The First Binding by R.R. Virdi (Tales of Tremaine #1)

  

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language, Bullying

 

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.

 

I was really excited to read this. It's the first epic fantasy I've read this year and it sounded like it would be right up my alley. I was intrigued by the comparisons to The Name of the Wind, since I really loved that book. The blurb for this book also sounded a lot like The Name of the Wind. After reading this I can definitely say that there is a resemblance. The woman that Ari is enamored with and the way she keeps leaving and showing up reminds me a bit of Denna. Then there is the storytelling that Ari does about his past, the Inn, and the fact that Ari performs on stage as a storyteller, and the way the book is structured. These things all remind me of The Name of the Wind. These are just a few of the similarities. There are some differences, but I do think that there are too many similarities.

I thought this book was slow to get going, and in general it is a slow paced novel, but after it got going I began to enjoy it. I enjoyed the South-Asian inspired parts of the book. It was new and refreshing for me. I liked reading about Ari's childhood, from the theater, to The Sparrows, to the school of the Ashram. I enjoyed reading about the friendships Ari developed, although the bullying was not fun, and I never like reading that stuff. Thankfully, it wasn't too excessive. Then there was the kite fighting, which is something I had never heard of before. I thought it was interesting, and I had to look it up to see if it was a real thing, and it is.

I liked the parts about Ari as an adult a little less, although the Game of Families was an interesting idea, it ended up going differently than I thought it would. I'm also not too keen on the love interest yet. Ari is naive about women, and at this point I don't think this is going to end well. Speaking of women, I've read a few reviews that mentioned that this book is sexist or misogynistic with the way it describes women or lumps them all into one stereotyped category. I think sometimes people don't really understand what misogyny is. I didn't get that from this book at all. Yes, there were some generalizations of women, but I also picked out generalizations of men in the book as well, and I think most of these were done for humor, or to show naiveté and ignorance. Anyway, it didn't bother me.

The blurb for this book makes Ari sound very full of himself and I think after reading the book that he really isn't. He's someone who had a tough life and had to prove himself over and over. I liked that the book showed how easily gossip and misconceptions can turn into what people think are facts. I wasn't so crazy about the fact that Ari purposely let people believe some things that weren't true and then looked back at history in general as being based on a bunch of lies. This is a viewpoint coming from a liar, so of course he would see it that way, but in reality, history is probably a mixture of truth and lies.

I liked some things about this book and disliked things about it. I felt it was lacking something, so I'm giving it 3 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing me with an ARC of this book.