This was a highly anticipated sequel for me as I truly was amazed at the world that RR Virdi had created in the first novel of this series. And the way that he ended it made me curse his name for a couple of days but also bow my head in respect as it left me craving for more after devouring 800+ pages. I finally got this sequel and in many ways, RR Virdi delivered. But I did have a struggle with parts of this book.

The strength of this novel is most definitely the prose that the author uses throughout the novel. It is a beautiful work of art through the entire thing. It pulls you in and makes you vividly see the scenes as they play out on the pages. It makes a reader want to keep reading and just enjoy the beauty. The beginning and ending of this novel are the classic that I remember from the first book, but the middle, while necessary did not hold me like the rest of it. I still highly recommend the novel but did think that some of the middle was a tad repetitive of what we had already seen from the characters previously. They do learn new lessons, but it was slower going than what had previously happened in the series.

The slow parts don't take away from the intrigue and beauty of what has been created. I look forward to seeing where the story continues to take us. The characters are interesting and definitely have the foundations for something that could be truly epic. I look forward to where the story continues to go and seeing the conclusion of some of these breadcrumbs that the author has left dangling for me. I look forward to sweeping them up with candle, cloak, and cane at my side.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review. As always, happy reading and Stay Great!!

Wow o wow. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Again r.r. virde shines through and through when it comes to his writing. I can't find anything negative to say. Highly recommend

3.5 - One thing I loved about this book is how it was focused on the magic of storytelling. I think the concept of an epic fantasy following a character as they learn about stories and how to tell a story was really unique and interesting! I think that Virdi has some of the best writing in fantasy books that I've seen and I think using this strength and tying the plot of the book to the magic of storytelling was griping, because of the way that he is able to write such beautiful stories.

Following from the first book, I loved that this book followed the timelines of past Ari and present Ari and wove those timelines together. I really loved how Ari's character was developed even further throughout this book and how Virdi continued to paint such a vivid world, bringing together so many different aspects of lives and parts of the world. It felt like Ari really learned from his lessons and past mistakes in this book and started on a journey to growing as a person. Again, I thought the pacing of the book was a bit slow at times, especially for such a long book. But really, the pacing and length is my only complaint with this series!

Thank you to Tor Books and Netgalley for the ebook in exchange for my honest review!

With The Doors of Midnight, R.R. Virdi delivers the second epic installment in his Tales of Tremaine series. This is a meaty tale, clocking in at over 800 pages…which means I’ll need to rearrange my bookshelf to make room for the hardcover, lol. Before the first book in the series released (The First Binding) I’ll admit I hadn’t read any of Virdi’s work, despite the fact that he’d put out quite a few novels in genres I normally enjoy. But when the The First Binding was released I kept hearing it being compared to The Kingkiller Chronicle, and that instantly got my attention. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love The Name of the Wind and A Wise Man’s Fear. So naturally I had to investigate. Well the comparisons are warranted as there are most definitely similarities. Excellent characters, fantastic world building, a complex and epic story, and even structurally/stylistically you can see similarities.

Now as for this second volume, there is honestly just way too much happening to try to give a plot summary. Let me just say it’s a wonderful continuation of The First Binding. If you enjoyed that book, you won’t be disappointed with this one. The adventures, the expanded world building, expanding lore of the lands, it’s everything you’d want in a sequel and everything you’d expect from an epic fantasy.

Now I’ll leave it to others to argue over which series is better. (Kingkiller vs Tremaine) But what I can unequivocally say is that Virdi has one major advantage over Rothfuss. The speed at which he writes. I’ve been waiting 13 years for the third volume in Rothfuss’s series, and I’ve honestly come to terms it may never happen. (No hate or animosity here. I don’t know his process or what has stopped him from making it happen.) I’ll be thrilled if it eventually releases, but I’m no longer counting on it. As for a third book in the Tales of Tremaine series? I have faith Virdi will deliver another epic adventure in a timely fashion. And for that I thank him. Speaking of thanks, thanks so much to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for the chance to read and review an ARC of The Door of Midnight. This is definitely a series fantasy lovers shouldn’t sleep on.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-doors-of-midnight-rr-virdi/1142826991?ean=9781250796189&bvnotificationId=78b1aef1-599e-11ef-a377-0e3f8668aec7&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/316557857

This book is for high fantasy, lovers people that like really detailed and poetic stories this author really pops in those deep, thought-provoking poetic moments throughout his stories. This story definitely held my interest more than the first book did that one seems slower paste and this one felt a little more picked up. Thank you for giving me the chance to read this book and given honest review.

It was so good to be back in the world of Tremaine. In The First Binding we get hints of how large the world is, but in The Doors of Midnight, we truly see the world for the breadth of building that has been done. There are so many layers to this story that you could read it several times and still find something new and interesting.

It is so well written. It is a story about stories and what makes the world. There are so many good messages and poetical storytelling mechanisms throughout this and Virdi uses these to pull at your heartstrings over and over. Ari has had so much happen to him throughout his life and it does seem like he is finally starting to learn from his mistakes and grow to be better and more like the legends surrounding him.

Thank you to @torbooks for sending me a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.

Virdi can write, there is no doubt about that. There is a lyrical quality to his words that I love. This book picks up where the other left off and is once again an interesting story. The book would benefit from being shorter, however.

This continues the adventures (misadventures?) of our protagonist Ari introduced in the first book in the series. It picks up right where the previous volume left off with the Storyteller in trouble because of the events at the end of "The First Binding". With nothing but time on his hands, he once again picks up the tale of his life as a youth in the halls of the Ashram.
This is a weighty volume like the first, and we get introduced to more intrigue with the adult characters, and the continuation of the trials and tribulations of young Ari. I forgot how long these novels were and actually picked this one up too late to get it completely read, but I am enjoying it quite a bit. I still enjoy the prose and how it dips into lyrical tones every so often with certain characters. Looking forward to reading more and finding out how the tale continues!

The writing style in this book is so beautiful!! I love that we were able to dive deeper into the world building with this second installment in the series. I also enjoyed the journey we were taken on while learning more about the magic and the importance of storytelling.

Just like the first book, this story was so dense and long that it did take me a long while to get through which had me needed to take breaks and pick up something I could read quickly.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

“Stories are Memory.”

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for an ARC of The Doors of Midnight by R.R. Virdi.

The Doors of Midnight is the much anticipated sequel to Virdi’s first installment in the Tales of Tremaine series The First Binding. Virdi came out fast and hot with The First Binding setting the bar high for what this series could be. Let me say that The Doors of Midnight doesn’t disappoint.

The story follows the same protagonist from The First Binding. Ari continues to tell his story, who he is and the decisions that have brought him to where he is now. A fantastic story that had me hooked within three first hundred pages. The prose is fantastic with the character development being the highlight for me.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is into fantasy novels with rich storytelling, vibrant world building and unique magic systems. This book is everything I would have expected and lives up to my expectations that Virdi set with The First Binding.

Overall I am giving this book four out of five stars because the pacing could have been better. Overall I am looking forward to more books written by Virdi, especially any more forays in The Tales of Tremaine series.

Beautiful prose. A coming of age murder mystery fantasy - which I am always down for. It also tackles one of my favorite topics: the magic and importance of story telling. Admittedly, the 1st 60% was great and interesting, super fast paced. The last 40% began to slack for me and I found myself getting distracted.

This beast of a book picks up where we left off in the first book. I won't give away any spoilers.

We are still following Ari. He has found himself in yet another bit of trouble. I say bit, but it's life or death.
He is also continuing to tell Eloine his story, and this is my favorite part of the book. The rest is still good, but I love his story. I especially love his time at school. I also enjoy the parts with his found families, the Sparrows, Crows, etc.
I also hope Nitham gets what he deserves.

This book is really good, but not quite as good as the first one. I will definitely pick up the next one. Hopefully it will be soon!

R.R. Viridi is not an author for the folks who want a quick read, but it was very cool to jump back into this highly complex world.

I'll be honest - this second book was a long more meandering than the first and it did lose my attention and focus a bit.

This was good, the prose is so beautiful and lyrical. But the book is just so bloody long and winding, the plot was too meandering and it just didn’t work as well as book 1 for me.

Thanks to Tor Publishing Group and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.
Ari returns to his tales of the Ashram and his continued search for the Ashura. He starts searching for the Asir with the hopes the might help him locate and defeat the Ashura.

About a third of the way through the story takes a detour as Ari joins a group of thieves in a new city. It felt unnecessary at first. It had too many similarities to prior arcs. Thankfully it ends strong. Sadly, it leads right into a section with incredibly slow pacing.

Ari joins a caravan traveling across the desert and meets a new group of characters. This section felt slow and almost became a slog. Though it builds to an interesting conflict, it repeats the cycle in the next section.

The plot is strongest when it references key points from the first book and ties things together. Though we continue to learn more about the bindings and the mysterious forces of the world, it is similar to the first book. Nothing matches the intensity of the highlights from the prior book.

The dual story structure is difficult to follow because we have such long breaks between sections set in the present. It is easy to forget what happened during the long flashbacks. Given the slower pace, many will likely read shorter books as breaks, stretching it out further.

