Book Review: The Will of the Many

A beastly long book that managed to restore my faith in fantasy... At least a bit...

Oh hey there, friends, hey there.

I did not intend to leave such a huge gap between my last book review and this one. Even though I hoped to do a thorough edit of Soultainted in May, I still had every intention of posting a review on this book and maybe even one or two more over the last several weeks.

Alas, life.

But here it is June, and I’m picking myself up and dusting myself off and charging back into the fray.

Or at least the Internet.

Anyway… onward.

A few months ago, I was buying used books in Coeur d’Alene, and the delightful owner of Bookishly Happy recommended The Will of the Many.¹ I had mentioned to her my general “meh-ness” toward young adult books and a lot of modern fantasy, and she said this book was an exception.

I am so glad I listened to her.

Here’s the Amazon blurb for The Will of the Many:

At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

The Catenan Republic - the Hierarchy - may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus - what they call Will - to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy's ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.

General Thoughts

Overall rating: Five stars, hands down. There were days when I could hardly put this book down. It hooked me from the first chapter. This is the kind of book that would have had me running into poles when I was younger.

It has great character development, excellent setting, and a tight plot with tons of twists, turns, and surprises. Even the first-person narrative didn’t bother me—it’s that good.

This book is long—very long. My hardcover version is 690 pages, and the Internet informs me that the story is about 242,000 words. For comparison, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is about 257,000 words.

But here’s the thing—this book does not drag. I never found myself wondering if Islington would just get to the point already. Even during stretches where not much happens, the writing itself is taut and interesting, full of details that round out the world rather than drag it down or bore the reader.

I think it’s also worth pointing out that this book is an excellent example of an adult book that doesn’t include a ton of stuff parents wouldn’t want their teenagers to read. I suppose one could call it young adult—certainly the first person narrative, the setting, the fact that the main character is an older teen put it in that category—but it also didn’t feel young adult to me.

Let’s get to the good stuff.

Representative Quotes

“You fight the tyranny of the many, or you are one of them…. Silence is a statement, Diago. Inaction picks a side. And when those lead to personal benefit, they are complicity.” — Melior, a rebel terrorist, in the midst of mass murder, right before he kills himself

“‘That’s the problem with people, though, isn’t it? They always think that other people are the problem.’ Quiet. Angry. ‘You want to remove the Princeps? The senators? You’ll just become them, sooner or later. If all you’re trying to do is change who’s in control, then you don’t really want to change anything.’” — Vis to one of the rebel leaders

“They ask something small of you. A thing you would prefer not to do, but is not so terrible. You think you are working your way up, but in fact they are changing you. Moulding you into what they think you should be, one compromise at a time…. In this place… each man has to find his line. Has to find it ahead of time, and be resolved never to cross it.” — Eidhin, one of the other students at the Catenan Academy and a child of a one of the conquered peoples

Observations

How Often Do You Think About the Roman Empire?

Remember a while back how the Internet claimed that men think about the Roman Empire several times per day? It turns out that most men don’t think about the Roman Empire that much, but they do think about it—and about general historical topics—more than women.²

I’m pretty sure James Islington is one of those guys upping the averages.

This book does not even attempt to disguise the fact that it’s a new take on the Roman Empire. Let’s just say that if you ever learned a bit of Latin or at least have familiarity with one of the Romance languages, you’ll be able to very quickly pick up the pronunciation of names and places in the book. The social structure is very familiar, as is the general attitude among the elite toward conquering people and territory.

And then… Islington added magic.

Or maybe technology.

It’s hard to say. The ceding of one’s Will seems more like magic, but there is some kind of ancient technology at the root of it all. The people travel by carriage, but also by large transports that sound like airplanes or even space shuttles.

This unique blend of fantasy and in-world science fiction gives the book a fresh feel. The “swords, togas, and sandals” feel of the book grounds us in the familiar, which allows us to investigate the mysteries presented by the technology.

