could not get into it, sorry. I could not finish it in time because of this and I didn't get any further than the first two chapters.

I really tried to get into this book and to read it but I found it very difficult. The writing style and the pace wasn’t working for me so I had to DNF it.

This book contained... so much unnecessary detail (in my opinion). Also, even with how much time they spent explaining the bindings and how to do them, I was still utterly confused as to how they worked. It's only been a few days since I finished listening to the audiobook, and I still feel like I remember nothing substantial from this novel. Every character was *slightly* annoying, and Ari's storytelling abilities aren't *that* great if they caused me to be bored by half of it.

However, I did still have some interest in the plot line. It just felt like it took too long to get from point A to point B. AND THIS WAS ONLY BOOK ONE! I am giving it the benefit of the doubt though, because this is one of my first looooooong fantasy reads, so I may be the only one who feels this way.

This book took me three months to read, and I still can't figure out why. Usually, I devour them in a week, maybe two. But I think there was something so special about the world R.R. Virdi created that I just didn't want to leave it. It had that spark that made it feel so real and alive that I knew every time I would close the book, I was close to it being over, and I just wanted to keep exploring.

It's a love letter to stories: to the art of storytelling, to the storytellers themselves. It's a story built on stories, with the plot weaving through different types as the tale goes along. None of which I'll give away in this review, trying to keep it spoiler free.

In short, if you want to add a whole world to your bookshelf, this is one you'll want to keep close.

I was really excited for this book because it sounded interesting. However, I could not get pass the beginning because it was very slow and nothing happened. I also was not engaged in the main character. Therefore, this novel had great potential, but was not executed well.

Did not finish book. Stopped at 25%.
I could not get into this book. The writing feels unedited and don't particularly enjoy the way women are portrayed. It just wasn't for me.

The First Binding is fundamentally and obviously invested in fantasy as a genre—fantasy’s beauty, its opening of possibility, its gifts of power and empowerment. Its use of magic and its love of storytelling are plain to see. But The First Binding hasn’t learned anything from the past ten or twenty years, within the genre or outside of it. It’s perfectly happy to replicate the same old ideas about a lonely, powerful man, unlovable because of the things that make him great, coping with the ordeal of being too special. It becomes frustrating at best—and alienating and mystifying at worst—to see The First Binding glorying in the beauty and possibility of fantasy while also taking some of the worst of the genre and reveling in that too.

"The First Binding" by R. R. Virdi is an epic fantasy novel about a storyteller called Ari. After arriving at a tavern and providing a memorable performance, Ari meets a mysterious young woman with whom he forms an instant connection. As they navigate politics and danger in a foreign land, Ari shares the most personal story of all: how he overcame adversity to become a legend and The Storyteller.

This story has all the elements required for epic fantasy: orphan child, early mentor, street urchins, selective magic school and a journey to prove oneself. The book is set against a stunning South Asian backdrop and weaving in captivating mythologies and cultural elements to create rich, unique worldbuilding. I think my favourite part of the book was actually the interlude chapters set in the nation of Etaynia where Ari must navigate dangerous political games, though I did enjoy the competitive kite flying chapters as well.

However, this was not an easy book to read. It is over 800 pages long and it had a very slow start. Virdi has an overly descriptive style and I wish I was exaggerating but the book spent 30 pages describing a bench in a tavern. There were pages and pages of unnecessary descriptions of banal items: candles, cutlery and benchtops. The story really only felt like it began to get moving at page 375, well over a third of the way through. I actually feel like the editors did this book a bit of a disservice by not paring it back much, much more.

Ari is supposed to be an expert storyteller but I didn't feel like the excellence of his storytelling was self-evident. Instead, there was a lot of reliance on audience reaction rather than having the stories shine in their own right. I also found the magic quite laborious. I understand that mastering the idea of folds took years and was very difficult, but the magic system took a long time to explain for something that did not inherently appear to be particularly complex. I also understand that Ari had gone through some things that perhaps made the magic much more difficult to execute in the earlier chapters however again, it seemed like there was a lot of time spent describing and not really that much magic to show for it which, as a reader, I found very frustrating. I also found the love interest quite cliched with a lot of batting eyelashes and a lot of male gaze. I think I could have forgiven quite a lot of these issues had the premise (rather than the setting) been more original.

There was some lovely worldbuilding in this book but you could have cut it in half without sacrificing the key parts of the story.

What seems like a direct rip-off of Name of the Wind, but a beautiful one. Incredible prose, well done Virdi.

I was very excited for this book, but unfortunately, I couldn't read past the beginning. There was just so much language to get through to what was actually said that it soon exhausted me. And I couldn't get behind the main character at all. Reading other reviews, it seems the action picks up a little while the main character gets worse, so I decided to leave be. I hope others find it more exciting.

