The Name of the Wind

This is  the award-winning first installment of a trilogy by Patrick Rothfuss which I just read for my new sci-fi and fantasy book group. Very long but really well done. The main part of the book initially centers around a troupe of actors in what appears to be medieval England, led by the main character's (Kvothe) mother and father. They take in a tinker who travels with them and turns out to be an Arcanist (master magician).  Kvothe frequently rides in Abenthy's wagon and the magician, who can call the wind, finds Kvothe is more clever than most 12-year old boys, and so begins teaching him about magic. He encourages Kvothe to go to the University when he comes of age, where he can receive more extensive training. But Kvothe's life is derailed when, one evening while he is gathering wood for the fire, the troupe is attacked by the magical Chandrian and slaughtered. Kvothe escapes by the skin of his teeth and manages to salvage only his father's lute. Foraging in the woods and travelling by foot, he eventually ends up in a city where he lives as a beggar and thief. Saving every penny, he eventually making his way to the University, where he is admitted at an early age, 15 years old, and takes up the study of magic. He is a charity case, but he borrows enough money to buy a lute to replace his stolen one, and wins a musical contest, which gives him renown and some money. Headstrong, he makes enemies as well as friends and also becomes enamored of a young woman he met on the road, Denna. He is desperate to find out more about the evil creatures who killed his family, and when he hears of a similar massacre at a wedding a hard day's ride away, he mortgages everything to get a fast horse and rides in pursuit of answers. He doesn't get them, but he does encounter and eventually defeat a drug maddened Dracchus (an herbivorous dragon), finds and loses Denna again. He clashes horns one too many times with arch rival and fellow student, Ambrose, and is expelled from the university.
All this we learn retrospectively in the process of Kvothe (now going by the name of Kote) relating the events of his life to a story teller who has been summoned to the small tavern that Kvothe owns in the present tense of the book. Trouble has followed Kvothe to his new town and it appears he has lost some of his magical abilities, but we don't know how or why. Book Two will be the second day of Kvothe recounting his life and, no doubt, further developments in the present. Really well conceived and executed book and I have already checked out the 2nd installment from the library. For a more detailed description of the storyline, see the Wikipedia entry.