Brotherhood of the Wolf (The Runelords, Book Two) [Mass Market Paperback]

David Farland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2000 | Series: The Runelords (Book 2)

Volume Two of The Runelords

Raj Ahtan, ruler of Indhopal, has used enough forcibles to transform himself into the ultimate warrior: The Sum of All Men. Ahtan seeks to bring all of humanity under his rule-destroying anything and anyone that stood in his path, including many friends and allies of young Prince Gaborn Val Orden. But Gaborn has fulfilled a two-thousand-year-old prophecy, becoming the Earth King-a mythic figure who can unleash the forces of the Earth itself.

And now the struggle continues. Gaborn has managed to drive off Raj Ahtan, but Ahtan is far from defeated. Striking at far-flung cities and fortresses and killing dedicates, Ahtan seeks to draw out the Earth King from his seat of power, to crush him. But as they weaken each other's forces in battle, the armies of an ancient and implacable inhuman enemy issue forth from the very bowels of the Earth.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

David Farland's "Runelords" fantasy sequence began in 1998 with The Sum of All Men, a career-relaunch novel whose sales far outstripped earlier SF published under his real name Dave Wolverton. Runelords are supermen whose strength, stamina, and vision, and other physical abilities are multiplied by magical "endowments" transferred from unfortunate donors who are crippled by their loss: the archvillain in the story is virtually invincible thanks to tens of thousands of endowments.

This second book avoids middle-volume doldrums by introducing a vast onslaught of still tougher and memorably unpleasant nonhumans who even the villains must oppose. Meanwhile, various characters skirmish on different parts of the map, and the hero struggles with unreliable powers conferred on him when he was chosen as Earth King to save the land and humanity--or maybe only a tiny part of each.

Farland maintains a steady flow of new situations, reversals, gambits, and surprises ... it's a real shock when one chap who has incurred a dreadful penalty for virtuous reasons is not spared (as expected in the normal chivalry of fantasyland) but rather pays the full, eye-watering price. One small criticism: the writing contains occasional sloppiness and repetition. Nonetheless, this is a rousing, painfully gripping story. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Continuing the fantasy saga he began with The Runelords, Farland's latest novel takes place immediately after its predecessor, and in the same quasi-medieval world. Earth King Gaborn and his rival, Raj Ahten, continue their deadly war until reaversAgruesome crab-shaped elephants with formidable magical powersAcompel them to join forces against a common enemy. Amid all the battles and intrigues, Farland explores the political and ethical dilemmas created by the rune system of magic, in which runes can transfer "endowments" of various qualities, such as glamour or wit, from one human to anotherAoften leaving the donor crippled or dead. In addition, Farland interweaves, with mixed success, several subplots, the best of which concerns the long journey of Averan, a nine-year-old girl who is traveling in the company of Baron Poll, Roland the Dedicate and a green-skinned wylde, a woman of potent magic able to literally eat a reaver for dinner. Also auspicious is the off-again, on-again courtship of the drunken Prince Celinor and the formidable Princess Erin. Farland's action-packed climax is gripping, even if it involves too much luck. Though not yet in the first tier for narrative technique, world-building or characterization, Farland continues to show considerable promise, suggesting that his next novel may carry the Runelords to a yet higher level in the fantasy pantheon.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 659 pages
• Publisher: Tor Fantasy; First Thus edition (September 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812570693
• ISBN-13: 978-0812570694
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #136,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Farland is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author with dozens of books to his credit. He began his career writing short fiction as a prize writer, which vaulted him into prominence in the mid-1980s. He has written science fiction under his own name, Dave Wolverton, including the highly praised "On My Way to Paradise," which won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Special Award for "Best Novel in the English Language."

David has also written novels in the Star Wars and Mummy Universes, and has worked as a videogame designer, most notably for Starcraft's Brood War.

In 1999 he set the Guinness Record for the World's Largest single-person, single book signing.

In the mid-1990s he began to follow his love for writing fantasy under the pen name David Farland, where he became best known for his international bestselling Runelords series; though he has also won the Whitney Award for best novel of the year for his historical novel "In the Company of Angels," and he also won the International Book Award for Best Young Adult Novel of the Year, along with the Hollywood Book Award for Best Book of the year for his Young Adult fantasy thriller, "Nightingale."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite an improvement on the pervious book. October 31, 1999

By Kazi Arif Anwar

Format:Hardcover

This book is much better than the last book, and it is developing into a true epic unlike some other series (*cough Goodkind cough*).

I have to say though, the whole concept of endowments and such grew tiresome halfway thorugh the first book. While it is a novel concept, Mr. Farland seems to be using it like a gimmic and I wish he would focus on it a bit less.

I have to congratulate the author for avoiding the trap of the caricature fantasy novel characters in his books. I like the fact that Geborn is an ordinary person, but he is a little hard to sympathize with, I found him a little two dimensional. Raj Ahten is much more interesting, hopefully the promising development of his character we saw in the second book will continue in the future installments.

