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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
It’s so slow! I really wanted to like this, but nothing is happening at all and I’m 20% in. I tried to see if it got better with a quick review search and it seems the consensus is no.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I picked this up because the synopsis sounded cool. I'm obsessed with EPIC the musical by Jorge-Rivera Herrans which is about the Odyssey and the synopsis reminded me of Odysseus having a huge negative character arc. I thought we would get that here. No.
The few positives:
The few positives:
- I really like the idea and the philosophies of the bindings. They are cool. I wanted to learn more.
Negatives:
- The world still feels uninspired. The map is literally southern Asia.
- I hate the main character
- Yes, he is clever but never actually learns anything.
He doesn't really seem to care for others but only about being on top or being right.
- When others tell him to slow down with the bindings because they are dangerous but he does not see their arguments and refuses to listen.
- Yes, he is clever but never actually learns anything.
- The side characters feel like cardboard cutouts.
- I swear some of the women in this book mention being a woman every other sentence.
- The descriptions of people were the same
- I like the idea of jumping between past and present but it always felt so awkward and really pulled me out of it whenever we switched.
By the last 100 pages, I was practically skimming this book to get to the end of it. I did not care.
So, yeah, do not recommend.
So, yeah, do not recommend.
All legends are born of truths. And just as much lies. These are mine. Judge me for what you will. But you will hear my story first.
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.
And this is the story of how I let loose the first evil.
My comments:
I could not get into this one, the thought of reading another 40 or so hours I just could not face. Got a couple of hours in however could not see where the story was going and i'm not a fan of the stories within stories format. I would not have even got as far as I did if it were not for trying it due to a book club. Don't like not being able to finish a book however this one was just not for me. I did however like Viccus Adam the reader, never had him before however he did a grate job with the different voices for the characters again. People have told me this book does get better so might try it again in the future.
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.
And this is the story of how I let loose the first evil.
My comments:
I could not get into this one, the thought of reading another 40 or so hours I just could not face. Got a couple of hours in however could not see where the story was going and i'm not a fan of the stories within stories format. I would not have even got as far as I did if it were not for trying it due to a book club. Don't like not being able to finish a book however this one was just not for me. I did however like Viccus Adam the reader, never had him before however he did a grate job with the different voices for the characters again. People have told me this book does get better so might try it again in the future.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Oh my gosh, I can’t wait for the next book! Apparently it comes out in October this year so I’m excited it’s so soon! As you can tell, I enjoyed this very much. It was very reminiscent to me of The Book of the Ancestor Series by Mark Lawrence, Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang, and The Poppy Wars by R.F Kuang together. And that’s saying a lot because these are some of my most favorite books.
I love this type of magic system, called bindings in this universe, where you must tune in to the nature of the elements and use your willpower and faith in the outcome to produce a change in reality. This one also starts with an orphaned boy who doesn’t know of his family, yet is given a bound book that is said to hold his family secrets that he will only be able to open when “he is ready.” Ari works and lives in the under stage of a small theater, toiling to create all the sound effects for the plays he wishes to play the hero in. But soon, trouble brews, a binder comes to mentor Ari, and the boy is soon set on a winding and treacherous path which may be closer than he thinks or even wishes to starring him in the lead.
This is told as a frame story in which Ari is an adult storyteller, performing in inns with small bits of magic to enhance his tales. He meets a singer and begins to slowly tell her his story. Most of the book is this story of Ari’s beginnings, but we still get plenty of the present time as well and a plot taking place now. There’s also a few chapters from the singer.
I will admit this book was a very slow start for me, and I wondered how I would like it or if I would get into it enough, but then once it got going I was hooked. It has to set up the scene at first, so I would just suggest to give it time to get into Ari’s backstory once the frame story transitions. And the way it ended…I have so many theories, questions, apprehensions, and most of all- suspense, which seems like such a fitting place for Ari’s story to end after all. For now.
I love this type of magic system, called bindings in this universe, where you must tune in to the nature of the elements and use your willpower and faith in the outcome to produce a change in reality. This one also starts with an orphaned boy who doesn’t know of his family, yet is given a bound book that is said to hold his family secrets that he will only be able to open when “he is ready.” Ari works and lives in the under stage of a small theater, toiling to create all the sound effects for the plays he wishes to play the hero in. But soon, trouble brews, a binder comes to mentor Ari, and the boy is soon set on a winding and treacherous path which may be closer than he thinks or even wishes to starring him in the lead.
