The Strength of the Few

The Strength of the Few (2025) is the second installment in Australian epic fantasy author James Islington’s Hierarchy series, directly following the conclusion of the first novel, The Will of the Many (2023). Having survived the deadly Labyrinth and winning the Iudicium, protagonist Vis Telimus must now earn his place as a mid-ranked official in the Catenan Republic while he tries to uncover who is responsible for his friend’s death during the Iudicium. Unknown to any, copies of Vis awake in separate worlds, transported there during the trial in the Labyrinth, each tasked with a different mission to ensure his and the world’s survival. The three versions of Vis work separately toward the same goal: to stop the Cataclysm that killed thousands 300 years ago from happening again.

The Strength of the Few expands on the intricate world-building of the first novel with an enormous cast of characters while exploring The Moral Ambiguity of Sacrifice, The Tension between Choice, Moral Compromise, and Complicity, and The Necessity of Trust and Friendship for Survival.

This guide is based on the 2025 e-book edition published by Gallery/Saga Press.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of death, graphic violence, child abuse, child death, death by suicide, and enslavement.

Plot Summary

The Strength of the Few is divided into three parts focused on the stages of Vis’s journey. Each part is further split between the three versions of Vis, each of whom inhabits one of the three worlds that comprise the book’s universe: Res, Obiteum, and Luceum. Each version of Vis initially knows himself only as Vis, but eventually each begins using a name specific to the world he inhabits. In Res, he is Catenicus; in Obiteum, he is Siamun; and in Luceum, he is Deaglan.

Vis wakes in Obiteum. He befriends Ulciscor’s brother Caeror. The gate at the end of the Labyrinth in Res copied Vis in this world and in a third called Luceum. Millennia ago, a single world was split into three parallel worlds in a war against an enemy called the Concurrence, who caused many Cataclysms—apocalyptic events that wiped out most of the world’s population every several hundred years. The next Cataclysm is due to happen soon. Only those who achieve Synchronism—passing the Labyrinth to exist in all three worlds—can access the full abilities of Will and the strength to defeat the Concurrence. Caeror believes the Concurrence is a man named Ka, who rules from the city of Duat. Siamun trains with Caeror to control his new Will ability—Adoption, the ability to absorb or “adopt” Will from objects and other people—so that he can kill Ka.

In Res, the original setting of The Will of the Many, Vis, now going by Catenicus, adjusts to life after graduating from the Academy. As a new member of Governance, he must cede his Will at the Aurora Columnae, after which he will face an exam to determine his rank.

During the exam, he discovers Adoption, an ability that allows him to succeed despite the disadvantage of his amputated arm. However, Decimus—the father of his friend Iro—challenges his worthiness, forcing him into a chariot race with Iro that ends with Iro suffering severe injuries. Catenicus and his friends Aequa and Eidhin plan to use their new positions to uncover the Military conspirators responsible for their friend Callidus’s death.

Meanwhile, Catenicus’s friend Lanistia attacks him, controlled by an outside force. She is imprisoned. Hoping to help her, Catenicus speaks with Veridius, who tells him about the Concurrence and the Cataclysms. Catenicus also reunites with his alupi (wolf) friend, Diago.

In Luceum, Vis uses the name Deaglan. A druid named Lir takes him to King Ronan and manipulates him into pledging fealty to Ronan. Ronan sends Deaglan to Loch Treanala, a training ground for warriors. There, Deaglan befriends the other students, including Tara, King Ronan’s daughter. However, when Lir learns that Deaglan can access Will, he takes Deaglan away to be tested.

In Obiteum, Ka’s forces attack Siamun and Caeror. Siamun escapes and infiltrates Duat. In Duat, Siamun befriends Ahmose—a iunctus (a dead person brought back to a semblance of life with Will). He also partners with an assassin, Netiqret, who helps him sneak into the temple where Ka resides. Netiqret wants Siamun to use Adoption to control the city’s Nomarch—a network of iunctii that control Duat’s infrastructure—and save her daughter. When this fails, Siamun avoids capture and escapes from Duat. Ahmose dies by suicide to avoid capture.

In Res, Catenicus meets a new Anguis contact. This contact, Ostius, can shift between Res and Luceum. He takes Catenicus to infiltrate the Military faction’s stronghold, where they confront the Military senators, all involved in the Anguis conspiracy. The Princeps (Military leader) is also secretly working with Ka. Ostius manipulates Catenicus into unleashing Diago on the senators, killing them all and triggering a massacre and civil war in the Republic.

In Luceum, Deaglan finds his long-dead father, who is now an iunctii sent to Luceum by Ostius, to tell Deaglan about the Concurrence and Synchronism. Deaglan faces a test to become a druid. He nearly fails the test when the mechanisms recognize him as Synchronous, and statues attack him. He uses Will to survive, taking one statue’s silver arm in the process. However, he and Lir are captured by Ronan’s enemy, Gallchobhar, supported by a rogue druid, Ruarc.

Gallchobhar kills Ronan and then nearly kills Deaglan, who is saved by his father. Deaglan uses his new Will abilities to fuse the statue’s silver arm to his body in place of his amputated arm. He kills Gallchobhar. Ruarc surrenders and reveals that he is the Luceum version of Caeror. He tells Deaglan that one of his counterparts has made a grave mistake.

In Obiteum, Siamun finds a weapon that gives him the power to wreak destruction throughout the city of Duat. He finally accesses Ka’s Pyramid, where he finds a man asleep on a stone slab and stabs him. In Res, while Catenicus tries to navigate the civil war, Decimus kills Aequa. Catenicus then rushes to rescue Eidhin, and the two agree to negotiate with the Concurrence to stop the bloodshed. They contact the man they believe to be the Concurrence. However, the man claims to be the Concurrence’s enemy; the Concurrence is an autonomous system of linked iunctii that has been trying to enslave the world for millennia. The Cataclysm is the only way to ensure victory against it. The man convinces Catenicus to wake an army of iunctii. Among these iunctii, Catenicus finds his mother and sister and Callidus.