Certain works of fantasy are immediately recognizable as major monuments, towering above the rest of the category. Authors of those works, such as Stephen R. Donaldson and J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind, come immediately to mind. Now add to that list David Farland, whose epic begins in The Runelords.

Young Prince Gabon, a Runelord prince who has received endowments of strength and perception according to the system of magic that works in this world, is traveling in disguise with his warrior-guard, Borenson, to the fiefdom of his father's friend King Sylvarresta to ask for the hand of his daughter, lome, in marriage. But as they stop on the way in a market town, they meet a beautiful woman, Myrrima, who catches the eye of Borenson. The prince, seeing this and having a sudden and unusual intuition of her honor and loyalty, encourages Borenson in immediate courtship.

As he sits in a tavern, Gaborn notices two foreign assassins, powerful and well-trained men who should not be there, who head out toward Sylvarresta.

And in a moment, his happy journey turns into a perilous race to warn the King of deadly danger, a danger that seems local but escalates with astonishing speed to such a magnitude and scope that all human life is threatened. Monstrous evil is loose among men and in the world.

So begins the fantasy epic of The Runelords.

"When I reached the end of this first volume, The Runelords, and saw grace arise from a devastating battlefield where too many great hearts lay dead, Farland had earned the tears that came to my eyes. It was not sentiment but epiphany".-- Orson Scott Card, Author of Alvin Maker

"This is a major talent". -- Fantasy and Science Fiction