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slushiexix 's review for:
The Strength of the Few
by James Islington
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 🫶
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 🫶