Nothing wrong with the story, just didn't grasp my attention long enough.

The Runelords's Sum of All Men by Farland isn't an original high fantasy series, although I have only read book 1 for now as I need a break from long series right now, should be applauded for its originality, creativity and distinctive magical system.

The story centers around Gaborn, Mystarria's prince on his journey in Heredon. While exploring the surroundings of Castle Sylvarresta, Gaborn's plan of seeking out Heredon's princess Iome's hand are thwarted by the surprise invasion of the Wolf King Raj Ahten. Told through the eyes of a "vast" cast of main, supportive and minor characters, The Sum of All Men tried a little too hard in building a world and characters for me to immerse myself in.

Gaborn is the ideal good guy while Iome needs more personality. The love at first sight (for Gaborn) or the 25 mins of getting to know him and now, he is THE one (for Iome) is one of those cliche that I utterly despise. I would have preferred Iome rejecting Gaborn and slowly understanding him, traveling and falling in love with time (maybe a book at least...). Not the 2 days or so during and after the fall of her home... Borenson and Binnesman may be my favourite characters, even though they do not redeem the book at all. Borenson due to his conflict in serving his king and his prince. His loyalty, his duty, his respect and his friendship come clashing throughout the book. As for Binnesman- although an interesting Earth Warden and herbalist, reminded me of Gadolf.

The flaws I saw where the linear characters, far too idealistic and just bland (and the illusionary prince of every girls dreams *excuse me while I throw up on the side of my desk*). As I said, Gaborn is "too perfect" a hero, where he cannot kill people no matter the circumstance, with chronic hero syndrome and a pre-destined fate to save the world. Yeah... doesn't that sound just generic? As for Iome, I preferred her, again, as the female lead that was blowing him off, avoiding Gaborn fearing she would fall for his charms and looks. But she ends up speaking to him for a few minutes and now he is all she can think of. It would have made sense to give me an evolution to this obvious love story. But instead one conversation changes the whole dynamic and shifts it to love at first sight. A trope so overused giving us a delusional and unrealistic portrayal of romantic relationships. One would expect better here. At last the plot with a "forced" one-sided love marriage would give plot to the story.

There are many other tropes: that of king Orden towards the end of the book making way for his son.

Ah... Raj Ahten, the primary antagonist here. An "evil" needy looking for validation guy that just wants to collect endowments and uses his voice throughout the entire book to "fight". Oh but don't worry, the last chapters are the only time he gets his panties wet with action. And EVEN there, he uses his voice for the final moment of the battle. Its original, yes. But using this "skill" for 600+ pages, not so original. Raj Ahten doesn't feel like a typical antagonist but more of a child that was neglected or spoiled that doesn't like to be told no (or no one ever parented him) leaving Raj with some entitlement issues. Tantrum become a trademark as well as the use of his "enchanted" with a multitude of voice endowments to act like a seductress instead of the head of an army. (Lack of charisma even with endowment of voice. An example comes to mind-Griffith from Berserk, not only with his aura/ presence, like Raj Athen's, but his charisma he swayed many to his cause. Here Raj only uses his voice. A damn siren/ medusa (too many comments about how beautiful, graceful he is) where if you listened attentively, you would realize that it was nothing but childish behavior).

Regardless on how many times you read about added glamours, beauty, I like someone for this or that, not for the appearance or I lost my beauty, oh no the world looks at you differently, it made me feel that most characters with the exception of Binnesman are narcissistic. As is the rest of the Runelords population. It was just too much, especially if you added the endowment of voice. I felt like I was reading a YA where you just read about a bunch of characters constantly talking and thinking about their or someone else's looks NON-STOP.

Now for the only redeemable part: the magic system. First the endowment. Original and almost perfectly structured. The concept of taking, example, a person strength and added it to yourself was genius. Via forcibles, a blood metal rune, one can extract a person's (Dedicate) wit, glamour, voice, stamina, metabolism, brawn, grace, etc and transfer it to a runelord or person. Of course if one gives up their strength they become weak, voice become a mute, wit loss of memory and thought, etc. It basically comes at a price. What makes it more likable is the fact that if a dedicate dies, the owner of their endowment loses that attributes, vice versa if the receives dies, the dedicate's endowment returns to them. It is logical as these "enhancements" do not just materialize out of thin air and there is, if you think about it, it is a limited resource. There are other ways around these endowments like the serpent ring, the vectors. Its fine. One issue I encountered was the supposed number of dedicates on the continent. Calculating the thousands of endowments on Raj Ahten, his army and those governing his conquered nations, plus the kingdoms of the North, I feel like there are too many dedicates. With a system where you need to keep your dedicate alive in order to have enhancements, you would need a bigger percentage. Logically, if one soldier has 10 extra endowments, from 3 different dedicates, plus people taking care of them, supposedly they are in 3 different locations, this amounts to 7 people at least (1x soldier, 3x dedicates, 3x caretakers). Caretakers can be even those that have only given up a specific one like voice or hearing so they may take care of the certain dedicates but still... The number seems a lot greater if you think about... The second one was the Earth Warden's powers and his herbal "potions". The Earth Warden wasn't that original, the earthy nurturing aura is something I have seen in the past (some books have given depictions to characters given their elemental affiliation and had some similarity to those here). What stood out was the herbalist portion. How Binnesman used the earth- soil, herbs, leaves, flowers/ petals. Using each to either mask scent or create glamour/ illusions, mist, cure or prevent poison, help stamina and rejuvenate the human body. The implication seems endless. Added the factor that not everyone can use them, needing an affinity to the earth or even growing these herbs yourself making them more potent in personal use, was a remarkable integration to the magical system Farland devised.

