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Summary
Summary
Volume Two of The Runelords
Raj Ahtan, ruler of Indhopal, has used enough forcibles to transform himself into the ultimate warrior: The Sum of All Men. Ahtan seeks to bring all of humanity under his rule-destroying anything and anyone that stood in his path, including many friends and allies of young Prince Gaborn Val Orden. But Gaborn has fulfilled a two-thousand-year-old prophecy, becoming the Earth King-a mythic figure who can unleash the forces of the Earth itself.
And now the struggle continues. Gaborn has managed to drive off Raj Ahtan, but Ahtan is far from defeated. Striking at far-flung cities and fortresses and killing dedicates, Ahtan seeks to draw out the Earth King from his seat of power, to crush him. But as they weaken each other's forces in battle, the armies of an ancient and implacable inhuman enemy issue forth from the very bowels of the Earth.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Continuing the fantasy saga he began with The Runelords, Farland's latest novel takes place immediately after its predecessor, and in the same quasi-medieval world. Earth King Gaborn and his rival, Raj Ahten, continue their deadly war until reaversÄgruesome crab-shaped elephants with formidable magical powersÄcompel them to join forces against a common enemy. Amid all the battles and intrigues, Farland explores the political and ethical dilemmas created by the rune system of magic, in which runes can transfer "endowments" of various qualities, such as glamour or wit, from one human to anotherÄoften leaving the donor crippled or dead. In addition, Farland interweaves, with mixed success, several subplots, the best of which concerns the long journey of Averan, a nine-year-old girl who is traveling in the company of Baron Poll, Roland the Dedicate and a green-skinned wylde, a woman of potent magic able to literally eat a reaver for dinner. Also auspicious is the off-again, on-again courtship of the drunken Prince Celinor and the formidable Princess Erin. Farland's action-packed climax is gripping, even if it involves too much luck. Though not yet in the first tier for narrative technique, world-building or characterization, Farland continues to show considerable promise, suggesting that his next novel may carry the Runelords to a yet higher level in the fantasy pantheon. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Second in the pseudonymous Farland's epic fantasy (The Runelords, 1998). Following the standoff between the Wolf Lord Raj Ahten and the Earth King Gaborn Van Orden, Raj Ahten ravages the south of Mystarria in the hope of drawing Gaborn into battle. But Gaborn seeks to protect his people by Choosing, mentally bonding, with them. His Earth powers also warn him of an altogether different peril, one that will require his and Raj Ahten's combined forces to overcome. But the Wolf Lord rejects the alliance and orders his flameweavers to summon a Darkling Glory, a dreadful magical creature of Air and Darkness. Meanwhile, orc-like reavers and reaver mages, driven from their subterranean fastnesses by a world worm so huge that volcanoes erupt through the tunnels it gnaws out, swarm out of the north. The attractions are indisputable: substantial plotting, inventive magics and enough fighting to gratify the most bloodthirsty fan. Equally clear are the drawbacks: anonymous characters, and that perennially dangling finish.
Booklist Review
The sequel to The Runelords [BKL My 15 98] is as strong in characterization, setting, and action, including bloody battles and gruesome deaths. Newly crowned as the earth king, young Gaborn Val Orden labors to understand his new powers in order to face threats on two fronts. First, the defeated Raj Ahten is back, possessing even more personality and physical endowments than before, taken from perhaps 20,000 people, and wanting to destroy the earth king. The other threat is even greater: the emergence from the bowels of the earth of a multitude of reavers--huge, lethal monsters that slaughter indiscriminately and follow a scorched-earth policy. Led by a reaver mage, the horde means to build a new home, a process that will destroy the land, soil and all, and every human artifact. Only if Gaborn can convince Raj Ahten to join forces with him is there any hope of prevailing against the reavers. Out of this arises the Brotherhood of the Wolf, which, armed with the endowments of dogs, swears fealty to humanity and the earth. --Sally Estes