Intriguing, substantial, and interesting from beginning to end. Virdi’s prose is excellent, the characters are compelling and well-composed.

Novels over about 5-600 pages really need to justify their length, in my opinion, and Virdi does a pretty good job of doing so in this first series instalment. I’m interested to see what happens next.

Thanks to NetGalley & Macmillan for the ARC in exchange of an honest review (that took forever because I’m back to uni and it’s totally kicking my ass but HEY! Better late than never, right?)

Okay, so, The First Binding was pretty impressive and consuming. I truly couldn’t put it down from the beginning. The world building and its entire context will drawn you into the story.

I love seeing the author’s background as a main inspiration, often fantasy feels very westernized but The First Binding gives you other colours.

It is very slow in the beginning (despite all the action.) The first chapters are about setting a tone, creating a mystery around Ari and all the paths he traveled and needs to travel.

My only issue? The female characters. Most of the descriptions have the male gaze as their main and sole audience and I get it but also it’s 2022, no need to enable certain behaviours just because your female character is a, and I quote Mean Girls lol, regulation hottie. No full lips, no big eyes, no beautiful body = all boys would dream of doing so and so.

Will I recommend it to everyone? Possibly not but I will still give it to certain readers. Is it the worst book when it comes to taking into consideration female readers? No, but it’s also not the greatest (wink wink to Kuang & Shannon.) Is it beautifully written? Yes, the author is very very talented and I’m sure he will have better pieces in the future.

Final rating: 3.75 ⭐️

Unfortunately I chose to stop reading this book early on. I realized very quickly that the writing style of this book would not be for me and I did not want to finish it and then end up having a rant review on my channel. Briefly the writing style was overwritten and too melodramatic and self important for me. I knew instantly that this main character would bother me and I was spending every page making snarky comments in my head so for those reasons I chose to stop reading this book.

The First Binding is written for those who love storytelling. It is a story within a story, within yet another story and Virdi's lyrical writing style makes it compulsively readable for as long of an epic that this is. This was one book that I didn't want to end!

The premise sounded really interesting, and the setting was great, but I struggled to get into it, especially with such a long introductory section.

The main character came off as pretentious and arrogant, and instantly made me dislike him. I’m sure he was supposed to be more of the cool and mysterious character, but I couldn’t bring myself to like him.

As mentioned previously, the premise is good and interesting, but the execution wasn’t great. I struggled through to 15% before I gave up.

Ari is a storyteller, a legend, and a myth. When he meets a woman named Eloine in an inn, the two start to talk and Ari begins to unravel the truth of his story from the lies and exaggerations.

Virdi's The First Binding is truly epic fantasy. Inspired by South Asian mythology and storytelling, it's full of stories within stories and does move between the past and the "present" within the story. I really loved Virdi's writing style and I found the world-building to be really thorough and vivid. Although I enjoyed the first half of the book, learning about Ari's childhood and his first encounter with magic, the second half of the book was my favorite. Everything really ramps up at that point and we learn more about Eloine in the present, and I was entranced. Ari is a nuanced character, someone you can sympathize with while still not agreeing with all of his choices. If you love storytelling, epic fantasy, and mythology, you should absolutely check out The First Binding when it comes out on August 16th!

This novel is a story within a story, and sometimes a story within that. Ari is a binder, and a storyteller - The Storyteller - a magic wielder who uses folds and bindings to fashion changes in the world. He stops at a small inn to tell stories, and ends up telling his personal story to a woman with multiple names, an autobiography within a narrative frame of the present. Ari's family is murdered when he is a very young child, and his life is shaped by that - he is an orphan, a thief, a murderer, and a student, with the deep emotions that such a background can bring. Despite that, he retains his compassion for others, and the combination of compassion and deep emotions - particularly anger - lead to significant troubles for him.

The concept of magic as bindings and folds - the explanation of which I'll leave to the novel - is an interesting one, and Ari's story is compelling, but the ending of the novel seemed abrupt and didn't, to my mind, really fit, as if the author couldn't determine a proper ending and thus stopped writing - an interesting concept for a book well over 800 pages. While I enjoyed the novel as a whole, the ending left me with a sense of incompletion that seemed unusual in context. It may be that the author is planning a sequel, but this volume seemed rather long to end so abruptly.

The First Binding is the epic fantasy debut of author R.R. Virdi and is an intriguing and exciting first entry in the Tales of Tremaine series. The novel itself is a massive 817-pages.

