The alupi represents him... it was wounded and scarred. And a little love from Vis allowed him to heal and become a beast. Just like Vis's trip back to Suus. A little love help heal his old wounds and get it together in time to run the labrynth. And yes the healing and resilience is another mirror between Vis and Diago the wolf.
Melior was probably accessing some kind of link between the 3 realms. And drawing power. Thats why Vis felt like he went somewhere else when he got inside his little bubble.
The guy that can teleport clearly ran the Labryinth. He was scarred. Hes clearly one of the leaders of the Anguis. He talks very condescendingly about Relucia.
Eidhin was imprisoned for killing 3 people during the battle when his tribe was attacked. They could've threatened him with going back to the sapper. I think i vaguely rememebr that his father made a deal to get him out after a year or something like that.
My “worst of the best” was definitely Vis’ temper 😭 I understand that that was part of his character development, as he got it more under control by the end, but man did he go off at the worst times sometimes 😭😭
Don't you guys remember when she's bursting to tears in the cave after he rescues her in the ocean? That clearly shows that she had previous motivations that were breaking her heart... She definitely cared for him. It does seem like she was almost in love with him to me too... She was also sobbing her heart out while she was turning on him at the end because of the blood taint....
The Will (or lack there of) the Many gives Strength to the Few. Which allows the greedy and ambitious to climb to the top of society and have a seemingly unstoppable control of society. Another theme is trauma and healing and how powerful they can be. How weakness, insecurity and greed truly affect the decisions of those who rise to the top.
Ulciscor blew that anguis' head by throwing an imbued rock at him, same way Emissa imbued the dagger to push Vis out of the tower. I think will usage is something literal, you imbue objects with your will so they move as your willpower commands it giving inanimate objects some "life" with your want. They make themselves stronger by imbuing themselves with others' willpower, there's a section where Ulciscor talks about his stylus being sub-harmonicalt locked to his borther's stylus making them operate at the same time so this is another way to will an inanimate object. They can make them complex enough to operate machinery and saving willpower, I think this is more like using will in obejcts to create some kind of perpetual engine that better uses willpower. Another property of will is "conditional" that means the imbued object is only activated by a condition (the alarms systems, traps, how the stones and medallions work on the iudicium) this resembles how the magic system works in Lev Grosman's The magicians series in which the magic laws have "circumstances" that you have to account for every time you cast a spell like the Altitude, Age, Position of the Pleiades, Phase of the Moon, temperature, humour, position of the sun, moon, direction the caster is facing, dew point etc etc. I think it will get more and more complex in the next book when Vis is forced to go to the columns and start using will.
Random commenter here. I just finished this book today (4/13/24), and thought it was very good. But one thing that occurred to me as I was listening to you guys, and as I was reading, is that unless I missed it in the book, I don't think Islington explains exactly what happened to Vis's family. I mean yes, they were killed, but why, and what lead up to that. Obviously there was some sort of uprising against his family, but there wasn't much detail on that. We get the little flashback at the very beginning when Vis's dad lets him go, and he falls, but after that, we just go right into the main story, and it felt like we were missing something. Or I was, anyway.
Being that I am on my 30's and read all the Harry Potter books as they came out and the movies. Vis as the main Character remind me of Harry Potter with a kid down his luck because his family was killed, learns everything really quickly, the school just the part me forced to do it by Ucillor or die is different and different kind of magic Obviously. But even the vision of his dad at the end reminds me of Harry seeing his mom's deer patrounaus and then seeing them in mirror.
Ulciscor also has a mark on his arm because he was always pulling down the sleeve on his left arm thru out the book. Doctors want to sample Vis's blood straight away to make sure he was not from another Realm. Letting you know that blood changes once you have made it thru the labyrinth. Callidus was my favorite character. He knows his Dad is being pressured due to foul play. Once the realm conquered every faction, it tried to synchronize and split?
During his talk with Fredriecke he asks about it, and it was basically two other kids took his and his sister's place during the execution. So, as far as anyone knows the entire family died.
