Reviews - The Strength of the Few

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25 reviews for:

The Strength of the Few

James Islington

4.78 AVERAGE

jesstheghost's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

soapylange's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

slushiexix's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

ARC review // Will of the Many has become one of two books I force my friends and coworkers to read so I was PUMPED for this book. I tried hard not to go in with any expectations, since I didn’t want to betray my past self by having to rate Strength of the Few poorly.

Admittedly, there was a long period where I thought I’d have to give three stars. Not because the writing is terrible (it’s not!) but because the first hundred or so pages are rough to navigate since it flips between three different perspectives fairly quickly without much chance to get accustomed to any one plot (though I do suppose that it emulates the confusion Vis was going through, so if that was the point it was certainly effective). The first quarter also sees a lot of time skips that make it feel as if things are moving way too fast without anything actually truly happening (though including the interim time would have made the pace so unbearably slow since nothing of much importance seemed to have happened) — there isn’t much grounding in the first quarter or so of the book, but as the time skips become smaller/nonexistent and the plots within each world become stronger, everything evens out. I didn’t necessarily love all of the different worlds (Obiteum is absolutely fucked up), but I didn’t necessarily hate any either.

The second half of the book really picked up as pieces started being thrown and puzzled out. The pace began staying consistent and some mysteries were receiving answers (sometimes vaguely).

Also, I would die for Diago 🫶

pageturnerjoe's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

brewdy_reader's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thank you @sagapressbooks for the e-ARC of this highly anticipated sequel to The Will of the Many ♡

My review of the first book stated, “The pacing is even until the last 25% where it ramps up to high gear and begins tearing down the walls of its own foundation.”

I’m happy to report that we do get some answers about what the heck happened at the end there!

The magical system and the concept of “Will” that is introduced in the first book does get a bit of a reinvention here. I will admit some things about this didn’t make complete sense, but I went with it.

I loved the expansion of the universe from Caten and Vis’ character development. So great to reunite with some favorite characters, including Diago! 🐺

It took a little bit to acclimate to the jumping between the chapters perspectives. There’s as much world building here as in the first, and the pacing is similar as well.

I laughed at the banter between friends, my heart ached for innocence lost, broken trust, and the near constant death of major players. 😭😭😭

A job well done keeping the reader guessing on motivations, betrayals, and true allegiances. I loved so many of the reveals.

The only problem with reading books early is now I must wait even longer for the third book…

sofia1535's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Insanely ambitious and very well executed, I am now dying to get my hands on the third book when it is released. I admire Vis' character so much and I am so excited to see where this story goes from where we leave off at the end of this book. I have never experienced anything quite like this story and I am so excited to see where James Islington goes with it!
Thank you Edelweiss and SagaPress for the ARC.