Those who enjoy the deep focus on Ari will find more of that here. It could have done more to signal what to expect with the next volume and build that expectation. I worry that the series won't be able to maintain the momentum. I don't feel a deep desire to find out how the story ends.

Review to come. Did not realize this is book 2 in a series. Will read and review after finishing The Last Binding.

I did not like The First Binding, but it had promise, so I cautiously tried Doors of Midnight. Unfortunately, it's worse. Virdi uses even more words to say nothing, and I was left impossibly bored.

This book continues Book 1, almost no reminders of who is who, we're just back in the story. Recommend to read back-to-back if possible.

Everything everyone loved about Book 1 is back, this really is just a continuation of the same story. The prose is still poetic, but certain trends seem emphasized. Several times in this book, the wants and needs of silences, noises, the silence "belongs to the crowd", this idea pops up enough times to stand out.

The plot moves on, our hero, Ari, is living his present-day life, and stops sometimes to tell his life story to a nice lady, and in that story people will often tell a different story. This story-within-a-story format is easy enough to follow, no weird Inception confusion, but does allow for some interesting "fourth wall breaks" where one story bleeds into another. Like in A Princess Bride, when the story in the book comes back to the story in the bedroom. A convenience at times, but an interesting writing technique. Maybe 40-50 stories total in this book, told by all the characters.

We also get some patterns that I think are the result of a young man telling his own story… every girl is hot and wants to bang him, he's pretty awesome all the time, even his mistakes are just simple mistakes and not actual character flaws. This book reads like The Voyages of Sinbad, dramatic event follows dramatic event, there's no time for character development. Ari is the same person the whole story. He's always the good guy who does things for the right reason and never gives up. He's got an interesting story, but he's a little boring after 1600 pages now. I mean, he recreates Batman based on first principles, he gets his own orphan Robin and everything.

Speaking of Batman, this book continues the pattern of similar scenes and plot points from other books. I can't believe this much similarities are accidental. There's a DIY magical weapon I read about years ago in The Dresden Files, I can imagine that is just parallel thinking and nobody ripped off anybody else. But the coping from Name of the Wind is just too obvious to feel good about. There are parts of this book that are so original and creative but I'm distracted by the similarities.

Even when Virdi does better than Name of the Wind, I'm not excited about it. Our hero follows a secret door through to a magical land with a sexy lady and must survive by his wits and chutzpah, time moves weird in this magical land so he comes back from where few men to come back with new knowledge to advance his revenge fetish. But I think Virdi does a great job of keeping Ari's magical-land vacation from getting sexual or even romantic, the story keeps it "realistic" in how a person and a god interact, as weird as a statement as it is.

Even as retelling of Name of the Wind, this is still a great story. The emphasis on plot and action don't allow for as much character development as I would like, but this story is good enough to still be a great story or fifty.

6/10

I absolutely loved The First Binding, the first book in this series, and while many of then reasons I loved it carry over into the sequel overall it did not live up to its predecessor in my opinion.

My biggest complaint is just that the book is too long. "Now you may be asking didn't I just see you give Rhythm of War a 9/10, that book is significantly longer than this one?" You would be correct in that, but this book FELT longer. There are many long passages that are overly verbose and seem to drag for far longer than they need to. When I reached the end of this book and asked myself what all happened throughout it I cam to the realization that it was far less than you would expect for a book of this length. Now some of this is due to the prose used throughout the book, and as I said with The First Binding this can be one of the greatest strengths of these novels. The prose is so poetic and grand. At times this makes everything seem all the more magic, but unfortunately in this entry it also made things seem to drag at times.

Another thing that I want to note though is that many descriptions throughout the book, most notably those of eye color, are UNPARALLED in anything else I have ever read. You will never hear that someone's eyes are brown, instead you will be told that they "held a gleam like candlelight within their rum-brightened brown" or "with the deep-set eyes of powdered jade". Many of the descriptions of this book are absolutely beautiful and paint a vivid picture that one can almost see, and that R.R. Virdi should be greatly commended for.

Overall the plot is fine, but as I said I think that it could have been made even better by cutting out some of the unnecessary seeming bits, or at least shortening them. Another thing I would have really liked to see here would be a recap of the first book at the beginning, as it is a complicated story with a lot to remember, and it was many months, and many books, ago when I first read it.

** spoiler alert ** As with the first, the pacing was a bit slow and it seemed to be a bit longer than necessary even for a high fantasy book. I’m enjoying following along Ari’s journey, but there are quite a few tangents along the way.

I hope that this all comes to an epic conclusion soon, which I do hope to read, even though I’m sure it’ll be another 800+ pages.

Thank you R.R. Virdi for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review