Just went back to the book and Fadrique doesn’t say anything like that. Vis asks if Fadrique saw them hanged, and he replies that he did. They found the body of one of his sisters two days after the hanging, meaning his family had thought she (and Vis) had escaped at the time of their deaths. And Vis would’ve been presumed dead.
I think the only clues we really have are the root words and definitions of: Res = thing; Luc = Light; Obit = Death; Rending and Synchronism definitons. Lanistia ran the Labryinth and lost but somehow didn't get trapped there like the guides. Caeror may have sacrificed himself or Veridius saved her. Or like you suggested.. maybe she left the circle too soon so she couldnt synchronize. And Caeror saw it and thats how he knew how to send a message to "Res Vis". Do you guys think Veridius knew Vis' father? If not who put the cup there? And who was the guy who called Vis "kin" and warned him about his arm falling off? At first i thought it was Caeror but his scarring is different.
I didn't have any expectations at all when I went into it. I listened & liked the first Licanius book but I couldn't stand the narration (sorry, not a Michael Kramer fan). I listened to The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson, which was my top listen of the year up to that point. So, I got an alert from the Audible app the day The Will of the Many came out, one of those, "since you enjoyed X, you might like Y" sorts of alerts. When I saw it was read by the same narrator, Euan Morton, I got it and started listening to it that day. It's one of my favorite listens of the year so far: An Inheritance of Magic and The Lost War round out the top 3.
Only two things I didn't really like about this book. 1. The ridiculous amount of help he received from the pup he helped for like 2 minutes felt way overplayed. 2. Like many ppl mentioned his romantic interest felt like a very basic character we have almost no feelings for since we don't see any of their struggles except falling in the water during the tide. This seems to be mainly a 1st person pov problem, that makes you put all your emotional investment into a single character, and only those he interacts with a lot have a chance of feeling meaningful outside of their plot function.
I love that book! So good... Can't wait for the sequel. It took me a while to get into and finish the Licanius trilogy.... Though I ended up really liking the third book, see a lot of evolution and better character work... Which gave me a lot of faith in his projects going forward. The other issue that series had going was working with the main character that had amnesia..... Getting his memories back felt like a lot of exposition dumps. Whether it was a cool idea or not, it was a very difficult way to write... Especially for new writer. The will of many is awesome and he's shaking off those new writer issues...
Hey guys I really wanted to contrinue listening, but there was a bit too much chat about Islington's other series Icanius.. so had to stop. Just thought I'd drop that feedback is all.. as I don't even like light spoilers.
Not only did Emissa know about the tainted blood... she used will to cheat during the competition. Veridius had to have tapped her to win and go to the department he wanted Vis to go to at the end.
What is the synchronism ? I am so confused. Is there a clone ? How did bellie reach the dome? Or why? For the Indicium nobody tan the labyrinth then why were they practicing it? Am I missing something. What does the tainted blood mean?
synchronism is when a copy affects the original. Luceum is probably heaven, Obiteum the planet where people are transported when they die in Res (Vis' world) The rending is the cataclysm which was a tear between those realms: the technological society before the cataclysm developed a way of teleportation as a means of space travel, it's a trope in sci-fi for overcoming the problem of faster than light speed space travel. Those arches Vis steps into are the machine that beams their information (body+mind) to another world, the machine in that world rebuilds a copy of their body with a copy of their minds. The cataclysm is hinted to have affected mostly adults, that's why society collapsed, they were left left with only children, cultures and tech forgotten, because probably the rending only affected people who teleported which means adults. Indol is gay, he will probably be the "replacement" for Callidus on the next book, being close friends with Aequa and Vis. Emissa and Ulciscor will probably turn out to be antagonistic to Vis Vis at Res will probably be antagonistic to Vis at Luceum Eidhin didn't want to participate on the ludiceum because it meant playing the hierarchy game of greed, the rules were meant to put friends against friends so that's why he said that to Vis and declined, also because he probably felt it was a circumstance in which he could very easily snap and kill the students. Ps.: I think there's a big plothole in the villa telimus section of the book in which Lanistia says to Vis that the labyrinth is meant to test multiple skills similar to wield will and that even tho the students had never played it outside the academy they had advantage against Vis, because they were already used to wield will and Vis were not, but then later on when Vis is with the class 4 students at the festival and he is attacked, Aequa and their Praeceptor asks why he didn't use Will and he said it was because it was against the rules (rules of the academy that has no hold outside of it) so I think it means that minors can't use will, because they never been to the aurora columnae, no students in the academy can wield will, hence none of them has advantage over Vis on the labyrinth other than time spent there.