This is told as a frame story in which Ari is an adult storyteller, performing in inns with small bits of magic to enhance his tales. He meets a singer and begins to slowly tell her his story. Most of the book is this story of Ari’s beginnings, but we still get plenty of the present time as well and a plot taking place now. There’s also a few chapters from the singer.
I will admit this book was a very slow start for me, and I wondered how I would like it or if I would get into it enough, but then once it got going I was hooked. It has to set up the scene at first, so I would just suggest to give it time to get into Ari’s backstory once the frame story transitions. And the way it ended…I have so many theories, questions, apprehensions, and most of all- suspense, which seems like such a fitting place for Ari’s story to end after all. For now.
Can we all just agree to be honest here for a second? The First Binding is not the spiritual successor to Name of the Wind…..It IS The Name of the Wind.
I feel like I’m going insane reading all these reviews praising the ingenuity of this debut novel, when in reality this exact story was written over a decade ago by another author. Yes, the setting has a different cultural inspiration. Yes, the magic system is totally unique and frankly quite intriguing. HOWEVER, despite not having read Name of the Wind in over four years and also having indulged in over 500+ stories since then I was able to identify a shockingly long list of plot points, character traits, tropes, and actual story progression details that felt completely ripped straight from another story. This isn’t an homage to one of the most recognizable fantasy stories in decades. THIS IS THE SAME FREAKING STORY.
Let me be clear- Patrick Rothfuss does not own the framing device and other authors have also utilized it to great success. That is not a problem. Those other stories relied on the storytelling backstory to frame completely unique stories. The First Binding completely ignores this point and matches the story encompasses within the framing device to such a degree that if it were the final term paper of a high school English class it would be flagged as plagiarism almost immediately.
My most overwhelming umbrage with the fact that no one else seems to want to acknowledge this point comes from the glaringly obvious truth that THIS AUTHOR HAS SO MUCH TALENT. Its transparent from the opening pages that Virdi has an obvious, natural talent to craft a beautifully written story. The prose is flowing, pleasing, and full of the enriching details that show the author gave his heart and soul to tell this story. The problem lies with how in any given instance, The First Binding blindly follows in the path blazed by Name of the Wind. This outright spoiled my enjoyment of the positive aspects of the writing. No amount of elegant prose can disguise a story devoid of an original idea. Dress it up with any little details you like in a poor attempt to justify that no one challenged Virdi to buck the temptation to blindly copy + paste the above mentioned details into his story. If only he had occasionally attempted to take his story or characters in a different direction, made some small concession to an original idea I may not feel the need to hate write a review so bitter that I’m actually giving myself acid reflux thinking about it.
The longer I reflect on what was one of the single largest time investments I’ve put into a story this year (18+ actual reading hours believe me I counted them) the more I’m ready to chalk this up as one of the most overhyped, disappointing “debut” books of all time. ~~Originally, I was going to give The First Binding 4/5 stars, but if I’m holding myself to the same honestly metric I’m asking other readers to admit to I’m realistically going to give this 2.5/5 stars for a blustering overblown rehash of what another author has done better.~~
I feel like I’m going insane reading all these reviews praising the ingenuity of this debut novel, when in reality this exact story was written over a decade ago by another author. Yes, the setting has a different cultural inspiration. Yes, the magic system is totally unique and frankly quite intriguing. HOWEVER, despite not having read Name of the Wind in over four years and also having indulged in over 500+ stories since then I was able to identify a shockingly long list of plot points, character traits, tropes, and actual story progression details that felt completely ripped straight from another story. This isn’t an homage to one of the most recognizable fantasy stories in decades. THIS IS THE SAME FREAKING STORY.
Let me be clear- Patrick Rothfuss does not own the framing device and other authors have also utilized it to great success. That is not a problem. Those other stories relied on the storytelling backstory to frame completely unique stories. The First Binding completely ignores this point and matches the story encompasses within the framing device to such a degree that if it were the final term paper of a high school English class it would be flagged as plagiarism almost immediately.
