Review: The Doors of Midnight by R.R. Virdi

Blurb:

Myths begin, and a storyteller's tale deepens, in the essential sequel to R.R. Virdi's breakout Silk Road-inspired epic fantasy debut, The First Binding.

Some stories are hidden for a reason. All tales have a price. And every debt must be paid.

I killed three men as a child and earned the name Bloodletter. Then I set fire to the fabled Ashram. I've been a bird and robbed a merchant king of a ransom of gold. And I have crossed desert sands and cutthroat alleys to repay my debt.

I’ve stood before the eyes of god, faced his judgement, and cast aside the thousand arrows that came with it. And I have passed through the Doors of Midnight and lived to tell the tale.

I have traded one hundred and one stories with a creature as old as time, and survived with only my cleverness, a candle, and a broken promise.

And most recently of all, I have killed a prince, though the stories say I have killed more than one.

My name is Ari. These are my legends.

And these are my lies.

Review:

If you read The First Binding, you knew book two would be another beast of beautifully lyrical writing, rich world building and weaved with folklore from around the world. Without question, The Doors of Midnight ticked all those boxes. 

We start where we left off in both Ari's past and present, he had just been expelled from the Ashram for nearly burning the place down (past) and thrown in jail for the murder of a prince (present). Consequently, the present storyline takes place entirely in the castle while past-Ari's storyline takes us all over, from the Ashram to the desert to the Shaen world. And in keeping with all we've come to expect from Ari, he has more sass than sense across the board. That said, he does manage to grow a little bit and keep his mouth closed on occasion, such a surprise that even Master Binder, Rishi Ibrahm, is astounded. 

It's a little difficult to talk about the book, which is kind of two storylines that will hopefully one day meet, because of course Ari's past is what's influencing his present....well everything. I'm going to try though. 

So past-Ari - we have a lot more happening in what are obviously years gone by. I loved seeing the rumours about him growing more and more, the little ways which they changed from what he initially cultivated to what they became. There was more found family for him and even more bad decisions based on his Superman complex but because it's Ari we know it all worked out fine. (Also he's literally telling us the story so that kind of gives away that he wasn't killed for the many things people tried to kill him over.) One thing I loved was the humour we got. Certain moments had me laughing, particularly from Rishi Ibrahm this time. I also think there is a lot more to his background than we've gotten to see yet. There was more Radi and Aram and of course more Shola, king of the story. Yes, there was also Nitham and I think we can all agree he's awful. 

Into the desert, I really hope we get more Aisha, Qimari and Khalil. Given all that's gone on with the merchant king, Arfan, I think (and hope) we'll be seeing them again. The part in the desert that I loved (and I shouted about how much I loved it to R.R. Virdi) was Enshae. From the first book we know Ari 'spent one hundred and one nights with Enshae' but now we get to see it and what he learned from his time there. I adored her character and she broke my heart. I massively hope we get to see her again and her world. 

Onto present Ari - of course we get to know about all of the above because he is still telling his story to Eloine. They're still going through their push and pull dance of flirtation that even Danil reappears and has something to say about it. Virdi does their relationship so well and you can feel the flirtation, tension and longing between them. I'm not sure I've ever seen two characters totally have each other wrapped around their fingers but still play hard-to-get. I will argue with Eloine on this one but accosting someone quite literally locked up in prison is not the time to sit down like it's storytime. Evidently it was but I'm going to say that probably wouldn't work for just anyone. 

While Eloine was the relationship we knew we'd get more page time for, the ones that I really found captivated by were the ones between Ari and the prisoners with him. The story for story trade, their glimpses into more of the rumours we know about Ari. Satbien and his story in particular was beautiful and somber. This is also probably the most interaction Ari has with anyone but Eloine while in the castle, during his arrest and after - though there is a great scene with one of the princes about Lord Emeris Umbrasio that had me laughing. 

As I mentioned initially, there are tons of folklore stories and heroes weaved into this. Both in Ari's own storytelling and in the rumours about him. I may have also shouted about some of these to R.R. Virdi because some of them were so brilliantly done that it wasn't until I finished those bits I found myself going 'Waaaaaait a minute...' Just so good. 

One thing I've kept coming back to is when we know all these rumours about Ari, we're told throughout how the shape of stories change as their told, I've had to ask myself what is true and what isn't. And because R.R. Virdi likes to throw in hints, secrets and little easter eggs for readers (like there is a GR review that found a hidden poem somehow which Virdi was just tee-heeing at because someone uncovered it!), you really can't be quite sure who or what to trust. Consequently, I was a bit suspicious of everyone and this has landed me with a lot of theories that are currently being neither confirmed nor denied to my absolute frustration. 

If you picked up The First Binding and enjoyed it, there is no doubt you need to continue through The Doors of Midnight. If you haven't picked up The First Binding, then you need to and THEN continue through The Doors of Midnight. There is so much more to come from this world and I have no idea how it's going to come together. I do know it will be several more 600-800+ page books though

The Doors of Midnight is out August 2024.

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