Rating: 
Summary: A great and Exiting Book
Review: This book captures it's readres in a fun filled adventure. I highly recongmend this book to all fantasy lovers!
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping read, hard to put down, with some unique concepts.
Review: I haven't read a magic/fantasy adventure novel in quite a while. I read this one because my 16 year old son's best friend Jason, gobbles up this genre, and I wanted to see what it looks like nowadays, so I asked him to give me one of his favorites. I found the book lush in its description of the pre-industrial setting. Characters were well developed and the plot, with multiple threads was superbly woven. The story introduces a fascinating concept that takes the idea of indentured servitude or slavery in a fascinating direction-- endowment of special properties. A royal, or soldier can be "endowed" with the strength, glamour, intelligence, stamina, etc. of another person. This is done using magic. The person who contributes the endowment loses that "asset." But it allows for a very smart, strong, energized royal or soldier. They even do it with horses. The use of this fascinating concept is explored to some amazing ends. I zipped through the 600+ pages in under three days. Now I'm reading the sequel, Brotherhood of The Wolf. One caution. It does have some more graphic, I'd say PG13 rated, brief romantic descriptions. THey're not really sexually explicit. But especially since the book starts off with a bit of romance, I'm not sure my 10 year old, who loves the Harry Potter series, would enjoy it. I guess, if he got past the first 25 pages, he'd start breezing through it like I did. It's fun read. Enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not good
Review: My girlfrend liked Runelords, and so I read it. i didn't like it but I decided to try the sequel, Bortherhood of the Wolf. It was worse. This is clunking writing and boring concepts that are not new or original in any way, except for the endowments which, while interesting, are unrealistic in application. The thinking is sloppy and so is the dialog. Bottom line: this book and this series is a waste of money. If you want to read the true master, get a hold of George Martin's third book in A Song of Ice and Fire series, Storm of Swords. This looks like a comic book by comparison.
Rating: 
Summary: I felt like I was standing on quicksand.
Review: I loved the first book of this series and couldn't wait to get the next book. This book was a real disappointment though. One problem was, the characters were inconsistent. They'd make a decision, then go ahead and do something that completely contradicted that decision. It also got a little repetitive, what with the sleeping in the earth, different characters learning the same news over and over. After a while I just got bored. That is why only three stars. It just lacked something and that took away from the story. I did like the development of the minor characters but that is one of the only good things I can say about this book. I fervently hope that the next book is better.
Rating:
Summary: The series leaves the well-trod path, and begins to delight!
Review: I admit that reading the first Runelords book, I felt like I was heading through well-explored territory. It was like my hometown had been painted up and the streets were repaved, but I still felt like I knew where I was, and where I was going. It was fun to look around, but once you got a feel for it, it was your hometown again--nice, comfortable, but maybe a little normal. In this second book, I really felt like the series started becoming a real, viable world of it's own--by which I mean this: I started caring. It wasn't just Thehero and Theprincess and Thebadguy any more. It was really Gaborn, and Raj Ahten. I'm honestly perplexed by the negative reviews that tear down the characters--I really felt like the characters drew me in, particularly here, in the second book. The only explanation I can find for it is this: The characters aren't flashy, or hilarious, or super-heros (even the ones with super-human powers), but rather are human, with human motives and desires. Ask yourself the question--what if you had the strength of 20 men? And what if those 20 men were men who you knew, and getting that strength meant that THEY WOULDN'T have it any more. Sound intriguing? Yeah, it is. But it's not an action-packed question. Sure, because you've got the strength, you end up seeing plenty of action, but the real questions in Runelords aren't about how the power is used, but about how it's obtained. And whether the ends justify the means. There's plenty of action. Armies of reavers, men with near-infinite power, all the fun stuff. But the depth is in the questions, not in the fine points of battle.
Rating:
Summary: As bad as the worst role-playing game scenarios
Review: It really does read like some ill-conceived fantasy role-playing game. Statistical approaches to abilities, freakish monsters and heroes. Dull, dull stuff. Reviewers seem to be in awe of the "originality" of the magic system. Geez, easily impressed, aren't we? An original magic system is neat for those weekend dungeons and dragons campaigns between junior high students but doesn't impres me in a novel. Try writing with depth and skill, now there's something you don't see on the fantasy shelves these days. I'd rather eat broken glass than read this slop.
Rating:
Summary: Banal
Review: I am totally lost in the quest for a point in this series, and it appears I am not alone; the author joins me on the endless search for the theme here. True, he has invented a magic system different from other series, but it is implausible and offensive. The characters are one dimensional and unsympathetic, the writing flat and the interactions between men and women dull or worse. It is hard for me to imagine that a writer as fine as Orson Scott Card would do anything more than spit in the direction of this book, and yet a lot of the second-rank SFF authors have lined up to praise it. I can't believe they even read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Become a better tale teller
Review: This is my recommendation for the author. This story is so full of holes and what is there is so woefully underdeveloped I don't understand how this book can be praised as a major literary accomplishment. The novel is full of your typical fantasy novel junk.
Rating:
Summary: Have faith in the tale-teller.
Review: I am constantly amazed at the inventiveness and creativity of the leaders in this genre. This is truly the farthest reaches of human experience, thinly but all-too-cleverly veiled in the realms of magic and wonder. Farland's second installment is simply brilliant, and I couldn't disagree more with those who seem to want to try to second guess the author's final gambits. Whether it be Rand, Gaborn, or Jon Snow, don't expect your fries to be ready for take-out immediately! Savor the ride, and don't be so quick to judge. We're in the midst of such literary luxury only dreamt of by our forebears!
Rating:
Summary: Drops the pace, but still good
Review: Novelty was a key positive for the first book of Farland's series (Runelords) and obviously this novelty of the endowments concept is no longer there for the second book (Brotherhood). To that extent, book 2 drops in pace and the series shifts closer to the run of the mill variety. In fact, the magic of the elements is more to the forefront in this book, than endowments, despite some half-hearted attempts to debate the issue. The battle scenes are surprisingly well done, especially the climactic fight between humans and reavers before the walls of Carris. But Farland seems to be going the Jordan way with exploding sub-plots, large gaps in the story line and pathetic excuses for maps. We have no real idea of the reavers and their motivation (why did they emerge suddenly now? What do they want?) but now out of nowhere, the child skyrider Averan develops an understanding by eating their brains - sheesh. The green woman was obviously the wylde, but where was she between her creation and now? Why was she falling from the heavens? And where do the "world-worms" fit in all this? For that matter, Farland never clearly outlines what drives Raj Ahten to his excesses and the motivation of most of the characters is extremely vague. I had feared while reading Runelords that Farland would be tempted to extol his philosophy instead of letting it flow with the story and my fears seem to have come true. By the end, if Gaborn and the Earth both seem confused as to what he is expected to do, the reader is no less bemused. It still is a book with promise and hence the 3 stars, but I do hope Farland knows where he is heading; I for one am not sure at all and considering the way he started, that is a shame.
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