The Kingkiller Chronicle

"In these pages you will come to know Kvothe as a notorious magician, an accomplished thief, a masterful musician, and an infamous assassin."

―Blurb of The Name of the Wind

Illustration of Patrick Rothfuss using beard magic to shape Kvothe's life, by © Nathan Taylor

The Kingkiller Chronicle, sometimes abbreviated as KKC, is a series of fantasy novels by American author Patrick Rothfuss.

Plot description Edit

The Kingkiller Chronicle is presented as the autobiography of Kvothe, an adventurer and famous musician, legendary throughout the Four Corners of Civilization. The plot is divided into two different action threads:

The frame story, where Kote tells the story of his life to Chronicler in the Waystone Inn.
The narration, which comprises the story of Kote's past as Kvothe and makes up the majority of the books.

The series alternates between the third and first person perspective. The present-day interludes are in the third person from the perspective of multiple characters, while the story of Kvothe's life is told entirely in the first person from his own perspective.

The series also contains many metafictional stories-within-stories from varying perspectives, most of which are recounted by Kvothe, and presented as having been heard from other characters in his past.

Works in the series Edit

Main trilogy Edit

#	Title	Pages	Chapters	Audio	US release
	The Name of the Wind			27h 58m	March 27, 2007
	The Wise Man's Fear			42h 59m	March 1, 2011
	The Doors of Stone

Companion tales Edit

Rothfuss has written several short stories taking place within the setting of the world of The Kingkiller Chronicle, with more expected to be published. The stories do not focus on Kvothe inparticular. Currently two short stories in anthologies and a stand-alone novella have been released, and another novella is in the works.

The short story How Old Holly Came to Be was published in the anthology Unfettered in June 2013.^[1] A year later, the short story The Lightning Tree, featuring Bast, was published in the anthology Rogues in June 2014. Several months later, the first stand-alone novella of the series, The Slow Regard of Silent Things, featuring Auri, was released in October 2014. Rothfuss is currently working on The Tale of Laniel Young-Again, a novella of 100,000-120,000 words.^[2]

Editions and translations Edit

Main article: Editions of The Kingkiller Chronicle

The novels in the Kingkiller Chronicle series are first published in hardcover and are later re-released as paperback editions. They have been translated into more than thirty languages worldwide.

Background and publication Edit

Rothfuss wrote the trilogy as an extremely long fantasy novel, titled "The Song of Flame and Thunder", during his nine-year advance toward his bachelors degree in English. He drew inspiration from the range of college courses he explored, and from his personal interests and hobbies. He submitted the completed novel to several publishing companies but was rejected.^[3]

A short story of 14,000 words^[1] excerpted from the novel, titled "The Road to Levinshire", won the Writers of the Future Second Quarter competititon in 2002. He then chatted to science fiction writer Kevin J. Anderson at a writers workshop and through this managed to secure a deal with his agent Matt Bialer.^[3]

The full novel was sold to publisher DAW Books and then split into a three-volume series. In an early manuscript of The Wise Man's Fear from June 2010 the series was titled The Song of the Broken Tree. It was later retitled to "The Kingkiller Chronicle".

The first volume of "The Kingkiller Chronicle", The Name of the Wind, was published to critical acclaim in April 2007 and has since won the 2007 Quill Award for best scifi/fantasy and has also been listed on the New York Times Best Seller list. It also won an Alex Award in 2008.

The second volume of the series, The Wise Mans Fear was originally due to be released on the 16th April 2009 but has been posponed due to it not actually being finished, yet. It was finally released in March 2011 and reached the first place on the New York Times Hardback Fiction Best Seller List^[4].

Derived works Edit

Card games Edit

Two card games have been produced based on the world of the Kingkiller Chronicle. The Name of the Wind Playing Cards (2014) and Pairs (2014) are both made in collaboration with Rothfuss and funded via succesful Kickstarter campaigns.

Television series Edit

Main article: Kingkiller

With the popularity of the series growing, American film studio Twentieth Century Fox and film production company New Regency Productions optioned The Kingkiller Chronicle for a television series adaptation in July 2013. The production team attached to the production of the pilot includes Eric Heisserer, Arnon Milchan, Andrew Plotkin, Brad Weston, and Robert Lawrence.^[5] The pilot and series bible was sent out to buyers in July 2014 and it is later that year confirmed that American television network NBC has secured the rights for the series. The series, titled Kingkiller, is currently still under development.^[6]

Works in the The Kingkiller Chronicle series
Novels	The Name of the Wind (2007) ▪ The Wise Man's Fear (2011) ▪ The Doors of Stone (to be released)
Companion tales	How Old Holly Came to Be in Unfettered (2013) ▪ The Lightning Tree in Rogues (2014) ▪ The Slow Regard of Silent Things (2014) ▪ The Tale of Laniel Young-Again (to be released)
Derived works	Cealdish Currency (2013) ▪ The Name of the Wind Playing Cards (2014) ▪ Pairs (2014) ▪ Kingkiller TV series (in development)