The Will of the Many has been hyped so much and I hear there's also going to be movies? I get it, I do. I feel like it gives maze runner vibes in terms of marketability.

The story is great, and the world building was alright. Fake orphan who is actually the prince of a colonized country, living in the society of the colonizers. Surviving, not thriving.. Until the perfect opportunity comes knocking on his door.

For new readers, here's a summary of the "magic" system, This is spoiler-free but also really helpful if you're ever going to read the book because I was very confused for like the first two hundred pages. But "will" is basically life force and you give up half of yours (you "cede" it) to the rank above. So the higher the rank, the more will/power/magic they have. As I understand it, people are constantly ceding and if a lower rank dies, then it is felt at the upper ranks as a loss of power. "Will" can be imbued into objects to make it do stuff. I wish it was explained better though. All those classes and the reader still doesn't get it.

The MC Vis is too perfect. He soo strong and sooo smart and sooo skilled at everything he touches. And everything is explained away by "ah yeah it's fine he learned it as a kid so of course he has these skills." which leads to my next point, people are not skeptical enough of him!! And somehow Vis shrugs it off with poorly constructed excuses. I already know he's going to succeed at whatever he wants to do, so there's no inherent thrill or fear. The plot armor is too strong.

I also don't believe that "cliffhanger" was good writing. A cliffhanger should leave you wanting more, not create an entirely new story out of nowhere then only serve as a place for questions. Imagine if the matrix ended right as Neo finds out he's living in it. It feels gimmicky?? The first third of the book was basically unnecessary. Vis' life before he was adopted has had no impact on the rest of the story. Islington would have been better off just using that first third to better build the world and the magic system rather than build up how cool and flawless Vis is.

I'm glad I waited to read this book until after the second came out but damn. If I had read it solo and had a year+ to wait I would've been pissed and dropped the series.

Edit: I read the first paragraph (first page, About the Book) of the sequel and it explained the whole thing/situation better than anything in the actual entire first book. That annoyed me lol.