I, personally, am a fan of the Kingkiller Chronciles thus far. I think Name of the Wind will be a book people look back on after the series has finished and consider it as something greater than it has been up until now, not considering all the praise it has received thus far. There is a lot of story and world building going on subtextually. That said, I think my appreciation for the series has been that I identify it as a narrative of narratives. As MG already mentioned, those stories about the world are of interest in and of themselves and I would argue that they are indispensable from the story as a whole. The whole thing is storytelling all the way down. Pat does some really interesting twisting that undermines a lot of the notions that surround first-person narration.
MG also touched on the "dark fantasy" element as well. I absolutely agree with him that it is not dark fantasy persay, but like Wilshire said, it certainly falls into a category of tragedy that belies its almost whimsical, poetic narration.
I'll be the first to say that the second was not as good as the first (I found it to be less cohesive than the first), but I'm holding out for the third to pass final judgment on the middle tome.
It was a few years ago when I read it, but if I remember correctly he was an expert musician, an expert actor/orator, an expert at whatever lab work he was doing (can't remember what exactly), and without going into too much detail he was unusually gifted at a certain type of magic.
As Wilshire mentioned, it is made evident very early on in the text that Kvothe is something of a prodigy, but aside from that, I think that Rothfuss does a very good job in attributing Kvothe's abilities not only to innate talents but also to his environment. His abilities as a musician, actor, storyteller, and the like are attributed to his native heritage as an Edema Ruh (sp?) as opposed to him simply being a genius child.
In regards to his magical/sympathetic prowess, he was fortunate enough to have Abenthy travel and tutor him during his formative years as a child and then later
get away with cheating during his entry interviews.
If anything, his ingenuity in later years surpasses his "genius";
at best he is a very clever kid who manages to struggle through some tight situations--with a talent for storytelling--until he achieves a status resembling the fabled Kvothe the Kingkiller. At which point I think the story that Pat has been getting at all along will finally start.
Prediction:
Kvothe's three day recounting leads to his opening of the locked chest in his room (I can delve more into that theory if anyone is interested) and a dramatically different narrative style for a subsequent trilogy that sorts out all the shit that Kvothe, perhaps unwittingly, put into motion as a young man
Fuck, looking at the post preview, the amount of spoiler tags makes this look terrible to read, but I figured better more than less..
