T Kingfisher really knows how to write a fairy tale retelling. This book was so compelling, and even though the fairy tale aspects were familiar, the story remained fresh and fascinating. I love a book where the cast of characters is quite the rag tag group, unlikely companions that work together to complete the impossible quest! I'm still on my personal quest to read every T Kingfisher book, and this one met and exceeded my expectations.

I started this book thinking it would be a quirky and unique book about an octopus, and left ugly crying about aging, the grief of losing loved ones, found family, and the importance of belonging. While objectively speaking, it wasn't necessarily the best written book I've ever read, and the plot was a little too convenient at times, it was exactly what I needed right now, and feels like a well-timed glimmer of hope. Even though things change, people move away, ect--we can still find meaning, and companionship, and closeness. Cameron was the one part of this book that annoyed me, and a lot of that is because I've dealt with a lot of Camerons irl. You know the type, "nothing is my fault", 30-some year old men that behave like children, and refuse to take responsibility. He doesn't need a girlfriend, he just needs THERAPY. That aside, this is definitely a book I'd recommend, especially if you don't mind something that's slower paced, and a little meandering.

Sci-fi meets the Roman Empire, without all of the homoerotic tension. I have mixed feelings about the Will of the Many, so going to try to deconstruct them--

The Good: The concepts in this book are absolutely fascinating! I would love to see them illustrated (and would rather play this one as a video game, where I can see how the author envisions things). Will itself is also interesting, and the system of giving it to others, and it opens up a lot of rabbit holes, and the questions just keep piling up. I also can't resist an academic setting.

The Bad: Christ the pacing was god-awful. The first 30% draggggggs, and the ending feels so rushed. It needs more time to breathe. The writing was chaotic enough that I felt like I'd skipped a couple chapters. Vis is also the biggest example of a Gary Stu main character I've seen in a longgggg time. Oh look he's an amazing fighter! He's also super smart, and charismatic, even though he's also a hothead. Oh and he's a amazing at strategy games too! And amazing at swimming, and fishing and---you get the point. He doesn't feel like a real human by the end of the book, and there's never any real stakes because you know he'll be fine. The editing feels off, for lack of a better word.

"Everything’s coated in dulled silver, the bright reds, whites and golds of the buildings all muted into shades.” It wants to sound poetic and flowing and it doesn't accomplish that. Several times I found myself re-reading sentences because they didn't make sense and it was enough to take me out of the story each time.

The Ugly: To put it bluntly, the way female characters are treated in this book just sucks. While the male characters get a pass for their shitty behavior, the women are passed off as vain, manipulative, conceited--ect. There's a single complex character, and she's immediately relegated to being a plot device, instead of an actual person. It was so disappointing, and something I'd expect from an novel written in the 80s. Eat your heart out, Orson Scott Card.

I might read the sequel at some point, just because I'm curious about the world building, but definitely wouldn't pay money for it, and I was very disappointed in how the characters were portrayed.