The Name of the Sue?

[mycenae]

Ok, I keep hearing about this book The Name of the Wind, so I looked at the author's site for info on the book. Instead of a summary of the plot, there's a short first-person introduction from the main character. It's basically HI I'M A MARY SUE, WATCH ME DAZZLE!

Comments

[meganbmoore]

I have it! But haven't read it yet.

[mycenae]

I keep hearing (just randomly on the internet) about how awesome it is, but that character intro was decidedly not awesome (to me, anyway) so now I don't know... I kind of want to read it just because it's the hot new thing, and I'm always curious about the hot new thing.

[meganbmoore]

I tend to be leery of the hot new thing until I hear about it from reliable sources. In this case, what i hear is that the book is good, but the lead annoying.

[mycenae]

Yeah, after Twilight, I'm wary of anything that's super popular (but still curious... which is how I read Twilight).

[caveat_lect0r]

Bleerrggghsdflkjsdfwefoiv.

Whenever I encounter a book with many deliberately unpronounceable names (that don't exist in any real language), I almost always stop reading immediately. Especially so if there are random apostrophes.

But perhaps it gets less obnoxious later in the book? Lots of books start out poorly or awkwardly and improve somewhat within the first few pages.

[mycenae]

Random apostrophes are a major danger sign.

I guess maybe the intro is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but not well done. It really felt like a Mary Sue checklist.

[shamoogity]

I haven't read it, but spectralbovine did a pretty in-depth, pretty favourable review of it awhile ago.

[mycenae]

Oh, yeah! I saw that, but was just skimming my flist and put it in my mental "to be read later" file and then forgot to go back and read it. Guess I can do that now!

[darkportent]

I read it and liked it a lot. The character introduction is Kvothe talking to his biographer and trying to sound full of himself on purpose, although I can't remember why. I think he wanted the biographer to go away. Name of the Wind is the author's first book and he worked it for 7 years, so it's a little clunky sometimes. But the intro (which the intro quote is from) is the worst part, it definitely picks up later.

[mycenae]

Is he an unreliable narrator? Because I love unreliable narrators.

[spectralbovine]

Me too! But Kvothe is not an unreliable narrator, per se; the fun of the thing is that he's the most reliable narrator there is. Everyone else has made up stories about him, and this is the truth. For instance, some of that stuff he boasts about in his intro-which is supposed to sound OMG AWESOME in an attempt to put the story in perspective-doesn't happen the way "you" might have heard it.

[essentialsaltes]

I was very confused for a minute. I thought you were talking about The Shadow of the Wind, and none of that sounded familiar. I was doubting my sanity/memory.

Um, 'Shadow' is a good book.