I don't understand book titles. I've noticed this with a lot of books I've read recently. Maybe it's just the books in series. Generally, the book title references the things that will be happening in the next book. The Sum of All Men is not really what this book is about at all. I feel bad because I can remember the names to some of my favorite fantasy books. I remember them as Book 3 or Day 2, never by their titles because the titles are confusing. This particular book is the first book in the Runelords Series. 

Anyway, let's talk about this book. I  have read it before, and I love the world. The idea is that each person can give a part of them to another person. Examples of this would be gifts of wit, stamina, metabolism, hearing, sight, grace, brawn, glamour, voice, etc. When a person has given an endowment of something, they lose it in themselves. If I were to give an endowment of voice, I would no longer be able to speak, but the person I gave my endowment to would have twice the power of Voice (volume, distance, persuasion, etc). I would not regain my voice until the person I had gifted my Voice to died. If I died, the person with my endowment would no longer have the extra power from me. You can't force someone to give you an endowment. The stronger your bond with the person you are doing this for, the stronger the gift. You can take an endowment from an animal, but it is frowned upon because you lose a little humanity when you do so. However, taking an endowment of scent from 1 dog would be far less damaging than the equivalent of taking endowments of scent from 50 people. The people that take endowments from dogs are called Wolf Lords. The people who take endowments from other people are called Rune Lords. An animal may also receive endowments. A horse can be given an endowment of stamina from another horse. Horses with endowments are called Force horses (generally stallions). This doesn't sound so bad, right? Wrong. Each endowment has a downside. If you give up your metabolism, you fall into a deep sleep until the person with your endowment dies. If you receive endowments of metabolism, you would move so fast that the smallest things could break your bones. Without extra stamina to heal you faster, you could die very quickly. So, it's not just a walk in the park. 

On top of this whole endowments thing, we have an "element of magic". I think I'm clever. What we really have is elemental magic. In this world there are Earth Wizards and Wardens, Water Wizards, Flameweavers, and I haven't discovered Air yet... if it is a part of these books, at least. Some people serve the Earth, some serve the Flame. You can only serve one. The two main elements in this book are Earth and Fire. Water makes a few appearances, but those are the main players. 

So, what is this story about. This story follows young Prince Gaborn Val Orden in his attempt to win the hand of the beautiful Princess Iome Sylvarresta. Unfortunately, a Wolf Lord, Raj Ahten attacks Sylvarresta's kingdom and romance is put on hold. Raj Ahten and his army of nomen, Invincibles (with numerous endowments each), frowth giants, Force Mastiffs, Force Stallions, and Flameweavers attempt to conquer the northern kingdoms before the reavers can attack. Reavers are strange spiderlike creatures that are quite large, some of which are capable of magic. Raj Ahten has taken thousands of endowments in an attempt to become the Sum of All Men. His hypothesis is that the Sum of All Men will live forever and his endowments will never fail, even if the dedicates (people who have given endowments) die. Well, the kings in the north aren't too fond of this idea. The problem is, one look at Raj Ahten and you would do anything he asks because of his numerous endowments of Glamour. So, our average looking prince ends up on an adventure. Death happens. Love happens. Earthy things happen. Underworldy flamey things happen. Castles fall. Death happens some more, and so does love. I won't go into too much detail because it's a fun read. 

Let me just get to the review. That's part of the problem with fantasy books, some can take a really long time to explain. It's worth it, and it really isn't as complicated as it sounds. For those of you that have the fortune of knowing me IRL, you know that for the last 6 months, I have been living in a book hangover. After reading the Kingkiller Chronicles, I haven't been able to get into another book. I think 6 months off is what it took to recover.  The downside to this is that the third book in that series hasn't come out yet, so when that comes out I will probably have another book hangover to deal with. Worth it. 

The writing in "The Sum of All Men" is good. There are moments when I really like it and moments when I don't. If anything, I find that the writing is a little too shallow. With a stronger word choice, I think it could have been a bit better. The story is excellent. It is engaging and kept me guessing. The world is wonderful. It's very relatable yet wondrous. I love thinking and talking about this world with other people. The romance... needs work. It's very fawning/frank. On one side it's very fawning and on the other, it's frank. An argument could be made for the fawning side, that the fawn-er is being influenced by greater powers. I'd accept that, sure. It's just a bit over the top for my tastes. 

There are a few series that I have no desire to continue though I enjoyed the first book. If I told you which series they were you would probably rend your clothes and cry out in anguish that I did not enjoy the series that is your favorite. Don't judge me and I won't judge you for saying that your favorite book is something like "The Giver". Just because I may not like a book doesn't mean I will think any less of you for liking it. I ask that you not think any less of me because I don't like a particular series. In fact, we could probably have an awesome conversation about the series that I don't enjoy and you love (or vice versa), so tell me about it. Just don't judge me. Back to the Runelords. This is a series that I would continue reading. I have to step away from it for now, but I would like to pick it up again soon. 

Would I recommend that you read this book? Sure, why not. I enjoyed it. You might too. If you don't, we can still have a conversation about it. Maybe we didn't like/liked the same things!

This book came at a bad time in my reading queue. I had a pretty bad book hangover from the Patrick Rothfuss' "Kingkiller Chronicles". It took me a long time to actually get involved in a different story. I chose this because it is a stand alone novel in the fantasy genre. You'd be surprised how difficult that is to find. I also read this because he was the one who finished writing the Wheel of Time series when Robert Jordan passed away. I haven't finished the WoT yet, but that's a blog for a different day. Lets move on to talking about the book, "Elantris". 