As for the "silent" army of the underworld that was pushed away centuries ago and is coming back full force- Reavers. They talk about them a lot. A few show up. But for something that is mean to terrify use, they feel overrated and useless. Maybe Farland was trying to give us some mystery but I unfortunately didn't bite. These are supposedly our main and true antagonists... So?

The last bit was the whole destiny as foretold (...). Merciful Zeus, do I hate those tropy good guy ones... Can I go with logic and say if your main character was suppose to be named a name but wasn't, he is no longer the prophesied one? Or if certain individuals were meant to be on your side but by some force of nature are now your swore enemies, your preordained destiny is not your destiny (anymore). Shouldn't it be "well... we'll make do with what we have" or "the promise one will come at a later date. Its fine!".

I don't personally recommend it, there is better material out there. Even though this may have been a great fantasy decades ago, it doesn't stand out when it comes to my fantasy collection.

The "magic system" is a horror show. Just an engine of compounding human suffering.

3.5 I almost really liked it.

This series is based on an interesting premise, that you can be gifted others' physical and mental endowments.

Sum of All Men was a strong start to the series, and it drew me in and compelled me to read the whole series. Unfortunately, the rest of the series isn't as strong, although it's definitely still readable.

The middle two books, Brotherhood of the Wolf and Wizardborn, suffer from lacking individual story arcs, and the climax, Lair of Bones, feels rushed.

The Runelords is one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long time. The characters are real and likable, the magic system is nuanced and thoroughly defined, and the descriptions are plentiful without being over-the-top ridiculous. There was zero slog in here, as sometimes happens 1/3 of the way through these 600 page fantasy novels. The pace never slowed and I was constantly interested of what was going to happen next.
There are two types of magic in Farland's novel- Earth magic and rune magic (there's also flame magic, but only the flame weavers and agents of the underworld can use those). The rune magic is quite interesting- a person can 'gift' (read: payed for, bequeathed, coerced) another person their living attributes, such as glamour, wit, grace, stamina, or metabolism. In doing so, the 'dedicate' (person giving the attribute) loses all of that attribute and gives it to another person, in the form of a rune branded on their body. As long as the dedicate lives, the Rune Lord will use that person's attribute and become stronger/more beautiful/smarter. I've honestly never come across this concept before, and I found it fascinating. The villain here, Raj Ahten, is attempting to become The Sum of All Men by taking thousands of attributes from those he has conquered. Conversely, the Earth magic is given by the Earth, and can only be earned by treating the Earth well and respecting its power. Not a whole lot is known about this power yet, as our main character, Gaborn, is still learning of his capabilities himself.
There are so many characters I liked in this book, including Myhrrima, Iome, King Sylvarresta, King Orden, Binnesman, Borrenson, and of course, Gaborn. They are all fully fleshed out, endearing, and, above all, good people. It's refreshing to read a fantasy with so many morally good characters. Even the villain of the piece, Raj Ahten, in his own twisted way, is attempting to save the people of the kingdom by conquering it.
There's a lot of death and suffering here- I won't sugar coat it. There's war and endowments forcibly taken from others. If you're someone who can handle that, then I promise you, the rest of the story will be worth it.
I'm very eager to dive into the next book in the series and learn more about Runelords, earth magic and see what becomes of Gaborn and Iome.

Good solid fantasy. I found it both intriguing and entertaining.

ndf
sistema magico innovativo (e immorale) e personaggi noiosi
prolisso oltre la mia personale capacità di sopportazione

It saddens me how little this series is talked about. I think I've only ever heard two people in my Booktube bubble speak about it, and one of them was a memorial video from a friend of his. Mr. Durfee, I promise I will get to your books eventually. I just have so much to read! Mr. Farland was the guy who taught Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Brandon Mull, James Dashner, and many more. I wish he'd get more recognition, and please have the last book finished sometime.
Anyway, let's talk about the book.
The book has a unique magic system, in the form of endowments. Which are pretty much like stats in DnD. Say you have three of wit. Which is self-explanatory. What isn't self-explanatory is metabolism. Metabolism just should've been called stamina, why the deuce is it called metabolism? You're not digesting anything.
The plot to me felt like the start of an arc of the Wheel of Time, my favorite fantasy series. Just because of how it was set up, the characters felt like prototype Robert Jordan characters that never made it past the review stage, and they are terrific. Ioma and Raj Ahten in particular. Ioma is a very capable woman in this book, which surprised me because when the book was written, I'm curious to see how her and Gaborn's relationship develop throughout the series. Raj Ahten, might be one of the most connivingly evil characters to ever be written. He is just straight-up an awful person, and sometimes you need some straight-up monsters in your fantasy.
Please, if you're going to read one series that I've read, read the Runelords.

So much happened in this book and still so little.
This book is about an invading army in a fantasy world with some really great, albeit scary, magic system.
If you liked A Song of Ice and Fire for the world and the intrigue but didn't care much about the sex and gore-y deaths, this book would be perfect for you.

Also, I share my first name with the villain. Weird feeling.