James Islington

At the elite Catenan Academy, where students are prepared as the future leaders of the Hierarchy empire, the curriculum reveals a layered set of mysteries which turn murderous in this new fantasy by bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington. Vis, the adopted son of Magnus Quintus Ulcisor, a prominent senator within the Hierarchy, is trained to enter the famed Catenan Academy to help Ulciscor learn what the hidden agenda is of the remote island academy. Secretly, he also wants Vis to discover what happed to his brother who died at the academy. He’s sure the current Principalis of the academy, Quintus Veridius Julii, a political rival, knows much more than he’s revealing. The Academy’s vigorous syllabus is a challenge Vis is ably suited to meet, but it is the training in the use of Will, a practice that Vis finds abhorrent, that he must learn in order to excel at the Academy. Will—a concept that encompasses their energy, drive, focus, initiative, ambition, and vitality—can be voluntarily “ceded” to someone else. A single recipient can accept ceded Will from multiple people, growing in power towards superhuman levels. Within the hierarchy your level of Will, or legal rank, determines how you live or die. And there are those who are determined to destroy this hierarchal system, as well as those in the Academy who use it to gain dominance in internationally bestselling author James Islington’s wonderfully crafted new epic fantasy series.

The Will of the Many

Não tava esperando ser tão impactado por uma frase tão simples, mas ela ficou comigo por dias.

Pedro Rodarte

Chain your anger in the dark, my mother used to tell me, and it will only thrive.

Cassidy Nolan

Laura Mei

The power to protect is the highest of responsibilities, Diago. When a man is given it, his duty is not only to the people he thinks are worthy.

There comes a point in every man's life where he can rail against the unfairness of the world until he loses, or he can do his best in it. Remain a victim, or become a survivor.

"That's the problem with people, though, isn't it? They always think that 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 are the problem. You want to remove the Princeps? The senators? You'll just become them, sooner or later. If all you're trying to do is change who's in power, then you don't really want to change anything."

"Maybe you're right," she says. "But you have to start somewhere."

lily

lmmune or not, these things are designed to instantly drain Will on contact. Not just the portion Hierarchy ustually takes from the millions of Octavii who form its foundation either. All of your drive, your focus, your mental and physical energy, is funnelled away by these pale stone beds to be received by some distant, particularly favoured Septimus.

Confidence, real or perceived, has a peculiar power over people.

But the nice, theoretical simplicity of the calculations end there: they're useful for understanding someone's physical strength, but that's only the most basic use of Will. Imbuing objects- controlling them through mental effort-is where the true power of the Hierarchy lies, exponentially increasing the efficacy of that strength for anyone who can do it.

Anyone who looks at a system of people and thinks the system is the problem is a fool. (…) Greed is by definition the moral ruler of the Hierarchy, Diago. All decisions are based upon it. It is not the strong who benefit in their system, no matter what they say, it is the weak. It is the ones willing to do anything, sacrifice anything, to rise. It rewards avarice and is so steeped in a wrong way of thinking that those within it cannot even see.

Mary Carmona

“No, it’s not. Conviction is admirable, but it can only take a man so far.” He leans forward. “So what I want to know, Vis, is what are you punishing yourself for?”

I stare at him, a jolt of sick, uncomfortable emotion low in my chest, lost for how to respond.

I am dangling, and it is only my father’s blood-slicked grip around my wrist that stops me from falling.

The Will of the Many quotes

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