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theravenkingx 's review for:
The Will of the Many
by James Islington
My Angry Rant
I don't know how to rate this book. I am 50/50 on this one. There were some great parts and then there were parts that were absolutely boring. This book needed a serious trim of at least 150-200 pages. It felt like the author had no clue how to end a scene or move the plot forward. I felt like this book dragged on forever. There were some good moments, sure, but they were buried under a pile of dull pages.
Also, I found how the book was structured problematic. It alternated between playing some kind of competitive game at the academy and attending some sort of event/festival. It got boring and repetitive quite quickly. The story only progressed when our main characters, Vis, was outside the academy attending some random event or festival.
The book had some redeeming qualities. The plot was intriguing and the idea was original. The book draws inspiration from real life, where the rich and powerful manipulate the system to their advantage, often at the expense of working class and poor people. The Leeching is a metaphor for the unfair and oppressive distribution of wealth and power in the world, where the elite benefit from the labor and suffering of the masses. The book raises questions about the ethics and consequences of such a system, and the possibility and cost of changing it.
The ending was seriously mind-blowing. I had to Google it and read some reddit posts to confirm my theories about the ending, and oh boy, was I wrong . I am excited for the next book, suffice to say.
Despite the great conclusion, I could not ignore the numerous shortcomings of this book.
characters
The only character who mattered was Vis, and everyone else was just a prop to make him look good. He climbed the pyramid with no challenge or conflict and whatever conflict did come his way the author kicked them out of his way quite conveniently. In this book, everyone strangely wanted to help Vis climb the pyramid, even though it was a highly competitive environment where people should be looking out for themselves. Vis was the only one who made progress in the academy, everyone else was stuck in their classes and didn't climb up.
The characters and their story arcs were poorly developed and lacked personality. The author described one of the characters named Eidhin as “the guy with red hair” or “the muscular guy” every time he appeared. It was so absurd, but he was still better off than the rest of the characters who got no distinctive features or descriptions at all.
Callidus was our main character's encyclopedia running on bad connection. He only shared his wisdom when Vis needed to know that information, not a moment before. I often found myself scratching my head thinking why he didn't share this information sooner ?
Magic System & World Building
I tried really hard to understand the magic system based on will power but the author did his absolute worse to explain it. He used one vague word to explain another vague word. Then he kept throwing words like "conditional imbuing of will", "reactional imbuing of will" without any explanation as to what these things actually are. I eventually gave up on understanding the magic system and kept reading. Some of it got explained but most of it remained vague. I had to fill in the gaps with my own knowledge of fantasy books cos the author wasn't doing a good job of explaining things.
Vis had some crucial training before he entered the academy, which gave him an unrealistic and poorly written advantage. It would have been more believable if he had advanced only one or two steps, but his two months of training took him to the third level. This made me wonder about the difficulty of the academy and the intelligence of the other students; was the academy really challenging or was everyone in it just dumb ?
Vis was a flawless genius who never lost anything. He always won, even when he was utterly reckless. He was proficient in every language, game, and strategy. There was nothing he could not do, and he was only 17 years old.
Final thoughts
This book was good! I enjoyed it, even though the magic system and the world were not very clear. It had quite a few weak points, but it was still entertaining. I'm looking forward to the next book, whenever it comes out.
3 stars
Writing: ⭐⭐⭐
Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐
World building ⭐⭐
I don't know how to rate this book. I am 50/50 on this one. There were some great parts and then there were parts that were absolutely boring. This book needed a serious trim of at least 150-200 pages. It felt like the author had no clue how to end a scene or move the plot forward. I felt like this book dragged on forever. There were some good moments, sure, but they were buried under a pile of dull pages.
Also, I found how the book was structured problematic. It alternated between playing some kind of competitive game at the academy and attending some sort of event/festival. It got boring and repetitive quite quickly. The story only progressed when our main characters, Vis, was outside the academy attending some random event or festival.
The book had some redeeming qualities. The plot was intriguing and the idea was original. The book draws inspiration from real life, where the rich and powerful manipulate the system to their advantage, often at the expense of working class and poor people. The Leeching is a metaphor for the unfair and oppressive distribution of wealth and power in the world, where the elite benefit from the labor and suffering of the masses. The book raises questions about the ethics and consequences of such a system, and the possibility and cost of changing it.
The ending was seriously mind-blowing. I had to Google it and read some reddit posts to confirm my theories about the ending, and oh boy, was I wrong . I am excited for the next book, suffice to say.
Despite the great conclusion, I could not ignore the numerous shortcomings of this book.
characters
The only character who mattered was Vis, and everyone else was just a prop to make him look good. He climbed the pyramid with no challenge or conflict and whatever conflict did come his way the author kicked them out of his way quite conveniently. In this book, everyone strangely wanted to help Vis climb the pyramid, even though it was a highly competitive environment where people should be looking out for themselves. Vis was the only one who made progress in the academy, everyone else was stuck in their classes and didn't climb up.
The characters and their story arcs were poorly developed and lacked personality. The author described one of the characters named Eidhin as “the guy with red hair” or “the muscular guy” every time he appeared. It was so absurd, but he was still better off than the rest of the characters who got no distinctive features or descriptions at all.
Callidus was our main character's encyclopedia running on bad connection. He only shared his wisdom when Vis needed to know that information, not a moment before. I often found myself scratching my head thinking why he didn't share this information sooner ?
Magic System & World Building
I tried really hard to understand the magic system based on will power but the author did his absolute worse to explain it. He used one vague word to explain another vague word. Then he kept throwing words like "conditional imbuing of will", "reactional imbuing of will" without any explanation as to what these things actually are. I eventually gave up on understanding the magic system and kept reading. Some of it got explained but most of it remained vague. I had to fill in the gaps with my own knowledge of fantasy books cos the author wasn't doing a good job of explaining things.
Vis had some crucial training before he entered the academy, which gave him an unrealistic and poorly written advantage. It would have been more believable if he had advanced only one or two steps, but his two months of training took him to the third level. This made me wonder about the difficulty of the academy and the intelligence of the other students; was the academy really challenging or was everyone in it just dumb ?
Vis was a flawless genius who never lost anything. He always won, even when he was utterly reckless. He was proficient in every language, game, and strategy. There was nothing he could not do, and he was only 17 years old.
Final thoughts
This book was good! I enjoyed it, even though the magic system and the world were not very clear. It had quite a few weak points, but it was still entertaining. I'm looking forward to the next book, whenever it comes out.
3 stars
Writing: ⭐⭐⭐
Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐
World building ⭐⭐