My most overwhelming umbrage with the fact that no one else seems to want to acknowledge this point comes from the glaringly obvious truth that THIS AUTHOR HAS SO MUCH TALENT. Its transparent from the opening pages that Virdi has an obvious, natural talent to craft a beautifully written story. The prose is flowing, pleasing, and full of the enriching details that show the author gave his heart and soul to tell this story. The problem lies with how in any given instance, The First Binding blindly follows in the path blazed by Name of the Wind. This outright spoiled my enjoyment of the positive aspects of the writing. No amount of elegant prose can disguise a story devoid of an original idea. Dress it up with any little details you like in a poor attempt to justify that no one challenged Virdi to buck the temptation to blindly copy + paste the above mentioned details into his story. If only he had occasionally attempted to take his story or characters in a different direction, made some small concession to an original idea I may not feel the need to hate write a review so bitter that I’m actually giving myself acid reflux thinking about it.
The longer I reflect on what was one of the single largest time investments I’ve put into a story this year (18+ actual reading hours believe me I counted them) the more I’m ready to chalk this up as one of the most overhyped, disappointing “debut” books of all time. ~~Originally, I was going to give The First Binding 4/5 stars, but if I’m holding myself to the same honestly metric I’m asking other readers to admit to I’m realistically going to give this 2.5/5 stars for a blustering overblown rehash of what another author has done better.~~
slow-paced
I started this one so hopeful - it was sold as a South Asian Name of the Wind, which is exactly what it was (to the point of plagiarism really).
I had been hoping it would fix a number of my issues with NotW, but alas, all the same issues were present. And the sheer length of this only served to aggravate my issues.
This book was truly a journey, but the sort of journey where you end exhausted, miserable, and wishing you'd stayed at home.
Every piece that started as a "oh this is OK, solidly 3 stars" just got super old super fast:
I had been hoping it would fix a number of my issues with NotW, but alas, all the same issues were present. And the sheer length of this only served to aggravate my issues.
This book was truly a journey, but the sort of journey where you end exhausted, miserable, and wishing you'd stayed at home.
Every piece that started as a "oh this is OK, solidly 3 stars" just got super old super fast:
- the flowery writing style
- the stories-within-stories
- everything about the main character and his whole "I'm the most special boy to ever be special"
- the switching between timelines
- the complete lack of distinct side-characters with personalities
Uninteresting for the majority of what I've read
Rating: 4.5/5
“There are ten bindings all men must know”
“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.”
The First Binding is the first book in the Tales Of Tremaine series and one of 2022’s most anticipated epic fantasy releases. I’ve seen a lot of hype surrounding the release of it this August, so I was curious to see what this novel was like.
“There are ten bindings all men must know”
The First Binding tells the story of Ari (aka The Storyteller) as he recounts his story to a singer called Eloine. I really enjoyed the dual-timeline aspect of this story with the “present” where Ari tells he tale, and the “past” of the story he is telling - it’s fascinating to begin to see how the young child in a theatre understage becomes The Storyteller we meet in chapter 1, and see how the true story compares to the rumours we hear about Ari.
I’ve seen a lot of comparisons drawn between The First Binding and Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name Of The Wind, however, I’m yet to read any of the Kingkiller Chronicle books, so I can’t comment to much on that myself, although from what I’ve heard it uses the same narrative framing structure and Ari’s story follows a similar plotline.
“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 book is on the longer-side - coming in at over 800 pages - and the pacing was little slow, but none of that detracts anything from this book - in fact, it feels like the story is just starting by the time you reach the end of the book. The character-development and world-building throughout is excellent, and Virdi’s writing style in this book is beautiful - he uses poetic and lyrical languages and prose that flows effortlessly.
The First Binding was such a fun read and I can see why so many people were so excited for this book to come out. I definitely look forward to seeing where Virdi goes next in this series.
This was a really fun and creative story. The mythology is such a delight and leaves you wanting for more. One thing I didn't like is how the lead character can get incredibly frustrating and self-absorbed and his character development is rather slow. However, I think this is intentional from the author and I'm sure there is a reason in there connecting his development to the nature of fire. I'm excited to see how the story unravels since there are a lot of open threads - threads that feel will be rewarding when completed!