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A review by everlaerian
The Runelords by David Farland
3.0
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 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.