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The Name of the Wind Thread


wuzzup3003

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SPOILER: Questions
Questions:

Who are the Amyr and the sithen and the singers that Halifax mentions?

Just who is Denna, whats her big secret?

How does the master Archivist (Lorren?) know Kvothe's father?

Was Abenthy a pupil of Elodin, or vice versa? I got the impression there werent many know knew the name of the wind, Abenthy seemed to know it.

SPOILER: speculations
- I cannot recall lord Hax being terrified of singers (and cannot remember the word "sithen"), but the Amyr seems to be the same it always was. If the legend can be trusted, the betrayed king and a dozen followers became sort of angels of revenge, flying, invisible, powerful, immortal beings hell bent on catching him. Make sense when Lord Hax and the forsaken fled something invisible to Kvothe.

- From the intro, we know that Kvothe loved an angel (or was it a goddess?), and his love brought her down to earth or something like that. Unless Pat Rothfuss wasted a lot of time on Denna only to make Kvothe ditch her in the subsequent volumes, I would say that Denna already is an Amyr -immortal, flying, sometimes invisible, and following Lord Hax-. It just fits too well with her sudden disappearances, her reappearances near the places Lord Hax destroyed recently, her wound after the wedding late in the book, or her obvious bullshit about her "protector"

- Kvothe's father's apparently left no stone unturned to craft his song about Lancre, he most certainly had to meet Lorren for it, if he didn't know him already.

- About the name of the wind, they said at one point that one had to know it to get above a certain rank, and that Kvothe wasn't the first "to call the name of the wind in anger". Seems logical that all arcanists would know how to mess with names, from there, with or without Elodin, he isn't the only one who could teach.

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I finished Name of the Wind at 4:30 last morning. I enjoyed the page-turner quality of the story, and agree with others that there was a Harry Potter feel to some of the sections.

SPOILER: speculation
More than anything about Denna, I found the emnity between Kvothe and Ambrose utterly irritating. The growth of their hatred had so little initial justification. I do like the specualtion that Ambrose will be the king Kvothe kills, as it was dropped that "he's sixteenth in the peerage," so not so many people must die before he can be king.

SPOILER: speculations
- From the intro, we know that Kvothe loved an angel (or was it a goddess?), and his love brought her down to earth or something like that. Unless Pat Rothfuss wasted a lot of time on Denna only to make Kvothe ditch her in the subsequent volumes, I would say that Denna already is an Amyr -immortal, flying, sometimes invisible, and following Lord Hax-. It just fits too well with her sudden disappearances, her reappearances near the places Lord Hax destroyed recently, her wound after the wedding late in the book, or her obvious bullshit about her "protector".

SPOILER: response
This, I believe is the relevant quote:

"'some poeple say there was a woman...'what can any of them know about her?' he asked softly. Chronicler's breath stopped when he saw Kvothe's face. The placid inkeeper's expression was like a shattered mask. Underneeth, Kote's expression was haunted, eyes half in this world, half elsewhere, remembering.

Chronicler found himself thinking of a story he had heard...of how Kvother had gone looking for his heart's desire. He had to trick a demon to get it. But once it rested in his hand, he was forced to fight and angel to keep it...This is the face of a man who has killed an angel."

it seems to imply that Kvothe killed an angel for Denna and killed an angel to keep her. Though I wouldn't be at all surprised if she were to turn out not entirely human. My bet would be on the fae (we know they can influence how people see them, and Kvothe describes Denna as "wild"), but the section is deliberately vague, on top of being rumor.

other thoughts: I'd prefer no map at all, to, as another has already pointed out, a map of Europe, esp in a book with an obstensively fantasy setting

Compared to Fitz, whose incessant angst made the second Farseer book utterly depressing, Kvothe at his lowest was still a joy to read about.

When I read about Denna, I was very strongly reminded of Anna from McClead's Light Ages, if anyone here has read that.

SPOILER: AnnaDenna
The protagonist meets her in an early part of his life, then comes accross her at some later time. She remains elusive and mostly an unknown entity as she passes in and out of the narrative, several times crossing paths with the frustrated protagonist. Their relationship goes nowhere.
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SPOILER: denna
Holy plot twist: maybe she's one of the forsaken. :P
He kills lord Hax to free her, then he kills the head Amyr to keep her (alive). That would push Kvothe yet another notch up on the ridiculously overpowered character chart.
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Finished it. Review here.

Pros: excellent writing. The prose is among the finest in a debut epic fantasy novel I've read in the last couple of years. The book has a very nice, laid-back feel to it. There's enough surprises to make up for its overall quite traditional storyline.

Cons: no ending to speak of. It just stops mid-stride, which is irritating. Kvothe has some setbacks in his life and he's no unstoppable juggernaut, but he could have done with being a bit less perfect at everything. The US cover is enragingly lame. I have to wait a year to find out what happens next.

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Thanks for all those answers Errant Bard.

On the point of the Chandrian. Lord Halifax and his threat to Cinder reads,

SPOILER: TNotW

"Who keeps you safe from the Amyr? The singers? The Sithe? From all that would harm you in the world?"

I want to know who the Sithe are or if we have any clue as to their identity yet? Why would Singers spreading the tale of Lanre and the Chandrian be harmful to them? If this is the case shouldn't Kvothe realise that Skarpi (the storyteller) is in danger now?

Also on the subject of Lorren knowing the father. I might have been inattentiVe in spotting this but I got the impression that Kvothe had never been to Imre or The University beyond his first entrance as a student. His father had been collecting those tales for the song of Lanre for a number of years but he had started whilst Kvothe was still alive and able to remember a trip to the university. The only explanation I can reason is that word of Kvothe's father reached Lorren through his wandering Scrivs. one such as the enigamtic man whom kvothe glimpses in the archives. In mymind Lorren knows much more than he is letting on. He did try to gently deflect Kvothes interest in the Amyr when he first got wind of it. That seemed like a frivolous thing for him to attend to I thought.

