When I finished this book I instantly gave it five stars. And then when I finally sat down to review it, I couldn’t help but notice that the general tone of my review was so incredibly negative. I have restarted this review at least six times, and every time I start typing I find myself going off on rants about the things I disliked about this book. So this is my disclaimer that despite the negative tone of this review, I still stand by my high rating of this book and I'll try my best to explain my negative thoughts along with the positive ones (realistically this is a 4.5 star read but it is just so well done and thought out that I cannot give it anything less than 5).

Lets set the scene: In this book we have an innkeeper who is actually more than an innkeeper. He is currently living in hiding, he is living under a different name and denying his identity to anyone who recognizes him. But it is very apparent to the readers that this guy knows more than he is letting on. This book starts off with what I believe is best described as a demon attack, unfortunately I am unable to give any further explanation on what it specifically was (because tbh I forget) or why they are there because it never gets explained. Despite the exciting introduction to our innkeeper, the rest of the story is about something completely different. Although I think if we take a step back and look at the (much) bigger picture, it does suggest we will get back to the mysterious demon creatures at some time before the end of the series.

That’s right folks, this book is just a small part of an entire series. Which is impressive because that means that this book is just a 600 paged introduction to something much larger, its also exhausting because it’s a 600 paged introduction. Lets go back to our innkeeper, he appears to be going through a lot to keep who he is a secret. But when a storyteller, (I can’t remember the term used to describe him) Chronicler, comes looking to hear his story he opens up. We find out that our innkeeper is actually Kvothe, who is basically legendary in this world. And well that’s it, that’s the plot. Kvothe is telling his story, explaining his past, and randomly throughout his tale we are brought back to the present and reminded of the fact that he is now an innkeeper.

The twist is that Kvothe’s story takes three days to tell. And we have three books in this series. Which means that at the conclusion of book one we only have one third of his story, which still leaves a lot of questions about who is Kvothe, why is he in hiding, and why are all these weird demon creatures coming out to play in the present? It leaves the ending of this story feeling relatively anti-climactic in my opinion. While I can definitely appreciate the amount of work that goes into creating a story that takes three large books to tell, I can’t help but wish that there was more clarity in understanding why his story is so important.

Readers are told about how great Kvothe is, and while we start to see some of that in his story, we only get to see the early bits in this first book. And while the early bits of his life are impressive, there is still just so much to learn about him as a character so I unfortunately don’t care as much as I think I’m supposed too? Kvothe’s early life is a lot to take in, and I can definitely play along and believe that if he accomplishes so much so early that he is going to be this great incredible character that has been hinted at, we just don’t get to see that yet in this book. So it just kind of leaves me wanting more. This is probably the point considering that it appears these books are going to flow relatively seamlessly into one another.

So basically to sum all of that up, my issue is the delivery of the story. It’s basically 600 pages of info dump and even at the end of it we don’t get any answers as to why any of it matters. We just get more questions.

I suppose now that I’ve spent an hour figuring out what it was about this story that left me feeling …meh, I can talk about what I did enjoy! (Here’s a list because if you follow my reviews you probably know by now that I LOVE LISTS)
- Kvothe. I know I just spent the entire review saying I didn’t understand why he was so important yet, but I also love him. (Also, looking at the title of the series suggests why he is so important but we don’t get to that in this book so I stand by everything I say even though some people might tell me it’s clear enough)
- The individual stories from his childhood were all really great in their own ways, super well written, easy to follow, like I said it is just difficult to understand their significance at this point in the series.
- The concept of the chanderlain (???spelling???)… definitely eager to read more about them
- The writing is honestly just so beautiful
- The pacing, this story switches from present day to Kvothe’s past and also to stories from Kvothe’s past (that makes more sense if you’ve actually read it) very smoothly. While there were some parts I felt that dragged out a bit, the changes of pace kept pulling me back in before I got too bored at any part.
- The magical aspect, watching Kvothe learn about it
- The rumor aspect of this story, watching Kvothe’s life turn into stories and rumors is actually quite fun
And because I love lists, heres a short one with things I wasn’t super crazy about
- Ambrose. He is the WORST my GOD.
- Denna, I think I’m supposed to like her much more than I do.


All in all, this story is worth reading. But I wish I had waited to read this until all three books were out. I imagine I will feel differently about this book when I finally have Kvothe’s entire story laid out in front of me, along with some answers about what is happening in the present day. I imagine that will not happen until book 3, so I have a long ways to go/wait. I appreciate the writing, and that everything I currently feel uncertain about are also things that I enjoyed and am excited for find explanations for. This book really makes readers think about the bigger picture, and at the conclusion of this book I was just annoyed that I only got a part of it.