Best David Farland Books
David Farland built one of fantasy's most compelling power systems with The Runelords series, where warriors can absorb attributes — strength, wit, grace — from willing donors, creating champions who carry the sacrifices of entire populations into battle. It's a concept that sounds mechanical on the page but lands with genuine emotional weight, because Farland never lets the system outrun the human cost beneath it. The Sum of All Men introduces this world with confident worldbuilding and propulsive plotting; by Wizardborn and The Lair of Bones, the stakes have escalated into something genuinely epic. His prose is clean and fast-moving without being thin — he trusts the ideas to do the heavy lifting. Readers who want fantasy with a novel metaphysical hook, moral complexity baked into the magic, and series-length commitment will find Farland a deeply rewarding writer.
Where to Start with David Farland
- Best entry point → The Runelords (Sum of All Men and Brotherhood of the Wolf) (1,2)
- Best standalone → Advent 9 (Superpunk Book 1)
- Start the Gunnie Rose #0.0 - The Gunnie series → Unfettered II: New Tales
- What readers keep coming back to → The Sum of All Men
- Highest rated by readers → The Lair of Bones (The Runelords #4)
Best David Farland Books
- 1
The Lair of Bones
The Runelords • Book 4
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Gaborn ventures into the earth's bowels seeking to heal the world while massive reaver armies threaten humanity's extinction. Farland's Runelords saga reaches apocalyptic heights in this subterranean showdown.
★ 3.90 Goodreads (6.3K ratings) - 2
Wizardborn
The Runelords • Book 3
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The Earth King Gaborn has lost his magical abilities just as massive Reaver armies emerge to consume humanity. Farland shifts focus from individual power struggles to species survival as the scope of his fantasy world explodes outward.
★ 3.85 Goodreads (9.9K ratings) - 3
Unfettered II: New Tales
Gunnie Rose #0.0 - The Gunnie
by Shawn Speakman, Naomi Novik, Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, Michael J. Sullivan, Janny Wurts, Bradley P. Beaulieu, Mark Lawrence, Seanan McGuire, Peter Orullian, Aidan Moher, Erin Lindsey, John A. Pitts, Anthony Ryan, Scott Sigler, Django Wexler, Rachel Caine, Sarah Beth Durst, David Farland, Terry Brooks
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Fantasy's biggest names—Sanderson, Butcher, Brooks—donate original stories for charity, resulting in an anthology that reads like a who's who of modern genre fiction.
★ 3.92 Goodreads (1.1K ratings) - 4
The Runelords (Sum of All Men and Brotherhood of the Wolf) (1,2)
The Runelords • Book 1
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In a world where magical runes transfer human attributes from one person to another, Prince Gaborn must stop the Wolf Lord's conquest and save the Earth itself.
★ 3.78 Goodreads (19.8K ratings) - 5
The Sum of All Men
The Runelords • Book 1
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Prince Gaborn's diplomatic mission becomes a desperate race to save Princess Iome from the conquering Wolf Lord in this fantasy where human attributes become magical currency.
★ 3.78 Goodreads (19.8K ratings) - 6
Chaosbound
The Runelords • Book 8
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After magical fusion created a new world from parallel realities, heroes Borenson and Myrrima must save this devastated land from certain destruction. The eighth Runelords book explores the consequences of cosmic change.
★ 3.81 Goodreads (1.8K ratings) - 7
The Wyrmling Horde
The Runelords • Book 7
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Farland expands his magical rune system as the Runelords face a new enemy faction, testing alliances and magical abilities built over six previous volumes.
★ 3.79 Goodreads (2.8K ratings) - 8
Sons of the Oak
The Runelords • Book 5
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Set eight years after Lair of Bones, Farland begins a new Runelords saga that expands the magical world while introducing fresh conflicts and characters to the established mythology.
★ 3.78 Goodreads (4.0K ratings) - 9
Worldbinder
The Runelords • Book 6
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Farland's unique magic system reaches new complexity as worlds collide and the true cost of magical endowments becomes clear. The worldbinding concept forces characters to make impossible choices between power and humanity.
★ 3.76 Goodreads (3.4K ratings) - 10
Advent 9 (Superpunk Book 1)
by T. Alan Horne, Paul Pederson, David Farland
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The age of heroes ended when the Powered abandoned their capes and symbols, leaving behind one flying, bullet-dodging child named Advent 9. Horne explores what happens when an entire generation's inspiration vanishes and only one remnant remains to shoulder their burden.
★ 3.51 Goodreads (67 ratings)