and I wasn’t confused either.
Magic system
I don't even know if I should call it magic, I really don't know what to call it. It does depend on the beliefs of the different races in this book. The magic or rather “sympathy” was based on a few rules of nature and a mix of physics and chemistry in it. I wish there was a better way to could describe it.
Writing
The writing in this book is a blend of third and first person perspective. It’s in third person for the present day and first person for the past. Never have I ever enjoyed first person POV as much as I did in this book.
Characters
Kvothe
He was intriguing from the start. Pretty stubborn, smart and didn't make any decisions that made me feel like punching him. I was able to connect to him and his emotions very much and even though I was in his head, I couldn't predict what he was going to do next. Especially all he did at the university.
Denna
I still don't know what to make of her, neither do I understand her fully, hell even Kvothe doesn't really get her..
“Denna is a wild thing,” I explained. “Like a hind or a summer storm. If a storm blows down your house, or breaks a tree, you don’t say the storm was mean. It was cruel. It acted according to its nature and something unfortunately was hurt. The same is true of Denna.”
Even though I didn’t really understand her, she was a great and fun character to have around.
Simmon and Wilem
I love them so much, any moment they show up I’m always very excited. They're the definition of great friends and I wonder what would become of them in the next book.
Overall, this is definitely a book that's going to my favourites list. And I recommend it to everyone.
