Reviews with content warning for Cultural appropriation - The Will of the Many

I wanted to give this book 5 stars, but there were a few things that kept this at a 4.5 for me.
I struggled in the first 20% of the book. I know at the outset of a fantasy novel, you have to establish the world and the magical system but I’m not convinced this was the best way to do it. The first hour or two of reading dragged and seemed a bit disconnected to the rest of the story.
Once we hit the “meat” of the book I was fairly hooked. There are some great twists and it’s very immersive. It feels very much like a grown up Harry Potter in a far more complex magic system - our protagonist, Vis, is an orphan who attends an elite boarding school and is immediately embroiled in a dangerous world of power and manipulation. Despite having an incredibly influential benefactor, it’s up to Vis to navigate the deception of his new life (and the bodies stacking up all around him).
The end was an excellent cliff hanger and I can’t wait for the next novel to be published in this series.

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nperks07's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

At first it felt slow and then it was kind of just freefalling through plot. Lots of complex relationships and feelings.

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jalexpulliamkepler's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Amazing! The best fantasy book I’ve read in a long time!

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blacksphinx's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a critical 5 stars from me.

The positives: thank you, a Roman-inspired fantasy! I have no idea why there aren't a million epic fantasy door stoppers with Roman-flavored fantasy worlds, and this book makes great use of this current. I really enjoyed how our protagonist is constantly struggling against a tide of different conspiracies, political maneuvering, and thorny social situations tangled tightly together with no breathing room, despite the length of this book. I am surprised with how graceful it was able to juggle all these plot points, and knowing this isn't the author's first epic fantasy series gives me hope he can keep the delicate dance going all the way to the end. While it was never bad before that point, the story really comes into its own and starts blooming once Vis makes friends and has other non-hostile characters to bounce off of. I had to keep reading because I wanted to see how the puzzle pieces in play would slot together, and literally the last 5 pages of this book took my breath away

Yet... I think every epic fantasy book I've read so far this year has the same damn protagonist: talented, prideful teen boy with an anger management issue. It's so boring! I cannot believe Vis was able to keep his head down for the three and a half years between the fall of his country and the start of the book. He is hot headed to a fault and his actions constantly undercut the praise I kept hearing about how this book has "an actually intelligent protagonist who knows how to scheme."

And I can't help but notice the only meaningful resistance to the Oppressive Government is a bunch of terrorists who love slaughtering unarmed civilians, including children, because "everyone is complicit! (◡‿◡)". Can't help but notice the number of times the handful of female characters screw over our protagonist compared to the male ones.

But the mysteries this book set up intrigue me, despite the reservations I have about some of the tropes at play, it's not enough that I cannot in all consciousness stop myself from giving it 5 stars. I'm going to keep reading.

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