The Name of the Wind cover art

The Name of the Wind

The Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 1

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Name of the Wind

By: Patrick Rothfuss
Narrated by: Rupert Degas
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £23.80

Buy Now for £23.80

About this listen

 'I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

My name is Kvothe.
You may have heard of me'

So begins the tale of Kvothe - currently known as Kote, the unassuming innkeepter - from his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, through his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a difficult and dangerous school of magic. In these pages you will come to know Kvothe the notorious magician, the accomplished thief, the masterful musician, the dragon-slayer, the legend-hunter, the lover, the thief and the infamous assassin.

The Name of the Wind is fantasy at its very best, and an astounding must-read title.©2007 Patrick Rothfuss Coming of Age Dragons & Mythical Creatures Epic Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Royalty Magic Users

Critic reviews

The best epic fantasy I read last year...He's bloody good, this Rothfuss guy (George R R Martin)
Patrick Rothfuss' debut is set in an unnamed but fully realised fantasy world, and his characters are detailed and convincing.
Patrick Rothfuss has real talent, and his tale of Kvothe is deep and intricate and wondrous (Terry Brooks)
This is a magnificent book (Anne McCaffrey)
The Name of the Wind has everything: magic and mysteries and ancient evil, but it's also humorous and terrifying and completely believable (Tad Williams)
As absorbing on a second reading as it is on the first, this is the type of assured, rich first novel most writers can only dream of producing
It is a rare and great pleasure to find a fantasist writing ... with true music in the words (Ursula K Le Guin)
The characters are real and the magic is true (robin Hobb, New York Times-bestselling author of Assassin’s Apprentice)
Masterful ... There is a beauty to Pat's writing that defies description (Brandon Sanderson, New York Times-bestselling author of Mistborn)
[Makes] you think he's inventing the genre, instead of reinventing it (Lev Grossman, New York Times-bestselling author of The Magicians)
Hail Patrick Rothfuss! A new giant is striding the land (Robert J. Sawyer, award-winning author of Wake)
I was reminded of Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, and J. R. R. Tolkein, but never felt that Rothfuss was imitating anyone
This fast-moving, vivid, and unpretentious debut roots its coming-of-age fantasy in convincing mythology
This breathtakingly epic story is heartrending in its intimacy and masterful in its narrative essence
Reminiscent in scope of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series ... this masterpiece of storytelling will appeal to lovers of fantasy on a grand scale
Shelve The Name of the Wind beside The Lord of the Rings...and look forward to the day when it's mentioned in the same breath, perhaps as first among equals
All stars
Most relevant
Be warned - once you start listening to this book you are going to lose days of your life listening fanatically, so make sure you start at a convenient moment! As already mentioned, the fantastic narration by Rupert Degas adds another dimension - he goes from one character voice to another without missing a beat - truly impressive. I have just finished both parts of this first book and was delighted to see the second book waiting for me when I came to look today - can't wait to dive back in again!

Fantastic book and narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have read the book and enjoyed it immensely. I was telling a friend about it and she said that she had the audio book and she would let me borrow it...What a disappointment! The narrator was American and I lost interest after about half an hour.

This audio version is how this kind of Fantasy should be narrated...British accents...It had me enchanted from the beginning and I highly recommend it.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a truly fantastic work which really comes to life thanks to a masterful narration by Rupert Degas.

Simply superb

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I bought this on a whim, based on random clicking and customer reviews.

I like fantasy, but am very picky and intolerant of much of the genre, which often fails to make me suspend my disbelief and hides poorly drawn characters and trite contrivances behind clichéd spectacle and sensation.

The above criticisms cannot be levied at The Name of the Wind. It's a remarkable tale!

For a start, the first part of the book is given over purely to character introduction before the story proper begins. By that time we're intrigued about everyone, and care about them too. The adventure that ultimately unwinds is epic in scale, but also very grounded and human. Yes, there's lots of magic at play, but even there, we're kept rooted to the plausible, as the magic available to our characters is functional and utilitarian. The wild stuff only happens in their myths, legends and folklore.

Despite the size of the story, not a word, episode or event is redundant. This is a book without padding.

And then we come to the recording itself. Bear in mind that this is a word-for-word reading of the text. It's delivered by only one narrator - Rupert Degas. Still, the whole thing carries the weight and vibrance of a dramatisation rather than a simple reading. So much care has gone into giving each character their own voice and their own personalities, and the book's first-person narration is delivered with all the barbs, sorrow and wry comedy needed to make listening an intense experience.

I cannot rate this audiobook highly enough!

The best Audiobook I've encountered to date

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

If you could sum up The Name of the Wind (Part One) in three words, what would they be?

roller coaster adventure

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Name of the Wind (Part One)?

In the forest before the "monster" came!

Have you listened to any of Rupert Degas’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

A fantasy that appears real.

Any additional comments?

The characters are strong and truly interesting. The magic seemed really possible. The world they all lived in, so down to earth one believed it all to be real. A delightful listen.

"Can't put it down" type of listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews