Ari is a legendary traveler who’s killed a god and buried an entire village. He’s a hero in some stories and a villain in others. However, one night, he shows up a tavern and begins to weave the true tale of his life.

The First Binding by R.R. Virdi is an epic fantasy set in a South Asian inspired world that I was really excited for. However, this was an incredibly frustrating read.

I’m going to be up front here and say that I couldn’t stand the main character. Ari is an insufferable narrator who blames women as the main cause for life’s woes … and yet he continues to hit on them with awful pickup lines. I kid you not, at one point he neighs at a woman while trying to flirt with her. I would have gotten up and walked out on him right there.

On top of that, even the simplest of actions are written in the most overwrought purple prose to the point that I found it entirely distracting.

Lastly, admiring another person’s work is one thing, but this book feels like it’s trying too hard to emulate The Name of the Wind’s premise and style (especially toward the beginning). In fact, the first page almost too closely parallels The Name of the Wind’s opening where Kvothe describes the three kinds of silences.

All in all, I couldn’t get into this book and I really don’t foresee myself continuing on with its sequel either.

The First Binding is a story treasure trove, surrounding the stories of mankind and gods. Suffice it to say, it's written in the style of old Indian epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata. It is a gigantic bibliographic story of a character who has done much in his life, but I do not see the main character, Ari as the villain of the story. Rather, the characters around him shaped his life into what he became today. Suffice it to say, I didn't end up liking Eloine in the story because she had her own motives, and was driven out of an interest to gain, but not too much to benefit Ari. She was an important character that held her own ground, and she was a very dominant personality.

It's hard to summarise such a long tale as this because each chapter has a story to tell. The prose is written in a fanciful way to achieve this effect, illuminating us towards the works of older styles of epic lore and literature. I also read the note of the author thanking Jim Butcher for his advice on this: if the novel will sell, it will sell. And I agree. This novel will sell because it tells a story of creation, of beginning and time. And to talk about Ari, at every single moment of the book I never felt that he was the villain because he never did do anything that would cause harm to others. Rather, if he did, then it was out of his own selfish motives and greed. It's said that in Hindu Mythology, we have multiverses. Different multiverses of the same world.

Specially written in the Puranas, one of the most epic and oldest literature of Hindusim that notes that there are hundreds of planets like this. In one area of a different world, Ravana, the King of the Asuras, would be a hero. In another area, he would be a tragic hero brought to become a villain. In the same way, I feel as if there are hundreds of different multiverses out there, I have no doubt that if Ari was given a time machine or some way to travel back in time and correct his mistakes, I have absolutely no doubt that he would. And I would urge the author to look into some time travel for the sequel of this wonderful novel.

In the end, it's a story spanning hundreds of characters, of descriptions that will make the world come alive, and it does not hide the horrors of war, or caste, or brutality. This would be a perfect series for a TV series, and I would love to see something like this being adapted one day. This is an epic novel, and it's a great novel. Wonderfully written, it's a rich exploration into Hindu Mythology and a unique combination of West meeting East. Love it, 10/10.

The First Binding by R.R. Virdi was a real treat. I novel that invites you to slow down and let reality melt away as you are introduced to new worlds, characters, and situations.
As a personal rule I reserve 5 star ratings for books I want to re-read at some point. The First Binding is one of those books. I found myself slowing down in an effort to make the book last longer.
This is a story about Ari,
"I buried the village of Ampur under a mountain of ice and snow. Then I killed their god. I've stolen old magics and been cursed for it. I started a war with those that walked before mankind and lost the princess I loved, and wanted to save. I've called lightning and bound fire. I am legend. And I am a monster.
My name is Ari."
It is also a story about stories --those we tell others and those we tell ourselves, why we tell them, what they do for us and what they do to us.
Thank you #NetGalley, #Tor, and R.R. Virdi for the ARC of #TheFirstBinding.

The First Binding is a book to be savoured. Like a slowly unfurling flower, each chapter adds layers and layers of richly-drawn narrative. I found the stories nestled within stories a super compelling concept, and the prose was rich, vivid, and wonderfully lyrical.

Ari is an intriguing character. He is flawed, impulsive, often stubborn and headstrong, and lives by a strong internal moral code. But his true gift is in the way he forges relationships with people, using stories to build bridges across societal divides. In a way, I feel that's the true heart of this book: stories are what brings us, as humans, together. The First Binding is a homage to storytelling and is a masterpiece of modern fantasy.

TL;DR

The First Binding by R.R. Virdi is fantasy to fall in love with. It’s an excellent world filled with characters that move you. This book is an instant classic. Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

Review: The First Binding by R.R. Virdi

Comparing two books to one another is an easy way to relate to a story. It’s also unfair to both books as they exist and were written on their own. Both authors put their labor and love into the prose on the page without thought of the other author. But. There’s always a but. How can I review a book when nearly every chapter if not every page makes me think of the other book? It almost feels as if these two books are in conversation with each other. I have done no research; so, I don’t know if it’s intentional on the part of the author. It could be entirely intentional. Either way, reading R.R. Virdi’s The First Binding reminded me so much of Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind that I can’t think of one without the other. Since I love The Name of the Wind, The First Binding quickly became a book I fell in love with. In fact, I recommended it to the other Rothfuss fans in my office because of it. But to be clear, Virdi’s story is not a knock off of Rothfuss’s. The First Binding is wonderful all on its own. It’s a book that rewards readers who look at craft as much as story. In The First Binding, R.R. Virdi has written an instant classic.

A cloaked man enters a tavern is who our story begins. His little demonstrations get the town talking, and as they gather for his show, a female singer interrupts him. But the cloaked man continues on to tell a story aimed at the local audience. Upon finishing the story, he lets the story sit in silence. It earns him the right to stay and earn a living at the tavern. The singer steps up next and charms everyone including the storyteller with her song. Then she and the storyteller flirt with one another. The cloaked man is the famous storyteller Ari, he of many stories and many lies. The singer won’t tell Ari her name; so, he names her Eloine. They flirt more. Their double entendres aren’t subtle. Soon, Eloine convinces Ari to tell her the story of him.

The reader is transported to a playhouse in the city of Keshum. Ari works as a stagehand running underneath the boards executing the special effects for the shows. His dreams are to trod the boards himself one day. Because they are Sullied, of the lowest caste, the playhouse is very poor. Ari lives underneath it in a bunk he hollowed out for himself. He is a clever young man whose mouth often causes him more trouble than it should. The owner of the theater seeks patronage from a local drug lord at around the same time a stranger arrives. It turns out the stranger is a magician, a binder, who is seeking out stories. Ari catches the binder’s attention and begins to train with him. At the same time, the owner of the theater sets Ari to training in stage fighting for parts in upcoming plays. Ari’s days are dedicated to training mind and body. He is happy and dreams of traveling to the Ashram, a magical school to learn binding. But, as with all fiction, the protagonist isn’t allowed to be happy for long. Tragedy strikes the theater, and Ari finds himself without family. He’s soon scooped up into a gang of orphans like himself. His role is to scam, to steal, to beg, and to earn by any means necessary. But the streets of Keshum are so dangerous and Ari is so grief stricken that he begins to lose the magical training the binder gave him. His dreams of traveling to the Ashram are being pushed away simply to survive. There is much more to Ari’s story, but this is roughly a third of the book.

The First Binding is a mostly first person point of view novel being told by Ari, himself. Occasional third person point of view chapters punctuate the book. The book is another brick of a fantasy novel with over 800+ pages of joy to be had. Despite being a brick, it has an excellent pace that keeps the reader glued to the page. The beginning is a little erratic, but once Ari settles into telling Eloine about his past, the writing and pacing become much more assured. The best writing comes from people telling stories in this book. Virdi slips in rhymes so subtly that I didn’t notice until the third day reading the book. This is a well-crafted – possibly, meticulously crafted – book.

Ari

This is Ari’s story; so, how much the reader enjoys the story depends upon how much the reader likes Ari. He is an excellent character if a bit over-the-top when flirting. He balances between being likable and being petty in many ways. He is a very capable person, especially as a child, but he’s not perfect. More than once, his reach exceeds his abilities, and sometimes he pays for that. Sometimes, however, it works in his favor while complicating his life further. I think I liked Ari more as a child than as an adult. This could also be because I think the childhood sections are more cohesive as a story than the adult portions.

Ari’s parts of the story are first person, and this necessitates treating the narrator as suspect. How much of his story is true? How much is embellishment? Virdi writes him as introspective with an eye towards earning the readers and Ari’s audience trust. Ari admits to mistakes, to errors, and to being flat wrong. He admits to embellishing the stories about him and flat out changing the actual circumstances to benefit him. These are important for the reader to see Ari as a whole character. However, the question lingers, is he telling us this to manipulate us and to manipulate Eloine? That is part of the fun of the book for me.

South Asian Stories

I don’t know any South Asian stories. It’s definitely an area I haven’t read in. So, I feel that I’ve missed depths to this novel by not having that knowledge. This doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the novel, but I feel like there’s a level to this story that I’m missing out on due to my own ignorance. Reading The First Binding makes me want to seek out more of these stories. I’d love to learn what influences R.R. Virdi had and what he thinks influenced the creation of this book. I’d like to seek out those stories to open my own world just a little more.

If you’re well read in South Asian stories and you’ve read this book, please, let me know in the comments what you think influenced Virdi’s telling.

A South Asian Kvothe?

Time and again, I kept feeling The First Binding was very like The Name of the Wind. I mean this in the best of terms because I love The Name of the Wind. So, is The First Binding a knock-off of The Name of the Wind? No, and how dare you for asking. R.R. Virdi wrote an excellent book that stands on its own, and it’s a book that, if there’s any justice in the world, should become as popular as Rothfuss’s work.

Ari and Kvothe are both theatrical storytellers. To remove all complexity from the characters, they’re basically bards. They are both orphaned with magical talent seeking out a school to harness that talent. They’re both fighting against demons from lore. They’re both attracted to women who won’t tell them their real names. So, there’s lots of similarities between these two characters, but there are many important differences as well. Kvothe is hiding as an innkeeper at the beginning of his story; Ari is working as himself in taverns. Kvothe keeps himself apart and alone; Ari seeks out family. Kvothe is the smartest, most capable person at all times in the story; Ari thinks himself the smartest, most capable and, yet, often isn’t.

Beyond those similarities, Rothfuss and Virdi care about storytelling: its power, its purpose, and its effects on people. While we care about the plot, want to know what happens, want to have a complete story, there’s a lot of pleasure in how both of these authors tell the story. They both employ imagery, sound, and rhythm to bring joy to the prose. I recommend reading both authors out loud to see how the prose flows.

Conclusion

R.R. Virdi explodes on the fantasy novel scene with an excellent, lyrical debut. This brick of a book keeps the reader glued to the pages. I loved The First Binding, and you will, too. Highly recommended.

I'm tapping out at 7%.

And that sucks!! I was really looking forward to this book, but when I found it took me moving mountains to get 25 pages into my eARC, I decided I should wait until the audiobook was released before jumping on that and giving it a go that way instead. I got a little further with the audiobook, but at the end of the day, my attention was still swaying, and I really want to focus on books that excite me right now. Unfortunately, THE FIRST BINDING wasn't doing it.

I can absolutely see the magic and the beauty in this book - the lyrical prose, the very clearly well-thought-out Desi-inspired fantasy world, the magic and mystery of storytelling. A <i>lot</i> of work went into this, and I can tell. Unfortunately, my discomfort reading the way female characters are portrayed in this book, as well as how it's told from the perspective of someone who is - let's be honest - a bit obnoxious, are what's stopping me short. And as someone that typically reads stories from a queer lens, this book felt a bit <i>too</i> cliche. I feel like I've read this before in the classics, and I don't really mean that in a positive way.

I might give this another go sometime in the future - maybe on a long flight or a car trip or an opportunity where I can really let myself get lost in a story like this. But for now, I think I'm going to pass this along to someone who will enjoy it more than I will.

(Thank you to Tor Books for this ARC!)

This is the story of Ari, who is a wandering storyteller. It has the same sort of vibe as The Name of the Wind, which you will see it compared to a lot.

The book is beautifully written and the world it creates is very well built and easy to imagine. I liked Ari as a character, and so his story (or stories, as it were) were easy to vibe into.

My biggest criticism of the book is that it is very, very long. That by itself isn't bad. I like big books and I cannot lie. But, along with the sheer length of the book is the fact that it is very often slowly paced. This book took me what felt like forever to read. That isn't necessarily bad, but it also wasn't great.

Still, I would recommend this book a hundred times to anyone who liked Name of the Wind, because it'd be easy to assume they would like this one too.

I've seen a lot of people compare this to The Name of the Wind, and on some level that's fair. If you're a Kingkiller fan, you're probably familiar with the framing narrative R.R. Virdi uses in The First Binding. But I think this book stands on it's own as an incredible entry to the fantasy genre. Virdi does an amazing job of spinning magic, worldbuilding, and even the narrative structure itself out of the real world. It's fantasy rooted in the human condition, which means it's the best kind of story there is. Even beyond that, it's a damn good read. I'm excited to buy a physical copy even after being able to review an advance copy. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to do so.

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish this book in it's entirety. I had a hard time getting engaged in it from the start, and ended up DNFing it just after the main character starts to tell his life story, flashing back to his childhood. From what little I read I can say I found the concepts of magic in the world to be very cool and part of what kept me reading as long as I did was my curiosity about the magic system. The idea that there is literal magic in storytelling, that can captivate an audience. I think that idea is something I haven't seen explored much in epic fantasy and that really appeals to readers, because stories already mean so much to us. It's difficult for me to put my finger on what kept disinteresting me during the set-up part of this narrative. I found the main character to be a little unnecessarily coy, he was being very mysterious and clearly not explaining things because he was going to delve into this lifelong flashback that would ultimately take up most of the book. But during the setup it mostly just kept me from connecting with him at all. And the mysterious singer he meets was also mysterious and just kind unwilling to be much more than a beautiful mysterious stranger. I just found myself not really enjoying their flirtation and interactions. In terms of worldbuilding, I can imagine most of the heavy lifting would have been done by the main flashback storyline, because during this whole first section I didn't get much of an idea of what the world was really meant to look like. I knew this book was South Asian inspired, but I couldn't really see or feel that during the introductory part I made it through. It felt just kinda bland generic fantasy backdrop.
To summarize, I was very drawn in by the premise of this story, the magic system, and of course the fantastic cover. But for me the main narrative took a little too long to get going, and by the time it did I just wasn't finding myself invested in this main character's story enough to continue.

It feels a bit unfair to be reviewing this as I couldn't even get through the first chapter, but unfortunately, I honestly just hated the writing style. It's not good, and is very reminiscent of Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li which is also one of the worst books I've read this year. It's pretentious and tries to be flowery, but in the way that a teenager writing their first piece of fiction for a school assignment would be. We really do not need this many single word sentences, and single sentence paragraphs. All in all, I'd say if you're not someone who cares about writing style, you might be able to get through this book and get to the meat and bones of it, but I am unfortunately not one of those people.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-first-binding-rr-virdi/1139211811?ean=9781250796172 te for more.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

Excellent debut and first in a series. The writing is top notch, and everything surrounding the story is well done. There are so many more detailed reviews so I wanted to get to the point Definitely recommend.

The First Binding is spell-binding.
I admit it's not a very clever play on words, but nevertheless, it's fitting.
Normally, the marketing pitch of South Asian The Name of the Wind wouldn't really pull me in, but I saw an interview Petrik Leo did with author, R.R. Virdi, and I loved his passion and what he had to say about his book. I encourage everyone to hear him out, he is a great guest and it made me look his book out which, if my rating wasn't enough of a clue, was the best decision ever.

Some of my favourite novels are coming-of-age, single point of view fantasy novels. You know main character is a legend, that their actions determined the history of the world author imagined. And then, you are thrown to the beginning to see how they actually got there, what kind of life made them become legendary. It's the type of story that brings you close to the main character and it never fails to be compelling.
There is Fitz, Vaelin, Rin, Foolish Cur... and now you can add Ari to that group. The man who is hero to some and a demon to others.
The book covers the earliest period of his life he remembers: when he worked understage as a Sullied kid for a piece of bread, through pickpocketing years on Keshum streets and the beginnings of his learning to be a magic-binder in Ashram.
So, let's get this out of the way first: is this similar to The Name of the Wind? Yes, even author makes that point with opening the book with man entering a tavern and ruminating on silence. Ari is a performer, a Storyteller known for his ability to ensnare his public and makes his stories stick to their mind. So, yes the story opens with a lyrical prose and a certain flair, just like the book that directly inspired it, but it quickly develops into its own story. To be completely honest, the more Virdi was getting away from purple prose and finding his own voice the better it made his book for me. It took me several days to get through first couple of chapters because it felt like author was paying so much attention to the way story was told and the pace took the brunt of it. But once he actually started telling what went down, I couldn't stop reading. I ended up reading all night this book and went to the work with red eyes and happy. And isn't that the best experience for a reader?
Then there is also something else author infused into his story with that's completely him: South Asian mythology and culture were clearly the foundation of the world Virdi imagined, while ticking all the boxes of a classical epic fantasy. It's rich and exciting in its uniqueness and novelty it brings to the genre, but my favourite part is that he made a point to show it's an old world with a rich history, a world that was lived in a long before Ari came to it. Stories he tells about Gods and First Men made me feel that for a such a long book it's like we barely scratched the surface and there is so much more to find out and be amazed by.
The story is kind of episodic in nature, because you can clearly divide it in 3 periods of Ari's life:
-Ari working in a theatre where he first learns to love stories and the importance of performing it. It's also where he first comes in touch with Binding and decides he wants to become a Binder. The kid Ari is easy to love and easy to be annoyed with and it's honestly where book really clicked for me.
-But, I started really loving it with second part of the book when Ari was forced to become a pickpocket and a child beggar. It's probably the darkest part of the novel and it made Ari into a student Ashram has never seen before.
-Third part is ever-the-favorite theme in fantasy novels: the school where our main character learns magic. The life Ari led so far made him miles ahead of other students. You know how there is a rich Draco-rival kid and a teacher with whom our heroes in this type of stories come to clash? You have that here as well, but Virdi flipped it on his head because it's not a usual kid out of his/her own depth who somehow pulls it off- Ari is clearly out of depth, but so is everyone else with Ari. They are not ready for someone like him and I was delighted by his mischief and his adventures as he learned the principles of Binding. It's the part of the story that comes as respite after his Sparrow years and I flew through it.
-Intersected with the story of his life are interludes happening in the presence as Ari meets mysterious woman, Eloine, in Etaynia, a coastal city of Mutri Empire. Both of them are there for a reason and their plans keep putting them at the same place. I loved her and I can't wait to know more about her, but I do have some suspicions on who she may be.
The story ends up on a hell of a cliffhanger and it's going to be hard waiting to see where Virdi takes this story next.
The First Binding is a delight to read. It's just one of those book you lose yourself completely in and I truly hope it will become a big thing.

3.5 stars. I was really excited to read this. It's the first epic fantasy I've read this year and it sounded like it would be right up my alley. I was intrigued by the comparisons to The Name of the Wind, since I really loved that book. The blurb for this book also sounded a lot like The Name of the Wind. After reading this I can definitely say that there is a resemblance. The woman that Ari is enamored with and the way she keeps leaving and showing up reminds me a bit of Denna. Then there is the storytelling that Ari does about his past, the Inn, and the fact that Ari performs on stage as a storyteller, and the way the book is structured. These things all remind me of The Name of the Wind. But there are also plenty of differences.

I thought this book was slow to get going, and in general it is a slow paced novel, but after it got going I began to enjoy it quite a bit. I enjoyed the South-Asian inspired parts of the book. It was new and refreshing for me. I liked reading about Ari's childhood, from the theater, to the sparrows, to the school of the Ashram. I enjoyed reading about the friendships Ari developed, although the bullying was not fun, and I never like reading that stuff. Thankfully, it wasn't too excessive. Then there was the kite fighting, which is something I had never heard of before. I thought it was interesting, and I had to look it up to see if it was a real thing, and it is.

I liked the parts about Ari as an adult a little less, although the Game of Families was an interesting idea, it ended up going differently than I thought it would. I'm also not too keen on the love interest yet. Ari is naive about women, and at this point I don't think this is going to end well. Speaking of women, I've read a few reviews that mentioned that this book is sexist or misogynistic with the way it describes women or lumps them all into one stereotyped category. I think sometimes people don't really understand what misogyny is. I didn't get that from this book at all. Yes, there were some generalizations of women, but I also picked out generalizations of men in the book as well, and I think most of these were done for humor, or to show naiveté and ignorance. Anyway, it didn't bother me.

The blurb for this book makes Ari sound very full of himself and I think after reading the book that he really isn't. He's someone who had a tough life and had to prove himself over and over. I liked that the book showed how easily gossip and misconceptions can turn into what people think are facts. I wasn't so crazy about the fact that Ari purposely let people believe some things that weren't true and then looked back at history in general as being based on a bunch of lies. This is a viewpoint coming from a liar, so of course he would see it that way, but in reality, history is probably a mixture of truth and lies.

Overall I liked this book, but felt it was lacking a little something to make it a 4 star read for me. I am however, interested in reading the next book when it's published, and I'm debating whether or not I want to buy a copy for my bookshelf because I love the cover.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing me with an ARC of this book.

The First Binding was one of my most hesitantly anticipated books of the year. Let me explain. Petrik loved this book so much, and shared a lot of passages from it as he read, and it sounded like it would scratch my The Name of the Wind itch. And it did, almost too well. Despite the excessive amount of time between publications and the fact that we might never get the rest of Kvothe’s story, The Name of the Wind has been my favorite book for over a decade. I’ve tried to shift favorites, to align myself more with other books or authors I respect immensely, but something about The Name of the Wind captured a piece of my heart and still refuses to return it. So you would think that I’d fall head-over-heels for a well-told story that is so obviously inspired by my favorite novel. And you would be right, but with some serious caveats.

This is the story of Ari, who now goes strictly by the title of The Storyteller. He’s on the run from his past while also capitalizing on the mythos surrounding that past, which I found a fascinating balancing act. Our framework story follows Ari’s Storyteller persona in the present day, and I was enraptured by his abilities as a storyteller and the magic that he wove into the telling of his tales. Within that framework we also get the story of Ari’s past, most specifically his childhood up through the first year or so of his education, the very beginnings of the fearsome and nigh on mythological reputation he built for himself.

I love a good framework story. Not only does it allow you to become invested in your narrator on multiple fronts, it give said narrator more believable freedom to insert humor and asides into their narration in ways that wouldn’t be nearly as palatable without that constant reminder that they are telling their own story. I thought that Virdi utilized this style of storytelling very well, reminding me again of The Name of the Wind as well as Blood Song and The Empire of the Vampire and so many more fantasy novels that I have loved first and foremost purely because of this format. I find it the wittiest and most enchanting form of storytelling, so I was thrilled to experience another book that wielded it so well.

I also loved the philosophical pondering housed in The First Binding. Virdi’s prose isn’t quite lyrical, but it is profound. I found myself highlighting and annotating often, sharing quotes with my husband and coming back to them days later because they were still on my mind. There’s little that I love more in my reading life than a book that makes me think. If a book manages to make me think and feel? That’s a new favorite. The First Binding didn’t quite speak to my heart, but it resonated strongly with my mind.

