I read The Name of the Wind two springs ago and it absolutely blew me away. I can’t describe it. All I know is that there is a playful quality to Rothfuss’ writing that had me from page one. Right after I finished reading it, I began my Black Book (which I’ll have to talk about some other point) and I begin writing down all my favorite quotes. I searched online and no one else seemed to have done anything like it…I was troubled. A book this remarkable with no passionate bloggers singing their praises? SHENANIGANS!
By chance this book popped into my little pea brain this morning and looked around to see whether there is any mention of its best passages. AHA! There were a few hits, not nearly as many as The Name of the Wind deserves, and most of them coming from the MyFace-SpaceBook realm, but nevertheless, finally- popularity! I’m dying for the next book. Dying. The strange part is that it was scheduled on Amazon to be released last April…and never was. I’m pretty sure I was depressed for about a week.
Did a little digging in the throws of manic-suicidal impulses and uncovered Rothfuss’ blog. Not some secretary-run publicity stunt- an actual blog, from an actual person who also happens to be a simply incredible author. Turns out Rothfuss is an easy guy to forgive. Seriously check out the blog, and read the book. My life will all but go on a standstill when when I get my hands on the next installment.
So here are some of my favorite quotes. I don’t actually think of quotes as spoilers, but if you do, well, you’re asking for it.“There is nothing in this place I do not hate. Your weather is wild and uncivilized. Your religion barbaric and prudish. Your whores are intolerably ignorant and unmannerly. Your language barely has the subtlety to express how wretched this place is.”
“Her skin was more luminous than the moon, her eyes wider than the sky, deeper than the water, darker than the night.”
“Selitos drew a deep breathe. “By my eye I was deceived, never again…” He raised the stone and drove its needle point into his own eye. His scream echoed among the rocks as he fell to his knees gasping. “May I never again be so blind.”
“I slept, and the great bird settled its burning wings around me. I imagined a delicious warmth. Then its claws were in me, tearing me open-“
“So they clutched at her like shipwrecked sailors, clinging to the rocks despite the fact that they are being battered to death against them.”
“Ye Gods.” Elodin sighed, disgusted. “A bootlicker too. You lack the requisite spine and testicular fortitude to study under me.”
“I need a place to burn.”
“I will use my own needles, thank you very much. Good honest bone. None of your nasty jagged iron things, stabbing you like little slivers of hate.”
“He had a bright, reckless tenor that was always wandering off, looking for notes in all the wrong places.”
Aaaaand a whole bunch of longer passages that you REALLY need the book to appreciate. Especially…Kvothe jumping off the roof, and of course, playing the lute. You’ll know when you read them. I’d quote the whole book if I could…
Hats off to you Mr. Rothfuss.