Fantasy and science fiction novelist Orson Scott Card has often said that one of the keys to writing fantasy is to determine the price of magic. With The Runelords, author David Farland has done that and set the price very high indeed.

In the first of what is to be a series, Farland postulates a medieval world in which peasants must sometimes give up one of their physical endowments – such as strength, stamina, or intelligence – to a member of the aristocracy. This transaction leaves the commoner an invalid unable to feed himself, and the runelords, who can collect multiple endowments from different peasants, as incredibly powerful, beautiful, super-warriors.

Farland’s story follows the adventures of Gaborn Val Orden, a young but important prince. Despite the fact that his homeland is threatened by an army led by a vicious leader who has taken thousands of endowments, Gaborn vows to be a moral runelord, and to fight without taking endowments that are not given freely.

Farland’s twist on magic is innovative but the moral implications of his created universe weaken the story. A world where one can take another’s endowments would seem to dictate a power structure that gives the upper hand to those who are most willing to force the greatest number of peasants to hand over their physical attributes. Instead of survival of the strong it is survival of the cruel. And so the passages in which commoners freely offer their strength to Gaborn in the hope that he’ll be a better defender of the land are not particularly convincing.

Still, Farland is such a gifted stylist that we mostly overlook these holes. He has spent time in England and Scotland examining castles and fortifications first hand and this kind of research has paid off in the compelling descriptive passages. His characters are more than your usual fantasy stereotypes and, though he occasionally spends too much time describing them moving from one castle to another, the plotting is generally fast and smooth. With The Runelords, Farland proves himself to be an important new talent in the fantasy fiction genre.