The Will of the Many by James Islington is the first extraordinary novel in the Hierarchy series. This has been one of my favorite reads so far this year and the best start to a new fantasy series that I’ve read in some time. The plotting is tight, there is a lot of political intrigue, mysteries to be unraveled, and excellent character and world building.
The setting is a Roman based, and the title refers to the hierarchical society where every citizen cedes a part of their will - strength & drive- to those above them. This definitely gave me Red Rising vibes, but it ended up being so much different. It really was exceptional.
I love the MC Vis so much - the novel explores found family and magical school tropes, and both are extremely well done. The novel is at turns gritty, raw, and full of intrigue & machinations. I highly recommend this novel - I can’t wait until the sequel The Strength of the Few, comes out in January. *****

Special thank you to @simonandschuster and @sagapressbooks and @netgalley for an ARC of this book. I loved it so much, I have already bought two physical copies for my shelves.

Full disclosure - I did not finish this book. I purchased the audiobook when it came out, and still couldn't get through it. I saw reviews/comparisons to Red Rising, a series I absolutely loved. There is promise in the half that I read, but it suffers from being the first book in a planned series, in that there is a ton of set up and world building, and it's just such a tedious slog to get through. I may try again at a later date, but for now, it's too long and too slow.

This book has an incredible premise and started out promising. I am a reluctant fantasy reader and therefore I'm never sure if it’s just me or the book. I think the story is probably serving its purpose of setting up the world and the magic for future books, but that will only become clear over time. I loved the main characters and the idea of the school. There were some tropes that felt too forced for me but in the long term, the story has stuck with me. I’m excited for the future books in this series.
If you love fantasy and this author, give it a try. It may be the start of a wonderful series.

#TheWillofTheMany #Netgalley #GalleryBook #SagaPress

Thank you so much @sagapressbooks for the ebook- I loved the beginning so much that @derekdrinkscoffee picked up a hard copy!

Edit, review:

This book was staggeringly good.

I’m in such a deep slump because I’m obsessed with this world, the protagonist, the magic system and the burning desire to know what’s next. ABSOLUTE CHOKEHOLD. @jamesislington_author I’m not sure what your schedule looks like, but I would be willing to trade a kidney for the next entry in the series.

An absolutely amazing read, the magic system, the hierarchy, the twists!!
Islington's world-building is equally impressive, with each new locale and culture feeling vibrant and distinct. From the majestic spires of the capital city to the ancient ruins of forgotten civilizations, the world of the Licanius Trilogy is a place of wonder and danger, filled with secrets waiting to be uncovered.

The Will of the Many is the first book in The Hierarchy by James Islington. Released 23rd May 2023 by Simon & Schuster on their Gallery/Saga Press imprint, it's 640 (!) pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out in 4th quarter 2024 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is a very promising start to a sweeping epic political fantasy based on the Roman Empire during the middle expansion, it's not an alt-Earth copy of people and places, but an impressive and massive whole cloth reconstruction. The author manages to imbue the main and secondary characters (and they are legion) with relatable motives. There's an often brutal tragic dichotomy between survival and compliance and especially the main character, a prince in exile, is often faced with the difficulty of keeping his head down and surviving to live another day.

It's a dangerous political game of cat and mouse and there are an impressive number of layers to the jockeying and juxtaposition of the juggernaut of might that is the Empire contra individuals and their needs and desires.

Wrapped inside this huge overarching from-the-ground-up world, the author drives the plot with an engaging murder mystery and espionage thriller, by inserting MC Vis Telimus, into the foremost academy in the Empire to gather intelligence and report back to his spymaster (who is also his adoptive father/patron in the pragmatic Roman sense of the word).

Four and a half stars. Highly recommended to fans of political campaign fantasy. The second book in the series is teased for release in 2024/2025, but no definite publishing info is available at the current time. Language/culture nerds will also find a lot to love here since the author has a lot of fun with Latin and ancillary Empire adjacent languages, including Gaelic. An excellent choice for public library acquisition.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

What a great story! I enjoyed the characters, the "magic", the world building. Most of all I liked that I didn't figure out what was going to happen with and to everyone. I'm really looking forward to the next book!