While I was interested in Ari’s story from start to finish, I found myself having a hard time picking the book up because the pacing was agonizingly slow. The First Binding is less of a book and more of a tome, a brick of a novel that demands much of your time. It’s difficult to commit that time to a story that meanders so unhurriedly toward its destination, especially when you have so many other stories calling to you from your shelves. Once Ari finally reached his school days, the pace improved, but then I was faces with another conundrum as the similarities between this story and The Name of the Wind became even more pronounced.

So much of this mirrors The Name of the Wind. Perhaps too closely. This feels like more than inspiration. From the poetic view of silence at the beginning of the book, to reputation of the orphaned main character and how they’re running for their past; from the search for the truth behind their heritage and their quest to find information on a supposedly mythological entity that others scoff at while our main character knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that these beings exist, and are malicious, as said beings are responsible for the slaughter of our main character’s birth or adopted families; from buying their way into school to enduring some type of punishment in a way that builds their reputation; from their cleverness to every discipline’s interest in them, outside of the discipline they most want to learn, under the tutelage of a brilliant but probably mad master. Even the cursing is nearly identical. I find these similarities too much at attribute to inspiration. It’s not plagiarism, as the writing was still very my Virdi’s own and the stories weren’t quite an exact match, but it still feels almost like theft to me.

Despite my qualms, I did enjoy The First Binding, and I have a feeling that I’ll enjoy rereading it even more. I honestly can’t wait to see what Virdi does with the rest of the series, especially as I believe it will separate itself more and more from The Name of the Wind as Ari’s story progresses. And I’m hoping that, unlike the Kingkiller Chronicles, we’ll actually get Ari’s tale in its entirety before The First Binding reaches its 15th anniversary, which The Name of the Wind celebrated this year. If that is truly the case, perhaps my loyalties will finally swap to someone new, and I just might end up being among Virdi’s biggest fans. Time will tell.

Stories and tales told by the fireside. Stories of gods and demons, of shadows and magic. Stories like these are magic in their own right.

🦉The First Binding is a storybook. One that deserves to live on a great ornate plinth. Or on the dusty shelves of a castle tower. With illuminated crackling pages and a scarred and pock mark cover. The plot itself developed quite slowly, up until about the last third. Then things took off spectacularly. The plot, especially in the beginning runs alongside stories. Stories told about the world and about himself.

✨This is a world of expansive cities, wild countrysides and snowcapped mountains. With beggar kings, merchant princes and wild mages.

🦉We follow the Storyteller, Ari, as he weaves shadows and fires for the taverns people. Where he tells old stories and adds his own. Drama, mystery and magic follows him like a shadow, even from his hard youth and his hard study of his skills. The magic system is at times kinda hard to follow but it’s very magical.

✨The best way I can describe this book is that it really is a storybook. It doesn’t read like most other fantasy books that I’ve read. It’s both slow and fast. The story’s go fast but the storytellers story goes slowly. It definitely helps to bookmark where some of these stories begins as they are great to refer back to.

I feel weird rating this one as it’s almost above rating, but purely rating my own enjoyment of it its a 3.5 star ⭐️

Slow paced book but very prettily written. I think the comparison to Name of the Wind that I’m seeing is a fair one. You’ve got the orphaned young hero coming from nothing to become a great magic user. I enjoyed the world building. It’s a bit rambling and slow but it’s an interesting world to see unfold before you as Ari leaves the slums that had been the whole of his universe and sees more of the world around him. I’d read another book in this series quite happily. It’s worth trying if you like long fantasy books.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an uncorrected e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

The star rating I gave here is perhaps a bit harsh, but in all fairness I can't really say I thought it was a good book overall. For me there were parts that were, there were even parts that were great to amazing. But there were also too many parts I struggled with. This book was my most highly anticipated read for the year and I don't think my anticipation got in the way here. I went in with no real idea of what I was getting and so the book could not clash with my expectations.

