Nothing different from your regular high fantasy mold. You know what i'm talking about. You have your standard boy genius, who is so brainy from the moment he is a wee babe that he all but plays the flute and recites poetry before he can walk, we have our grizzled mentor, who has seen it all and done it all yet has enough wonder left in him to be completely taken aback by the special little chap. Something very bad happens to our hero when is really young and he then begins a half conscious quest for revenge. Nothing new there. 
 There are the snooty nobles, for of course our hero is from lowly stock. But bad lineage notwithstanding it is obvious our hero will surmount all odds set against him with brilliant feats of showmanship reminiscent of legend. I could go on, but you can just look up 'high fantasy' on wikipedia and you will find the basic elements of the plot line of this book. 
 That being said however, the book is surprisingly good. The beginning is a little slow, and even made me want t put it down a few times. But the story picks up as Rothfuss hits his stride some 30% of the way into the book. 
 The plot follows the life of the rather fantastically named Kvothe, whose desire to learn magic gt him entrance into the foremost university in the land at the young age of 15. There are a lot of Harry Potter like elements in the bits of the story that describe Kvothe's stay at the university, but the story spans a larger area of activity. Its primary concern are legends rooted deep within th history of the world. Legends of demons and guardian knights. Of demonic Chandrian who suddenly deal out violent death for no particular reason at all. They form the central core of the bad guys incidentally, but remain largely confined to lore and old wives tales other than the pivotal appearance here and there. 
 The world building is quite good. And there is nothing too jarring and confusing here. Rothfuss has done a great job in coming up with an intriguing magic system (in fact, most of this magic system remains shrouded in mystery for the whole of the book, but clearly plays an essential role in the macro plot), an interesting economic landscape and what appears to be a well constructed historical background that is as yet not made completely apparent. 
 Some of the characters i thought weren't very well fleshed out. And Kvothe himself suddenly appears t go inexplicably out of character himself. This may be because of an emerging bipolar disorder that is hinted at in the beginning but i very much doubt that. 
 Most of the story is just a foundation for the next two books, we are not told overmuch about the world the book is set in and where the story is likely to go, the book being mainly a tool to set the stage for the next two book in the series, which i hope match up to this one.