We are back again with another review for a Terra Ignota book by Ada Palmer. This time it is for the third book in the series, The Will to Battle. As usual you can find the reviews of the previous books here and here, and if you don’t want some mild spoilers for the first books you should probably turn around now. Then again, I am not your boss so you do you.
We have arrived at the third book in the Terra Ignota series, and I am excited. These books are the fastest to rise to my tier 1 recommendation list, and each new book has only reinforced my decision to place the series that high. When we last left our group, the historical narration of the story had ended and we moved from the past tense into the present. The Will to Battle sees a dramatic shift in story telling style, as the previous two books were told from a historian’s perspective (with their knowledge of what happens in the future coloring how they describe events in the past). The last two books of the quartet are told in the present tense, creating a much more tense and exciting atmosphere. At the end of book two, Seven Surrenders, the hives were all poised for a giant clash. Tensions were high and war was looking potential for humanity for the first time in centuries. The Will to Battle is a book about the moments and tensions before a war, and dear god did it stress me the hell out. The book paints a picture of several groups ready to slaughter one another, each of which is just waiting for an excuse. The is the first thing I have ever read that feels like it paints a vivid picture of pre WWI tensions, where each party is eyeing the other distrustfully. As a result, every single thing in this book feels like it could be a world ending disaster and every decision and choice characters make feel important.
I had to put The Will to Battle down several times while I was reading it, simply because of how much it was stressing me out. The characters all feel like they are having match lighting competitions in a room waist deep in gunpowder, and waiting to see which match kills them all was a weird nightmare of fun. Of the team that read it, one person compared it to the feeling of walking a burning tightrope between skyscrapers and I myself thought it felt like riding a boat to the beaches of Normandy. On top of being an emotional roller coaster, Ada Palmer decided to actually flesh out and answer a lot of lingering world building questions about her universe in the third book. Tons of things are fleshed out and expanded on in The Will to Battle like, the backgrounds of hives, previously alluded to laws and concepts, backgrounds on characters and jobs, the minds of several leaders, and more. Palmer shows you a number of the homes of various hives, and their wonders at even more character to the diverse hives and ignited my imagination. The Will to Battle made me feel like I actually solidly understand Palmer’s world, but then again I felt the same way at the end of her book two so who even knows.
Everything that was amazing about Palmer’s previous books remains true with her third. The characters are complex and one of a kind. The politics are complicated, fascinating, and engrossing. The prose and writing is top tier. The plot is captivating and I have a physical need to know what happens next. The book is constantly surprising and delighting. It should be obvious at this point that everyone here at The Quill to Live recommends this series. It is probably one of the most difficult and rewarding things we have ever read, and we want the world to read it.
Rating: The Will to Battle – 9.5/10
-The Quill to Live team
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