Review: Strength of the Few (Hierarchy #2) by James Islington
This highly anticipated sequel to The Will of the Many—one of 2023’s most lauded and bestselling fantasy novels—follows Vis as he grapples with a dangerous secret that could unravel history across alternate dimensions.
Book two of the Hierarchy quartet.
SPOILER FOR THE CLIFFHANGER ENDING OF THE FIRST BOOK AND FOR OTHER THINGS FROM THE FIRST BOOK
Review:
Dear James Islington,
The first book in this now apparently quartet (previously I thought it will be a trilogy) “The Will of Many” was one of my favorite books (if not the favorite) that I read last year. Believe me readers, when I say it. I *really* wanted to love this one without reservations. After how much I paid for it ($16.99) I especially hoped to love it without reservations. I could start a long rant about the greediness of the Big Publishers having no bounds actually. Apparently $12.99 or $13.99 price for the bestseller e-book is not good enough anymore? On the second thought, I will proceed to the review. One good thing this book did is that I certainly will not be eager to preorder book three and may even wait for the library.
So, I have to mention the spoiler for the ending of the first book here, I cannot avoid it, considering that this spoiler caused me the most problems with this book and I have to talk about it and the blurb (understandably) says almost nothing because everything will be a spoiler.
Spoiler: Show
I saw the review which called this dividing of the world an ambitious storytelling and in a sense I agree that it was, because the writer did a good job world building the other two worlds. One of them is loosely based on Egypt and the other one on Celtic culture (or whatever counts as Celtic culture in the eyes of the reader not very well acquainted with it). All three worlds Res, Obiteum and Liceum are connected with each other. How those worlds are connected I cannot tell you, because whatever bits and pieces of the information the author gives us in this book are very spoilerish, therefore I cannot share them with you. A lot of information though is still hidden from the reader which makes sense if there are still two books coming after this one and we are to expect more surprises.
The problem was though that even though I understood perfectly that three worlds and the events happening there all will be a part of the final resolution/ reveal at the end of this story, I did not equally care about those worlds. Basically the book is divided in three stories. Of course those are not really three separate stories, because there are certain connections, but for the longest part of the book it almost does not feel like it and even when it does, I still did not care for the dangerous thing that Vis tried to do in Obiteum and I *almost* did not care for Vis in Liteum, although by the end of that story I did care at least. Vis in Res was where my attention was and I was very eager to get back to Res as I was reading and I did wonder why we needed to spend so much time in the other two worlds. So that was my main problem.
There was another problem. Obviously I expect violence from this story considering what part of Roman history the author seemingly used as a major basis for the world building in Res. The death of the characters in the first book were heartbreaking for me, especially one character, but those deaths happened as part of the narrative beats so to speak. I understood it, as much as I mourned the character who died.
The character who dies in this book? I have no idea why that death happened except for the shock value for the reader and Vis. I mean listen, the civil war breaks in Res at some point, it would have been so easy to make this death part of everything that was happening and I would have been more content as a reader even if it would make me sad. The way it was done though? The desire to throw my kindle against the wall was strong.
There is a cliffhanger the book ends on. I in the past tried to share with you readers how much I “love” cliffhangers and I actually used the cliffhanger in the first book of these series as a rare example of the cliffhanger that I enjoyed. I cannot say that I enjoyed the cliffhanger that actually happened at the end of the second book, but I did not mind it either. I did not mind it because once again I did not feel as if the main character’s life was in the immediate danger, which was good. What was not so good that I found the cliffhanger underwhelming. I liked that Vis had to make an important decision and struggle with his morals, but the event itself was sort of foreshadowed to me, because something similar (not exact but similar) already happened several times during the story.
Remember how I said that I almost did not care about the things that happened to Vis in the other two worlds? Well, the final revelation in Liteum was actually more unexpected and even shocking to me than anything that happened in Res.
I will still read the next book. I like the main character and want him to go through his hero journey and get his reward (hopefully he would be able to live a quiet, happy life rather than a glorious death), but as I mentioned before I do not have a burning need to read it now.
Grade: C+B-
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It’s so hard to talk about without spoilers! I did enjoy the book and was really impressed that I always knew where I was (other readers may have had the sense to notice the symbols at the beginning of each chapter.) I think it’s generally true that in a book with more than one story-line I tend to be more eager to follow one than another and personally every time I put the book down it was where we were going back to the Egyptian world. I liked the Celtic world best -and while I don’t know what Celtic country he was inspired by, my Duolingo Irish was helpful.
My particular bugbear was where the story touched on Vis’ dead father.
And, while I normally don’t like them, I thought the cliff-hanger was thought-provoking
@MMcA: I enjoyed the book too, I just enjoyed parts of it way more than others ;-). I understood ( I believe) what cliffhanger was trying to accomplish. I just wish this ( not quite this but you know what I mean) have not already happened several times in the book. It kind of cheapened the moment for me. I know it was about Vis’ moral dilemma, but I did not gasp if that makes sense.
I finally got around to reading The Strength of the Few and I agree with your review completely. I loved the first book and cared about the fate of the characters in that story. I reread The Will of the Many prior to starting the sequel in order to refresh my memory of the events in the first book (particularly the end…which I found a little confusing,)
The divided narratives in this second book were not as compelling for me; I agree that Obiteum was the slowest of the three and I never really bonded with the characters in Liceum the way that I did with Vis’s companions in the first book. I was surprised (and somewhat angry) about the death of the character in Res (who had been developing into one of my favorites). That event was tossed in almost as an aside on an otherwise very busy night. I could say more about that but I forget how to hide the spoilers.
I definitely will read the next book in the series but I worry that the story is becoming increasingly complex to the point that character development is being sacrificed. The pace of the narrative also seemed slow to me, particularly in Obiteum and Liceum where not much seemed to be happening for a lot of the time.
@Elle: so I recently discussed this book in the in person book club and that made me realize that I enjoyed it more than I initially thought however I still didn’t equally care about the divided storylines and characters in each world and wish that we would go back to one world . I guess we shall find out in the next book. What do you think about the movie being made ? I just cannot imagine at all how the concept of will actually doing things can be transferred to the big screen .