In a similar fashion to Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind and Jay Kristoff's Empire of the Vampire, The First Binding is about an important character revealing their epic tale, telling the truth about their becoming legendary or infamous and how they ended up at the position they are in at the present time. It's been a while since I read The Name of the Wind (and gave up halfway through The Wise Man's Fear) but there are a few apparent similarities that stuck out to me that could put some readers off, whilst enticing just as many to give it a chance and pick up what I found to be a pretty special story. It's beautifully written, vast in its scope, features a world with considerable depth, and a flourishing rhythm throughout. After only 50-pages I was completely invested.

In The First Binding, The Storyteller (Ari) is a red-headed, magic-wielding performer, who wears a blood-red cape, and is hunting an ancient evil known as the Ashura (who are disregarded by most as being nothing but farfetched tales to frighten children). He can weave his tales how he wishes, sometimes merging stories together, twisting them, outright lying, increasing his legend, or changing the truths to however suits his needs or audiences. This is all intertwined with his magic usage, which could seem to his observers as cheap parlour tricks, yet, he may be utilising the Bindings. He's developed an impressive knowledge of the stories regarding the Lands of Tremaine and the Golden Road. Some of the novel's finest worldbuilding moments are presented through Ari's tale-telling, for example, the history of the Gods, such as Brahm.

I'd estimate that about 25% - 33% of The First Binding is set in the "present day" period. This is more than I remember The Name of the Wind being and the present-day actions here seem more dynamic and important than in Rothfuss' debut. The story of Ari's youth is told to the almost as mysterious, charming, and witty Eloine, whose past is also shrouded in intrigue. When I was scribbling some review writings, I noted that Ari's history is told in chronological order which I distinguished as Theatre, Boy Thief, Travelling, and then Magic Academy periods. I believe these descriptions give a brief indication of what to expect, without really spoiling anything. Ari's age as the storyteller isn't disclosed. I was trying to work it out as I'm sure there are a few hints, but, due to the magical nature of this fantasy world, he could be anywhere between 30 and 100+. The flashback storytelling sections of Ari's life cover his early youth to teenage years.

Jim Butcher reflected that Virdi's The First Binding was written with passion and love and I think he's completely accurate. It's poignant, poetic, and neatly paced, with some noteworthy standout setpieces, and many moments that present a unique sense of awe. The novel has a lot of what you'd expect too, including intricate training montages, magic tutoring segments, bitter rivalries, misunderstanding love, true friendships, horrid happenings, and curious motives of supporting characters, and I absolutely loved that kookiness of the characters in the Crow's Nest. The fact that there might be a God wandering somewhere in the mix as well really piques my curiosity. Observing the artwork on both the advanced review copy and the first edition hardback; it looks sweeping, bold, and beautiful. Virdi's words painted mental images for me that were just as striking and will stick with me for a long time. Just recalling some of these moments and images now, I can't help but smile.

I've mentioned the books from The Kingkiller Chronicles a few times throughout this review, and the influence is definitely there which I believe Virdi has acknowledged. I'd say The First Binding stands strong as a peer rather than an imitation and personally I enjoyed this book more than any of Rothfuss' (although The Slow Regard of Silent Things is pretty wonderful). I don't have too many negatives about my reading experience. Having to state a few minor issues, I became disinterested quickly with a couple of the songs, certain moments seemed to drag and I think the length of this novel was intimidating to the extent it slowed my reading pace. The intermissions returning to the present day were mostly well-timed but until the excellent political game of intrigue, favours and masks close to the end, these seemed more filler than the tales of Ari.

One moment that made me chuckle-groan though was: we were witness to an awesome training section where Ari is taught about a sort of sixth sense where, even if he can't see what's going to happen, he knows when someone invades his personal space so he can react sharply and naturally with a sword or motion to defend and protect himself. That was fine, until the next intermission chapter when Eloine manages to flick him unaware, playfully on the nose (or forehead) leaving him pretty dumbfounded. Although I remember this moment as being a bit silly, overall The First Binding is a high-quality fantasy epic and I can't wait for the next book. 8.5/10.

I received an advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to R.R. Virdi and Gollancz and Tor Books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Somewhere around 3.5 stars. This book was mostly easy to stay engaged and interested in, though there were a few spots where it dragged on a bit and I started to lose interest. It does switch between two timelines - the current time and his history and how he got where he is now that he is telling to someone in the current time. Usually the transition isn't too bad but sometimes it can frustrating to make the switch and it felt a bit like two books in one. One of the things I struggled with was that knowing that this was the first of an epic fantasy series, the story wouldn't be completed in this book. Although things develop through the current time and there is a direction both timelines are going in, there wasn't a specific goal or issue that would be resolved. Overall it was mostly enjoyable.

Wow this was absolutely epic and at the same time, well focused on the characters and storytelling. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.