The Runelords: The Sum Of All Men (The Runelords, Book 1) [Hardcover]

David Farland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1998

The first book of The Runelords, an epic heroic fantasy in the bestselling mode of David Eddings

Certain works of fantasy are immediately recognizable as major monuments, towering above the rest of the category. Authors of those works, such as Stephen R. Donaldson and J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind, come immediately to mind. Now add to that list David Farland, whose epic begins in The Runelords.

Young Prince Gabon, a Runelord prince who has received endowments of strength and perception according to the system of magic that works in this world, is traveling in disguise with his warrior-guard, Borenson, to the fiefdom of his father's friend King Sylvarresta to ask for the hand of his daughter, lome, in marriage. But as they stop on the way in a market town, they meet a beautiful woman, Myrrima, who catches the eye of Borenson. The prince, seeing this and having a sudden and unusual intuition of her honor and loyalty, encourages Borenson in immediate courtship.

As he sits in a tavern, Gaborn notices two foreign assassins, powerful and well-trained men who should not be there, who head out toward Sylvarresta.

And in a moment, his happy journey turns into a perilous race to warn the King of deadly danger, a danger that seems local but escalates with astonishing speed to such a magnitude and scope that all human life is threatened. Monstrous evil is loose among men and in the world.

So begins the fantasy epic of The Runelords.

"When I reached the end of this first volume, The Runelords, and saw grace arise from a devastating battlefield where too many great hearts lay dead, Farland had earned the tears that came to my eyes. It was not sentiment but epiphany".-- Orson Scott Card, Author of Alvin Maker

"This is a major talent". -- Fantasy and Science Fiction

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Runelords is that rare book that will remind you why you started reading fantasy in the first place. Much of the setting--and even some of the story--is conventional fantasy fare, but David Farland, aside from being a masterful storyteller, has built his world around a complex and thought-provoking social system involving the exchange of "endowments." Attributes such as stamina, grace, and wit are a currency: a vassal may help his lord by endowing him with all of his strength, for instance, and in turn the vassal comes under the lord's care as his "dedicate," too weak to even walk. A Runelord might have hundreds of such endowments, giving him superhuman senses and abilities, but he then must care for the hundreds that he has deprived of strength, or beauty, or sight.

Runelords excels because this novel idea is not mere window dressing--Farland uses it to explore fundamental questions of life and morality. The story's hero, the young Runelord Gaborn, struggles to define his role in this "shameful economy" while keeping his commitments to himself, to his people, to the woman he loves, and to the earth itself. We end up asking ourselves the same questions: Should you choose your friends based on insight or virtue? Is it better to be just or good? Competent fantasy lets you escape to adventure in faraway lands, but exceptional fantasy makes sure you have something to think about when you get back. Runelords accomplishes the latter. --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

The intriguing hook behind Farland's first novel?and launch of a new fantasy series?is a complex magical technology whereby abilities such as wit, brawn and stamina are transferable from person to person. Most royalty and high-level soldiers take or pay for some endowments, often from those in lower strata of society, but the Wolf Lord Raj Ahten intends to add, by whatever means necessary, whole kingdoms'-full of abilities to himself, becoming the Sum of All Men. His opponent, Runelord and prince Gaborn Val Orden, matures during the novel, falling in love with Princess Iome Sylvarresta, whose kingdom is overrun by Raj Ahten. Aided by the herbalist and wizard Binnesman, Gaborn makes a mysterious vow, becoming the Erden Geboren, or Earthborn, heir to a different magic. An apocalypse may be approaching, in which Gaborn's elemental kingship provides the only hope. The magic is basic to Farland's story, not just painted on, and it and the society in which it plays out are rigorously and imaginatively elaborated. The author's characters, however, are less vivid and original. And with Raj Ahten triumphant for most of the book, and with such grim sources of even the heroes' power, readers looking for uplifting entertainment, or even for particularly convincing fantasy, may be disappointed with Farland's first novel, despite its many fine qualities.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 479 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books : Tom Doherty Associates; 1st edition (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312866534
• ISBN-13: 978-0312866532
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (193 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,229,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An epic and satisfying read, February 12, 2000

