A review by ergative
The Will of the Many by James Islington

5.0

 I enjoyed this so much! It felt very old-school fantasy in its conceit: secretly special orphan boy gets the attention of powerful man, goes to academy, does political intrigue, cool magic system, etc. But unlike old-school fantasy, there was no knee-jerk misogyny (although a bit of a cis-het normative perspective). The pacing was good, the plot was exciting--I definitely stayed up late reading last night in a way I don't often do these days, and the ending was satisfying, while still making me want to plunge into the sequel as soon as it's available. I'm not thrilled at the hints that we're going to be ending up with a multiverse-type situation (I've gotten quite bored with multiverses), but Islington has made me trust him enough that I'm confident he'll do something good with it.