The Name of the Wind, Chapter 1 - A Place For Demons

It's chapter 1 of a brand new book and the name of the game is introductions and world building. Each author has their own style of accomplishing this task--some better than others. Nothing else to say or do except to dive right in:

Chapter 1: A Place For Demons

In a scene dripping with texture, dressed up as an crotchety old man telling ghost stories to a trio of wide-eyed young men, Rothfuss successfully gives a sense of character in the world he's introducing. Old Man Cob tells the tale of "Taborlin the Great" as he escapes the impending arrival of Chandrian (the demon?). Blue flames are ignited, telegraphing its arrival and Taborlin jumps to out the tower (?) and "calls the name of the wind" to escort him down safely.

Carter enters the inn bloodied, pale faced, and carrying something wrapped in a horse saddle blanket, wrapped in his arms. It was a huge spider-like monster. Eye-less and mouth-less with legs as sharp as razors, he lets it fall on one of the tables. The others gawk in fear as the only other man in the room, "Kote" the innkeeper, recognizes it as a "scrael" under his breath... but a little too loudly. Cob inaccurately identifies it as a demon.

Kote agrees. (And he does this with a pair of shifty eyes while he fidgets with his suspiciously shifty feet as he shakes in his suspiciously shifty underpants).

(I'm on to you.)

*squints eyes*

Some iron, fire, and holy words later, and the "demon" is disposed of with inconspicuous direction from Kote. Hours later, Kote retires for the night and it's here where we're introduced to Bast, his student.

The next night, Kote continues on with his innkeeper charade and eavesdrops on news from Old Man Cob as he talks about news from the surrounding area; something about a war, something about unrest, and something about resources being stretched to their limits.

(Interesting.)

* * *

The Blood Curdling Scream

The effectiveness of the prologue has kept me intrigued, but in terms of its message, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. In this first chapter, there's only the slightest of whiffs of any eagerness to die on the part of our hero "Kote." Call me crazy, but let's read it again:

"...the silence of a man waiting to die."

As far as I gather (unless the prologue didn't immediately precede this chapter), not only is he not wanting to die silently, he's actually doing everything humanly possible to avoid exactly that. It's apparent that he's gone to great lengths to maintain the visage of his imaginary life. Therefore, it's not so much a "silence avoiding death's attention" as much as it's a "blood curdling scream, staving away the empty void, defiantly in the face of death itself." Literal silence does not equal the lack of will and our hero's actions speak louder than words.

--But I'm sure Rothfuss just accidentally transposed the two.

(I always get those two mixed up myself.)


Wait a Second Smartass

First of all, no need for name calling, we're just discussing book reviews here buddy. Secondly, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that it's possible to want to live, be silent, and still wait to die all at the same time. You're thinking that Kote fully intends to do everything humanly possible to survive and part of that preparation leads to periods of time where it's necessary to be silent. And after all that, even though you fully intend to live, you also fully expect it not to be enough and for death to follow you wherever you go.

That's a good point, but I would argue that using the phrase "the silence of a man waiting to die" immediately paints a picture of a man who has given up on life. And when Rothfuss uses that phrase, he does it knowingly, using that imagery to tug on your heart strings... only to play a dirty trick and switch it up in the following chapter.

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