Rating: 
Summary: Different
Review: This applies to the entire series. I like the use of the rune powers, but I'm not thrilled with the ending of the final book. I've heard he is working on more involving the children of Gaborn and something about a movie deal? While these are good, I could think of much better fantasy series to head to the big screen.
Rating: 
Summary: A New Standard.
Review: One of the most impressive things this book does is it creates a new system of magic for it's characters to use.
A system of magic with the knowledge that greater power implies greater risks and consquences, and corruption. The 'runelords' system really humanizes the characters and you understand the challenges and risks they undertake as they strive for power.
After a while it just seems to be a big powering up contest, and 'he with the most runes, wins'. But there is a nice degree of developing (and punshing) the characters as well as some unexpected twists involved.
Rating:
Summary: profoundly stunning
Review: I sat down to read this book only three times before I was finished. It's gripping. The characters and storyline are precisly planned out and it shows. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the genre, whether long time reader, or a newly born fan. You will love this book.
Rating:
Summary: Well Done
Review: This is a nice example of how fantasy should be. Unique monsters, majic and a bad
guy....oh yes and of course millions of monsters craling from the earth. The unique
powers of the forcibles is an interesting idea...certaintly a rarity in the genre of
fantasy and this original idea alone is worth the cover price...
The Characters (both good and bad) can use these special devides called forcibles
to extract attributes from their people. If the hero takes someones sight he will see
twice as far and as clear, yet the donor is forever blind...unless the hero dies.
conversly if the donor is killed the hero loses this boon. So there is an inventive to
kill your enemies donors while protecting your own... an amazing concept and one
that is well written...
If one man has enough "dedicates" giving him power he may become "the sum of all men" and be a god... this is what the bad guy wants (of course)Its a great story...
The next 3 books in this series were excellent and this is a definate read!
Keep it up Mr. Farland!
Rating: 
Summary: Decent Idea but BAD Execution
Review: WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS:
If you're an addict of the various types of role-playing games or trading-card games, then you will find Runelords sort of interesting. If you're a producer of such games, read this book, find Farland, and sign him to a contract. The premise of this book would make a very cool game. If you've ever thought that a card, board, or computer game would make a particularly good novel, then you should read this book because you'll quickly realize why this is a particularly bad idea.
WHY YOU SHOULD PASS:
Everyone else should pass. There are such better books out there. If you're reading this review looking for something lighthearted and fast to take on a long vacation, there is much better. This thing's a waste of time. We have reviewed lots of fast-reads that have scored a better. Go to our site and look for those. If you're a parent looking for a "safe" book for your adolescent, this thing is perfectly harmless, but there are better books here as well. Dare we mention The Hobbit as an example?
READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM
Rating: 
Summary: Messed up timeline!!!
Review: This is sooo confusing. I've read the whole series so far, it is four books long and it is sort of interesting. But it is so confusing when in the end of the third book we learn that only about two weeks have passed in the story. I want to know how in anyones wildest dreams one normal person can ride all the way across the continent and fetch the young, delicate concubine he was sent to get and ride all severall hundred miles... in two days. Two days!!! he rode all the way across the world, picked up a young woman and went all the way back in two days. The timeline is so messed up it is impossible for them to be doing the whole story in so little time. The characters can't be possibly sleeping, there isn't any time! And then there is the whole Earth King concept, really nice, except Gaborn loses his powers at the end of the second book. Apparently he violated the Earth power's (type of god) sense of picky ethics or morality. Gaborn Chooses (whatever that means) Raj Ahten but when Raj Ahten tries to kill him and Gaborn retaliates bam! there go all his powers. Then the first half of the third book is his old wizard whining about how Gaborn has no faith. Gaborn does realize like the rest of us however that the Earth power makes no sense. The Earth makes Gaborn Earth King and gives him great power in order to save the human race, but when Gaborn fails to do it's will perfectly without any instruction the Earth decides to remove those powers even though without them the human race will probably be destroyed. The Earth doesn't respond to any appeals for mercy or forgiveness and the only thing helpful I have ever read it doing was it healing the castration of one of the main characters. Yes, for some insane reason the author decided to have a key character dramatically castrated by his archenemy on a battlefield. Then he was instantly healed, in the middle of nowhere, no more then an hour after his wife died in his arms. This whole story is ridiculous, I am actually hoping that Raj Ahten, the big evil guy, will actually win, just because Gaborn, the Earth power and the stupid old wizard are so stupid. The main characters do nothing but debate philosophy. The world is being invaded by freakish mutants and Raj Ahten is the only one taking action, all the
Rating:
Summary: A clever concept ruined by sloppy narrative and plot.
Review: "The Runelords" features a clever concept in a stock fantasy tale, but Farland's slapdash writing ruins both.The system of transferable physical endowments seems a brilliant idea, a gimmick rife with ethical dilemmas, but it also leaves gaping plot holes. The major flaw is why good characters accept endowments at all, since the donors are left crippled, but Farland waves this away by having them only use willing donors. The peasants' fawning eagerness to become zombies to empower their lords strains belief. The ethical ramifications of this system could have fueled a deeper work, but Farland rushes ahead with his fantasy plot, only briefly examining ethics in Borenson's guilt. This potentially interesting concept and the trite plot of a prince discovering his divine legacy end up buried, as "The Runelords" is jumbled in every possible aspect. Characters flit from one idea or place to another with no justification except rambling inner monologues. Gaborn escapes from the castle, only to sneak back in. The plot jumps between unrealistic military campaigning and ponderous earth prophecy. Farland's writing stumbles with trite phrases and halting exposition dumps. Gaborn is fleeing the Dedicates' Keep, but then Farland describes the kitchen in numbing detail. The prose constantly blurts things rather than show the characters figuring them out -- Raj Ahten somehow immediately knows that Orden is using a serpent ring. The only memorable skill in the narrative is the vibrant array of spices and scents that permeate the early sections of the book. Unlike most fantasy authors, Farland does try to inject some moral conflict into his characters, but his weak writing can't support the attempt. The justification for Raj Ahten's conquest reads like more ponderous backstory, and the constant inner whining of Gaborn and Iome feels like Farland fumbling for the next turn in the plot rather than plausible character growth. This muddled writing makes "The Runelords" read like a disorganized flight of fancy. Farland adds new concepts seemingly whenever he needs to turn the plot in another direction, like the introduction of vectors just before Iome becomes one, and the serpent ring when Orden needs a weapon. It's hard to believe that this sloppy prose is the pseudonymous work of an author who's sold dozens of novels, Dave Wolverton, but most of those were franchise tie-ins for Star Wars and The Mummy. "The Runelords" adds the interesting endowment concept and an admirable attempt at round characters to a stock fantasy plot, but drowns it all in sloppy writing.
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