By 

Niclas Kockum (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sum of All Men (The Runelords, Book One:) (Mass Market Paperback)

Having read most of the reviews of this book I feel I have to make my own comment. No this is not a new Tolkien and one here compared it to junk food, which in a way is true if you do see Tolkien as a gourmet meal. But I have to say after reading this through that I became involved in this book, because it had a fast moving and somewhat complex plot, some spectacular scenarios but foremost it was epic. I love epic books such as A Song of Ice and Fire and Magician by Raymond E. Feist because they are larger than life, through them you can get lost in something out of this world. This book delivers on that part and it is an involving fantasy world and his magic system is thought through and there are enormous battles and tragic fates for many characters. One of the things that I was intrigued most by in this book is how everyone is not just made demigods without losing anything but how they truly do suffer and lose people, friends and family. There is one truly heartbreaking scene where a soldier, one of the good guys, has to kill a small, innocent and mute eight year old girl because she is his enemy's servant. Farland really makes us feel how a part of this soldier's soul dies with him when he has to do this monstrous deed. The thing that I think most people don't like with the Runelords is its simplistic writing, because it is simple in many ways, it only covers in detail the important and epic events, not how the leaves in the green forest look, which might be a turn off for some who like Tolkien writing but not for others who want the book to progress into the important, "cool" stuff. Comparing this to junk food is in a way the right thing to do, it tastes good and its not healthy getting too much of it, because you won't have much of a life to go back to and you'll keep on coming back for more. I recommend it to those who may want more quantity in fantasy and yet do want that bit of quality. This is not a book for nitpicking, no fantasy books ever hold when you start nitpicking, just enjoy it.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the BEST of the current crop of Epic Fantasy series., June 15, 2000

By 

A. Lee (L.A., CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sum of All Men (The Runelords, Book One:) (Mass Market Paperback)

I've been reading fantasy for decades, so it takes something a bit more intriguing and innovative to catch my attention. The magic system, integral to the plot and motivations and theme, manages to put this book above the ordinary. The cost of using these Runes is immediate and devistatingly obvious. It highlights what is implied in other books, that there is a cost to magic, or power of any kind; whether it's the power a leader has over his men, or the power man has over nature. This adds immensely to the meaning of all the action. --And the action is great. The story is fast-paced and the author doesn't play about with the reader, providing many confrontations between the protagonist and antagonist, and lively scenes with the supporting characters. The writing is self-assured and straight-forward, the characters are a little nebulous but show great promise of growth, the world seems vast and fascinating with well-developed and intriguing cultures. I will eagerly look forward to reading more in this series.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It would make a good computer game... Definately different., June 22, 2000

By 

Yossi Mills (Flushing, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sum of All Men (The Runelords, Book One:) (Mass Market Paperback)

Every now and then, a new authour (new to fantasy, if not to sci-fi..) enters the Fantasy playing field with novel and welcome concepts. Farland has brought with him a new magic system, based on the Vampiric concept of draining attributes (sight, speed, strength, etc) from one being and transferring them to another, thus making the receiver a formidable opponent, especially when the recipient of many such "endowments". The Sum of All Men refers to just that - a being with endowments from so many people that he becomes almost omnipotent. His only weakness being his reliance on those providing him with their attributes, and the need to balance all of his attributes evenly, in order to eliminate any weak links (for example someone who has the speed of many people must have the stamina to survive the ordeal). I would actually rather give this book 3.5 stars, for a couple of reasons. Although Farland does not bend to a formula and his world is novel, complex and relatively believable, I don't find the characters particularly well-rounded, and the plot is a little thin. I'm an avid fan of complex interweaving, and Farland just doesn't do it for me. Six hundred and thirteen pages are by no means a "small" novel, and I'd expected a little more to happen in that span - in short, I found it a little slow moving and not justifiably so. But maybe that's just me. Lastly, I found the book a little too "psychological" for my tastes - his emphasis on body language and people's private domains was a little too overt for my liking, I prefer a little more subtlety. Then again, I suppose that for someone with enhanced senses, nothing is subtle anymore...