I listened to the audiobook for this one as it is on the longer side, and I have to say a reread with annotation will probably be needed for book two. I got the majority of what went down. We have a child who is an orphan who is taken into an academy where he uncovers a very layered and mysterious world with lots of buried secrets. The Will of Many reminded me of a few books, Hunger Games and Maze Runner, which are divergent but set in more adult-like themes, so there is less romance. It is also all told from one point of view, so there are not a lot of characters to keep track of, which is a blessing. The Will of Many is the first book by this author I have read, though I own others of his. The magic system is not explained well, but there is more to uncover as we read through the series.

THE WILL OF MANY is the historical fantasy I never knew I needed to read. This book has it all. Islington has opened his readers to a world that I can only hope will have more books to come.

Oh, boy! I haven’t had a book grip me like this in longer than I’d like to admit. This was my first Islington book and I am so glad for this because I’m still thinking about it.

The story is one that we’ve seen in fantasy before. Orphan gets caught up in politics….etc but does it in just the right amount of difference that it was magic!!!

This book grabbed me from the very first line. It reminded me of the Roman Empire, one of the most powerful and ultimately decadent societies in the world, but with the addition of 'Will'. I will go with the description given for Will: 'strength, drive and focus' since I never really got a grasp on it. A person's will can be leached away from him and the process is torturous and painful. The author has created a fascinating world.

The main character is Vis, who has many secrets and who is looking for his missing parents. Vis comes to the attention of a man who wants his help in finding out who killed his brother when he was at boarding school. He never got any satisfactory answers from the staff or the students who knew his son. He helps him to get admitted so that he can get to know the other students and the staff, and possibly learn something as an insider. Vis, of course, has his own reasons.

This is a fascinating book and I highly recommend it. It will have a sequel. I received an e-arc from the publisher Gallery Books via NetGalley, and voluntarily read and reviewed this book.

Instagram: @BackdraftBookshelf

4/5 or 3.5/5 (Depending on my mood. I'll have to ruminate for a bit)

The Will of the Many does a ton of things right. A strong introduction to the world of the Hierarchy. A Republic that may have power but has an equal amount of unanswered questions; The mysteries of The Cataclysm and what preceded. Factions of military vs. government vs religion tension whispering on a hair both outward and inward. The rise of an orphan through the ranks of the prestigious Catenan Academy to find answers, and realistically just survive.

With a conglomeration of fantasy tropes you might be thinking you'd roll your eyes over the 600+ pages. Though the usage doesn't really hinder the narrative. The tropes are just a vehicle to get to the story that Islington really wants to tell. At face value people might not pick this up. If you decided not to, you would be doing yourself a disservice.

“Death is only meaningless if it does not change us”.

Islington has come into his own and has bettered his writing quality. I've heard that his writing in Licanius wasn't really up to par. I will say that there seems to be an improvement. I wasn't offended by any passages. Now I might be a bit hungover off of Scott Lynch and have some recency bias, so take this with a grain of salt. Though Islington's writing was enjoyable to read. I think there’s some things in the book that I wanted more depiction of. There's times where Islington is just so matter of fact about an entire scene. I felt it gave way to easy cherry picking of future events.

Characters:
Islington's characters have strong definition in The Will of the Many. I may be in the minority here, but the straightforwardness of the characters straddled the line of being bland. The scale tipped back on the side of enjoyable at around the 2/3rds mark of the book. Could that be a byproduct of the sheer amount of tropes crammed into one story? Possibly. It was slightly frustrating to have Vis be so smart, act well beyond his young 17 years, and have political maneuverability to compete with the tops of government in one scene and in another be so inept. I just don't see the justification of Vis being able to do some of the stuff he can do. Maybe we get more backstory in book two though. *Shrug* If you can suspend some beliefs of Vis and his main character syndrome, I believe this is well worth the pick-up.

***SPOILERS***

Plot:
I thought the plot was well thought out. And you really had to have your story as solid as can be to have that ending. A solid base of roman inspired hierarchy with a solid enough magic system. Hidden royalty, last of their family, settled in an orphanage, competing in a fight club for coin. Adopted into a higher class to infiltrate opposition. Political machinations up the wazoo. Let's spend a lot of time in this class systems academy where class rankings mold the empire's political landscape. This book legit has a little bit of everything where one can enjoy. There were spans that felt dull with a smack in the face of a deus ex Machina named Diago the pupper and a backhand of Relucia bright as day being Ulciscors wife. Overall an immersive read.

Though I had an inkling of what the epilogue actually demonstrated, I really enjoyed reading the execution of the clone concept. Can Islington step it up in book two and take this series on a mind bending roller coaster? I haven't read Licanius myself, but I know it explored multiple timelines. The consensus is that Islington has grown as an author and I look forward to seeing that growth on full display with this concept for The Will of the Many.

