Merlkir said:
I've only read the first one and it was a pleasant enough read, but the best? Meh. The main character is too much of a Mary Sue (admittedly, a bit of a sociopath MS) and it felt too much like Wizard of Earthsea at times. It was ok.
You are entitled to your taste, but I really think that Kvothe is one of the best protagonists ever. A prodigy, he is a man who can achieve anything he puts his mind to, but is limited only by his own flaws, miscalculations, and just plain stupid mistakes. Basically he is Harry Potter...if Harry Potter was an actual human being and not a piece of cardboard without personality. The thing I like about him most is his caution and his indecisiveness.
As for the Wizard of Earthsea comparison, I never really liked Ged. I like Kvothe because he is narrating and is damn honest about his motivations and actions, no matter how badly they reflect on him. Ged honestly only had selfishness and a cool scar. It was a cool world...but I prefer the Thief-Like setting of Name of the Wind. And I like how there isn't an obvious overarching narrative arc to Name of the Wind. Kvothe doesn't have precise or clear goals. You know...like normal people. And the poetry when Kvothe is telling the story. That prose is just so crisp and has such elaborate analogies and wordplay. It's sounds like medieval noir really. You get a feel for who he is, a Nietzschean Übermensch. But unlike the Übermensch Nietzsche predicted, this Superman is a deeply flawed individual and cannot provide societal values or provide definition to reality. I'd actually say his closest analogue would be Paul Atreides from Dune (mixed with a ton of Cyrano de Bergerac).
And his romance is possibly the cutest (and most depressing) thing ever, as he tries to read into things while remaining cautious, parrying everything with a witty repost even though he harbors a ton of self-loathing and steps very carefully in order to avoid hurting the few people he cares about. But when trying to realize his grand ambitions, he lets nothing stands in his way. Not the love of his life, not his happiness, not the feelings of others, and certainly not danger.
Is he a Mary Sue? No. I don't think so. A Mary Sue is like Bella. She has no personality, no goals, no intelligence, and no thoughts of her own. The reader is meant to project her own thoughts onto Bella, and that is what makes her a self-insertion role. Kvothe on the other hand? He clearly does have thoughts, regrets, wits, personality, self-loathing, and a poet's tongue. Is he a typical teenager? In many ways yes, and that it was makes him stand apart from Harry Potter and Ged. A realistic portrait of a teenagers mindset...Yes the audience identifies with him completely....but in a good way.
And now the guy who made that character will hopefully give us some role-playing options like that. Kvothe the nameless one!