@@PedroRodrigues-fh1ku omg thank you so much for taking the time and explaining all the details. I really appreciate it 🙏🏾 needless to say I am very new to fantasy and sci fi (the only sci fi book I have read is Dark Matter) But in spite of being a newbie to the world of fantasy, I genuinely loved The Will of the Many. It was so well written, every character is so well fleshed out. Till the end of part 2 I was gliding through the book and loving it. When Part 3 came, I spent 3 days reading just that part because it was going over my head.
@@monisharmuk It was a real page turner. Most of what I said is speculation and theories tho, on the meaning of the labirynth and the cataclysm. If you liked this books you should read red rising. Other sci-fantasy that I think you would enjoy is Hyperion, beautiful prose, incredible lore and characters are very well written and also the plot is very mysterious in the same vein as the will of the many with the ancient technology and dying earth vibes. another one is Children of time, this one is the weirdest sci-fi I've read and has some of the wildest plots and use of tech.
The alupi represents him... it was wounded and scarred. And a little love from Vis allowed him to heal and become a beast. Just like Vis's trip back to Suus. A little love help heal his old wounds and get it together in time to run the labrynth. And yes the healing and resilience is another mirror between Vis and Diago the wolf.
Melior was probably accessing some kind of link between the 3 realms. And drawing power. Thats why Vis felt like he went somewhere else when he got inside his little bubble.
The guy that can teleport clearly ran the Labryinth. He was scarred. Hes clearly one of the leaders of the Anguis. He talks very condescendingly about Relucia.
I'm still hoping he's Caeror somehow. Even tho the scarring is different it's kind of similar.
Eidhin was imprisoned for killing 3 people during the battle when his tribe was attacked. They could've threatened him with going back to the sapper. I think i vaguely rememebr that his father made a deal to get him out after a year or something like that.
As an avid Cosmere reader and reddit lurker, I also was disappointed about the lack of discourse and theorie
Start one, we will follow
there's more on reddit rn then when you posted this comment
My “worst of the best” was definitely Vis’ temper 😭 I understand that that was part of his character development, as he got it more under control by the end, but man did he go off at the worst times sometimes 😭😭
honestly he’s a better man than i. he let so much shit pass and then blew up in the most badass/mic drop way possible
Don't you guys remember when she's bursting to tears in the cave after he rescues her in the ocean? That clearly shows that she had previous motivations that were breaking her heart... She definitely cared for him. It does seem like she was almost in love with him to me too... She was also sobbing her heart out while she was turning on him at the end because of the blood taint....
She also said she was sorry. And Vis wonders why.
so so good. i love you guys pointed out going to suus. reminded me of darrow from red rising returning to the mines and Odysseus coming home
The Will (or lack there of) the Many gives Strength to the Few. Which allows the greedy and ambitious to climb to the top of society and have a seemingly unstoppable control of society.
Another theme is trauma and healing and how powerful they can be. How weakness, insecurity and greed truly affect the decisions of those who rise to the top.
And how healing can lead you to making the courageous "right" and hard decisions.
