Reviews with content warning for Death - The Name of the Wind

Este libro es impresionante, me ha encantado. No le doy 5 estrellas porque sé que el segundo libro va a ser todavía mejor. Kvothe es un claro ejemplo de crecimiento personal, menuda pasada de personaje. Lo recomendaría a todo el mundo.
Aventura y fantasía ¿Qué más se puede querer?

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rainydaycookies's review against another edition

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This book feels like it was written by a Reddit dude. Seriously. Given the rave reviews I thought this would be a good fantasy book. Instead I was met with a male Mary Sue. The MC is the most specialist boy and everyone thinks he’s great and the people that don’t are assholes. He’s the smartest, everybody is attracted to him, he’s so pretty, etc. There’s an “and everybody clapped moment” and I rolled my eyes so hard they about fell out of my head. The MC also talks really weird about any female characters, of which there are barely any. Female characters apparently only exist to be “surprisingly attractive” to the main character or in some other service. I tried to push myself to continue reading this book but I found I wasn’t invested in reading about the most specialist boy and the multiple plot lines that go nowhere.

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maregred's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I never want to hear complaints about female Mary Sues again.

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sycajeda's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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dreklogar's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.5

This book was incredibly, offensively bad. The main character was unbearable, judgemental and arrogant and the narrative treated him with undeserved kindness. Sure, it's his story, told by him: usually, I'd just leave it at "this story is boring", but there is also the framing device. The story behind the story, which isn't narrated by Kvothe, and, well... We see the same there. He is so amazing that Chronicler wants to write about him at any cost, despite the aggression, bad temper and unfair treatment he gets at his hands.

Random people tell stories about him, Bast adores him despite constantly acting like an abuse victim (the fear of Kvothe, being so incredibly keyed into his every slight mood shift, going as far as to constantly "teach" Chronicler how he should act), he does actually learn Chronicler's super complex short-hand very quickly. All of this is outside of the framing device and tells us that no, Kvothe isn't just full of himself.

Add to that the casual sexism of the story, how it took over half the book for a female character to show up, only for her to be put on a pedestal (Fela did show up at some point, but really, what's Fela like except "beautiful" and "into Kvothe"). Add the incredibly disgusting scene where one teacher just sexually harrasses a female student and it's all just taken in stride. Comments on how all women hate Denna, because she's so beautiful, or how Denna is compared to a natural disaster as an excuse for her hurting people. Who needs agency, right?

Also, oh, the way the poverty was handled. The way Kvothe

managed to leave the streets

was ridiculous and frankly insulting.

Of course, showering 5-6 times removes all visible traces of poverty! When I told friends of mine how his hair was perfectly fine after he slept on the streets for two years, they were impressed anyone would be so uninformed as to write something this bad

.

This would all be more forgivable if not for the fact that the narrative keeps acting as if it's brilliant and has something to say about the human condition and experience. I lost count of how many times I read "If you haven't been X, you wouldn't know", and it is so clear that the author has not, in fact, been X, and has no idea either. The book was very insulting, very condescending and very, very unpleasant to read.

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ekcd_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Likely be a reread, esp once the third book comes out.

The only negative thing I have to say is the pacing was funny. I thought the book reached a good ending point and there were 500 pages left. Then again and 200 pages left. Then the book actually ended and it felt mid sentence!

Perhaps the intended effect…

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