The citadel of Torra Alta, won a millennium before from the indigenous dragons, is under attack. The Vaalakan army from the north, led by warrior-priest Morbak, draws near. The Runes of War, hidden for many centuries must be unearthed to protect the civilized lands of the south.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
After working in Heffers Booksellers for a short while and running her own small business, Jane Welch and her husband Richard left England to spend five winters teaching skiing in Andorra. Here she completed her first novel, The Runes of War, the first book in The RuneSpell trilogy, which was published in Dec 1995, The Lost Runes in October 1996 and The Runes of Sorcery in May 1997. Her second trilogy, set in the same world of Belbidia -- The Book of Ond, was published by Earthlight in 1999/2000.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Just anoher ordinary fantasy,
By Petr SLADEK (Czech republic) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Runes of War (The Runespell Trilogy, Book 1) (Paperback)
I have just finished this book (1 day ago) but I must admit, that there is no big surprise I have expected. May be I am overloaded with all those fantasy series (trilogy, pentalogy or X-logy... the more, the better). This one showing author's inklination to celtic mythology because hidden under main plot there is hidden battle between old-fashioned religion looking like celtic derivate (Mother Earth, warshipping trees, earth, water, land) and new religion which seems like Christian (cathedrals, one Lord no one has seen him ever). There is also dark power presented as dark god of Ice who now rules barbarian hordes through their shaman Morbak. So the basic plot is adventures of young Caspar, son of the Branwolf - lord of the Torra Alta stronghold (guarding so named mountain pass). Morbak with big army of barbarians moving to Torra Alta. Caspar is captured with his uncle Hal by barbarian scouts just after they have found powerful magical artifact (Moonstone) in the cavs under Tora Alta. They are moved toward Morbak when beautiful girl acompanied with wolverine appears and help them run away. Have I to continue? I have looked forward this book, but after reading I must say: "Just another ordinary fantasy series..."
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Some interesting ideas but...,
This review is from: The Runes of War (The Runespell Trilogy, Book 1) (Paperback)
Judging by the other reviews posted so far, I am in a minority here, but this book didn't grab me. It was well written, there were some really great ideas, the world seemed well conceived and quite real, it had all the elements of a classic fantasy. But I found the characters so annoying that I didn't care enough about what happened to them. While I am quite willing to concede that Hal and Spar may well be realistic characters, they were just too obnoxious. Even Brid, who in principle was a character I really liked, in practice was almost equally obnoxious. I also felt that parts of the action didn't seem to advance the story very much. It seemed as if the adventures were just there to fill in until the real story began, giving the whole book the feel of a prologue. Actually for me the most annoying thing about this book is that right at the end it felt like the real story did begin and it was so interesting that I wanted to know what happened next. So I got the next book, and it had all the same problems, and I gave up halfway through.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great start by truly gifted author.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Runes of War (The Runespell Trilogy, Book 1) (Paperback)
This is an excellent debut book which gives a glimpse of the authors prodigous talent, which is later realised in the fourth book, 'The Lament Of Abalone". From the moment I first picked up The Runes Of War, I couldn't put it down. The colour and descriptiveness of the writing is extremely impressive - the opening scenes of a horse and cart struggling up a steep mountain path are so wonderfully written as to be indelibly imprinted on my memory.Here we meet for the first time brash Hal - his arrogance refreshing from the normal 'all too humble' fantasy hero, and shy Casper, struggling to make an impact from the shadows of the stronger people around him. And Brid - a wonderfully modern, heroic woman that Mary Wolstencraft would have been proud of. The story moves along at a good pace, all the while enjoyable and refreshing - the lines between good and evil become blurred as the 'heroes' are confronted by a people dying of starvation, acting purely on the will-to-live. An impressive first effort from a truly gifted author.
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