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

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really enjoyed this book, but I struggled with some of the author’s choices at times. 

It is very obvious that Red Rising was a huge influence on this book, and that’s fine, all books and stories are influenced and inspired by other books and stories. However, sometimes the choices made by the author felt more than just “inspired by”. 

Not to say that this book is a Red Rising clone or something, because it isn’t. Sometimes it just really felt like the author really wanted to be writing Red Rising and to me it felt like some of that frustration made its way into the story. 

I also felt like the author didn’t think through some of the elements of the worldbuilding/story as well as he should have, especially in relation to how the class rankings work. I had to hand wave a few things about it, but they kept coming up and so it kept bugging me. 

The story premise is similar to Red Rising, but fantasy instead of sci-fi, but with way more political intrigue and less action, which I really enjoyed. The characters feel very lifelike and believable, and the character interactions feel organic. The author is great at that. The backstory and motivations of the main character are really good as well. The stakes and conflict are high points and make it a real page turner. The author does so many things really well and I’ll definitely be checking out more of his books. 

I really enjoyed reading and will snatch up the sequel the day of release. I just wish a few things had been different about it, which is the only thing holding this back from being one of my absolute favorites. 

4.5/5