Bestselling Australian author James Islington’s The Will of the Many is nothing short of a magnum opus. The high fantasy novel is the fourth book of Islington, following his also successful Licanius Trilogy. Following a few disappointing reads, I plunged into this book with low hopes. Yet, I couldn’t be more wrong: The Will of the Many pleasantly surprised me in many different ways.
The story follows the main character, Vis, a suspiciously highly educated 17-year-old orphan, who lives in the lower classes of the society called the republic of Catenan. In Catenan, every citizen has a Will. The more Will one has, they possess more physical strength, self-healing qualities, and abilities. The Catenan society works like a pyramid scheme in which the lowest people in the pyramid has a certain amount of Will, which they cede half of to another person that is one level above them. Those people then receive Will from multiple people and proceed to cede half of their Will to the people above them. Hence, the amount of Will each person at a designated level receives grows at an exponential level.
Vis spends his days working in a prison, where he gets a front-row seat to the Suppers, a small stage that all prisoners are tied to. The stage is revealed to suck out their Will, keeping them on the brink of death. At night,Vis fights in gladiator-style battles between people in his level of the pyramid or one above, which he usually wins. The story propels into motion when a mysterious, high-level patrician working for the Senate visits Vis’s orphanage and adopts him, claiming to have seen Vis fight in the arena. The man promises Vis that he will never have to cede any of his Will, adopt a high-class family name, and attend the top academy in Catenan. In return, Vis has to investigate a murder, with the main suspect being the principal of the academy he was expected to attend. If Vis does solve the murder case, then his fate will succumb to the Suppers.
Readers get the first (and definitely not last) plot twist of the book when readers finally learn why Vis is so abnormally intelligent and skilled in combat for a low class orphan. Vis is the presumably dead prince of a country colonized by the Catenan government, the Hierarchy, which Vis vows to defy.
The book had fast pacing, an array of shocking plot twists, and complex characters that I loved diving into. The world building itself was one of my favorite aspects. Islington does a great job of vividly describing a beautiful, Roman-inspired society, with futuristic aspects that make a mouth-watering mental image appear in your mind.
This epic novel kept me on the edge of my seat, waiting to see how the pieces would come together with thrilling and poetic prose. Just when it felt like things were slowing down, Islington bombarded me with a jaw-clenching plot twist that made me want to stay up all night to finish the book. The novel also includes a slight dystopian type of feel due to the corrupt nature of the Hierarchy and Vis’s defiant tendencies.
However, one of the few issues I had with this book is that it follows a common formula many high fantasy books exhibit. After reading several books in the genre, I’ve found that most follow the same chain of events: the main character is in the lower classes, rises in rank due to a surprising opportunity, attends a top academy, and proceeds to become the best in his class. This pattern shows up in popular titles such as Red Rising, The Poppy War, and even Harry Potter. Still, the book is absolutely unique in its own way and this formula is repeated so often because it works every single time.
Another issue I had was with the vocabulary. As can be expected in high fantasy, the book contains many fictional phrases, words, places, and even a whole branch of language. While I enjoy being immersed in new worlds–and these terms do help with that immersion–I think they should have been more clearly explained. The Will of the Many doesn’t always do this. Most vocabulary terms are introduced through dialogue or Vis’s inner thoughts with the expectation that readers should already know what they mean, leaving readers to guess their definitions. This caused a lot of confusion, especially early on. While there is a glossary at the back of the book to help with this, I would rather not have to flip to the back page every few minutes to translate every single fictional word.
Unfortunately for me, the book ended with a shocking cliffhanger, and the second book has yet to come out. On the brighter side, the sequel book, The Strength of the Few, is set to be released this November. All in all, The Will of the Many is a must-read for fans of epic fantasy, especially those who love political intrigue, underdog stories, and simmering rebellions. If you can push through the slightly overwhelming terminology at the beginning, you’ll be rewarded with a richly imagined world, powerful character arcs, and a story that refuses to let you go.
