Rating: 
Summary: Very Interesting Book, Lots of Promise!
Review: The author has come up with an extremely unique, and quite fascinating way to handle magic ("endowments") in this novel. That premise alone kept me reading and reading. What's most interesting, however, is that although described throughout the novel as the "villian" Rah Ahten (ROTTEN--how clever!) you get the sense he may be more like the villains of the George R.R. Martin novels; in other words, not clearly evil and bad.The battle scenes are incredibly written, and remind me a lot of some of the Salvatore "Ice Wind Dale" books. I've move onto Brotherhood of the Wolf--Book 2, and the series continues to keep my interest. I will say, however, that if you really want to read an awesome and exciting page turner get your hands on David B. Coe's Rules of Ascension.
Rating:
Summary: Cliche, but fresh spin
Review: Yeah, like most epic/high fantasy this novel sports the 'ol Evilrulertakingovertheworldandcanonlybestoppedbylonefarmboy storyline, but Farland (which is NOT his real name) does introduce a novel social system. "Endowments" may be given to a "Runelord" by a peon, which leads to superhuman ability (like neo in "The Matrix"). The peon becomes a "dedicate" that wastes away in bed. This leads to fresh problems and gives rise to fresh moral questions. The plot: brilliantly revealed. New twists all the time. The characters: so so. There isn't a whole lot of depth to any character, and the weak spot of Farland's writing armor is depicting emotion. So it's hard to get attached to any one character. Farland should read up on Shakespeare or watch "Friends" or something to learn what it means to twang the old heart strings.
Rating: 
Summary: Festival of the Earth King
Review: The Sum of All Men is the first novel in the Runelords series. In this world, the endowments of Dedicates can be transferred via forcibles to other persons; e.g., the abilities, strengths and other attributes of contributing individuals can be removed and passed on through magical irons. For example, soldiers may have multiple endowments of strength and metabolism while nobles may have multiple endowments of brawn and stamina. However, these endowments are bestowed only for the lifetime of the Dedicates, so they must be kept alive and protected from harm or their endowments will vanish from the recipients. The kings of Rofehaven are uneasy, for Raj Ahten, the Wolf Lord, has conquered all the twenty-two kingdoms of Indhopal and is now poised to invade either the barbarians of Inkarra or the Rofehaven kingdoms. The kings of Rofehaven are already preparing for war. In this novel, Price Gabron Val Orden is visiting Bannisferre to study Heredon and to seek the hand of Princess Iome Sylvarresta. He visits the south market to sense its many wares and is contemplating a wine chiller when, suddenly, a young woman takes his hand. Since he is wearing the guise of a rich merchant's son, he decides that she is proposing marriage. Her family has given her two extra endowments of beauty and another of wit so that she can make a good marriage. After a very oblique conversation, Myrrima discovers his identity and, confused and abashed, tries to break off the conversation, but he persuades her to continue to talk for a while more and soon notices that Borenson, his bodyguard, is very interested in her. After she leaves, Gabron sends Borenson to bring her back to discuss one more topic. Gabron proposes that she marry Borenson, who has very recently been made a Baron and given a rich estate. Borenson is rather startled by the promotion, but likes the idea of marriage to Myrrima, who also agrees to the proposal. Gabron then sends Borenson with Myrrima to her home to meet her family and to formally propose. Gabron stays in town with his Days, wanders in the market some more and then returns to the Inn for dinner. He orders a sweet wine for the Days and addleberry wine for himself. The Days overindulges in his wine and Gabron's wine enhances his insight, so Gabron has a strange conversation with the Days that leads to a few intuitive thoughts. Moreover, he notices two dark-complected and well armed men come into the Inn; they move like assassins and also use assassin signs to converse with two other similar men already seated there. Gabron immediately gets up and goes to the stable, where he finds that several other such men have passed through town going north, probably to Sylvarresta. Riding to Myrrima's home, he sees that fog is rolling in and smells something unusual. At Myrrima's home, Borenson smells many giants in the area. In Sylvarresta, Sargeant Dreys of the King's Guard has been attacked and severely injured by an assassin, who was seeking a book given to Dreys to pass on to the king. Dreys has crippled the assailant, but two other Guardsmen were killed and another injured before the man was