Another thing I like about this series is the non traditional enemy, mainly in the form of Reavers, the battle between the reavers and humans is very interesting and adds to the already impressive depth of the series, hopefully Mr. Farland will provide more clarification on Duskin and Toth history in future books. Unfortunately, Mr. Farland has chosen to follow the unfortunate tradition established by Tolkien and Lewis of polarizing his world into the good being represented by the Northern (read caucasian) regions and evil being concentrated in the south (by the darker skinned races) this trend in fantasy of representing evil by the eastern and southern races is unfortunately ubiquitous, so I can hardly be upset with David Farland, but it is a little disappointing nonetheless, I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this trend, but perhaps I'm a little more sensitive to this phenomenon being of an asian origin. However, Mr.... Farland, if you are reading this, I would like to congratulate you on an excellent series so far and keep up the good work! Read more ›

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I really loved this book. March 3, 2000

By Kevin White

Format:Hardcover

First off, I absolutely loved this book. It has all the basic necessary elements of fantasy: magic, heroes, evil wizards, and terrible monsters, and each one of these elements is presented in a new and unique way. The magic is limited in an ingenious way, the heroes are faced with horrible and blatantly unfair obstacles, the evil is practically unbeatable, and never does the story truly lose its believability.

Secondly, the plot is very good, and many times is completely unpredictable, and even the least unique aspects of the plot, the environment, and the characters are presented in a method which makes them not only enjoyable, but thought provoking.

Finally, despite the incredibly entertaining storyline and great writing style, the novel communicates a commentary on basic human emotion, life, and death. In the novel there is many degrees of good and evil, there are characters of greatly varying degrees of morality, from characters who believe they are moral but are evil, to characters who are neither good nor evil, to characters who are morally neutral but also definitely evil.

So, whether you read books for enjoyment and entertainment, or to discover new ways of looking at life, or a little of both, like me, Brotherhood of the Wolf is an excellent choice. I bought this book, started reading it, and didn't stop until I finished it at 2:00 in the mourning on Sunday night.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Drops the pace, but still good June 8, 2000

By David Rasquinha

Format:Hardcover

Novelty was a key positive for the first book of Farland's series (Runelords) and obviously this novelty of the endowments concept is no longer there for the second book (Brotherhood). To that extent, book 2 drops in pace and the series shifts closer to the run of the mill variety. In fact, the magic of the elements is more to the forefront in this book, than endowments, despite some half-hearted attempts to debate the issue. The battle scenes are surprisingly well done, especially the climactic fight between humans and reavers before the walls of Carris. But Farland seems to be going the Jordan way with exploding sub-plots, large gaps in the story line and pathetic excuses for maps. We have no real idea of the reavers and their motivation (why did they emerge suddenly now? What do they want?) but now out of nowhere, the child skyrider Averan develops an understanding by eating their brains - sheesh. The green woman was obviously the wylde, but where was she between her creation and now? Why was she falling from the heavens? And where do the "world-worms" fit in all this? For that matter, Farland never clearly outlines what drives Raj Ahten to his excesses and the motivation of most of the characters is extremely vague. I had feared while reading Runelords that Farland would be tempted to extol his philosophy instead of letting it flow with the story and my fears seem to have come true. By the end, if Gaborn and the Earth both seem confused as to what he is expected to do, the reader is no less bemused. It still is a book with promise and hence the 3 stars, but I do hope Farland knows where he is heading; I for one am not sure at all and considering the way he started, that is a shame.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine second entry in the Runelords sequence December 23, 1999

By Nicholas Jong

Format:Hardcover

Unlike some of the other reviewers, I did not find that Farland dwells too much in his second Runelords novel on his fascinating idea of endowments given from vassals to lords. If anything, the focus has begun to shift towards the other form of magic in Farland's world: the elemental. If the notion of endowments continues to pervade Farland's writing, it is only because it is so central to the lives of the main characters.

That said, Brotherhood of the Wolf is not quite as strong a novel as the Runelords, though it is still entertaining. Some of the novelty has worn off, and the increasing role of elemental magic means that the story treads closer to more well-trodden ground. Even so, Farland certainly hasn't spent all his creative energies yet, as this novel succeeds in capturing the imagination.

In fact, my strongest criticism wouldn't concern the fantasy aspect of the story so much as the human. Though Farland adds some new and interesting characters to the mix, all of his characters come off a little flat. One occasionally suspects that they are merely vehicles for the author's fantastical ideas. But they are intriguing ideas. I appreciate most the moral uncertainty surrounding both the practice of taking endowments from one's subjects and of Gaborn's task as the Earth King. I hope Farland continues to address both issues in the future, and I look forward to reading what he has to offer.