Review: The Will of Many by James Islington
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.
Review:
Dear James Islington,
Your book was suggested as my next book club read and when I looked at the blurb, trying to decide whether to spend fifteen dollars on the book from the unknown to me author, my first reaction was something along the lines – oh no, not another young fugitive with a troubled past getting in a prestigious academy.
I am happy to report though that I find my money very well spent on this book. Of course, I still find the price outrageous and encourage readers to see whether your library may have a copy, but I loved this book, loved it to pieces and cannot wait till the day when book two in this trilogy (?) is published.
I am not even sure why I loved it so much, because the story indeed revolves around our narrator Vis who now lives in Catenan Republic and hides his past from everyone else and in the hands of lesser writer it could have been a very tiring trope indeed. Vis hides his past from everyone around him, because he comes from the place that the Catenan Republic conquered and executed all his loved ones (as far as we know anyway). So, allow me to extrapolate a little bit on the set up from the blurb – because it actually fooled me a little bit. Yes, Vis will spend a major part of this book in the Catenan Academy for the children from the upper classes of the Hierarchy, but even in this book it was already clear to me that the overall story will likely have a bigger scope than just him spending time in the academy. There is some time in the beginning of the book where we learn what Vis was doing before the Academy, when he could not imagine that he would ever get there and how he actually ended up going there.
Another thing I wanted to mention, even though I think it is pretty clear from the blurb, is that this society is loosely based on Ancient Rome. It is not a historical at all, it is a fantasy, but yes, the Hierarchy is based on Ancient Rome. This is the society of conquerors, the society where higher classes use an interesting sort of Magic (is it really Magic?) to keep society moving but also keep lower classes … I guess “docile” will be the best word to use here. Sorry but I cannot really explain more for the fear of spoilers.
There are so so many things I cannot discuss here, I will just say that I thought that the plotting and pacing was excellent. Some reviews mentioned that nothing happens in the book till the last few chapters, really. I think we have read different books. Yes, the action speeds up dramatically in the last ten or twelve chapters of the book, but something was always happening and I was never bored. I cannot tell you who sent Vis to the academy and why, I cannot tell you what he was doing the whole year, I can tell you almost nothing, but I thought several characters were great and I just could not predict what would happen next and I most certainly did not expect that ending.
The ending IS a bad cliffhanger, which I hated, but it also added so many questions for me and I want answers, I really want answers. :)
My only niggle is that Vis does sound significantly older than a seventeen year old to me, but considering what he had been through the last few years of his life, I do not think it is that much of a stretch to assume that he had to grow up very fast.
Grade: A
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