finally captured. The assailant has declared himself to be a peaceful spice merchant from Muyyatin, but most of the Guard believe him to be a spy. The foreign merchants are in an uproar over the incident, angrily demanding that the man be released, so politics keeps the Guard from using torture to determine the truth. Moreover, the foreign merchants have threatened a ban if the assailant is executed. When Iome learns of the grievous injury to Dreys, she sends Chemoise, her Maid of Honor, to be with her fiance and, after hearing a more complete report from the Guardsman, follows after to see for herself. Dreys manages to ask about the book and dies shortly thereafter. Chemoise grieves for a few more minutes and then runs to their secret trysting place to wait for his spirit to manifest. She confides to Iome that she is pregnant with Dreys' child and spills the news that Gabron will soon be visiting, which Iome has not known. Becoming even more irate at the whole situation, Iome takes Chemoise with her to talk to the King. The King is certain that the assassin is also a spy. The Captain of the Guard has followed the scent of this assassin as he slipped along the fortifications. Moreover, the man has numerous endowments in a mixture suggesting a warrior or assassin. In addition , five of the King's huntsmen are missing after entering Dunnwood and he suspects that armed assassins are there assembling for a strike within the next two days. The King decides to ransom off the assassin to the foreign merchants for as much as he can get and then let the man go free to signal his compatriots. Meanwhile, the Guardsmen are preparing for an attack by the assassins. This novel has most of the familiar characteristics of a fantasy novel, but with some innovative twists. Even the giants aren't quite like the common archetype. Characters often do not conform to the stereotypes, with few exceptions such as Hollicks, who is a fairly typical merchant. This story is full of action and surprises, dominated mostly by the offstage presence of Raj Ahten. However, the wights of dunnwood have a shining part to play as well. And Gabron comes into his inheritance. Recommended for anyone who enjoys heroic fantasy with strange magic.
Rating: 
Summary: An evil overlord walks into a bar...
Review: Stop me if you've heard this one already. Okay, so there's this evil overlord, see. And he wants to take over the world, all right. But there's this young man who fights to stop him. And the young man turns out to be the reborn version of an ancient hero, as predicted in legend, see. And there's a gratuitous love interest thrown in, all right. And a wise old wizard who's the man's mentor. And there's... Well, you get the idea of "The Runelords", the latest unfortunate edition of copycat Tolkien-clone fantasy to mar the once-proud fantasy shelves of bookstores and libraries around the world. Our hero is Gaborn, a young prince who's riding through the woods of a foreign country when he happens to notice an army of foul-smelling bad guys preparing for an attack. Gaborn heroically rides to notify the King, but this proves futile as arch-baddie Raj Ahten easily conquers the capitol city and then spends several chapters putting his evilness on full display by tormenting a variety of innocent people. The central gimmick in this novel is the idea of endowments, a magical process by which qualities can be transferred from one person to another. For example, if you give an endowments of sight, then you become blind but someone else can see twice as well. This concept allows the author to easily divide up his characters among good guys who only accept voluntary endowments and bad guys who take endowments by force. Exactly why anyone would be willing to give up their entire hope of a productive life just to give an endowment is never explained. Raj Ahten has so many endowments of glamour that anyone who looks at him is forced to obey him, although this inexplicably only works some of the time. Exactly why nobody ever thought to do this before is never explained either. But if I tried to list all the plot holes and continuity lapses in this book, we'd be here all day. Astonishingly enough, Farland's writing manages to fall below the very low standard that Robert Jordan and other mediocrities have set for the fantasy genre. He's unable to create any sense of urgency even though he's supposedly writing about a huge conflict between ultimate good and evil incarnate. For instance, consider one seen where two characters are in a city that's under siege by an army of monsters and bad guys, yet they keep chatting away as if they don't have a care in the world. Or consider the fact that after his father is killed, Gaborn can't come up with anything more convincing to say than "I reject you, Raj Ahten. I will destroy you." We get stupid place names (How on Earth do