I have always been more of a fan of Science Fiction than I have of Fantasy which makes sense for someone who grew up watching Star Wars and Star Trek with my Dad. I have always loved thinking about the future and what amazing things will be possible, whereas fantasy always feels like I am looking back at things that are definitely not possible. (I also think that the best horror is always about what is possible and not what is fantastic.) In spite of all that I still find myself reading a lot of Fantasy. I think that this is because writing well about the fantastic is easier than writing well about what might be possible someday. Thus there are many more, well written fantasy books than there are Science Fiction. A well written science fiction book always shoots ahead of many fantasy books on my favorites list.
In spite of this I feel that The Runelords by David Farland is decent fiction. I have very little to compare this to because my adult fantasy experience consists of The Lord of the Rings and The Sword of Shannara. I loved the former but the latter didn't seem to offer me much. The Runelords falls somewhere in between. There are two major concepts presented in this series that I see as unique.
The most intriguing is the concept of endowments. In this world an individual can acquire attributes from another using a kind of metal brand that draws the attribute from one person and grants it to another. The attributes that are transferred include brawn, grace, beauty, stamina, metabolism (speed), sight, hearing and many more. This concept is thoroughly examined and flushed out through the first four books as this process is an integral part of this world and many aspects of this culture are examined.
The second concept at the center of these novels is the creation story of this universe. The idea is that all worlds used to be one, where everybody lived in a quasi perfect state. One individual sought to gain control over the whole world and in the process destroyed this sense of perfection and shattered the world into a “million million shadow worlds,” each one being a shadow of the “one true world” and containing some portion of what the one true world once was. This concept is much less clear through out the course of the novels is not clearly described. Part of this, I am sure, is because all the information is not available to any one character and the information is presented as the characters learn about it. However it is very difficult to pick up on everything all at once and does cause a little bit of confusion.
This series of novels is an epic and the author explores many storylines and subplots that take up many pages within the novels, some being much more interesting than others. All of these have value and contribute to the overall feeling of the book. The Wyrmling Horde I feel is probably the best of the series but I do reserve final judgment until after the 8th and final book is published.
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