Aaah. At long last I am able to begin to put my thoughts on The Name of the Wind into words. In reality, it took me a month precisely to get through this monolith of a tome but I feel like the old lady at the end of Titanic. "It's been eighty-four years....." But I have emerged victorious and finally am able to give my fully informed opinion on this book, having finished it in its entirety. 
 I didn't like it very much. 
 It didn't make me want to throw it against the wall (which I have been known to do) but nevertheless it was a very frustrating read for me that angered me more than anything else. 
 I want to preface this by saying that I REALLY wanted to enjoy this book. The Name of the Wind came to me at the recommendation of my brother, father and boyfriend, all of whom I tend to trust in terms of understanding what books I will enjoy. Couple that with the sheer number of 5 star ratings for this book, the amount of people proudly proclaiming THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE FANTASY NOVEL IT'S SO GOOD YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, I was all aboard the hype train to epic fantasy land. 
 I poked fun at the length of the book earlier but honestly, long fantasy epics are not an immediate detraction for me. If you create an engaging story in an interesting world, I will gladly stay in that world for as long as you will allow me. But The Name of the Wind isn't just long, it's long-winded. The story wanders about aimlessly at times, stubbornly refusing to stop and ask for directions as to where the plot actually is. You know when you're in the 3rd act of a long movie and you think back to the opening scene and realize how far you've come? That's The Name of the Wind except that you also realize how little any of the preceding story lines mattered to get you where you are now. Yes, it structurally makes sense how we go from Kvothe in the troupe to Kvothe starving in the city to Kvothe trying to get to the magic academy to Kvothe finally being there, but THEMATICALLY none of the different parts of the story are connected. Characters who seemed vitally important in one part of the book will never be mentioned ever again once we move into a different section of Kvothe's life. We'll spend large swaths of writing space to detail Kvothe's amazing skills and then later when said skills could be useful we don't mention them at all. I can't remember how many chapters Kvothe spent dreaming of the day he gets to visit the academy archives and then on his first day arbitrary obstacle is thrown in his way and NONE OF THAT MATTERED. 
 I believe the rambling nature and unfocused plot was meant to be explained away by the numerous asides Kvothe would say to Bast and Chronicler, the listeners of this tale. "You expected that I would go and vow vengeance on the Chandrian? That only happens in tales, what I am telling you is not a tale but real life." I'm not saying you have to follow epic fantasy tropes to a T, creating the same boring story we've heard over and over, but your story needs to have focus. Often times I found myself wondering why we needed to devote so many pages to subplots and side stories that in the end did nothing to the overarching story. But then again, maybe those side stories and subplots WILL add to the overarching story but there was no way for me to know because this book was ENTIRELY exposition. Kvothe even says it near the end. The book is almost done, we're in the last chapter and Kvothe tells Chronicler "I believe I have now laid a good foundation to build the rest of my story upon. Tomorrow [book 2] we shall start telling some of my favorite tales!" Maybe I'm just not drinking the same kool-aid as Mr. Rothfuss but even if you plan on fully fleshing out the over arching plot in books 2 and 3, book 1 needs to stand on its own to keep readers WANTING to read the next books. As it is, The Name of the Wind has no fully formed plot. Remember that "exposition-->rising action-->climax-->falling action-->resolution" chart everyone learned in elementary school? Now obviously the pattern varies from book to book, and doesn't need to follow that exactly by any means, but the closest thing this book has to an emotional and engaging climax comes 1/3 of the way in the book, being the event that causes Kvothe to leave his troupe. The other 2/3s of the book maintain this level of monotony and severe lack of tension or engagement. 
