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

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.

Alternate universe name of the wind?

The story is solid, just different enough to not get hit with any plagiarism claims. It the feels like a jab at Rothfuss. lets just hope virdi can finish his story.

Over all a good listen, and really makes me interested in what he has in store for us

Frustrating

There are a lot of aspects of this book to love. Interesting magic and characters and it’s mysteries and revelations. That only make it more frustrating when ⅓ of it is pulled almost directly from the Name of the Wind. So much so that I could predict what was coming next - even with dialogue - it might come from a lightly different character, but it was the same. This is more like an alternate telling than an original story - which makes the original parts all the more frustrating. With a little more time - this could have been a remarkable original story.