**Will ** you read of the Many Tropes?
Will of the Many fills its checklist of sci-fi and fantasy tropes, better than even a fan-fic. Orphaned✓ teenage✓ boy✓ finds himself unexpectedly whisked away from his mundane job✓ to an elite academy✓. There, he ascends through the ranks✓, unveils heretofore unknown skills✓, and aims to dismantle the corrupt system responsible for his parents’ demise from within.✓✓ The academy’s culmination is a battle royale✓ graduation✓, where treachery is guaranteed✓ and even the teachers flout the rules.✓ Let’s not forget the forbidden ruins ominously linked to the world’s end.✓✓
Yet…
Despite its 600 pages, the book is a surprisingly quick read and a distinct improvement over the Licanus trilogy. The familiar elements feel more like a ‘greatest hits’ compilation rather than rehashed clichés. Islington, while not delving deeply into the theme of societal culpability in this installment, lays a promising groundwork for future exploration. Though Will of the Many is ostensibly based on the Roman Empire, it more directly critiques the modern use of power by elites in a world of unequal civilizations.
Innocent, those people out there? You think an Octavius who consents is somehow less responsible than the Sextus who kills with it? The weak and the poor persist in the hierarchy because the alternatives are more daunting, not for lack of options. They recognize the system’s flaws, yet they choose silence or inaction, hoping to either gain from their quietude or, at least, not sacrifice more than they already have.
Sign me up for the sequel.