New Series, Who Dis?
***Spoilers for Part I: Chapters I-XXIV of The Will of the Many***
Starting a new fantasy series is like visiting a new city. I’m familiar with the foundational elements (that’s a building, here’s our protagonist, yay! there’s a map, and so on), but everything feels a bit foreign (wait, where is the biblioteque?). There are a lot of new names, settings, technologies, and governmental structures flying around, and as a reader, it’s a delicate dance between trying to absorb what’s going on while also moving forward with faith that it will all click into place in time.
(Likewise, I am trying to get my bearings as a blogger here, striving to discuss what’s happening while not recapping every little detail or explaining who each character is. Please bear with me as I get my sea legs on this new adventure. It’s all part of the process, baby.)
So that’s where I find myself, having completed Part I of The Will of the Many. There’s a lot of setup and world-building taking place, but I’ve been impressed with James Islington’s ability to feed us information amid a fast-moving plot. He’s great at introducing concepts and then gradually layering in more details to build our understanding without overwhelming us.
We meet Vis, our hidden-in-plain-sight orphan prince from a conquered land, doing his best to blend in among the enemy. He’s scraping by and biding time until he can get his revenge. I’m immediately in on Vis. Perhaps stepping out of Realm of the Elderlings for this side quest has me preconditioned to root for a young male narrator with the odds stacked against him, but I’ve found him quite likable so far. He’s clearly exceptional without being overpowered.
I was pretty much sold when, upon finding out he is about to fight a higher-station (and thus stronger Will-powered) opponent in the nighttime fight club he participates in to raise funds (revenge ain’t cheap, folks!), his strategy is to strip butt naked. This is the sort of unhinged action I am looking for in my main character: determination and drive; strength and speed; quick thinking and cunning; and a willingness to go to any lengths to get the job done. This is someone I can get behind!
Orphan life is pretty rough, but along comes Ulciscor – the Nick Saban of Caten – to pluck Vis from obscurity via adoption into a prestigious Military family. I mean what’s more heartwarming than adopting a 17-year-old for the express purpose of infiltrating an academy to unlock the secrets of a clandestine branch of government and the truth behind your brother’s death? Sus motivations aside, Papa Ulc treats Vis pretty well (better than his wife, whom he doesn’t consult before adopting a whole-ass basically-adult son). He sets Vis up in the guest room of his villa, provides a trainer (Lanistia) and a tutor to get him up to speed, and then pulls the typical rich-dad move of heading back to the city for work, leaving the villa staff to handle the day-to-day parenting.
Next we get what will be a training montage in the movie version. I especially enjoyed the massive academy labyrinth recreation Ulciscor and Lanistia had constructed in the basement (convenient!) so Vis can get some practice with the power glove.
Vis has an encounter with one of Ulciscor’s rival senators in the baths (good to know Catenan politicians are just as creepy as real-life ones!), which leads to him negotiating an excursion to the Festival of Jovan with Creepo’s academy-attending daughter, Aequa- meet cute alert! Which leads us to our big action set piece of Part I…
Let’s talk naumachia! What a wild series of events that was.
The gladiator-style naval re-enactment was pretty bonkers to begin with. Then Melior/Estevan shows up doing his best Bane impression mid-boat battle, making a dramatic entrance and mercilessly misting sections of the crowd. Needless to say, my attention was had. The whole scene was pretty gnarly. Vis has to drop his bumbling “aw shucks I’m just a small-town boy” act tout suite and hop into hero mode. He rushes Aequa to safety via the secret sewer stairwell he claims he just happened to notice on the way in. Of course, none of the other 100,000 souls frantically searching for an exit manage to find it or notices them departing. (If I were there, I would probably be looking into any staircase leading off the concourse, but sure, it’s his secret path. I’ll go with it. Ok, let’s be honest: I’m probably in the first group getting misted.)
With Aequa dashingly rescued, it’s time to save the fucking day. Vis’s special pen allows him to approach Estevan (truthfully, I was a little lost with the pen functionality, there was a lot going on), but more importantly, he uses it to kill Estevan. Versatile instrument! Estevan takes the reins on his own murder, shoving the pen through his skull via Vis’s hand and turning Vis into a national hero for the empire he despises. It’s a fun wrinkle thrusting Vis into the spotlight and raising his profile heading into the academy.
We get a brief recovery period and some final training prep back at the villa after a quick week-long nap (saving the people you despise will take it out of you). We also get more context on the circumstances surrounding Caeror’s death at the academy and his relationship with Lanistia. And just like real life, summer vacation is over before you know it. It is time to head to the academy and Part II.
There are a lot of other people, places, and things that occur beyond what I’ve touched on. Time to cede some additional quick-hit thoughts:
There is a lot of intrigue as we are settling into the Hierarchy. I love that Ulciscor and Lanistia are framed as good guys, but no matter how kind they are to Vis, they are still fully embedded in Caten high society. Conversely, we meet Melior/Estevan, the rebel faction leader and former advisor to Vis’s father, who should be Team Good Guys, but is immediately revealed to be a terrorist psychopath and promptly killed off. Then there’s academy Principalis Veridious: shady, suspicious, and accused of being involved in Caeror’s death. Could we be headed for a subversion of expectations with him? Probably not, but at this stage, I’m keeping my guard up with everyone.
Listen, it’s never going to be a hard sell for me when the evil empire in the story is essentially an MLM scheme (just peddling people’s life force instead of Tupperware bins). We just need the Octavii to start wearing hideous leggings and calling people “hon.”
So many questions. Here are a few of my pressing ones as we head forward:
- What’s going on with the marriage and reproduction stuff in Caten? There are numerous mentions of how incentivized marriage and child-rearing are – which makes sense when the leadership is literally powered by people – but it feels like there is more going on here.
- What exactly is the Will? We get a decent introduction to how the Will functions within the Hierarchy, but not much on what it is. Is it simply life force that can be concentrated and channeled when ceded? That’s not even getting into Vis’s Will and his status as someone who has not and, come hell or high water, will not, cede.
- What’s up with the pyramid-planet vision? Vis flashes to it briefly when approaching Estevan, and later sees a picture of it from that Senator’s doctor guy (another politically-adjacent creep, might as well be scrolling Twitter!)
- Why is it cool for Vis to join the academy at the start of the second trimester? Feels like this should be a bigger administrative issue. We are led to believe this academy is highly competitive and notoriously challenging, but they have no problem admitting a total rando with none of the pre-reqs mid-year?
I am aware there is a lot I haven’t even touched on, including but not limited to:
- The prison and the sappers
- Orphanage Headbitch Matron Atrox 🔪
- The Transvect crash – fun! + Sedotia and the Anguis
- The Hierarchy slogan: Stronger Together
I’m doing my best here, friends! It’s a lot to cover and I don’t have a downline of writers ceding me jokes!
Extremely pumped to follow Vis to the academy – who doesn’t love a good fantasy school setting? I’m ready to meet some fun new peers (and learn more about the handful we’ve briefly encountered!), who I’m sure will be super welcoming to new kid Vis.
See you at recess!
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