World Building:
Our first few chapters give a nice foundation of the world we’re inhabiting. And its not an info dump. Oorah! Clear boundaries of the classes. The ability to take someone's Will (life essence?) to fortify one's strength. To power mechanical objects. A multiplicative advantage for those among higher status. In The Will of the Many, we get a quick scent of what a Quartus and above can do. We know that Quintii wield the ability to power pivotal cogs in their society by themselves. Does the Republic even have full capabilities of pre-cataclysm society? Is the ceding of Will a cause or a byproduct of the cataclysm. Are the Rending and the Cataclysm one in the same? Book one set up a deep rabbit hole for us to dive into.

As Vis progresses through the class levels at the Academy we also learn more about the dynamics of history, religion, and politics within Caten. Interactions with his classmates are actually a huge part of the reader learning about the world. Ramifications of offending one student vs another. There is plenty for a reader to unpack in this entry by Islington. So much so that you have an urge to immediately reread it to see if you can get your PhD in sub-harmonic Will imbuement, or more realistically, can pick up on any foreshadowing in book two.

TLDR;

Ignore the copious amounts of tropes. They just get you from point A to point B. This is a story that will have depth in its lore and faction fighting. Read it.

This book will easily make my top ten favorites for 2023 even though I don’t usually read fantasy series before they are completed. Oops on my part this year and I’m not sorry. I was enthralled with this fantasy world. Told in first person by Vis, a young man who has experienced tragedy but now his prospects are looking up. He’s caught the eye of a man in a powerful position who wants him to attend a prestigious academy to search for answers about the supposed suicide of his brother.

The action begins before Vis can even get to the school when they are set upon by rebels of the Catenan Republic. This world has a Hierarchy that is based on the giving and use of the citizens’ will leaving a lower working class with no power and upper class with all the power. Vis undergoes intense training before he even gets to the academy. Training specifically for a labyrinth that will be at the heart of his academic achievements and all the mysteries as to its purpose.

Vis must navigate the social structures of the school, some students and instructors fascinated with his arrival and eager to make friends or further his goals while others become instant enemies, threatened by his quick rise to attention. Some of the themes really resonated with me especially factoring in advancement not necessarily being dependent on intellectual achievement.

If you enjoy academic fantasy settings, I recommend this book but be prepared for the journey to get there.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for a copy provided for an honest review.

Brilliant plot, charming characters, and a fascinating historical Roman world. The ending was particularly outstanding and left me anxious for the next book. This book will appeal to those who like magic school and advancement plot lines. This story reminded me a bit of Red Rising.

**I was provided an electronic copy of this book by the publisher through NetGalley**

James Islington returns with the first book in a new series, The Will of the Many. A high fantasy with heavy Roman influence, readers follow Vis, an orphan who is doing his best to survive as a prize fighter after the ruling class conquered his people. But Vis is keeping secrets on top of secrets and his adoption by a Senator only adds to those. Vis will have to be a spy in the prestigious Academy to uncover the foundations of the Hierarchy's power, solve a murder, and, above all else, to stay alive.

Islington really excels in world building. Even using the structures of the Roman Empire as building blocks, the structure of the magic surrounding Will is solidly established while being open enough to allow for a lot of interesting moves by the characters. It is clearly established that Will can be given or received or imbued, but the circumstances surrounding that stay murky because our perspective character does not know how to use Will. Add in the other magics in play and there is already a ton of material for Islington to use. But Islington didn't stop there.

On top of an interesting magic system, every single action or inaction in this world has potential political ramifications. Then you have the setting of what is effectively a prep school for the elite where all the students are pitted against each other to establish future political and social standing. Then the whisper network of secrets and betrayals. Everything is intricately connected, yet somehow Islington also manages to make the reader care about Vis, Callidus, and Eidhin. Each featured character has a compelling background with more detail revealed as Vis comes to know them, which is true for characters outside of Vis' friend group as well.

Overall, I couldn't have asked for more from Islington with The Will and the Many. I intend to immediately purchase a copy for my shelves and I will absolutely pre-order the sequel. Highly recommended to fans of the Red Rising Saga and to fans of the Nevernight Chronicle. Or if the Roman Empire is, in fact, your Roman Empire.

This was sooo good but definitely dragged on in some parts. I’m looking forward to reading the print copy and digesting this one even more in the future!

