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mickey14 's review for:
The Runelords
by David Farland
This book was ok, a little too long, but a good story. What really bothered me and makes me not want to read any more of the series is the magic system. It is based on "endowments" which people "willingly" give to their lords and soldiers. However, once they give the endowment, they lack beauty or sight or the ability to move, etc., if they even live through the giving. The dedicates, as they are called, and their families are then cared for for the rest of their lives. For the dedicated, this means living together in a hall doing menial tasks if they can, and being protected because if they die their endowment dies with them.
Most of the lords have a number of endowments ranging from a few to nearly a hundred, but the villain in this story has taken thousands of endowments. So while i had a hard time with even the good guys taking these endowments from poor people who need to eat, watching the villain blackmail people into giving endowments and watching him be almost unstoppable because of all his endowments was just so awful. Even though I enjoyed the story ok, this aspect of it made this book difficult to get through and makes me not want to continue the series. I think because it's so easy to imagine people actually doing this made this so hard to read. Especially during a pandemic when people won't even wear masks to help protect others.
Most of the lords have a number of endowments ranging from a few to nearly a hundred, but the villain in this story has taken thousands of endowments. So while i had a hard time with even the good guys taking these endowments from poor people who need to eat, watching the villain blackmail people into giving endowments and watching him be almost unstoppable because of all his endowments was just so awful. Even though I enjoyed the story ok, this aspect of it made this book difficult to get through and makes me not want to continue the series. I think because it's so easy to imagine people actually doing this made this so hard to read. Especially during a pandemic when people won't even wear masks to help protect others.