#notwreadalong

Hello all!

The time has come to announce this blog's The Name of the Wind Read-Along, coming at you this summer starting July 1st.

Whether you're a first time reader or hankering for a reread, your esteemed hosts welcome you in sharing this experience with fellow readers and KKC lovers.

We're hard at work whipping up prompts to discuss the book, its characters, themes, and all that oh-so-good nerdy stuff.

To give you an idea of the reading schedule, it's going to look something like this:

July 1-3: prologue - chapter 9

July 4-10: chapters 10 - 34

July 11-17: chapters 35 - 58

July 18-24: chapters 59 - 78

July 25-31: chapters 79 - epilogue

(p.s. some chapters are super short so hopefully the amount of chapters each week isn't too intimidating!)

Though we have a certain timetable in mind, you by no means have to follow it. You can read as much or as little as you like each week, we just wanted to provide a more structured option for those who would like it. Just have fun with it and enjoy the story at your own pace!

We're also going to be using these tags when discussing/posting about the book and the read-along, so feel free to use them for your own posts:

#kkcreadalong

#notwreadalong

And for the sake of first time readers, we'll use spoiler tags! Sometimes we want to discuss things from the first book in light of events from the second one, so remember to filter the tags if you don't want to see it

#notwspoilers

#wmfspoilers

In a very short amount of time, things go from ehhh/survival/not grear (Tarbean) to okay (the part where he travels for a bit) to hey I'm in university to like three disasters in a row.

I don't want to keep reading because I now only expect disasters to reward Kvothe down the road. I uuuh may or may not go bother @logarithmicpanda later to get spoilers because if I don't I might just give up fighting with my brain and it's expectations.

dashing nonsensical hobo

Hello everyone! All us mods wanted to thank you all again for participating in the Name of the Wind Read-Along! We apologize that it's been so long hearing from us, but such is life.

Now that we're past reading the first installment in the Kingkiller Chronicle, we thought it might be a good idea to give y'all read alike suggestions, if you're in the mood for a book with a similar flavor.

So, here are our recs for books in the same vein as Name of the Wind. There is a bit of overlap, so here's a key to see suggestions that the other mods agree with

+ - Also recommended by Jo

* Also recommended by Carrie

! Also recommended by Robin

Jo's Recs:

Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb -> epic quest where everything always go wrong

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson -> beautiful writing and smart magic

Piranesi by Suzanna Clarke -> eerie feel

Uprooted by Naomi Novik -> dual magic systems*!

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco -> protagonist telling their stories after disaster strike *

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang -> massive trigger warnings but gifted disaster child and magic school *

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor -> beautiful writing, power of names *!

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood -> protag with a weird name

Burning Roses by S.L. Huang -> the truth behind stories

The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by K.S. Villoso -> not so heroic hero

The Witcher by Andrej Sapkowski -> weird creatures roaming the world

The Queen's Thief by Meghan Whalen Turner -> unreliable narrator*!

Carrie's recs:

The Storyteller by Anotina Michaelis -> beautiful writing, about storytelling, unreliable narrators, trigger warnings

Graceling Realm series by Kristin Cashore -> fantasy, theme of processing trauma !

Spindle's End by Robin McKinley -> beautiful writing, fantasy, power of names

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo -> children's, unreliable narrator, character growth

Robin's recs:

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch -> Unreliable, crafty narrator, well developed fantasy setting

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman -> more of an urban fantasy, but if you love Auri's story and character you'll love this, hidden worlds, atmospheric writing

Any book in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett -> series is full of charm, humor, and depth on a variety of themes. Specifically recommend the Mort series, which follows Death. Reading order is up to the individual reader and their preferences.

Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa -> manga, but has thematic similarities. Young upstart prodigy main character, expansive worldbuilding, magic system that has roots in science

Week 2: Chapter 10 - Chapter 34

You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.

-Chapter 26

Hello everyone! So how are we all doing after that chunk of book, or, as I lovingly call it, "Kvothe's Cycle of Childhood Trauma?" Things sure looked rough there, but I'm sure those experiences will have no lasting impacts on our hero's psyche and future relationships. No, sir, ma'am, or person of indeterminable gender.

At this point, Kvothe has proven himself to be a capable storyteller, but it makes one wonder if we can trust his version of his success story. Even he admits that you have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story, so who's to say which parts are the truth and which are given a little more dramatic flair?

So, thinking on that, y'alls question for this week is:

Is Kvothe an unreliable narrator? Can we take his story at face value or do we have to be a little more discerning? If he IS an unreliable narrator, what do you think he’s lying about?

Hello everyone! I hope you're ready, we're getting started 😆

Whether you're a first time reader or a veteran KKC fan, I'm thrilled to have you with us, and I hope we'll all have fun theorizing together haha

As a reminder, if you're gonna talk about chapters ahead of the schedule or tie your thoughts to things that happen in WMF, please use the spoiler tags #notwspoilers & #wmfspoilers (and if you're a first time reader, remember to block those!)

The Kingkiller Chronicle is my favorite book series of all time, even if it has many defaults. It just feels like a real place, somewhere I could visit on a vacation, and I'm super excited to go back to it, if only in thought haha

Some of you may have noticed we have multiple mods this time, so we thought we'd give a quick refresher:

@logarithmicpanda is Jo (they/them), the original owner of this blog and organizer of the previous readalongs. Follow them for conspiracy theories, random rants about videogames, and many cat pics!

@readingrobin is Robin (they/them), co-host of the readalong and really pleased as punch to be here. When not indoctrinating people into the Kingkiller fandom, you can find them on their own blog, chatting about books, comics, and the occasional spiral of existential dread.