5/5

In The Will of the Many, Islington constructs a flawed world built on the backs of the many to benefit the few and centers on the one person who could expose a crack in the marble and bring down an entire empire. Orphan Vin Telimus is an heir to a kingdom overtaken by the very empire he now serves. Hiding in plain sight, resisting ceding his will to the hierarchy, Vin is taken in by an unlikely ally, who will give him a way out if he infiltrates the academy training the next generation of upper citizens to figure out what exactly is going on on the academy grounds. This book juggles so many different elements and executes them all flawlessly. Complete with mystery, an inventive societal system, and a striking political landscape. I can't believe I waited so long to read this absolute masterpiece of a series.

Yep – this solidifies Islington as a personal favorite!

You never know what to expect going into an Islington… and you may not always know what the heck is going on while you’re in there. But you can bet it’s always going to be a wild ride! I loved Licanius for its classic fantasy feel (told with a modern writing style) and its wildly dynamic plotting ideas. He brought that same weirdness and creativity to The Will of the Many and amped it up even more.

It had so many elements I love in books – fight/training sequences, school settings, competition, cool magic systems – so many great elements that I was a nervous wreck while reading it. I was so worried he was going to get my hopes up only to dash them by not delivering on all the promises. But have no fear – he completely delivers on every account with everything explored to it’s fullest. It was so satisfying!

Even though it ultimately delivered, this book is a platypus. It has a lot of wild elements that by all accounts shouldn’t work together (and perhaps wouldn’t if handled by a less deft writer), but somehow he pulled it off. I’ve found the key with Islington is to just go with it – trusting that he knows what he’s doing and it’s worth the effort. He certainly hasn’t let me down yet.

The Will of the Many had killer momentum and some of the best mic-drop scenes I’ve read in ages – many of which were so vivid and gut-punching that I’ll remember them for years to come. I loveloveloved the academic aspect and how often the main character put his skills to the test. I loved the cast of characters and the fact that I still want to know more about all of them. I loved the friendships and rivalries and that survival depended on the MC’s ability to navigate socially. I loved the competitions and that none of them were just brushed over. And I loved the epilogue – slamming down my 5-star rating and fangirl status. You’d better believe I’m already clamoring for the next one.

I loved it.

Recommendations: Just go with it! You wont regret it!

Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller

It seems that the vast majority of people have absolutely loved this book. Allow me to be one of the few.

This was definitely a book. There were definitely words and I definitely read them. Did I feel anything while reading them? No, not really.

Did I love the characters? Was I enthralled by the writing? Was I immersed in the world? Heck, was I even engaged with the plot????

No. No to at all.

I've seen people compare this to Red Rising (a book I love) and honestly, I don't see it. Aside from both having Ancient Rome-inspired societies, and both protagonists going to an academy, there weren't very many similarities.

For starters, Red Rising is nonstop action. The stakes are constantly rising. There is danger and tension in every interaction. People's lives are constantly in danger. The plot and characters are all going in a very clear direction. The Will of the Many had none of that.

This book feels extremely YA, which isn't bad, I've loved a lot of YA novels, but that's not how this book is sold and marketed. The book makes promises that it does not deliver upon and honestly left me wanting.

The main character, Vis, is a runaway orphan with a secret past and he swears he's all tough and hardened by the world. He believes himself to be an incredible actor, able to mold himself into any situation in order to survive. In reality, he is a reckless boy who is constantly on the verge of getting caught in a lie (and oftentimes does get caught). Everyone can see his lies don't add up, but it's okay, people will always turn a blind eye from the obvious for some reason.

Vis is also the most brilliant, most special of all the snowflakes. He gets sent to a supposedly prestigious academy with the children of the most powerful people in the empire. Those children are meant to be the smartest, most skilled, and most cunning. Sadly, that's just not true. It can't be, considering how Vis makes his way through the ranks with little to no pushback in a few months. Vis is just naturally smarter, wiser, and plain better than all his classmates and professors. Vis easily and consistently beats people who are champions in their fields, and outsmarts every single person around him. He speaks several dead languages, is a master swordsman, an Olympic swimmer, and a world-class strategist. He's just 'that guy' and I didn't buy it for a second. In part because he's 17, but also because it made no sense at all.

Then there was the world-building. This world felt incomplete. It fell flat. Also, I don't actually know how Will works and I've decided that I don't need to know. The more the author mentioned Will, the less I understood.

