A cloaked man enters a tavern is who our story begins. His little demonstrations get the town talking, and as they gather for his show, a female singer interrupts him. But the cloaked man continues on to tell a story aimed at the local audience. Upon finishing the story, he lets the story sit in silence. It earns him the right to stay and earn a living at the tavern. The singer steps up next and charms everyone including the storyteller with her song. Then she and the storyteller flirt with one another. The cloaked man is the famous storyteller Ari, he of many stories and many lies. The singer won’t tell Ari her name; so, he names her Eloine. They flirt more. Their double entendres aren’t subtle. Soon, Eloine convinces Ari to tell her the story of him.

The reader is transported to a playhouse in the city of Keshum. Ari works as a stagehand running underneath the boards executing the special effects for the shows. His dreams are to trod the boards himself one day. Because they are Sullied, of the lowest caste, the playhouse is very poor. Ari lives underneath it in a bunk he hollowed out for himself. He is a clever young man whose mouth often causes him more trouble than it should. The owner of the theater seeks patronage from a local drug lord at around the same time a stranger arrives. It turns out the stranger is a magician, a binder, who is seeking out stories. Ari catches the binder’s attention and begins to train with him. At the same time, the owner of the theater sets Ari to training in stage fighting for parts in upcoming plays. Ari’s days are dedicated to training mind and body. He is happy and dreams of traveling to the Ashram, a magical school to learn binding. But, as with all fiction, the protagonist isn’t allowed to be happy for long. Tragedy strikes the theater, and Ari finds himself without family. He’s soon scooped up into a gang of orphans like himself. His role is to scam, to steal, to beg, and to earn by any means necessary. But the streets of Keshum are so dangerous and Ari is so grief stricken that he begins to lose the magical training the binder gave him. His dreams of traveling to the Ashram are being pushed away simply to survive. There is much more to Ari’s story, but this is roughly a third of the book.

The First Binding is a mostly first person point of view novel being told by Ari, himself. Occasional third person point of view chapters punctuate the book. The book is another brick of a fantasy novel with over 800+ pages of joy to be had. Despite being a brick, it has an excellent pace that keeps the reader glued to the page. The beginning is a little erratic, but once Ari settles into telling Eloine about his past, the writing and pacing become much more assured. The best writing comes from people telling stories in this book. Virdi slips in rhymes so subtly that I didn’t notice until the third day reading the book. This is a well-crafted – possibly, meticulously crafted – book.