A brief word for how this compares to Red Rising, another clear interpretation of the Roman Empire: The Will of the Many is much better. The writing is better, the book is not as dark, and the POV and tense won’t make people with my peculiar first-person-present-tense aversion start twitching.

Old Trope, Fresh Take

As I mentioned in my review of Fourth Wing, I don’t mind when people offer a fresh take on an old trope as long as it’s well-executed. The Will of the Many is an excellent example of this principle.

When the used bookstore owner mentioned to me that this book is set in a school, I’m sure I must have rolled my eyes. I can hear all of you thinking, “another one?”

But the Catenan Academy brings a fresh take to this familiar trope. For one thing, students in this academy have to advance up progressively smaller levels. The number of students at each level reflects a pyramid, similar to the entire social structure; most students are in Class Seven, then 48 in Class Six, and then the numbers halve up to Class Three. The six students in Class Three compete at the end of each year for final rankings.

There is a sort of “Survivor” aspect to the school in that moving up a level requires someone either being eliminated or moving down, but it’s not reliant on the death of a student. There are times when students trade places based on competition or poor performance (and sometimes for other reasons), but there’s no requirement that someone die. These are the children of the elite, after all. The idea is to put them into positions of power once they graduate.

That’s not to say there is no death in this book—there is, in fact, a lot of death—but it’s not gratuitous in the fashion it was in Fourth Wing. The deaths in this book make sense.

Asking Hard Questions…

Another thing I really like about this book—it’s tough to pin down Islington’s political and social leanings.

The characters in this book represent recognizable people groups of the ancient world. Vis’s real name is Diago, and his original country seems a lot like Spain. Eidhin is very clearly from a Germanic or Celtic people group. And of course, the elite main characters and students are all very Roman.

It would be easy to turn this book into a polemic against imperialism. Islington could have turned it into a book preaching against the lingering evils of various powerful or imperial states. There is certainly a very strong theme of throwing of the shackles of an oppressive state.

But the thing is… You could overlay the Hierarchy in this book with any state you think is oppressive.

And through that lens, the book asks some serious—and sometimes unanswerable—questions.

When is terrorism justified?

What are you justified in doing when you have no legal recourse?

Is genuine meritocracy possible?

Islington doesn’t preach in one direction or another. He simply presents the world as it is with all of the moral, ethical, and political dilemmas each person has to face. Characters debate how best to achieve their own ends without the heavy hand of the author pounding anyone into a particular direction.

This book is an excellent example of how to present complex, real-world challenges in a way that doesn’t shy away from the advantages and disadvantages of various solutions. Islington just writes the story; he lets the reader decide the answers to those big questions.

Writers, you don’t have to preach your own points of view in a heavy-handed way. Just write the story and trust your readers to come to their own conclusions.

Would I Recommend?

Yes! I already have, several times.

Will I Read More of This Author?

Absolutely. I’ll be reading the sequel to this one as soon as it’s out, and I plan to pick up his other trilogy soon, too.

What’s Next on My List?

I am hoping to start doing a book review every two weeks on this tab, and my next one will be a belated review of Water Moon, by Samantha Sotto Yambao. I have a fair amount of fantasy and science fiction reads sitting around here, some old and some new, and I’ll be sharing those as I work through them.

As for another read-along? Well, I’m still thinking that through. There’s a lot going on through the summer and fall, so maybe that will be a late fall/winter kind of thing. Stay tuned.

1. Cannot recommend this store highly enough. It’s not the biggest used bookstore I’ve ever seen, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in vibes. One of my favorite places in CDA!

2. I asked my husband and sons how often they think about the Roman Empire. My husband looked at me like I’d lost my ever-lovin’ mind. My oldest son said, “oh yeah, several times a day.” I don’t remember what the younger son said, but given that he read Don Quixote in high school and has an affinity for Russian literature, I’d imagine it pops into his brain now and again. Me? I think about general historical topics a lot, but my brain camps more in Medieval Europe than in Rome.