Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by joannemae
The Will of the Many by James Islington
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Is the main character a Mary Sue? Yes. Is Vis absolutely deranged and unlikeable? Yes. Does his convictions make any sense???? Barely.
In fact, here's a list of the book's crimes:
But whatever magic Islington put into this book has absolutely bewitched me and he made it work 100%. For whatever reason, I was hooked and devoured this book the way I devoured books back in middle school (aka the good days) and for that alone, this warrants a decent rating. Because he wrote a book with such a genuinely amazing and well thought-out plot (AND insane world-building. I haven't felt this engrossed in a book's world since Hunger Games), it's easy to gloss over everything else that's wrong with the book. Needless to say, I'll be reading the rest of the series.
Vis, I'm praying on your downfall tho.
In fact, here's a list of the book's crimes:
- Daddy Tellimus is dumb. Like straight up dumb. Grief makes you do insane things, but he's dumb.
- So you're telling me Ianax is THE best swordfighter in the whole nation and Vis is not only new to this style of swordfighting, but also only had minimal amount of prep. And yet... Vis... didn't... get... crushed??? And I'm supposed to believe that this is... believable? Okay.
- So you're telling me not-chess is Belli's thing and yet she's easily tripped up by a little goading?
- ALSO, Vis is able to beat Belli in not-chess because he promises to pledge to Governance... but why??? Why does that matter? Why would Belli care about that when she's in Military?
- Vis is actually really dumb, honestly. For someone supposedly so smart, he's just... not.
- The exploration into themes of power and classism is very shallowly explored. Okay so the lower class stays lower class while the upper class get stronger day by day? Are we in Intro to Capitalism 101?
- I'm not saying that a white, male author can't be aware of social issues, but the way this was written makes it abundantly clear that he has a very, VERY narrow perspective on this.
But whatever magic Islington put into this book has absolutely bewitched me and he made it work 100%. For whatever reason, I was hooked and devoured this book the way I devoured books back in middle school (aka the good days) and for that alone, this warrants a decent rating. Because he wrote a book with such a genuinely amazing and well thought-out plot (AND insane world-building. I haven't felt this engrossed in a book's world since Hunger Games), it's easy to gloss over everything else that's wrong with the book. Needless to say, I'll be reading the rest of the series.
Vis, I'm praying on your downfall tho.