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Rank 15—No change
#15 in Sci-Fi & Fantasy
of 15 ranked entries
The Name of the Wind
Patrick Rothfuss · 2007
Rothfuss framed an entire epic as one man’s own retelling of his life to a scribe, letting an unreliable narrator’s self-mythologizing color every impossible feat — a frame the still-unfinished trilogy has left dangling for over a decade. Recorded specifics: published 2007, author Patrick Rothfuss, pages 662. Panel highlighted a framed-narrative structure that adds genuine doubt to its own hero’s legend, prose lyricism that stands out even among strong genre peers and kvothe remains one of fantasy’s most distinctive narrator voices. The reservation on record is the long-delayed, still-unpublished third volume leaves the story unfinished.
High fantasy
Score breakdown
How The Name of the Wind earned 72
Each criterion is scored independently, then combined using the weights published on Sci-Fi & Fantasy.
- World-buildingweight 30%
- 74.3
- Prose & pacingweight 25%
- 69.3
- Genre influenceweight 25%
- 71.4
- Thematic ambitionweight 20%
- 72.8
On the record
Recorded detail
| Published | 2007 |
|---|---|
| Author | Patrick Rothfuss |
| Pages | 662 |
| Rating | 8.9 |
Panel verdict
Strengths and reservations
What it gets right
- A framed-narrative structure that adds genuine doubt to its own hero’s legend
- Prose lyricism that stands out even among strong genre peers
- Kvothe remains one of fantasy’s most distinctive narrator voices
Where it gives ground
- The long-delayed, still-unpublished third volume leaves the story unfinished
1 appearance
Where this entry ranks
From the same list
Ranked alongside it
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Frank Herbert · 1965
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Rank 04Foundation
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Rank 05Neuromancer
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87.1/100 Top 49 score2Down 2
Rank 07Editor’s pickKindred
Octavia Butler · 1979
Butler sent a modern Black woman back to a pre-Civil War plantation with no explanation and no mercy, using time travel not as an adventure device but as the most direct possible argument about how close slavery’s violence really is.
84.4/100 Top 49 score2Down 2
Rank 08The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood · 1985
Atwood built her totalitarian theocracy almost entirely from documented historical precedent, a self-imposed rule that has made the novel feel less like speculation and more like a warning with each passing decade.
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