This book unfolds over multiple layers of narration. There is a present day frame story in which Ari travels the Golden Road making his livelihood by telling stories. There is a story-within-a-story where we get the story of Ari as a young boy and what he endured during a few years. And then occasionally we get stories that are being told in either one of these previous layers.
I like multilayer stories. Unfortunately in this one I only grew to care for one, being the story within the story. It took too long for my taste to get to that part and any interruption from that story grew to be tedious as I felt I had to claw my way through those as my reading pace would just plummet.
I cannot say what I didn't like about the stories that were being told, except for the fact that they broke apart the paving and weren't told in an engaging voice.
As for the frame story. One if my main problems there is the central dynamic between Ari and Elaine, a mysterious woman who he meets at the very beginning. Their dynamic just felt so crafted and unreal to me. It's a dynamic we've seen over and over and their dialogue constantly resorts to cliche.
Another aspect of the frame story that didn't end up working for me is the lack of information. It's clear that there is a whole life standing between the Ari of both narrative layers and adult Ari sometimes reveals some elements of his past, but we don't really know much about who he is know or what his motivations are. Ultimately this led me to kind of zone out during those sections as especially towards the end I started to lose interest in what he was doing as I didn't understand why he was there to begin with. This withholding of information is supposed to encourage intrigue in the reader and it worked to some extent for the character of Eloine, who also has secrets that are kept from us, but just did the opposite for Ari.
On to the part I enjoyed the most: the story within the story. This narrative layers is divided in several story arcs representing different sections of Ari's childhood and each section took some time to win me over, but once I was settled I usually grew super engaged and the pages would fly by.
I did grow more and more frustrated with young Ari as we near the end of the book. I guess I am also just a bit tired of the boy who's too clever by far but then constantly shows himself to be too dumb to take the advice if superiors and who clearly shows a total lack of understanding of women. These elements would annoy me at times, but I could move past them for the most part.
There is a pretty sexist remark at some point that doesn't get addressed, but I will withhold judgement on that until I've seen whether it is still in the final copy.
Final remark is one that I assume is fully linked to me being granted an uncorrected proof and that is that the copy was filled with a lot of errors. Words would be missing or repeated. It made the reading experience more difficult but I'm confident that most of those will have been spotted during editing and will not make an appearance in the final copy.
Overall judgement: it shows great promise but just didn't engage my attention enough. I'm hopeful that as we get to understand more of the situation in the frame story I might start to enjoy that more, however, I would also need a more deep and real connection between Ari and Eloine to develop before I can actually start to enjoy that narrative layer. As for the story within a story, enough little tidbits have been laid out to make me intrigued about continuing his story arc and seeing how they play out. So I do think I'll continue when book 2 is published.

While I am sure this title would be for someone and the writing itself was not bad, I personally found it too wordy and the descriptions too lengthy for the book to be enjoyable to me. I would still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys this style of writing.

While I am not going to continue reading this book for now, there's still loads of potential in the future for me to pick it back up.

I've read 15% of this story so far, which is quite a bit considering it is over 800 pages. I wanted to get through the initial setting development because I knew that wasn't going to be the true meat of the story. The First Binding is compared in a lot of ways to The Name of the Wind. At first, I thought not reading TNOTW would be to my advantage because I wouldn't compare that well known fantasy title to this one, and I don't necessarily disagree now... The storytelling aspect of this story does take some getting used to. Every time Ari's narration changed to an actual story, I wasn't intrigued about the story at all. I wanted to get back to the inn with the crew amassed so far and figure out more about these characters. I didn't care that Ari has lived through all of these experiences because I didn't even know him! Then in the scenes where we got extended characterization between him and Nisha, I couldn;t stop rolling my eyes at Ari's tone towards Nisha, particularly when he would mention anything pertaining to misogyny. It just felt pretentious for Ari to talk to Nisha about the struggles of women when she already knows this! It was man-splaining but in a fantasy world— my worst nightmare!! As soon as this scene repeated itself a handful of times, I knew it was time for me to DNF this title. Again, I'm not saying I won't ever come back because this world and journey sounded freaking phenomenal in the synopsis, but at least for now, I need a break.

I'm leaving the rating a three because I only made it 15%, and I can't in good conscious give it a bad or great rating because I simply don't know the story well enough to gauge that. Neutrality it is!