The Runelords
#6903.82 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 8 books Status Complete 1998–2009 Reading commitment High David Farland Last reviewed 2026-09-02
Overview
David Farland's (Dave Wolverton's) epic fantasy series is built on an attribute-transfer magic system: a Runelord gains strength, wit, stamina, or other traits directly from "Dedicates" who permanently give that trait up in return, a mechanic Farland used to explore the moral cost of power taken from other people. The eight-book main sequence, published between 1998 and 2009, follows Prince Gaborn Val Orden through an escalating war against the Wyrmling Empire, from The Sum of All Men through Chaosbound, with four further prequel novels expanding the setting's earlier history. Farland, who also taught and mentored numerous later bestselling fantasy and young-adult authors through writing workshops, built the series around large-scale magical warfare and the ethics of a nobility literally made superhuman by their subjects' sacrifices, a premise that set it apart from more conventional inherited-bloodline magic systems common in epic fantasy of the same period.
Epic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (8 works) counts toward ranking
The Runelords (main sequence) David Farland
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Sum of All Men | 1998 | 1 | core | 3.78 (19,932 ratings) |
 | Brotherhood of the Wolf | 1999 | 2 | core | 3.85 (11,055 ratings) |
 | Wizardborn | 2001 | 3 | core | 3.85 (9,997 ratings) |
 | The Lair of Bones | 2003 | 4 | core | 3.90 (6,302 ratings) |
 | Sons of the Oak | 2006 | 5 | core | 3.79 (4,036 ratings) |
 | Worldbinder | 2007 | 6 | core | 3.76 (3,372 ratings) |
 | The Wyrmling Horde | 2008 | 7 | core | 3.79 (2,836 ratings) |
 | Chaosbound | 2009 | 8 | core | 3.81 (1,847 ratings) |
The eight-book main numbered sequence (1998-2009), confirmed against publisher/retailer first-edition records; closes the saga's original story arc.
Library / Expanded (5 works)
The Runelords: Prequels David Farland
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barbarians; Publication year corroborated 2026-09-16 (fantasticfiction, an independent series-list page, and an independent author-bibliography page all agree 2013). No anthology of first appearance found; standalone e-novella. No day/month source found for a precise first-edition date, so only the year is recorded. | 2013 | N/A | ||
| Ashes and Starlight: A Runelords Story; Publication year corroborated 2026-09-16: an independent source states "First published November 4, 2014", as an excerpt in the anthology *Shattered Shields* (ed. Jennifer Brozek & Bryan Thomas Schmidt); an independent series-list page and an independent author-bibliography page both agree on 2014. Supersedes an uncorroborated "2016" seen on fantasticfiction, which conflicted with all 3 of these independent sources. | 2014 | N/A | ||
| The King's Dispatcher; Publication year corroborated 2026-09-16: first appeared as "The King's Despatcher" in the anthology *Unfettered II: New Tales by Masters of Fantasy* (ed. Shawn Speakman, Grim Oak Press), published 2016-11-21 -- confirmed via that anthology's own table of contents. The standalone ebook (this record's own title spelling, "The King's Dispatcher") is a later separate edition of the same story. | 2016 | N/A | ||
| Woven of Shadow | None | N/A |
Four short prequels, explicitly numbered and marketed as prequels by the author's own site, exploring earlier history in the Runelords setting outside the main numbered sequence. Exact individual publication years were not confidently pinned down in this admission's research and are left unrecorded rather than guessed.
A Tale of Tales (2013) ; Book 9 of the Runelords. Publication year corrected 2026-09-16 (previously left unrecorded; see decision history): this record's own isbn (9781799961352) belongs to a 2026 Blackstone Publishing audiobook reissue (release 2026-08-30), a separate, later edition of the same novel, per the same reference-edition-ISBN convention documented project-wide. The novel's own first publication was July 2013 (Orbit/Little, Brown UK paperback, ISBN 9781841498447), corroborated by 3 independent booksellers; day precision not recorded, sources differ by a few days.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Runelords? The Runelords's Core Canon is 8 books, plus 5 more in the wider Library/Expanded material.
- What is the reading order for The Runelords? Publication order, starting with The Sum of All Men. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Runelords finished? Complete (1998–2009).
- How much reading does The Runelords take? High reading commitment (estimated from 8 Core Canon books · ~2,985 pages).
- How is The Runelords ranked? #690 in this site's official ranking, based on 59,377 reader ratings across 8 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #690?
Ranked #690 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.82 across 8 core books.
- A smaller readership (59,377 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 8 rated core books rate within 0.14 of each other.
- Less than 0.01 behind #689, The Chronicles of Castellane (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 8 books · Complete · 59k ratings · Ranks #690 overall
Good choice if you want a long-running epic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (8 Core Canon books)
- The Sum of All Men (1998)
- Brotherhood of the Wolf (1999)
- Wizardborn (2001)
- The Lair of Bones (2003)
- Sons of the Oak (2006)
- Worldbinder (2007)
- The Wyrmling Horde (2008)
- Chaosbound (2009)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- No award specifically attaches to this series in any source checked.
You might also like
Suggestions computed from what The Runelords and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- Crown of Stars Epic fantasy / Historical fantasy · Complete · High commitment · 3.87
- Dread Empire Epic fantasy · Unfinished · High commitment · 3.87
- Crónicas de Allaryia Epic fantasy · Complete · High commitment · 3.72
- A Song of Ice and Fire Epic fantasy / Grimdark · Ongoing · High commitment · 4.41
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.82 across 59,377 ratings on 8 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Admit The Runelords (David Farland) accepted 2026-09-02
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Runelords
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Wolverton_bibliography
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Wolverton
Last reviewed: 2026-09-02
Rule: New universe, David Farland's The Runelords. Core = the eight-book main numbered sequence (1998–2009): The Sum of All Men, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Wizardborn, The Lair of Bones, Sons of the Oak, Worldbinder, The Wyrmling Horde, Chaosbound. Expanded = four short prequels (Barbarians, Ashes and Starlight: A Runelords Story, The King's Dispatcher, Woven of Shadow) exploring earlier history outside the main sequence, plus book 9, A Tale of Tales. Open question: A Tale of Tales' exact first-publication year could not be confidently corroborated across the sources checked in this admission (candidates ranged from a circa-2013 audiobook to a later print edition) and is left unset rather than guessed; flagged in TODO for a future direct ISFDB check.