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A review by ketreads
The Will of the Many by James Islington
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
4.5
This is an author I've been meaning to read for a while now. When I saw this, his most recent release, being so highly regarded (and with such a gorgeous cover) I decided 'ah, what the hell?' and reserved a copy from my library without reading much else into it.
God, am I glad I did! I had a FANTASTIC time with this book. I had practically no clue what it was about going in so reading the first chapter and having our author set up not only the character motivations, world, but magic system with 0 info dumping had me HOOKED. Even then, I didn't want to get myself too hyped up over a good first chapter... except for the fact that I loved pretty much every other chapters too.
This book has over 700 pages but they breezed by as I got more and more into the story, the mystery, the characters. I'm so happy to say that, while I loved Vis, the secondary characters are no less intriguing or fun to follow. This book takes place from first person POV, and while I know some readers don't enjoy that format, I had no qualms with it here. If anything, it lent perfectly into the character Vis' lies and motives throughout the book. He's a smart and intuitive main character but never felt unenjoyably so.
The world and the story is fantastic. This story takes place in a post-catalytic roman-inspired world with what is one of my favourite tropes: lost artefacts. I am very happy we get to see various locations and classes (and their treatment) throughout the Hierarchy. This gives us a wider breadth of knowledge of both the world and our characters struggles which is something I loved.
I'd love to say I understand everything we were shown, especially with that final epilogue, yet I remain blissfully confounded. I cannot wait for book 2!!
God, am I glad I did! I had a FANTASTIC time with this book. I had practically no clue what it was about going in so reading the first chapter and having our author set up not only the character motivations, world, but magic system with 0 info dumping had me HOOKED. Even then, I didn't want to get myself too hyped up over a good first chapter... except for the fact that I loved pretty much every other chapters too.
This book has over 700 pages but they breezed by as I got more and more into the story, the mystery, the characters. I'm so happy to say that, while I loved Vis, the secondary characters are no less intriguing or fun to follow. This book takes place from first person POV, and while I know some readers don't enjoy that format, I had no qualms with it here. If anything, it lent perfectly into the character Vis' lies and motives throughout the book. He's a smart and intuitive main character but never felt unenjoyably so.
The world and the story is fantastic. This story takes place in a post-catalytic roman-inspired world with what is one of my favourite tropes: lost artefacts. I am very happy we get to see various locations and classes (and their treatment) throughout the Hierarchy. This gives us a wider breadth of knowledge of both the world and our characters struggles which is something I loved.
I'd love to say I understand everything we were shown, especially with that final epilogue, yet I remain blissfully confounded. I cannot wait for book 2!!