The First Binding

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