Ulciscor blew that anguis' head by throwing an imbued rock at him, same way Emissa imbued the dagger to push Vis out of the tower. I think will usage is something literal, you imbue objects with your will so they move as your willpower commands it giving inanimate objects some "life" with your want. They make themselves stronger by imbuing themselves with others' willpower, there's a section where Ulciscor talks about his stylus being sub-harmonicalt locked to his borther's stylus making them operate at the same time so this is another way to will an inanimate object. They can make them complex enough to operate machinery and saving willpower, I think this is more like using will in obejcts to create some kind of perpetual engine that better uses willpower. Another property of will is "conditional" that means the imbued object is only activated by a condition (the alarms systems, traps, how the stones and medallions work on the iudicium) this resembles how the magic system works in Lev Grosman's The magicians series in which the magic laws have "circumstances" that you have to account for every time you cast a spell like the Altitude, Age, Position of the Pleiades, Phase of the Moon, temperature, humour, position of the sun, moon, direction the caster is facing, dew point etc etc. I think it will get more and more complex in the next book when Vis is forced to go to the columns and start using will.
Random commenter here. I just finished this book today (4/13/24), and thought it was very good. But one thing that occurred to me as I was listening to you guys, and as I was reading, is that unless I missed it in the book, I don't think Islington explains exactly what happened to Vis's family. I mean yes, they were killed, but why, and what lead up to that. Obviously there was some sort of uprising against his family, but there wasn't much detail on that. We get the little flashback at the very beginning when Vis's dad lets him go, and he falls, but after that, we just go right into the main story, and it felt like we were missing something. Or I was, anyway.
Maybe there is more to be revealed there? Or maybe Vis just can't tell us since he wasn't there for that
@@FantologyPodcast Fair points. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Being that I am on my 30's and read all the Harry Potter books as they came out and the movies.
Vis as the main Character remind me of Harry Potter with a kid down his luck because his family was killed, learns everything really quickly, the school just the part me forced to do it by Ucillor or die is different and different kind of magic Obviously.
But even the vision of his dad at the end reminds me of Harry seeing his mom's deer patrounaus and then seeing them in mirror.
Ulciscor also has a mark on his arm because he was always pulling down the sleeve on his left arm thru out the book. Doctors want to sample Vis's blood straight away to make sure he was not from another Realm. Letting you know that blood changes once you have made it thru the labyrinth. Callidus was my favorite character. He knows his Dad is being pressured due to foul play. Once the realm conquered every faction, it tried to synchronize and split?
Already re-read and loved it. Great podcast 👍
During his talk with Fredriecke he asks about it, and it was basically two other kids took his and his sister's place during the execution. So, as far as anyone knows the entire family died.
Just went back to the book and Fadrique doesn’t say anything like that. Vis asks if Fadrique saw them hanged, and he replies that he did. They found the body of one of his sisters two days after the hanging, meaning his family had thought she (and Vis) had escaped at the time of their deaths. And Vis would’ve been presumed dead.
Loved the
Will of the Many!😊
I think the only clues we really have are the root words and definitions of: Res = thing; Luc = Light; Obit = Death; Rending and Synchronism definitons.
Lanistia ran the Labryinth and lost but somehow didn't get trapped there like the guides. Caeror may have sacrificed himself or Veridius saved her. Or like you suggested.. maybe she left the circle too soon so she couldnt synchronize. And Caeror saw it and thats how he knew how to send a message to "Res Vis".
Do you guys think Veridius knew Vis' father? If not who put the cup there? And who was the guy who called Vis "kin" and warned him about his arm falling off? At first i thought it was Caeror but his scarring is different.
I didn't have any expectations at all when I went into it. I listened & liked the first Licanius book but I couldn't stand the narration (sorry, not a Michael Kramer fan). I listened to The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson, which was my top listen of the year up to that point. So, I got an alert from the Audible app the day The Will of the Many came out, one of those, "since you enjoyed X, you might like Y" sorts of alerts. When I saw it was read by the same narrator, Euan Morton, I got it and started listening to it that day.
It's one of my favorite listens of the year so far: An Inheritance of Magic and The Lost War round out the top 3.
Only two things I didn't really like about this book.
1. The ridiculous amount of help he received from the pup he helped for like 2 minutes felt way overplayed.
2. Like many ppl mentioned his romantic interest felt like a very basic character we have almost no feelings for since we don't see any of their struggles except falling in the water during the tide. This seems to be mainly a 1st person pov problem, that makes you put all your emotional investment into a single character, and only those he interacts with a lot have a chance of feeling meaningful outside of their plot function.
