Thursday, May 11, 2023

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The First Binding by R.R. Virdi

 


The First Binding is an absolute tome of an epic fantasy novel, one which is in fact over 800 pages long. The novel, by Indian American author R.R. Virdi, is his first attempt at epic fantasy, after some success with short fiction and apparently a couple of urban fantasy and sci-fi works that I haven't read. I got interested in this novel through some retweets on twitter and then actually decided to take a risk and buy a physical hardback copy from Astoria Bookstore during a sale, but it's taken me a while to actually sit down and make the effort to read it - again, at over 800 pages, it requires a long time commitment that was difficult to muster with how long my TBR was. Still an Indian inspired epic fantasy was enough to intrigue me to eventually get to it, which I finally did at the end of April/beginning of May.

Unfortunately, The First Binding doesn't really justify that commitment and kind of is an extremely unsatisfying package. The novel is about 75% flashbacks to the origin story of its protagonist - the Binder (kind of Wizard) Ari - and 25% present day story about him serving as a storyteller hunting for some specific knowledge. And the storytelling prose is well done, as is the development of the lead character. The setting is mostly excellent as well, with interesting myths and gods and an extremely well developed magic system, although that setting is very heteronormative and kind of obsessed with gender roles, particularly with how horny men are assumed to be, including the main protagonist. But while the present day story hints at some really interesting and intriguing backstory of its lead character, the actual story told in the flashbacks just doesn't contain any of the interesting parts hinted at, and just takes way way too many pages to get to where the novel finally ends. There just isn't enough payoff here for the page length, and while that might be acceptable in a novel with a well written protagonist (if not much of anyone else) that is 200-400 pages long, that's a far bigger sin for an 800 page tome.


----------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------
A Storyteller in a red cloak enters a tavern in Etaynia with his staff in hand. Its a cloak that looks anything but natural and the storyteller's reputation precedes him, a reputation of a man whose words are like magic, enrapturing everyone who hears them in a story like no others. His presence quickly draws attention and a crowd, to whom he tells a story like no other...even though its a story of one of their legends they know themselves by heart. And his presence also draws the attention of a special woman, a woman whose songs capture his own heart, a woman who knows somehow more about him than the storyteller could have expected: that the storyteller is in fact the man in many of the legends that people tell, even if the stories all contradict each other about what that man actually did.

And so the storyteller, in the country seeking certain knowledge, finds himself telling a private story to the woman: his own story. The story of how a boy of the lowest caste named Ari grew up underneath the stage of a theater helping a theater of the low castes put on plays and stories, how he began training in how to use the Ten Bindings all men must know...and how that training was cut short by a demon from myth, a demon that would force him on the run, into dangerous situation after dangerous situation as he searched for a way to somehow slay legends that others didn't think existed.....
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The plot summary for The First Binding hints that this novel will tell the story of how Ari did grand things, like stolen old magics, started a war with powerful beings, and fell in love with and then lost a princess of incredible beauty, and how he "let loose the first evil". The book's first few chapters, where it introduces Ari and how he comes to tell his origin story implies a similar background is going to be told here in this book.

Unfortunately, that's not what happens here and nearly all of the implied events that Ari was involved with, which would seem to be really interesting or fascinating and very important (like the princess he lost), are kept for another book. Instead, most of this book deals with telling the origin story of Ari from its very very beginning and the novel does not really feature time-jumps from one part of Ari's life to another, instead preferring to tell his story in detail and chronologically. So we see Ari's very beginnings in his first home, we see him on the run after disaster takes it and how he finds a new footing for himself, and we see him at school to learn The Bindings (the magic in this setting) that we see him muse in the present storyline. And despite the origin story taking up like 75% of the book, that's where this book ends - so while the story is never boring and certain momentous things happen (the plot summary also mentions Ari killing a god and burying a village, and that DOES happen here) - most of what we were promised does NOT happen. Instead, Virdi really takes us through Ari's story in depth, with lots of details and explanations, and Virdi really dives deep into the way the magic system here kind of works as Ari discovers it, and how he's taught.

And to be fair, that does result in some strong work. The prose is never boring and can draw you in, even as you eagerly await major events to finally happen in the storyline. Ari's character is extremely well done, as he goes from lowest caste stagehand to desperate street urchin to wise-mouthed brat at the academy trying to learn how to use Binding, and its really easy to care about him and to also be curious about how things will happen next. Ari is what you expect from a boy who is really smart, is given some teaching in how to do things like fight and understand -if not use- magic, and finds himself losing everything....he becomes desperate to never lose everything again and also to get revenge against those who took things from him, and when he has limited success he gets cocky, leading to some problems. The setting is generally well done as well, as the world feels lived in and really expansive, and the magic system with the Bindings is pretty creative and interesting, as it involves Binders essentially reality warping things based upon their faith...which can go devastatingly wrong if it breaks the mind of the one doing it. That said, the side characters in the setting aren't particularly well developed and all very much around Ari, and the setting is REALLY heteronormative, with Ari and males in the setting all being incredibly horny towards girls and there only being one possible queer person in the setting - and really there that person is just someone Ari can't figure out their gender most likely - and some of the women in the setting clearly try to use their sex and seduction to get what they want, even as there isn't really prescribed gender roles (there are women and men binders and law officers for example). It just feels very 90s in how it treats men and women here, which is kind of annoying.

Also annoying is again, just how much page length this book spends on small events, which means that while things don't drag, you really never feel satisfied by how much is revealed. As I said above, the origin story here never gets to the more interesting parts - there's a reason most origin stories have the magic school parts early in the book, whereas here it's in the final act and not even completed at that - and the present day story never gets enough time or depth to actually matter. At times we switch perspectives in the main story to the singer Eloine, who comes seemingly from kind of a gypsy culture and is clearly looking for some power or knowledge of her own (and is manipulating Ari a litle to find it), but we never get to see any reveals about who Eloine really is behind the hints the book shows. Similarly, when the present day story in the last act finally has Ari actually doing something, like wandering around princes and other nobles in a castle that is facing a succession crisis, we never really get any depth to any of these princes or side characters to make the game the protagonist is playing have any meaning. It's all just in the service of Ari getting knowledge he seeks, which the origin story makes clear is about the demons he wants revenge on, but the result is that it's hard to care at all about what happens or when Ari might wind up in trouble. There's just very little here.

And well for an 800 plus page book, which teases a lot happening, it's a bit of a fatal sin how little actually does. I have enjoyed epic fantasy series before which started with weak book 1 (Jenn Lyons' a Chorus of Dragons for example) but usually those at least have things happen in them to make me want to continue to hope it improves. There just isn't enough here for me for that, so I doubt i'll be continuing with book 2.
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