Thoughts on The Strength of the Few by James Islington
**\*\*there are some spoilers below, so please don’t keep reading if you plan to read this one!**\*\*
After 700 and some odd pages, I finally finished this and I have questions… but really just looking for discussion on this one.
For those unaware, this is the second of a 2 part series- the first being The Will of the Many. Loved it, swallowed it up, was excited for part two.
I’ll be honest and say that I have difficulty explaining the premise of the book to people because it feels very complicated, but there’s a world called Caten and it functions like a literal hierarchy in which the elite of the world siphon, or imbue, the will (strength, vitality,) of those lower on the rung. That’s as much as I can say about part 1 w/o giving out too many spoilers.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
Now part 2 continues the intense story/journey of the main character, Vis, as he discovers that there are three realities… and man there’s just too much to explain.
My questions to discuss aside from who liked it, are:
Did anyone else feel like things were building to some kind of showdown or confrontation with the “bad guy” or villain you learn about? I sure did, and even though it kind of happened, it was both underwhelming to me and also confusing because I thought something big was going to happen. I could be confused and welcome any insight.
Even though I think the book sagged at times flipping between realities, I didn’t mind it as much as I found it really hard to keep up with all the names Vis would throw out as he was narrating events to us, particularly while in Caten. I’m like, princeps who? Tellimus who? Like so confused.
The whole angius showdown seemed to the background…
I have a personal beef with the way Aequa’s storyline ended. Was super disappointed with that.
Can someone explain to me like I’m 5 how or if Vis was even able to solve the whole cataclysm from happening? The way the stories ended in the 3 worlds left super confused. I felt like it had been explained at one point that with Vis being synchronous, he was the only one able to stop the bad guy and the system from repeating…? Is that right? If so, then I was confused how that happened in older ancient world or even in Caten. It ends so abruptly to me- and this is after 700 pages of buildup that I was like, huh?
Ok I’ll stop there because I could go on. Thanks in advance- didn’t know there was a subreddit for this series!