you pronounce "Muyyatin"), stupid character names (Steveford Hawk?), bad similes (Gaborn sees a woman with "hips moving like boiling waves"), misused words (fire is described as "topaz"), and silly figurative language ("He felt sure to the marrow of his bones".) Farland often grows repetitious. When Gaborn becomes saddened, "He felt as if the fabric of his mind ripped." A little bit later, we get "he felt as if the fiber of his sanity was shredded." The fiber of somebody's sanity has certainly been shredded, but I don't think it's the character. Oh, and let's not forget nonsense like this: "He spurred his horse west, deeper into the forest, shouting, 'Spirits of the wood, I am Gaborn Val Oredn, Prince of Mystarria. I beg you, protect me!' "Even as he called for aid, he knew it would do no good. The spirits of the dead care nothing for the concerns of mortal men. If Gaborn attracted their attention, they'd only seek to make sure he joined them in the afterlife." (p. 85) So in the second paragraph, we learn that Gaborn will be killed if the spirits notice him. But in the first paragraph, he's trying to get the spirits to notice him. What's up with that? And last but not least, we wouldn't want to forget to mention Farland's social sensibilities. The bad guys are all dark-skinned and they come from the South, and the archvillain is even named "Raj Ahten". All the other bad guys also have names suggestive of Arabic or Hindi origin. We also get classic stereotypes such as Mr. Ahten maintaining a harem and using opium. Meanwhile, the White heroes who dwell in the North are universally strong, noble, courageous, courteous, and morally upstanding. On top of that, we get rampant sexism; the lead female character doesn't do much besides sit around whining while the men do everything that requires effort. Mr. Farland, if you're reading this, would you please wake up and realize that the 50's are over?
Rating:
Summary: Bravo!
Review: These days, I judge all my fantasy reads by comparing them to George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series (which is pretty much perfect, IMHO). Farland's not as good as Martin, but he blows Jordan, Brooks, and Eddings away, that's for damn sure (I'm not a fan of any of those authors). The Runelords series is straightforward, old-fashioned fantasy (maybe a little too old-fashioned), but the system of magical "endowments" is fresh and original. And while I've read other reviewers say they didn't like the characters, I found them interesting and believable. A good solid read, which I think is pretty rare in fantasy these days!
Rating:
Summary: The Sum of All Men
Review: David Farland has a diamond in the rough here. In a day and age where fantasy is mass produced and generally written in formulas (Naive hero, mentor of some kind, true and undying love is found, antagonist is one step ahead until the epic moment,etc etc etc) Farland has somewhat of an accomplishment here. The Runelords series doesn't nearly come close to redefining the genre but what it does offer us is a fantasy formula that is extremely easy to read. I mean, come on, we read for enjoyment do we not? I find myself constantly refering to this book as a comic book of sorts; whereas the book itself features no illustrations beyond the cover. It's how it is composed. the action is swift, the characters amusing yet contrasting. This book, as well as the series, is a pleasure to read. I hope that Farland's style continues to progress and grow, for this first dive into writing has been quite successful in my mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Only read the first in the series
Review: For some reason this series just didn't grab me, and I was not compelled to read the rest of the series. The premise was interesting, but the characters were not particularly appealing or particularly well fleshed out. You just didn't care what happened to them. The quality of the writing was also just so-so.
Rating:
Summary: The Sum Of All Men- A great new perspective on fantasy.
Review: Just minutes ago I finished reading this great book. I have heard rumors that this is David Farlands first book, if so, he did an incredible job. The plot is very different from any i have ever read. The idea of being able to take endowments from the willing to benefit yourself and your kingdom is so creative. It is a must read for fantasy readers who are looking for something a bit different to spice up there collection. I cant wait to read the next two.
Rating:
Summary: Good read!
Review: Good read. Enjoyed it and the series. It wasn't as...involving...as other books are. But, it was great none-the-less.
Rating:
Summary: Good read!
Review: Liked the book. Interesting concepts. Exciting. Lags in several areas but that's all right. I think it deserves a 3 and a half, actually.
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