I fell in love with the tv series, and I must admit that I've fallen in love with the book as well! The story is both funny and reflective: The comedy, the intrusive narrators who seem to explain what's strange in the storytelling, the love stories, the discourses on women's role in society and the animosity between Verity and Edian (that actually hides a lot more) build an intriguing tale. Not only are we given an untold (fantasy) story of this almost unknown Queen, but also a "what-if" that, in a certain way, has given justice to this historical figure. I really loved each character, of course Jane and Guildford are my favourite and their love story and their love language made me cry (both of joy and despair). If you loved the tv series, you'd surely give the novel a chance. You won't be disappointed!

Ok, this is the first time I write a review in English, so please, be kind! A part from the plot, which I found very intriguing though complicated sometimes, I was struck by the amount of theme developed in this novel. First of all, let's talk about colonialism and imperialism. Not only does the author describe how the Republic military conquered all the nearest nations, submitting their people and forcing them ceding their Will. But he depicts perfectly other aspects of the colonization namely linguistic colonization: this is best embodied by Eidhin and Vis's dialogue where the former can't speak the Common and knows this is why people look down on him. Then, let's also consider how the author forces us to think and rethink about the concepts of victim and oppressor: the Anguis's leader considers everyone to be culprit and involved with the Hierarchy; on the contrary Vis makes a clear statement, so that people were forced to submit and maybe they didn't have the strength nor the opportunity to rebel. Vis harshly criticizes this system, especially if we consider his story and, consequently, we are forced to take sides, to inquire our vision of the world and look at our surroundings with a critical eye. Secondly, the author through Vis's words displays the hypocrisy of the Hierarchy: there's no "stronger together", people who top the hierarch stay there, those who stay at the bottom keep their position, no matter what they do. This same pattern can be noticed in the Academy where students go ahed not only thanks to their skills but mainly due to backing or shortcuts. In this way, the Academy stands up as a micro cosmos of the outside world. Lastly, another theme is how the Republic controls its citizens: its laws prohibit non-heterosexual relationships and people must pay a fine if they don't marry or don't have children by a certain age (this reminded me some historical periods and how some current governments want to control private lives). To conclude, even though there were some parts that made me roll my eyes (Vis super-self-confidence and how everything at the end favored him), but The Will of the Many may be the book of the year for me and its social critique, its style and its final cliffhanger are the icing on the cake which convinced me to go on with the reading this saga.