Steve Wrenn

An excellent new take on fantasy! Farland doesn't just recycle Tolkien's/Gygax's creatures, but instead comes up with his own. His take on magic is new and interesting as well. The examination of the moral quandary of taking these endowments from people, even willingly, is cause for pause. Even more of note is the examination of the morality of killing dedicates, who often were unwilling, in order to harm your enemy. This isn't unlike the question of bombing factories with slave workers to stop enemy tank production. The writing style isn't quite as good as Tolkien or Martin, and I couldn't help but imagine cartoon characters in my mind as I read the book. That, of course, might be because it's hard to imagine people more beautiful than beautiful, or running at 100 miles per hour. While I like Lord of the Rings better and suspect there are other series I'll like better, I fully plan on continuing to read the series! While it doesn't feel quite as epic in scope as some other series, I'm just getting started! The map at the front of the book left plenty of space unfilled! I fully recommend it to anyone who is looking for a new fantasy series!

What more can be said? A classic. I try to read it every year in December. If only the message resonated more clearly...

The classic fantasy tale that started the modern genre. Excellent, as it was 20 years ago in college. Still some of the best prose I have ever read. The classic good and evil story. While I realize that there are very few cases of all good or all evil, and I definitely like my stories with nuance, sometimes I just like a story with clear lines. Plus, the massive world that he built is still even in light of the size of some of the worlds in newer books with more words written on them, this is still one of the most complete fictional worlds ever written. Even the likes of WoT and Malazan, the worlds are not done as completely as Arda.

The book is not, however, without its flaws. Maybe it's not so much a flaw as the product of its time. The writing definitely doesn't flow as easily to my eye as more recent works, but then Tolkien is a man of the early 20th Century, and somewhat the upper crust of Britain at that. I still like the style, but it does take more effort to read that some other works.

The last problem honestly, is the way he describes skin color in the book. While I have seen no evidence of him being racist, and certainly having no writings as troubling as his contemporary HP Lovecraft, I can't help but notice that the whiter the character's skin, the better they are. The elves have the whitest skin, while many of the groups of men who have sided with Sauron are describes as “swarthy”, ass are likewise even those members of mostly friendly groups, the few hobbits and men in league with evil have darker skin. Again, I'm not sure one could read too deep into it, but it is noteworthy. Maybe it changes in later books, but I have yet to see a good character described as having anything besides pale white skin.

All in all, an excellent book. Even those who started reading fantasy with newer works, I think would gain much by reading the work that began it all. Even today, over 60 years later, this man influences fantasy in inummerable ways, and will for decades to come.

An excellent sequel! This book moved at a much faster pace, and introduced some amazing characters and places! I definitely enjoyed reading about more than simply another two-way fight like in the previous book. The original Runelords books gave us a slight taste of the menacing reavers that had been discussed, and it seemed clear right from the get go that they would be the bigger enemy by far, even before being discussed much. The new lands such as Fleeds being discussed was very cool. And seeing a matriarchal warrior culture is an awesome twist! The battle in the climax was awesome, very descriptive, and I could definitely picture the events happening in my mind! Iy played out just like a movie!

This book also advances beyond the first in that you have several different threads through the book, all connecting in the end. I like the story of Averan, Pole, and Roland. It's interesting to see new ways of magic being used besides the runes. Indeed, some of the spells are of a more traditional fantasy magic type. However, the magic is at a cost, and must be used wisely or it will be withdrawn. This is a good way to prevent rampant overpower by someone with unchecked magical powers. Indeed, it would seem that the burden born by Gaborn is much more a curse than a blessing. It's almost unrealistic that he can emotionally handle seeing so many die that he has made so close to himself. It was touching to see how Father Borenson felt for a little girl after just meeting her, and it was fun to learn a little bit about Borenson's past. I will say that the book's length (and the slowness with which I read it made it difficult to keep it in mind that these events, in both books, have all taken place over the course of one week. In some cases there are several hundred pages between encounters with a particular storyline but less than a day has passed. Farland does seem to be cognizant of that since he seems to bring up this short timespan frequently. The only other criticism I guess I would have is that with little artwork that I could find, I can't help but imagining the reavers as giant versions of the Aliens from the franchise of the same name. I know the cover art isn't from Farland, but maybe with the reavers making their first big appearance, they should have appeared on the cover instead of the Darkling Glory.

All in all, an excellent book, much better than the first book. Seeing that the lands are indeed expanding, as are the characters, I'm excited to see where this goes!

Well, I was hoping I liked this book more than the last, and I wasn't disappointed. While certainly not on the caliber of the first half of the series, this is a good book, and I liked it much more than Worldbinder. Farland seems much more sure of himself in this book, and seems to be developing characters that he's sticking with, instead of the situation as I felt in the last book, where he seemed to be uncommitted to either the world he had created or the one he was creating, he seems invested in this one. I'm getting to know these characters better, instead of seeing them as the bastardized versions of the previous characters I'd enjoyed. After too much turnover, and then several key characters only lasting one book, this one makes it seem that we'll be sticking with them for a while.

I enjoyed in this book the fact that we're getting to see Wyrmlings as people, far more than we ever got to know the Reavers. Of course, the Wyrmlings are definitely portrayed as inherently evil and knowing it, vs the Reavers, who were only evil, IMHO, the way an antelope sees the lion as evil. I also love the way that Vulgash was dealt with! I'm not sure I could have come up with that interesting way of doing it without “attacking” him!

Overall, a worthy addition to the Runelords saga! Yes, unfortunately, it means slogging through Worldbinder, but this book made it worth it!