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The Sum of All Men (The Runelords, Book…
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The Sum of All Men (The Runelords, Book One:) (edition 1999)

by David Farland

Series: The Runelords (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,876248,858 (3.58)20
Fantasy. Fiction. "Farland once again proves himself a wizard at storytelling... This latest is certain to summon past readers of the series back to bookstores.". HTML:

David Farlandâ??s acclaimed Runelords series introduces a world where the social structure is based upon the magical exchange of â??endowmentsâ?ť such as stamina, grace, and wit. The Runelords are those who receive these endowments from their vassals, becoming superhuman in exchange for the responsibility of caring those they have deprived of strength, or beauty, or sight.

Young Prince Gaborn of Mystarria is traveling in disguise on a journey to ask for the hand of the lovely Princess Iome of Sylvarresta. Armed with his gifts of strength and perception, the prince and his bodyguard stop at a local tavern, where they spot a pair of assassins who have their sights set on Princess Iome's father. As they race to warn the king, they realize that more than the royal family is at risk â?? the very fate of the Earth is in je… (more)

Member:JessiAdams
Title:The Sum of All Men (The Runelords, Book One:)
Authors:David Farland
Info:Tor Fantasy (1999), Mass Market Paperback, 624 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:***1/2
Tags:None

Work Information

The Runelords by David Farland

  1. 00
    Serpent Catch by Dave Wolverton (Radaghast)
  2. 00
    Feast of Souls by C. S. Friedman (infiniteletters)
  3. 00
    Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson (Cecrow)
    Cecrow: Another fantasy in which magic is acquired by taking it from others.
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» See also 20 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 23 (next | show all)
I started this series due to the recommendation of a BookTuber Jonathan Koan I have a first printing. I am enjoying this book and world. Chapters are short and it a slow read. But it holds my attention. ( )
  Catholic47 | Jun 30, 2022 |
Innovative fantasy that takes the Dungeons and Dragons concept of different levels of wit, stamina, and other abilities to a way of life, privilege and power. ( )
  WiebkeK | Jan 21, 2021 |
This book makes me feel conflicted, on one hand I enjoyed it to where I had a nagging feeling of wanting to continue knowing more. On the other the writing and descriptions at times made me roll my eyes and sigh.

To start the magic system is interesting. I like the idea of Runelords having endowments to make themselves stronger, and I like that as each endowment is added to a person their actual life expectancy is affected. Most of these endowments speed up ones life cycle and I really like how that was thought of and added, I enjoy that the use of magic has consequences to the user. I also liked that the original endowment holder gained their attributes back if their off host died. A lot of thought went into creating this magic system and while at first it was a bit confusing, once it got fleshed out, I found that I really enjoyed it.

Now as for the writing and descriptions, these at time were eye roll worthy. It was frustrating that every time a female was described her breasts had to be mentioned. I don’t need to know if they are perky, or flabby, bouncy, or stiff. It’s unnecessary and does nothing. There was also a lot of usage of the word Ugly, in referring to any woman who had zero glamour endowments, Borenson referred to his own soon to be sister-in-laws and mother-in-law as ugly a few times and that was frustrating. It’s definitely a fantasy world where women are only important based on their beauty which is a bit of a let down.

There was also the fact that a lot of the dialogue felt heavily scripted. In a conversation most lines ended or started with “Gaborn said, or Said Gaborn” it was over used and made the conversations aggravating to read. There was no emotion put into the conversations, most of the time I just visualized two people staring at each other talking with zero movements.

The overall story was compelling enough for me to keep coming back. I want to know how Gaborne is going to take down Raj Ahten, I wanted to read the battles, which while being short honestly make sense for the amount of endowments some of these men have.
The fight between King Orden and Raj Ahten was short but heavy because these men were so beefed up with endowments each hit was a devastating blow, which again goes back to whole endowments taking a toll on the human body, so in my mind it was a great fight.

I also enjoyed King Ordens character, I read a lot of fantasy books where the kings die out right at the start and you never get to know them and only hear of their great feats and wits, with King Orden I actually got to see and read of him being the king he was described as which I throughly enjoyed.

I will be continuing with the series as I am actually pretty interested in the world, magic and story, hopefully some of the writing gets better as the story progresses haha. ( )
  SweetKokoro | Jul 31, 2020 |
Man versus Nature. Writ large.

Or larger, if you consider we're dealing with whole armies concentrated into a single man or the Earth in the other.

This is an epic fantasy that's competent in characters if not in extensive worldbuilding. But more importantly, it runs with a very, very cool idea. And cool ideas are COOL.

The skinny? Attributes can be given or taken from people and added to other individuals. Use runes plus guile, absolute force, or desperate pleading, and then you've got some insanely powerful superheroes and supervillains. Think that Jet Li movie, One, but instead of sucking, make the possibilities unlimited for all characters. Want super eyesight? Take 100 the good eyesight from a hundred people, let them go blind, and become hawkeye. :) Same for Wit, Endurance, Metabolism, Glamour, or others.

Have the big bad become a god with all these attributes. He is the sum of all men. Now set the overmatched hero against him.

Cool, right? Simple, fun, and interesting. Not classic literature, but FUN. :)
( )
  bradleyhorner | Jun 1, 2020 |
I thought this book was amazing!! I would have given it more stars if I could. There was so much magic and imagination in this book. I would recommend this to anyone who loves fantasy. ( )
  Kristinah | May 8, 2018 |
Showing 1-5 of 23 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Farland, Davidprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Sweet, Darrell K.Cover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Dedication
Thanks are due to the many people who helped shape this book. Perhaps foremost among them are Jonathan and Laurel Langford, who not only read the book once, but twice, and made detailed notes. Beyond this, certainly I must thank my editors at Tor for their care and consideration-David Hartwell, Tad Dembinski and Tom Doherty. Others who gave valuable input include my writing group, Pilgrimage-Lee Allred, Russel Asplund, Virginia Baker, Scott Bronson, Michael Carr, grant Avery Morgan, Scott Parkin, Ken Rand, and Bruce Thatcher. Thanks are also due to Les Pardew, Paul Brown III, Sandy Stratton, John Myler, and Dave Hewitt.
I'm particularly grateful to my wife, Mary, and to my children, who had to live without a dad while I wrote.
First words
Effigies of the Earth King festooned the city around Castle Sylvarresta.
Quotations
"I Choose you. I Choose you for the Earth. May the Earth heal you. May the Earth Hide you. May the Earth make you its own." - Gaborn Val Orden
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Disambiguation notice
The original title of The Runelords was The Sum of All Men.
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Fantasy. Fiction. "Farland once again proves himself a wizard at storytelling... This latest is certain to summon past readers of the series back to bookstores.". HTML:

David Farlandâ??s acclaimed Runelords series introduces a world where the social structure is based upon the magical exchange of â??endowmentsâ?ť such as stamina, grace, and wit. The Runelords are those who receive these endowments from their vassals, becoming superhuman in exchange for the responsibility of caring those they have deprived of strength, or beauty, or sight.

Young Prince Gaborn of Mystarria is traveling in disguise on a journey to ask for the hand of the lovely Princess Iome of Sylvarresta. Armed with his gifts of strength and perception, the prince and his bodyguard stop at a local tavern, where they spot a pair of assassins who have their sights set on Princess Iome's father. As they race to warn the king, they realize that more than the royal family is at risk â?? the very fate of the Earth is in je

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