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

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Most of the reviews I've seen for this book say that they (ie the reader) feels like they're stupid while reading this. I don't think it necessarily made me feel stupid (except for like one part where there was math being explained), but it did often leave me confused enough that I had to reread several times to fully grasp what was happening. The world building is INSANE, so it's less my inability to understand and more "wait did I read that right?" and 9/10 I did but rereading the passage made it a more concrete concept. 

There's very little that I think James does wrong in this book. IT'S JUST THAT WELL DONE. It has some of the best plot writing and character complexity I've seen in a while, and it's genuinely shocking that it hasn't won more awards. The plot twists were also fucking CRAZY, it had me physically reacting as I read them which I almost never do. 

My score reductions mainly come down to 2 things: pacing (boring) and plot armor (BORING!!!). The pacing in all honesty is not that bad, but until you get to around the 1/3 to half way point, it kind of struggles to keep you interested in what's happening. I'm referring to it as the most boring training arc ever. It's not AWFUL but there's a reason I started two other books while trying to get through that section. And the plot armor HELLO??? I don't want to spoil anything but that man passed out so frequently in the last part I want him to get tested for POTS (joking ofc, there were reasons he wanted to take a quick nap).

Definitely worth the hype it gets, and I'll be desperately waiting for book 2 because the ending had me gagged speechless.