The Will of the Many - Hierarchy #1

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.