 This brings me to my other issue: how the frame story was handled. Now, aside from attempts at exploring an unreliable narrator, I tend to not appreciate frame stories, or at least the specific kind that The Name of the Wind utilizes. And unfortunately, the frame story used here drains all tension and left me uninterested in the safety of our characters. Due to Kvothe's own tendency towards commentary on his life, often times he'd give away plot points that we as the audience didn't know yet. So later when that situation arose, I wasn't at all concerned for his safety or the safety of others because some previously mentioned line clued me in to the wellbeing of said characters in the future. Kvothe CANNOT die because he's been established as alive while he tells the story. There were times where Denna's safety was brought into question and in a non-frame story perhaps I'd be concerned. But as it was, Kvothe in reality had mentioned an interaction he has with her that hadn't happened yet so I was not worried about her at all. And this type of scenario happened a lot. WILL KVOTHE BE READMITTED INTO THE UNIVERSITY AND PASS HIS EXAMS??? Well, he mentioned in real life that Ambrose was the one to get him expelled and that hasn't happened yet so yes, he will be fine. KVOTHE IS ON THE VERGE OF DEATH STARVING IN THE STREETS. WILL HE LIVE??? He's telling the story as an adult, yes he'll live. THERE IS A DRAGON ON THE LOOSE WHAT WILL HAPPEN???? Well, Denna is safe because she and Kvothe have interactions we haven't seen yet and Kvothe can't die so at worst the village is set on fire? Which we established no one cared about so the stakes aren't super high. Another really quick and minor occurance that bothered me was that quite frequently when describing things Kvothe would say something along the lines of "I can't expect you to fully understand what it's like unless you've [been a musician,] [climbed in dark caves,] [experienced true destitution,] [etc]" This was infuriating. You are the one telling your tale, it is your job to inform your listeners as to how you felt. Now obviously there is some truth to the statement. If you do not have a strong love for music and play an instrument, you probably cannot understand how specifically he felt when playing for the first time in years. But don't keep shoving this in the readers faces, it just seems snide and lazy at the same time. It felt like an out for me. Like Kvothe while telling the story didn't feel like fully describing what he meant so he just wrote it off as "oh... well..you're not a musician so I wouldn't expect YOUUUUUU to understand...." Use your words, Kvothe. HELP US understand if it means that much to you. And if it doesn't matter then stop shoving your superior knowledge and experience in our faces. 
 As for secondary characters, it might just be how long it's been since I read a story written in the first person, but I felt them to be rather underdeveloped. Kvothe's university friends in particular seemed to be tools rather than friends. Because Kvothe is telling the story, they only show up when he needs them for something, so we never really get to see them interact with anyone else or be their own people. I've seen people complain about Denna but overall I didn't mind her one way or the other. She's not a real character to me. She' Kvothe's medieval Manic Pixie Dream Girl. She's mysterious, she doesn't seem to care, she is stunningly beautiful.... Because we get her from Kvothe's extremely biased perspective she isn't anything real. She's just what he wants her to be. This normally would upset me but I find it strangely accurate considering Kvothe is the one describing her. I'd question his love for her if he WAS able to objectively describe her. But as it stands, I don't find her to be a particularly strong character. She just exists for Kvothe to pine over, both in the past and present. 
 I can see WHY people liked this book. The over arching plot we were trying to establish every now and then when we finally got back to the main road IS interesting. I want to know about the Chandrian, what present day Kvothe's deal is, what his relationship with Bast is and how it happened. And for some people, if you can handle the fact that we spent over 600 pages and an entire book to simply be exposition, this book will be highly enjoyable. But in my opinion, you shouldn't expect your readers to be invested in a trilogy right off the bat. An entire book spent on exposition with zero plot on its own is unacceptable to me. You can't introduce a gun in act I and spend the next 12 acts building exposition on how the gun is made, who bought it, how did it get in the room, and then to fire said gun in act 26 of the third book (Chekhov's gun analogy stolen from Alison). The result is that a book series that I most likely would have enjoyed in other circumstances instead was an absolute chore to read, and one which I only got through to avoid "well you didn't finish the book!" statements when discussing why I disliked this book so much. I hope that people who enjoyed book one will get fulfillment out of books 2 and 3. I, for my part however, shall not be joining Kvothe on the remainder of his journey.