Jurjen
The Will of the Many has probably been my favourite book of the last few years, and The Strength of the Few the most I've been looking forward to a new release. I kept my expectations tempered as, structurally, I knew b2 was going to look pretty different to b1. But god damn was this a fantastic follow-up.
The way the story progresses and mysteries are revealed and new ones introduced, is seriously some of the strongest plot writing in the genre. The ending of WOTM might be my favourite ending of any book as it just sent my mind spinning for an hour as to what it could all mean, and what was going to happen in the sequel. The ending of SOTF damn-near matched it. There's so many directions this story could go into now, and they're all as intriguing sounding as the next.
I think overall this was a really ambitious sequel. As I said, structurally it took a pretty huge departure from a tried and tested formula executed pretty perfectly, and set out to do something much more innovative within the genre. There were some downsides to this. I don’t think that every storyline was constantly engaging (O especially), although they were for the most part. The quality of the secondary characters felt uneven at times, though considering the time spent with them, I think this execution was about as good as you could expect. The character motivations were probably a little more focused in b1 as well. I do think that The Will of the Many is the better book between the two, but it's certainly close.
The mysteries of this world Islington crafted in book 1, and the twists and surprising directions he took the story were done absolute justice in this sequel, and I think that's the most important achievement of The Strength of the Few. Having just finished it minutes ago, I can't WAIT to read the third book. That's exactly how I felt finishing WOTM for the first time, and getting to re-live that experience is about as good as it gets.
The Will of the Many has probably been my favourite book of the last few years, and The Strength of the Few the most I've been looking forward to a new release. I kept my expectations tempered as, structurally, I knew b2 was going to look pretty different to b1. But god damn was this a fantastic follow-up.
The way the story progresses and mysteries are revealed and new ones introduced, is seriously some of the strongest plot writing in the genre. The ending of WOTM might be my favourite ending of any book as it just sent my mind spinning for an hour as to what it could all mean, and what was going to happen in the sequel. The ending of SOTF damn-near matched it. There's so many directions this story could go into now, and they're all as intriguing sounding as the next.
I think overall this was a really ambitious sequel. As I said, structurally it took a pretty huge departure from a tried and tested formula executed pretty perfectly, and set out to do something much more innovative within the genre. There were some downsides to this. I don’t think that every storyline was constantly engaging (O especially), although they were for the most part. The quality of the secondary characters felt uneven at times, though considering the time spent with them, I think this execution was about as good as you could expect. The character motivations were probably a little more focused in b1 as well. I do think that The Will of the Many is the better book between the two, but it's certainly close.
The mysteries of this world Islington crafted in book 1, and the twists and surprising directions he took the story were done absolute justice in this sequel, and I think that's the most important achievement of The Strength of the Few. Having just finished it minutes ago, I can't WAIT to read the third book. That's exactly how I felt finishing WOTM for the first time, and getting to re-live that experience is about as good as it gets.