The Will of the Many (The Hierarchy Trilogy, #1)

by James Islington

Catrina Barquist (Illustrator)

At the elite Catenan Academy, where students are prepared as the future leaders of the Hierarchy empire, the curriculum reveals a layered set of mysteries which turn murderous in this new fantasy by bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

Vis, the adopted son of Magnus Quintus Ulcisor, a prominent senator within the Hierarchy, is trained to enter the famed Catenan Academy to help Ulciscor learn what the hidden agenda is of the remote island academy. Secretly, he also wants Vis to discover what happed to his brother who died at the academy. He’s sure the current Principalis of the academy, Quintus Veridius Julii, a political rival, knows much more than he’s revealing.

The Academy’s vigorous syllabus is a challenge Vis is ably suited to meet, but it is the training in the use of Will, a practice that Vis finds abhorrent, that he must learn in order to excel at the Academy. Will—a concept that encompasses their energy, drive, focus, initiative, ambition, and vitality—can be voluntarily “ceded” to someone else. A single recipient can accept ceded Will from multiple people, growing in power towards superhuman levels. Within the hierarchy your level of Will, or legal rank, determines how you live or die. And there are those who are determined to destroy this hierarchal system, as well as those in the Academy who use it to gain dominance in internationally bestselling author James Islington’s wonderfully crafted new epic fantasy series.

• ISBN13: 9781668051719
• Publish Date: November 2023 (first published 23 May 2023)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gallery / Saga Press
• Edition: Broken Binding Exclusive
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 640
• Language: English
• Special: Exclusive Design Numbered Signed Sprayed Edges

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Will of the Many is the first book in The Hierarchy by James Islington. Released 23rd May 2023 by Simon & Schuster on their Gallery/Saga Press imprint, it's 640 (!) pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out in 4th quarter 2024 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. 

This is a very promising start to a sweeping epic political fantasy based on the Roman Empire during the middle expansion, it's not an alt-Earth copy of people and places, but an impressive and massive whole cloth reconstruction. The author manages to imbue the main and secondary characters (and they are legion) with relatable motives. There's an often brutal tragic dichotomy between survival and compliance and especially the main character, a prince in exile, is often faced with the difficulty of keeping his head down and surviving to live another day. 

It's a dangerous political game of cat and mouse and there are an impressive number of layers to the jockeying and juxtaposition of the juggernaut of might that is the Empire contra individuals and their needs and desires.

Wrapped inside this huge overarching from-the-ground-up world, the author drives the plot with an engaging murder mystery and espionage thriller, by inserting MC Vis Telimus, into the foremost academy in the Empire to gather intelligence and report back to his spymaster (who is also his adoptive father/patron in the pragmatic Roman sense of the word). 

Four and a half stars. Highly recommended to fans of political campaign fantasy. The second book in the series is teased for release in 2024/2025, but no definite publishing info is available at the current time. Language/culture nerds will also find a lot to love here since the author has a lot of fun with Latin and ancillary Empire adjacent languages, including Gaelic. An excellent choice for public library acquisition. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.