King-Killer; Local Boy Wreaks Havoc at Wizard School and Here's Why it Works
I've recently finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, and in terms of fantasy I was pleasantly surprised to see a narrator who clearly wanted to distance himself from his so-called legendary past. That, and the fact that Kote, or Kvothe as he was known as in his youth, is entirely unprepared, un-willing, and completely un-intentionally a "hero," made me thoroughly enjoy the story. And that sort of aspect, deviating from fantasy and intertwining it with logical notions of our own real world, was so fun to consume as a reader.
A hero who genuinely never believed he was one, not even humbly, and will actively speak against his own story? Great! He's a bard, a traditional story-teller used throughout fantasy often as a charismatic sweet-talker, but with depression and regret after years of trying to talk his way our of things has ultimately ruined him? Nice, I like it. A school for magic with practical laws for magic, both in educational design and actual explanation in the magic? Wonderful! Villains that seem legendary and horrifyingly real at the same time? I love it, and I need more (but we'll get to that after I finish book two!)
What the story boils down to seems a lot like what could have happened to Harry Potter if he lived in poverty and had to endure student-loans in order to attend Hogwarts. I felt it had a lot of eloquent world-building beyond the division between average, unaware humans and those who study the arcane, more like just a slight apprehension between those who think themselves normal and the arcanists.
Magic is treated as a teachable science in a sort of boarding-school-like institution, available to any who prove their knowledge or prove their coin, which I felt was a way more realistic and refreshing than 'Seems that you have a knack for magic, child, so join our Secret Club and just accept no one in the real world knows about it'. I know I definitely felt more rooted in a world where magic might be taboo, yes, but it's in theory available to anyone and everyone, even on accident. Everyone's aware of it, not everyone understands it or even believes in it, and there are parts even the people who study it don't understand, just like specialized fields of study in our own day to day life.
Keeping a classic-fantasy segment of magic involved is nice, I will admit that. Rothfuss uses something called Naming to imply that things that have "true" names can be called upon and controlled, such as the Wind, providing that sense of wonder and complete power I feel like a lot of typical fantasy stories focus on.
But contrasting it with magic that's explained, like applying runes to a lantern to create a functional flameless-flashlight (not just a spark on the end of a wand,) or linking connections through objects with similar make-up to create effects that abide by the law that matter can neither be created or destroyed, was just refreshing! As far as I've read, it's usually just other-worldly power, perhaps from another plane, or from an unknown residual source from the creation of the world, how it happened? Who knows, but now we can shoot lasers out of our hands. Sometime's it's not explained at all, and i'm a very science-oriented person with a huge passion for crossing science fiction and fantasy together, so actually addressing things like that in world-building makes my happy.
Bonus brownie points for including classic mythology of the Fey and how folk-tales all have a little bit of truth in them, depending on how deep you look. I'll appreciate any fresh take on things long turned over in fantasy, and the Fey are so often treated as little gossamer fairies that grant wishes in pop-culture that I always fawn over works that describe the darker side of their mythos.
Mostly I just wanted to ramble a bit on some of my main joys with the way the story was built, well-applied and well rooted in reality, rather than a total nonsensical departure from our own world. After all, we created fairy tales, so there's no use in trying to divorce their own world completely from ours when our fingerprints are all over the idea in the first place.
I'll definitely be coming back to The Name of the Wind again, with some more praise and definitely some of my own critiques as well. But until then, by for now!
A hero who genuinely never believed he was one, not even humbly, and will actively speak against his own story? Great! He's a bard, a traditional story-teller used throughout fantasy often as a charismatic sweet-talker, but with depression and regret after years of trying to talk his way our of things has ultimately ruined him? Nice, I like it. A school for magic with practical laws for magic, both in educational design and actual explanation in the magic? Wonderful! Villains that seem legendary and horrifyingly real at the same time? I love it, and I need more (but we'll get to that after I finish book two!)
What the story boils down to seems a lot like what could have happened to Harry Potter if he lived in poverty and had to endure student-loans in order to attend Hogwarts. I felt it had a lot of eloquent world-building beyond the division between average, unaware humans and those who study the arcane, more like just a slight apprehension between those who think themselves normal and the arcanists.
Magic is treated as a teachable science in a sort of boarding-school-like institution, available to any who prove their knowledge or prove their coin, which I felt was a way more realistic and refreshing than 'Seems that you have a knack for magic, child, so join our Secret Club and just accept no one in the real world knows about it'. I know I definitely felt more rooted in a world where magic might be taboo, yes, but it's in theory available to anyone and everyone, even on accident. Everyone's aware of it, not everyone understands it or even believes in it, and there are parts even the people who study it don't understand, just like specialized fields of study in our own day to day life.
Keeping a classic-fantasy segment of magic involved is nice, I will admit that. Rothfuss uses something called Naming to imply that things that have "true" names can be called upon and controlled, such as the Wind, providing that sense of wonder and complete power I feel like a lot of typical fantasy stories focus on.
But contrasting it with magic that's explained, like applying runes to a lantern to create a functional flameless-flashlight (not just a spark on the end of a wand,) or linking connections through objects with similar make-up to create effects that abide by the law that matter can neither be created or destroyed, was just refreshing! As far as I've read, it's usually just other-worldly power, perhaps from another plane, or from an unknown residual source from the creation of the world, how it happened? Who knows, but now we can shoot lasers out of our hands. Sometime's it's not explained at all, and i'm a very science-oriented person with a huge passion for crossing science fiction and fantasy together, so actually addressing things like that in world-building makes my happy.
Bonus brownie points for including classic mythology of the Fey and how folk-tales all have a little bit of truth in them, depending on how deep you look. I'll appreciate any fresh take on things long turned over in fantasy, and the Fey are so often treated as little gossamer fairies that grant wishes in pop-culture that I always fawn over works that describe the darker side of their mythos.
Mostly I just wanted to ramble a bit on some of my main joys with the way the story was built, well-applied and well rooted in reality, rather than a total nonsensical departure from our own world. After all, we created fairy tales, so there's no use in trying to divorce their own world completely from ours when our fingerprints are all over the idea in the first place.
I'll definitely be coming back to The Name of the Wind again, with some more praise and definitely some of my own critiques as well. But until then, by for now!
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