The Sum of All Men, Runelords #1 by David Farlang

“The Sum of All Men” is an epic fantasy set in a world where the strong and powerful can extort and extract skills from ordinary humans. The poor give up their intelligence, strength, or beauty in exchange for care and protection for themselves and their families. Once they make this sacrifice, they become disabled and are kept in storage until their rune lord dies.

This is the most brutal magic system I’ve read. Most of the gifts come at a great cost, causing severe suffering on the donors. It’s not a typical RPG-style system where taking a thousand strength gifts makes someone superhuman. The strongest gift is metabolism, which grants extraordinary speed but each gift taken reduces the lifetime of the lord.

The main antagonist of the story has taken tens of thousands of gifts from people and has superhuman strength, speed, and healing. His voice can make the strongest people submit to his will. He wants to conquer the world and become the sum of all men, a person with the talent of millions. The main protagonist is also a superhuman of a slightly different kind – one that can get away with anything. He understand that taking gifts is evil. Who is going to win?

The top review on Goodreads is by Mark Lawrence, the author of Prince of Thorns. If there’s a fantasy book more cruel than Runelords, it’s Prince of Thorns. Mark Lawrence gave it a 4, and I would agree.

4*/5