#hierarchy

"Careful with the designer duffel, chief. That bag costs more than your beta parents’ monthly income. Separate the whites, cold wash only.”

The Sith Specialisations (New Chapter for the revised first book) The Sith comes from a diverse set of societies, and come from a range of backgrounds that are nominally of a society, but we have our own niche culture, soul, spirit and abilities, as such we will come from many different career fields and wish to impose a different kind of vision on the world, but all that is certain however, is…

Vis Solum is a victim of the Catenan Republic and its expansive, world-conquering endeavors. The child of former royalty from a kingdom that no longer exists, he wishes to keep his head down and keep away from their magic system, the Hierarchy and its ability to sap Will. But when he catches the eye of a Quintus (#5 overall in rank) he will be forced into the Catenan Academy as an outsider and forced to spy on them and the Principalis, who is suspected of knowing a little too much about a murder declared a suicide.

This book got rave reviews when it came out in 2023, and between then and now I accidentally started James Islington's Licanius Trilogy, beginning with The Shadow of What Was Lost. I didn't enjoy that one, but I had heard this book developed Islington's virtues and suppressed his flaws. So I stuck with it.

At first, I was into it, and a lot of that has to do with the idea of Will. If I can heap praises for anything on this series it would be the use of Will and ceding power. It's a system that feels designed to represent empire in its extremis, as it takes power from the lowest ranks and shifts it up the pyramid. The mathematical basis of the power means you can track and predict how powerful and how much work each rank has and takes from the people below, and the system also grinds its ceders into paste and makes them dumber and more pliable for the imperial system.

There are also hints of the complex, enforced breeding system the Republic has set up, which is not technically a eugenics program, but given all the taxes and incentives that come from being married and having more children, it's not not a eugenics program, either. This allows for woman to be in the plot but for the author to note how difficult this is to do with all the requirements placed on them. Add onto this that Will users can do incredible magic and feats of power (like public transportation, fighting arenas and lights) and it ties in perfectly to the way empires pry resources from native populations and use them for their own ends, a magical exploration of the terrible power of empires.

Except the book is not really about that, and people who have already read The Will of the Many will already be aware I didn't mention one aspect of the worldbuilding: the Cataclysm. 300 years ago, the population was violently reduced to less than 5% of where it was originally and technology blasted back to the Roman(ish) era. A lot of the book is about the Cataclysm and the laws the Republic has put in place to deal with it, including a great deal of secrecy and a massive twist at the end that restructures everything we thought we knew.

James Islington loves to have his books be about one thing, only for the plot to reveal they've got another whole thing going on as well. In this and the Licanius Trilogy, there's a huge sci-fi-style plot element added in to the high fantasy genre that causes things to go absolutely fucking buckwild, and I can't deny the swings take gusto and gumption. I, however, am not fond of these "and another thing" swings; both here and with The Shadow of What was Lost, I find the worldbuilding is designed to be disposable before we get to the Big Twist, and I am not that invested.

(I do want to add a disclaimer that I haven't yet gotten to the academy. I know many folks cite that as when the book starts getting really good. I think it is fair to note that most folks are recommended to get at least 1/3 of the way through before deciding if it's for them. But of the glimpses I saw of the politicking I found I wasn't impressed, so I am dropping out early. I did read a summary and wasn't interesting is seeing what plays out, but I did see more of the same themes of power and empire, so at the very least they should be carried over with everything else that happens after the Big twist).

fuck what the culture tells you

Sometimes I wished that animal classification was simpler.

It has been said that as human, we just like to classify everything. We sort everything so much that we could identify things easier and  in a more precise labels for the items. Latin names are given and they reveal the category that they belong in the hierarchy chart that us human made up. Very clever! Though I think the group name "Spiky stuff" is fairly sufficient too...that's might be just me though....