The writing of Patrick Rothfuss has been described as "lyrical." This is an understatement, the way describing a masterpiece symphony as a "well-crafted song" is an understatement. The musical metaphor is intentional, because the whole book is a musical metaphor. 
 It begins with silence, like the expectant silence just before the first chords of a song. The first chapters are slow and quiet, building the structure of the piece with the framing present-day of an older Kvothe telling his past. The early years are bright and cheerful, dancing dialogue illustrating Kvothe's quick wit and hunger to learn everything, which would carry him later on. Then everything changes with a discordant tragedy that flings Kvothe into a completely different environment, teaching him an entirely new set of skills. The next few years are spent in a fog of survival, as if his life had been modulated into a minor key for awhile. Eventually new threads appear; in particular, a wise storyteller triggers Kvothe's thirst for knowledge again with a story told in vivid detail. (By this point we are three levels deep into the story, like a modern-fantasy version of Arabian Nights except that the listeners aren't planning to kill the one telling the story when it's finished. Someone else might be planning on it though.) 
 Most of the rest of the first day's tale has the common themes of the University setting, of Kvothe picking up various skills with intense speed, and of several solid friendships winding their way through the events of the few months that are described. In that time, Kvothe proves himself simultaneously more brilliant and more foolhardy than any dozen other students, catapulting through the ranks while constantly injuring himself either accidentally or from punishments. It is his strength of personality (although perhaps not character) that steals the show. At one point the music metaphor becomes real as he gives a characteristically brilliant lute performance despite sabotage and meets a girl who is to haunt him for the rest of the book. 
 Eventually the tempo speeds up as he performs several feats of magic and bravery that, according to the hints in the present day, are to spawn many rumors and legends of his capabilities and exploits, a few of which are even true, although not necessarily the way they might seem at first glance. Near the end, a discordant note enters the scene again as destruction visits the present day. As the last notes sound, we are left with many questions about how the fiery, witty teenager we see in Kvothe's memories comes to be a quiet innkeeper with a very curious choice of companion, and what is causing the present-day horrors. Then all is silence again, the moment of stillness after a piece is finished.