The book was over 600 pages and it really didn't need to be. A good 150 pages could have been trimmed off to make a more compact, more rich story. There were so many training montages and so many unnecessary conversations. So much happened, and yet I felt like nothing happened at all, up until the end.

By the way, that ending was actually really good. The epilogue actually got me intrigued, but probably not enough for me to read the sequel. Then again, who knows? I just might pick up book two.

Overall, this book was okay. I didn't love it. It left me unimpressed. But it also wasn't horrible. Had it been shorter (and had it been sold as a YA novel) I might have rated it higher. But alas.

Thank you to Saga Press for giving me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this has no effect on this review.

"The man who is never nervous, never does anything hard. The man who is never nervous, never grows.”

I went into The Will of the Many with relatively high expectations. I had read and really enjoyed The Licanius Trilogy and so I was already really excited for whatever the author was going to do next. When I read the blurb for this book I was pretty certain I was going to love it. I was not disappointed.

The Will of the Many is hands down my favorite book of the year so far. A masterful combination of mystery, action, and suspense set in a uniquely immersive world that captivated me from the very first page.

About 2/3 of The Will of the Many is a school setting. However, even if you are not a fan of “magic school setting” as a trope I think you still have a chance of enjoying this book. Vis may be at the school, and there is of course some brief class and training scenes involved, but the main focus remains on other things. The two things that are really the focus during this part of the story are the overarching plot of the story and character growth. I can’t really go into too many more details without spoilers, but I will say that this was my favorite part of the story.

There is a mystery lurking just out of reach both within and outside the grounds of the school. A secret that is so important that the school administrators would do anything to keep it hidden. Vis constantly puts himself in harm’s way to discover this secret at the urging of his sponsor Ulciscor. He cannot refuse or there will be consequences. This intrigue, constant threat of danger, and mystery had me hooked since it was first talked about roughly 10-15% in to the story. I needed to learn what it is that the school was hiding. I’m so thankful that we at least have some understanding of what it is by the end of the first book, but I also appreciate Islington leaving some of the mystery there to keep me invested while also dropping a new bomb on us right at the very end.

“You hurt any of them,” I say softly, voice shaking, “and on my oath, I will burn you and the Anguis to the ground. No matter the cost.”

I really enjoyed how this story gave me Red Rising vibes, especially thematically and somewhat character wise, while still feeling wholly unique. The magic system and the world itself felt like a breath of fresh air. Both the setting and characters felt so vividly imagined its like I could step through the page and into the world of The Hierarchy. Not that I would want to ever visit this class-based society where if someone in a lower class steps out of line even in the slightest there are dire consequences.

This is a brutal world ruled by the Hierarchy, a pyramidal system of government that makes the people in each higher tier more physically and magically powerful than their subordinates. I found how this particular part of the story is set up fascinating so I won’t spoil it for you going into more detail. Suffice it to say it made for a very compelling piece of worldbuilding that truly had an impact on the story in multiple ways.

There were also some uses of the magic system of this world that took this from straight up epic fantasy to what I would consider to be dark fantasy. It never ventured anywhere near the despair or abject horror of grimdark or fantasy horror, but it absolutely had touches of both intertwined throughout.

And now we get to the characters. Vis is the single POV of this story so we see his character growth the most. We learn more and more of his back story in bits and pieces as the story progresses. Because this story is told in first person we also get to be in Vis’ head for a decent amount of time. When we first meet Vis he is a man fueled by a desire to just survive, to remain invisible to the powers of the Hierarchy. However, as the story progresses we begin to see a different side of Vis. I loved that there were both external forces and internal personal struggles that led to Vis’ growth as a character, similar to how we are able to grow as humans in real life.

"If everyone in Class Six is going to try and ignore me, then I’ll just have to make them pay attention."

My favorite part about school settings in general are not the magic or training or anything like that. All are typically interesting to me, but my favorite part is the friends that are made along the way. Vis finds three good friends at the Academy and they are all compelling on their own while also being an integral part of Vis’ growth as a character.

The influence of his friends at the Academy, almost all of whom are of relatively high standing within the Hierarchy, cannot be understated. We see Vis’ priorities start to shift throughout book 1 in large part due to his friends because of how much he cares for them despite their being involved in the society he despises. I found this duality of thought incredibly compelling and its super impressive to me that Islington was able to pull it off in such a believable way.

I am very excited to see where this series will go and I cannot wait for the release of book 2, The Strength of the Few!