The First Binding

An absolutely stunning book that wish I could give 6 out 5. Gorgeous prose and amazing story crafted with such love of stories and storytelling. If this isn't on your list, it should be.

I loved this book and I'm certain this will remain one of my favorite stories ever. This isn't a big action packed book, but is more focused on storytelling, characters, myths, mysteries, etc. The south-Asian inspired worldbuilding and its magic is complex, believable and very interesting.

The pacing in this book was perfectly slow and Virdi's prose is lyrical, but also easy to follow. This is a story to be savored and it invites readers to pause at certain scenes to let it all in.

I understand that this book might not be for everybody, but it certainly was for me! It was a place of rest and immersive reading in the midst of a turbulent point in my life. I'm very glad that the sequel is coming soon! I already pré-ordered the beautiful The Broken Binding edition and I can't wait to get back to Ari's story/stories.

There's a story behind everything and everyone—powerful tales, even if they don't seem it on the surface. There's power in stories. There's magic in them. And each person's life is a story itself, and with that, every person carries magic within them

This is a tricky book to rate... I loved most of it (like 5 starts really loved), and I hated one part, that made me rethink all the defence I was preparing for the polemic surrounding this book.
Ultimately, I stand by my first opinion of it: This is fantastic! It only loses one star because I wish it was a bit shorter.

The first Binding follows the story of Ari, a legendary storyteller and something more, but we are still learning about what that is. Ari is a great character and one of my favourite parts of this book. He had an extremely difficult past, suffering also from the rigidity of a cast system, but never let's go of his kindness and compassionate heart, and this is beautiful to read.

While I agree there are too many similarities with The Name of The Wind to be a coincidence, this is a fantastic story that stands on his own, and had I read it first, I wouldn't even question which would be my favorite. And honestly... I'm not questioning it now either, because the differences between both books (and there are many) are the parts that made Ari's story so great. I love how honest he is about what he is telling us, which in the end, it's a tale of how stories evolve and legends are born.

R. R. Vindi is an amazingly talented writer, that created a compelling and richly detailed world, full of sounds, smells and complex characters. Plus, this is very Asian, and we all know how fantasy world benefits from some diversity

This was a nice and meaty read, and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. And that's really what this book is, a journey, as you follow Ari as he comes to be the man he is. Which doesn't happen quickly. Or even in this book. But I'm looking forward to the rest of the tale. I loved the world building here especially as someone it personally caters to. And it looks like R.R. Virdi might be the first author I personally meet, so excited for that :D

Did not finish (25%)

I feel conflicted about reviewing a book I didn't finish, but I think I got a good vibe of what's going on here.

Slow plot, awkward dialog, and I couldn't get invested in any of the characters.

Also.... It's very similar to The Name of the Wind. Like, look it up if you're curious. Almost exactly the same story start to finish (apparently).

Yeah, life's too short for books I don't like

This is a shameless retelling of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Do not read this garbage.

Stopped pretty early on. See for more details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnq9IZe4Hi4

I'm all for taking inspiration from an author or even taking some plot points and giving it a twist, like Robert Jordan/Tolkien. But this is just straight plagiarism from Name of the Wind...

1.) You have a boy, Ari, who gets orphaned because an evil entity kills his family.

2.) Same style of writing where the protagonist is an infamous character who is telling his story of how he gained his reputation.

3.) a female character who is mysterious, goes by many names, and is always on the run

4.) Ari goes to a school to learn a particular skill to defeat said enemy who killed his family.

5.) He has a rich, dick head enemy of a student who wants him dead

6.) He has a teacher who doesn't want to teach him but end up doing it due to Ari's persistence.

7.) an incredibly slow story with little action but a poetic writing style

8.) Tells embellishments of his story to make his legend grow the way he wants

I was willing to overlook all of this because the story was still good and he definitely had some fun changes like including mythology and a new magic system but the absolute final straw for me was when his teacher pushed him off a ledge to prove a point of faith and then let second saved his life...that literally verbatim happened in NOTW...

I DNF'd at page 625 so who knows what other rip offs there were left

I'll just say it as simply as I can. One of the greatest books of all time and it will forever be a literary masterpiece!

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, possibly The most anticipated. It even exceeded my expectations. This book is phenomenal!
I absolutely love books in which the main character is telling his life story and how he came to be the way he is.
This follows Ari The Storyteller. Not a storyteller, The Storyteller.
He meets a singer he calls Eloine in a tavern where he's telling stories. She finds him so intriguing that she wants to hear his story. Not just parts of it, but the whole story from the beginning. And what a story it is!
Ari is now one of my favorite characters of all time. I cannot wait to continue his story, especially after that ending!
The binding magic is quite complex and can have some serious repercussions without proper training and discipline. I am fascinated by it.
I can't say enough great things about this book. It's over 800 pages and it still isn't enough. I would have been quite happy to read another 800 pages of Ari!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an e-arc.