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Vis is 17 and an orphan. His whole family was killed three years ago by the Catenan Republic, which has overthrown all independent nations to dominate the known world. The Hierarchy, another name for the Republic, is divided into classes, from the top few rulers, “Princeps,” down to the many, many “Octavii.” The Hierarchy runs on what’s called “will,” essentially life force, that works as kind of a magical power but is wielded and studied very scientifically. The Octavii must “cede,” or regularly provide, half of their will to the level above, and each level in turn cedes part of their collected will to the next level above, meaning those even two or three levels up (Quinti and Sexti) have a lot of power to lord over those below.
Vis has managed to evade ceding will since his family was killed and he was forced to blend into the Republic. He lives in an orphanage, works at a prison, and makes extra money engaging in fights at night. When he catches the attention of a powerful senator, Ulciscor Telimus, he has an opportunity — albeit an incredibly dangerous one — to infiltrate the upper echelons of the Hierarchy. The senator, a Quintus, adopts Vis, which sounds like a huge opportunity for Vis. But the adoption is conditional: it comes with the understanding that Vis attend the most prestigious school in the republic, the Academy, to learn the true fate of the senator’s brother.
The stakes are sky-high; if Vis fails, Ulciscor tells him he’ll be resigned to a miserable existence hooked up to a nasty, much-dreaded device that will sap all his will. Or he could easily be killed in any number of ways as he secretly explores the island where the Academy is located. The more Vis learns at the Academy, as he navigates the tricky social environment of the elite school and as he investigates some very weird ruins on the island, the higher the stakes get.
I heard several people on social media speak very highly of The Will of the Many, and the synopsis piqued my interest. The book is long and took me a while to get through; just getting to what I’d call the “focus” of the novel took me a week or more. That first section, introductory as it was, was intriguing, but then, as someone promised me, things really got interesting once Vis was at the Academy. As more little plot points were revealed, the book just gripped me more and more.
There’s so much going on here: it takes a while to get an idea of the “magical” and political system. Then there are a lot of characters, including plenty of enemies, known and known. Then the mystery of what’s going on in the secret ruins is tantalizing. I could go on and on; The Will of the Many just gave me a lot to chew on. Lucky for me, I discovered this book right before the sequel comes out. I’ll be hopping right on it.
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes about 5 instances of moderate profanity, and fairly frequent use of the name/s of “multiple fictional gods.” Violence is frequent, with injuries and deaths, some bloody; there are probably 5 occasions where deaths are bloody, gory, and fairly descriptive. Sexual content is limited to kissing.
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