The First Binding

Tales of Tremaine

De: R.R. Virdi

Narrado por: Vikas Adam

“Epic fantasy at its finest—an homage to storytelling and legend, richly told and endlessly engaging.”—Andrea Stewart, author of The Bone Shard Daughter

Don’t miss the first novel in this stunning Silk Road-inspired epic fantasy series from R.R. Virdi—a saga of legends, lies, and the secretive storyteller who’s spun them all.

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.

“Rich world-building, plenty of action, and devious twists abound. Very highly recommended!” —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of V-Wars and Kagen the Damned

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

©2022 R.R. Virdi (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Holy hell.

what's with the life lessons in this book? there amazing, but dang making me question some of my decisions.

Plagiarism and unevitable comparison to TNOTW

From a lover of "The Name of the wind" by P. Rothfuss point of view, this was pure plagiarims.

I appreciated the original BITS of the story here and there, but the plot was WAY TOO SIMILAR to TNOTW.

I really tried too "unsee" the constant similarities, and In some way, thanks to Vikas Adam doing a magnificent job, I still found the read enjoyable....

Yet I only felt "anger" averytime a good interesting story twist only came to be a similar one to P. Rothfuss's work.

I'm not exaggerating, HUGE similarities can be seen in:
- Narrative
- Character design
- Character past story
- Antagonists
- Drugs
- "Magic" that somehow is related to understanding the true natuere of elements... (yet not really explained in 46hrs+ of book?!)
- Whole LINES (especially the final ones referring to "silcence")

All while having continuous new characters descriptions (many to be left unexplored then) - new improvised deep friendships after just a couple of lines (often unnatural) - and TONS of UNSOLVED/UNFINISHED NARRATIVE ARCS.

Also, special note for the first true friend of the protagonist hust DISAPPEARING from the book when not needed anymore... (?)

I have mixed feelings: I think the Author could have done a majestic job if only sticking to his own personal worldbuilding and ideas, trying not to constantly remind the reader of another good read.

I feel nostalgic towards a tale that could have been a million times better, and doesn't exist in the present.
Maybe future books will make a big change in this overall scenary I described.

Different telling of ‘Name of the Wind’

This story is almost identical to Name of The Wind. If I hadn’t read that first, I would of loved this book. But I have read Name of the Wind and the first binding sadly falls in second

Not What I Expected But Good

Going into this story, I didn’t know much and my expectations were pretty darn wrong. I was expecting high fantasy, the epic life story of a storyteller and the amazing things he did. I was partially right, but also very wrong.
This is a story about how true events become mythologized. Not about myth-like but true things that happened in the main character’s life. All things that are mentioned in the description do happen, but only in a way. Rumors really got to the truth of the actual events in the character’s life, but the truth is still good, though not what I thought I was getting. It was like biting into a cupcake only to discover it’s actually a spice muffin. Not what I thought it was but still good.
The protagonist’s story is good (I haven’t read The Name of the Wind so I don’t know how similar it may be as others claim) but the intermissions of his tale were really annoying and straight up cringey.
It was enjoyable nonetheless.

A rich, interesting captivating book

Amazing. I'm going to listen a few more times! A must have selection! Highly recommended. I can not wait until book 2 is out!

The First Binding

While the narrator was great. The storyline had several parts that were unfinished and unexplored. The end of the book was a terrible ending. And all Manal left the book wanting for it’s end. I don’t know if there will be a book 2 But there needs to be something to finish this story. If not this book is a waste of your time.

All stories have already been told.

This is a good book. I know some of the reviews are negative because it shares some similarities with other works but honestly what book doesn’t? The writing is good, the narration is also good, minus the female voice, and I enjoyed it. Looking forward to the next book.

Amazing Story!

This is the first novel I have read by Virdi but it will certainly not be the last. You will first meet Ari as an adult, the greatest storyteller in the land and then listen in as he tells his story to a mysterious lady. The character development is amazing as you get to know and follow young Ari on his adventures and misadventures. Like most young men the young hero is ruled largely by his passions and pays the price for them over and over on h8s quest for knowledge. Despite being a clever hoodlum there is also a but of the white knight in Ari.

The story of young Ari is intertwined with the adult storyteller who is still half hero and half hoodlum it seems. i am loikung forward to the next book to continue the adventures.

Worth It

Many other reviews could tell you what this book is about and how in compares and contrasts to The Name of the Wind. I just want to tell you about my experience with this book. So I bought the audiobook opening day but really struggled to get into this book. The beginning was very slow and (in my opinion) dull. I kept on switching to other books, but something kept on wanting me to give it a fair chance. More than once I seriously thought about giving up on it. About 45% into the book is chapter 46 called A King’s Gambit it was at that chapter I really started getting into it. I started to love this book once the protagonist arrived at Hogwarts err…I mean the Ashram. For patient readers I thought this book was really good and my hope and expectation is that the second book will hold my attention from start to finish.

An ode to storytelling

Virdi clearly fell in love with the art of storytelling, the nature of stories and how they change, and what it means to be the one who changes them. With exquisite attention to the beauty of prose and lyricism, Virdi tells not one person’s story, but a whole world’s.