First impressions: It's about zombies. 

Second impressions: It was really hard for me to get into this book. As I mentioned earlier, I was recovering from a pretty serious book hangover. The writing didn't help anything. The sentences were pretty simple, and I am not really accustomed to that. The comparison in my brain is "The Fall of the House of Usher" vs. "Dick and Jane". If you're not familiar with "The Fall of the House of Usher", here is the first sentence:

The first sentence is complex; it contains fun punctuation that people today are afraid to use. The rest of the story is no different. "Elantris" didn't have many of these complex sentences, and that was a difficult adjustment. 

Though the writing was simple, the plot, characters, world, and economics of the book were far from simple. Let's take a moment to look at each of these:

Plot - Whenever I consider The Song of Ice & Fire series (also known as Game of Thrones), I wonder how on Earth George RR Martin is planning to tie up all those loose ends. Seriously. There are so many threads that have to come together before the larger tapestry can be completed. "Elantris" is a stand alone novel, and it also had many threads to it. I found myself wondering how he was going to wrap it all up. Surprise of surprises, he did!... kinda. I'll get to that later. 

Characters - The characters were well written, and they each had their secrets. They were not very subtle, though I think they were meant to be. I'll be honest, there weren't many characters that I really liked. I liked a lot of them, but I didn't really  like them. I had a problem with the main character, Sarene. Maybe it's that Brandon Sanderson hasn't really captured the female voice. I'm not sure, but there are a couple really good characters, they just didn't get a big role in the book. I feel like I'm not being clear about the characters. Some characters are excellent and complex, but they don't have a big role in the books. They also have secrets that maybe make them more interesting. The main characters are pretty obvious and not subtle. 

The World - The world, I think it is safe to say, is based off our world. The different people of the world reflect different cultures in ours. For example, the Fjordells (even the spelling of the name) resemble a Norse culture with fair hair and fair skin. The Jindo resemble an Asian culture with dark hair and martial arts. It was fun to try to figure out the different cultures and who they could represent. 

Economics - If I enjoyed economics more, I would have adored this book. For my economics minded friends, I would recommend this book. That aspect of it, however, did not appeal to me at all. I appreciate that he wrote about it and thought it out and put a lot of effort into it. I just didn't enjoy that part of it. 

Now let's get to the part that I mentioned earlier about wrapping things up. I am not giving any spoilers here. At the end of the book, all the loose ends come together and you finally get some answers (not all the answers). I wish he would have just stopped there. He didn't. He spends the next couple pages asking a ton of new questions, which would be totally fine if this was a series, but it's not. It is a stand alone novel. I wish I could unread those questions. It ruined the ending for me. It's not that I don't like being asked questions like that, but I want to ask myself those questions. I want to want to think about the characters and where they go from there. I don't want the author to ask me those questions because then I feel like the author owes me some answers. 

Would I recommend this book to others? Sure. Maybe not wholeheartedly. I enjoyed it. If they're interested in economics and fantasy books, probably. I don't know if I would read an entire series if they were like this book, but it was a good book to break the hangover from the Kingkiller Chronicles. 

Update 11/16/13:  I forgot to mention this in the original text, but I really like it when authors emphasize the power of words. This book did a really good job of it, and I wanted to give credit where credit is due. 

This is the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicles. 

I love discovering people who have similar book interests as me. When I was in Minnesota, I got to stay with a good friend of mine, and her husband and I had some good book chats. He recommended that I read this book. I believe I had mentioned books that place an emphasis on the power of words. I think I had just finished reading "The Wretched of Muirwood". 

Let's break it down:

This is a frame story. The frame is the story of an innkeeper, Kote, and his assisstant, Bast. A Chronicler comes into town searching for the legend known as Kvothe. Kvothe has so many legends and so much history... 

Kote is Kvothe, and his assistant is a demon. The Chronicler agrees to spend 3 days to fully write Kvothe's story. The first day is the first book. It follows Kvothe's childhood and his influences. He traveled with his family and a caravan of musicians and performers. He learned to play the lute and knows all the great tales. Tragedy strikes the caravan, and Kvothe is the only one left alive. He struggles to survive and lives on the streets of Trebon for a while. He decides to enroll in the University to become an Arcanist. He meets a girl on his way to the Arcanum (University) named Denna. Though she is not always present, she is always in Kvothe's mind. Kvothe is forever hungry for information, especially information concerning the Chandrien, the murderers of his troupe. He is also impatient and often gets into trouble because of it. He is clever and intelligent. The story itself contains Chandrien, dragons, drugs, feuds, music, and laughter. I won't ruin it for you.

Review time:

I am in love with this book... no, this series! As soon as I finished this book, I bought the second one. There is a word aspect in this story. There is definitely a power in words in the story. Kvothe tries to learn the name of the wind, and it is not as simple as he thinks it will be. Maybe his impatience will ruin his chances at learning it. Anyway, I love frame stories, but usually I find that I like one part of the frame than the other. Not so with this book. I love both parts of the story. I love Kote as an innkeeper with a hidden past. I love learning about young Kvothe and how the legends were made. I am 100% in love with how he describes feelings. When he says something feels like something else, he is very specific. Here's an example: 

I had a hard time putting this book down, this was difficult because we were in Hungary while I was in the middle of the book. I'll be honest with you, as we wandered around the city I would occasionally think of this book. Would I recommend it to people? Wholeheartedly. I love this story. I want to share it with people. I want to talk to people about it. My plea: Read this book so I can talk to you about it. Thank you.