Kilvin suggests at one point afterthe fire that there are not many people in the world who knew the name of the fire I thought the name of the wind would be equally elusive. elodin does say that many people have called it but maybe they called it like Kvothe first did, on a subconcious level only.

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Wert, in your review you mentioned that the UK edition has a better cover. Do you have a link to the cover art for that release? (It's not on Amazon UK)

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I was talking with Matt this afternoon, and he told me that both US covers have been canned and new artwork will grace the cover of the paperback edition. :)

Good news for Rothfuss! ;)

Patrick

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Wert, in your review you mentioned that the UK edition has a better cover. Do you have a link to the cover art for that release? (It's not on Amazon UK)

No, but I do now! Cheers Jussi. Oddly, I'm certain that Amazon UK did have the artwork up a few weeks back but it's gone now.

The Gollancz ARC doesn't have that cover though. It has Kvothe's spiel ("I burnt down the town of Trebon, I saved princesses from the tombs of barrow kings," etc) in big letters instead, which worked quite well.

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Thanks for all those answers Errant Bard.

On the point of the Chandrian. Lord Halifax and his threat to Cinder reads,

SPOILER: TNotW

I want to know who the Sithe are or if we have any clue as to their identity yet? Why would Singers spreading the tale of Lanre and the Chandrian be harmful to them? If this is the case shouldn't Kvothe realise that Skarpi (the storyteller) is in danger now?

Also on the subject of Lorren knowing the father. I might have been inattentiVe in spotting this but I got the impression that Kvothe had never been to Imre or The University beyond his first entrance as a student. His father had been collecting those tales for the song of Lanre for a number of years but he had started whilst Kvothe was still alive and able to remember a trip to the university. The only explanation I can reason is that word of Kvothe's father reached Lorren through his wandering Scrivs. one such as the enigamtic man whom kvothe glimpses in the archives. In mymind Lorren knows much more than he is letting on. He did try to gently deflect Kvothes interest in the Amyr when he first got wind of it. That seemed like a frivolous thing for him to attend to I thought.

Kilvin suggests at one point afterthe fire that there are not many people in the world who knew the name of the fire I thought the name of the wind would be equally elusive. elodin does say that many people have called it but maybe they called it like Kvothe first did, on a subconcious level only.

SPOILER: NotW
I think Skarpi might be one of the Amyr, but even if he's not I'm pretty sure he knows enough to be careful. I'm also fairly certain he's Denna's patron, and I think she is just human. No idea why singers can hurt the Chandrian. The Sithe are probably the fairies/elves who can be hurt by iron.

Kvothe's father may have earned his pipes as a young man. Lorren could have known him from when he was just a student. Lorren seems to genuinely distrust legends about things not substantiated in his books, which may include the Chandrian, but there may just be secrets that they try to prevent young students from learning.

On names, it seems like not many people study names period. Of those who do, it seems like you have to discover a name on your own; you can't just be told it or read it out of a book.

In the next book we'll learn about another woman in Kvothe's life, though this one will be one of the Sithe.

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So, how prolific are these Sithe in this book? What is shown? Same question with regards to these Chandrians. Demons? Someone said they had a mysterious leader..

The Chandrians are not the spider creatures then?

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So, how prolific are these Sithe in this book? What is shown? Same question with regards to these Chandrians. Demons? Someone said they had a mysterious leader..

The Chandrians are not the spider creatures then?

SPOILER: first book
We only got one reference to the Sithe in the whole book, no other information at all. Nothing is shown.

The Chandrian, according to the song the Skarpi guy sang to Kvothe, are the seven sinners who refused to repent when the Jesus guy came down on Earth. You could say that they are devils, but they were humans at the start, wicked unrepentant humans.

Their mysterious leader, Lord Hax (or is it Haliax, Halifax?), was Lancre, a great hero of mankind who became tainted by insanity when he tried to resurrect his wife and failed.

They were the guys who killed Kvothe's troupe and talked to him, the guy who gathered shadows to flee was Lord Hax.

They are definitely not the spider creatures. These are apparently there because of Kvothe so it would seem he tore reality apart and allowed the dungeon dimension access.

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SPOILER: Denna
My take on Denna was that she was that angel whose name began with D, who had "lost her husband and son and now had a heart of stone" or somesuch, which sort of fits...
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Hmmmm...My American (non red haired Rock Star cover) edition doesn't say anything about being "The Kingkiller Chronicle" until you open the front cover. And then it says "The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One" not "Volume One". Does it matter? Maybe not. I just thought it was interesting. :P

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I'm guessing that Bast is a Sithe, given that it's a traditional Celtic name for fairy-folk (Tad Williams uses it in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, too, although he spells it Sithi).

As for Kvothe's age, we know he's younger than Chronicler, because of him reading the Draccus book at the University. Chronicler, however, is still young enough to go riding around the country to write down people's stories. so he can't be much more than 40, meaning Kvothe must be 30-odd at the most. He joined the University at 15, and the book ends less than a year after that, so there's still a good 10 years for the next two books to cover.

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Just put together a wiki page for the author (as I did for Scott Lynch and will for Joe once he gets his own website going). Was able to get some good things together, since I was able to track down a fair bit of stuff via Google. I particularly like his look when picking up his Writers of the Future Award.

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  • 2 weeks later...
I'm on about page 350 and I have to say WOW! This book is incredible, it's the best I've read since ASOIAF and I've read most of the series that people recommend on these boards.

Yeah. I'm about halfway through now. And I'm avoiding all the white spoiler boxes like they are anthrax, too. But so far it's an excellent read.

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