The Name of the Wind--first impressions

Title: The Name of the Wind

Author: Patrick Rothfuss

Genre: Some adventure

Description:

I guess its not fair to criticize this book too much as I haven't finished yet, but it's a big book with small print, so here are my first impressions.

I have some complaints.

First of all, the main story is about a man who is usually described as having red hair and who has had a supposedly amazing past full of great and terrible things he wants to hide. One day a scribe finds him and decides to write his story.
Sounds exciting, doesn't it?
Not really.
They take a long time to get to the story of his terrible past, and pages are wasted where the scribe and the man are trying to find times for the man to tell his story. They do not introduce his "real" character until too late. You first know this man as someone with red hair who runs a bar. He shows up a bit more as the story goes on, but I thought that was just because he runs the only bar in town. I could hardly remember his name. then all of a sudden he seems to be a main character and Iam trying to figure out the importance of this man who-I-can't-remember-the-name-of. I learn he is a powerful character with a dark and mysterious past. But by now I just know him as the random bar-man and even as he tells his story, I wonder, Who the heck is this person?? Why am I reading about him? That's what I don't like about it. You are reading this story about a person you don't even know. His story doesn't seem important, and I haven't gotten to the good bits yet. So why read on? But I'm going to try to plod through because the librarian at school picked it out for me and really wants to know what I think of it. It's probably way overdue by now.

I wasn't too impressed with the writing. That's part of it. An attack happens on the road, a mysterious one that is supposed to inspire fear and excitement, but I found it boring. The event itself would be exciting, but it is too drawn out. You get kind of excited, but want to move on with the story. Everything was drawn out that way. The prologue gives a haunting message, "It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man waiting to die" (1). [we learned all about citations in school this week. My teachers would be proud of me] Anyway, the sentence hooks you in, but after 2 or 3 pages of gossiping men in a bar, you forget about it and aren't very curious anymore because it doesn't seem to be talked about anytime soon. Not every book starts out with a bang, but it really didn't seem like this one was going anywhere. They talk to much. I like a balanced amount of action and dialogue. This has too much dialogue. Sometimes I have know idea what they are talking about. For instance, what is a mounting board? They talk about it for 2 pages in Chapter 3. I guess I'll have to look it up.

A thing about the names. They are odd names, like Kvothe, Skarpi, and Bast, and I have trouble keeping them in my head and sometimes lose track of who is talking. Kvothe has several names, which complicates things further.

My first impressions weren't great, but isn't there a saying that you can't count on first impressions? I 'm actually looking forward to reading on to see if I can get to any really good bits in this book, then that review will come. I still have to find out what the name of the wind has to do with anything. Ta-ta!