Good analysis. I tend to agree
I love that book! So good... Can't wait for the sequel. It took me a while to get into and finish the Licanius trilogy.... Though I ended up really liking the third book, see a lot of evolution and better character work... Which gave me a lot of faith in his projects going forward. The other issue that series had going was working with the main character that had amnesia..... Getting his memories back felt like a lot of exposition dumps. Whether it was a cool idea or not, it was a very difficult way to write... Especially for new writer.
The will of many is awesome and he's shaking off those new writer issues...
I would say it more than hinted at complicated plotlines to come! I think book two is scheduled for later 2024..
Makes me want to do a reread too
Hey guys I really wanted to contrinue listening, but there was a bit too much chat about Islington's other series Icanius.. so had to stop. Just thought I'd drop that feedback is all.. as I don't even like light spoilers.
Same, I really wanted to continue listening but I have plans to read Licanius soon. No shade, I just want to experience the trilogy without spoilers 😊
Not only did Emissa know about the tainted blood... she used will to cheat during the competition. Veridius had to have tapped her to win and go to the department he wanted Vis to go to at the end.
What is the synchronism ? I am so confused. Is there a clone ? How did bellie reach the dome? Or why? For the Indicium nobody tan the labyrinth then why were they practicing it? Am I missing something. What does the tainted blood mean?
synchronism is when a copy affects the original. Luceum is probably heaven, Obiteum the planet where people are transported when they die in Res (Vis' world) The rending is the cataclysm which was a tear between those realms: the technological society before the cataclysm developed a way of teleportation as a means of space travel, it's a trope in sci-fi for overcoming the problem of faster than light speed space travel. Those arches Vis steps into are the machine that beams their information (body+mind) to another world, the machine in that world rebuilds a copy of their body with a copy of their minds. The cataclysm is hinted to have affected mostly adults, that's why society collapsed, they were left left with only children, cultures and tech forgotten, because probably the rending only affected people who teleported which means adults.
Indol is gay, he will probably be the "replacement" for Callidus on the next book, being close friends with Aequa and Vis.
Emissa and Ulciscor will probably turn out to be antagonistic to Vis
Vis at Res will probably be antagonistic to Vis at Luceum
Eidhin didn't want to participate on the ludiceum because it meant playing the hierarchy game of greed, the rules were meant to put friends against friends so that's why he said that to Vis and declined, also because he probably felt it was a circumstance in which he could very easily snap and kill the students.
Ps.: I think there's a big plothole in the villa telimus section of the book in which Lanistia says to Vis that the labyrinth is meant to test multiple skills similar to wield will and that even tho the students had never played it outside the academy they had advantage against Vis, because they were already used to wield will and Vis were not, but then later on when Vis is with the class 4 students at the festival and he is attacked, Aequa and their Praeceptor asks why he didn't use Will and he said it was because it was against the rules (rules of the academy that has no hold outside of it) so I think it means that minors can't use will, because they never been to the aurora columnae, no students in the academy can wield will, hence none of them has advantage over Vis on the labyrinth other than time spent there.
@@PedroRodrigues-fh1ku omg thank you so much for taking the time and explaining all the details. I really appreciate it 🙏🏾 needless to say I am very new to fantasy and sci fi (the only sci fi book I have read is Dark Matter)
But in spite of being a newbie to the world of fantasy, I genuinely loved The Will of the Many. It was so well written, every character is so well fleshed out. Till the end of part 2 I was gliding through the book and loving it. When Part 3 came, I spent 3 days reading just that part because it was going over my head.
@@monisharmuk It was a real page turner. Most of what I said is speculation and theories tho, on the meaning of the labirynth and the cataclysm. If you liked this books you should read red rising. Other sci-fantasy that I think you would enjoy is Hyperion, beautiful prose, incredible lore and characters are very well written and also the plot is very mysterious in the same vein as the will of the many with the ancient technology and dying earth vibes.
another one is Children of time, this one is the weirdest sci-fi I've read and has some of the wildest plots and use of tech.