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An Autobiography of a Fantasy Hero
Mar. 15th, 2012 12:28 amSep 2011
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss - Gollancz, 2007
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There is a formula for writing genre novel back-cover blurbs. Most mention the name of the main character in the first full sentence and go on to describe the original features of the world and the heroes and villains. The final sentence starts with “But” and often ends in an ellipsis... This has become such a cliché that various automated generators have sprung up on the web. The blurb for this book is a bit different. It is written in first person and describes some things that the narrator claims to have done, such as burning down a town, being expelled at a very young age from university, and talking to gods. It ends “My name is Kvothe. You may have heard of me.” My interest was piqued, despite the stupidly unpronounceable name.
Unusually, the blurb is a good reflection of a book that takes a similarly refreshing approach to the business of epic fantasy. This is not the first autobiography of a fantasy hero that has been written (Robin Hobb’s Assassin series comes to mind for a start), but, for this book at least, it is certainly the best.
( Read more... )
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss - Gollancz, 2007
* * * * *
There is a formula for writing genre novel back-cover blurbs. Most mention the name of the main character in the first full sentence and go on to describe the original features of the world and the heroes and villains. The final sentence starts with “But” and often ends in an ellipsis... This has become such a cliché that various automated generators have sprung up on the web. The blurb for this book is a bit different. It is written in first person and describes some things that the narrator claims to have done, such as burning down a town, being expelled at a very young age from university, and talking to gods. It ends “My name is Kvothe. You may have heard of me.” My interest was piqued, despite the stupidly unpronounceable name.
Unusually, the blurb is a good reflection of a book that takes a similarly refreshing approach to the business of epic fantasy. This is not the first autobiography of a fantasy hero that has been written (Robin Hobb’s Assassin series comes to mind for a start), but, for this book at least, it is certainly the best.
( Read more... )