The First Binding is heavily derivative of The Name of the Wind, to the point of copying events and ideas from this book. Normally that might be a bad thing. However, in this case, I am not so sure. I do not have a good feeling that Rothfuss will or can finish another book. I also believe he misled charity donators with the promise to release a chapter of the third book in his series (which I believe him to have started but capable of finishing).

Anyhow, on to the First Binding. The prose isn't as good as Rothfuss', but R. R. Virdi plays with the events inspired by Rothfuss to create a slower story that is still very interesting. I consider this one of the strongest fantasy works this year. Virdi has much better control over the pacing of his story and seems to have incremental goals in mind for his character. I believe he has come closer to mapping out the events of subsequent books vs merely listing off some stuff that would be interesting.

Some interesting changes include instead of killing a king, Ari claims to have killed a princess, his lover. This time, instead of the 7, we get the Ashura, the 9 and they may be even more sinister than the Chandrian. Instead of just trying to stay hidden, they are heavily implied to shape politics and even the fate of nations. Virdi also does away with the conceit that a thousand page book could mostly be told in a single day - several days pass in the outer story this time. I don't want to give too much away.

Fans of the Kingkiller Chronicle will enjoy this book as long as they are not dead set against heavily borrowing plot elements. Those who didn't like the Kingkiller Chronicle won't like this one either.

Should Virdi have told his own, completely original story? I think this question can only be answered should Virdi bring this series to a closure. I'd prefer a good tale that reaches a conclusion over obfuscations and a story I can't recommend to anyone under 40 less they reach senility before another volume hits the presses.