The Name of the Wind
In a quiet country inn called the Waystone, an innkeeper named Kote serves bad cider to local farmers and tries very hard to be no one. He is in fact Kvothe, the legendary arcanist and assassin whose name is whispered in half the kingdoms of the Four Corners, and a traveling chronicler has tracked him down for a long-form interview. Over the course of the first night of three, Kvothe begins to tell the chronicler the true story of his life: his upbringing in a troupe of traveling Edema Ruh performers, the demonic Chandrian who slaughtered his family, the years he spent feral on the streets of Tarbean, his admission to the University at fifteen, and the slow accretion of the small, dangerous reputation that would later become legend. Patrick Rothfuss's 2007 debut, the first book of the Kingkiller Chronicle, became a touchstone of literary epic fantasy for a generation of readers.
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A biographer called Chronicler tracks down the legendary swordsman, arcanist, and former student Kvothe, now hiding as a quiet innkeeper named Kote in a farming village. Over three days Kvothe agrees to tell his life, beginning with the troupe of traveling players that raised him.
The Doors of Stone is the long-awaited third Kingkiller Chronicle book. Patrick Rothfuss began writing it shortly after The Wise Man's Fear (2011) but as of 2025 it remains unpublished. Fans have waited over 14 years.
Patrick Rothfuss has published two main novels: The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear, plus a novella The Slow Regard of Silent Things. The Doors of Stone is forthcoming.
The Name of the Wind was written by Patrick Rothfuss, published in 2008 by Daw Books.
The Name of the Wind is 736 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Name of the Wind takes most readers 11 to 16 hours to finish.
Yes. The Name of the Wind is book 1 in the The Kingkiller Chronicle series by Patrick Rothfuss.
The Name of the Wind is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.