The Strength of the Few

by James Islington ★★★★★

Like with previous reviews of books in a series, I will start with a warning:

If you have not yet read The Will of the Many, STOP READING THIS NOW! 

My review below is of the second book in The Hierarchy series, The Strength of the Few. This review will contain major spoilers and a summary of The Will of the Many, but no spoilers for this latest book. And if you're new to this series and curious about it, my review of The Will of the Many is a great place to start to see if this series might be a fit for you.

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It had been two years since I devoured The Will of the Many, and so I definitely needed a refresher before diving into The Strength of the Few. Fortunately, author James Islington suspected that might be the case for his readers, and he wrote a 21-page "Interlude" he dubbed "Confessiones Ad Mortuos" which you can read here. In it, Vis recounts many of the main events of the first book as an unburdening of his secrets to a now-deceased Callidus. However, it just begins to scratch the surface, and to get the most out of The Strength of the Few, I highly recommend having a copy of The Will of the Many on hand that you can reference while poring over The Strength of the Few. Specifically , reacquainting yourself with the following will help your appreciation and understanding of The Strength of the Few significantly:

• Reread Vis's run through the labyrinth and various exits. Pay close attention to his interactions with his guides before he runs the labyrinth, what they say to him, as well as what he sees and hears when he exits. In particular:

  • His guide: "I was a traitor to the commandment of isolation. I attempted to gain synchronism and remove the seal to Obiteum during the eleventh era after the Rending. I have thus been lawfully condemned to servitude, guiding those who come after.”

  • What he reads: “Herein lies the way to Luceum and Obiteum, offered to all those who would contest our… extinction?” I mutter to myself, translating. “Know that none who accept this task may… remain? The burden of…” My brow furrows and I pause at a word. “Togetherness? Harmony?” I choose the latter. “Is reserved for the one who seals the… authors? The authors of the war from this world. Only he may… exceed? Exceed the hobbled capabilities of this… duplication? He and he alone may risk… harmony… to make the great… sacrifice? Vek.”

    
    

• His classmates at the Academy, especially Callidus, Eidhin, Emissa, and Aequa. It's worth refreshing your memory specifically on the events with them during the Iudicium (especially the scene in which Emissa stabs him). Don't forget about the alupi pup he saved and named Diago (after himself). We haven't seen the last of him, either (thankfully)!

  
  

• The naumachia. Reread the whole scene. What took place, what did Vis see. "As soon as I touch him, everything flickers. For a moment—not even a second—we’re not in the Arena anymore. I’m still on jagged stone, the spoke-like pattern jutting from the earth. But the water is gone. The surrounding walls, the stands beyond, are gone. Caten is gone. It’s too brief for more than an impression. The purple-and-orange bruise of smoky, lightning-cracked sky. Some sort of impossibly vast pyramid, surface smooth and black and mirrored, its base stretching for miles. The harbour with a vast, lit bridge dividing it, lined by statues that must stand a hundred feet high. Waves, monstrous curling whitecaps, towering over them. Exploding against them."

  
  

• Vis's final interaction with Caeror, which gives you the improbable foundation for this second novel. “You’ve been… copied, I suppose. The same way the world was thousands of years ago in the war against the Concurrence. It’s how you got here.” He grunts as he sees my look. “Came as a surprise to me, too. But it’s not important right now. You’re still strongly connected back to Res and Luceum, but that’s going to fade fast. I can explain more later, but only if you’re not dead.”

You read that correctly: we have not one storyline (or one Vis), but three. One remains in Res, the world we came to know in Book 1, focused on Caten and Vis attempting to navigate his political career following his time at the Academy. We also spend time in Obiteum, a post-apocalyptic hellscape in which Caeror is Vis's knowledgeable guide, having learned all he could about the state of that world over the past seven years he's been trapped there. Lastly, a third of the novel takes place in Luceum, a world that loosely resembles Res, but with a wholly different language and something resembling a more feudal culture. Vis is without a guide for much of his time there, and it's the hardest for him to navigate.

Islington bounces regularly between the worlds, only spending a handful of chapters at a time in each. As such, the story, while long, remains consistently fresh. Three times the plot, three times the number of characters, and three times the creativity. It's ambitious, but Islington 100% pulls it off. While I thought The Will of the Many was excellent, some knocked it for feeling a bit too derivative—there is no shortage, after all, of modern fantasy following a hero on his/her path through some sort of school/university/academy. While there was enough innovation in Book 1 to keep me happy, I can understand the point, but no one could say the same about The Strength of the Few. It's unique and aspirational, and it massively expands the scope of the story. Islington pushes the boundaries of what could be too much before starting to pull things back together by the end. It's an impressive accomplishment.

I'm a wee bit nervous that he's over-extended things, à la George R. R. Martin when he took A Song of Ice and Fire and expanded it in Book 4 to the point where he could never finish in seven books. Islington has already said he expects this series to be just four books, and that the first draft of The Justice of One will be complete by the end of 2026. I tend to optimistically believe him. Regardless, get on board — this is one I think could be destined to join the pantheon of great fantasy series of the 21st century.

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Quick Facts

• Title: The Strength of the Few

• Author: James Islington

• Publisher: S&S/Saga Press

• Release Date: November 11, 2025

• Format: Ebook

• ISBN-13: 978-1982141257

• Pages: 736