Brotherhood of the Wolf (Runelords, Book 2)(Library Edition) (The Runelords)

David Farland

ISBN 10: 1433227029 / ISBN 13: 9781433227028

Published by Blackstone Audio, Inc., Ashland, Oregon, U.S.A., 2009

About this Item

AUDIOBOOK ON COMPACT DISC. In plastic library clam case. This was priviately owned, not an ex-library copy. Unabridged. Approx. 22 1/2 hours on 18 compact discs. Read by Ray Porter. Discs appear clean and actually unlistened to. Origianl cover price of $130.00. Bookseller Inventory # 1502099

Quantity Available: 1

Bibliographic Details

Title: Brotherhood of the Wolf (Runelords, Book 2)(...

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc., Ashland, Oregon, U.S.A.

Publication Date: 2009

Binding: Audiobook

Book Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket

About this title

Synopsis:

[Library Edition Audiobook CD in sturdy Vinyl case.]

[Read by Ray Porter]

David Farland delivers the second in his high fantasy Runelords series, featuring a complex system of magic and a wondrous, expertly realized world. Raj Ahten, ruler of Indhopal, has used enough forcibles to transform himself into the ultimate warrior: The Sum of All Men. Ahten seeks to bring all of humanity under his rule, destroying anyone in his path. But young Prince Gaborn has fulfilled a two-thousand-year-old prophecy and become the Earth King, a mythic figure who can unleash the forces of the Earth itself. He has managed to drive off Raj Ahten, but Ahten is far from defeated. Striking at far-flung cities and fortresses, Ahten seeks to draw out the Earth King from his seat of power and 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.

Review:

David Farland's "Runelords" fantasy sequence began in 1998 with The Sum of All Men, a career-relaunch novel whose sales far outstripped earlier SF published under his real name Dave Wolverton. Runelords are supermen whose strength, stamina, and vision, and other physical abilities are multiplied by magical "endowments" transferred from unfortunate donors who are crippled by their loss: the archvillain in the story is virtually invincible thanks to tens of thousands of endowments.

This second book avoids middle-volume doldrums by introducing a vast onslaught of still tougher and memorably unpleasant nonhumans who even the villains must oppose. Meanwhile, various characters skirmish on different parts of the map, and the hero struggles with unreliable powers conferred on him when he was chosen as Earth King to save the land and humanity--or maybe only a tiny part of each.

Farland maintains a steady flow of new situations, reversals, gambits, and surprises ... it's a real shock when one chap who has incurred a dreadful penalty for virtuous reasons is not spared (as expected in the normal chivalry of fantasyland) but rather pays the full, eye-watering price. One small criticism: the writing contains occasional sloppiness and repetition. Nonetheless, this is a rousing, painfully gripping story. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk