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Runespell Trilogy #1
The Runes of War
BOOK 1 OF THE RUNES OF WAR SAGAThe adventure begins…
The citadel of Torra Alta, won a millennium before from the indigenous dragons, is under attack. The Vaalakan army from the north, led by warrior-priest Morbak, draws near. The Runes of War, hidden for many centuries must be unearthed to protect the civilized lands of the south.
The citadel of Torra Alta, won a millennium before from the indigenous dragons, is under attack. The Vaalakan army from the north, led by warrior-priest Morbak, draws near. The Runes of War, hidden for many centuries must be unearthed to protect the civilized lands of the south.
508 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 1995
11 people are currently reading
201 people want to read
About the author
Jane Welch
32 books18 followersBorn in Derbyshire in 1964, Jane Welch was educated at Repton Prep School in Derbyshire and three separate public schools.
After working in Heffers Booksellers for a short while and running her own small business, she pulled Richard out of publishing and together they spent five winters teaching skiing in Soldeu, Andorra in the Pyrenees.
She completed her first novel, The Runes of War whilst in Andorra but after Harper Collins made an offer for that and the rest of the Runespell Trilogy writing took over. The Runes of War was published in December 1995, The Lost Runes in October 1996 and The Runes of Sorcery in May 1997.
After working in Heffers Booksellers for a short while and running her own small business, she pulled Richard out of publishing and together they spent five winters teaching skiing in Soldeu, Andorra in the Pyrenees.
She completed her first novel, The Runes of War whilst in Andorra but after Harper Collins made an offer for that and the rest of the Runespell Trilogy writing took over. The Runes of War was published in December 1995, The Lost Runes in October 1996 and The Runes of Sorcery in May 1997.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 22, 2013
Don't know what everyone else complains about, this book has the perfect amount of detail and depth to it to make it a fantastic fantasy story that is worthy of praise. Highly recommended if you like David Eddings Domes of Fire etc. Good read indeed.
November 19, 2025
Y’all… I picked up The Runes of War on Libby because the cover basically tackled me with the promise of dragons, and listen, when a cover teases me like that, I have to say “sign my ass up!” I thought I was getting a quick, fun audiobook, but what I got was days of pure immersion where every chapter demanded I listen just a little longer. The deeper I went, the harder it was to pull myself away.
I showed up for the dragons…
But I stayed for the characters.
Branwolf had me instantly. This man is my kind of ruler. He's stubborn, loyal, head-strong, and unwilling to take “your son is dead” as an answer. The way he refuses to give up, marching out on his own if he has to? That kind of raw, relentless love hit me right in the chest. And Casper? He’s everything you want in a classic hero without any of the annoying flaws that sometimes ruin them. No arrogance. No dithering. Just a solid, compelling protagonist you genuinely want to root for.
But nothing, nothing, prepared me for the magic system. This stuff is absolutely unhinged in the BEST possible way. The idea of harnessing the power of gods, the sheer chaos and force behind it, the beauty and destruction interwoven into every spell… I was obsessed. This is the type of magic you feel in your bones, the kind that makes you lean forward and grin like an unhinged gremlin because you know things are about to go down.
And the dragons? Oh. My. God. The audacity. The brilliance. The absolute chef’s kiss of revealing that dragons didn’t go extinct at all, they were just vibing, living on long after humans assumed they were gone. A massive middle finger to evolution and its smug little extinction theories. I LIVED. I’m genuinely sad this one had to end… but every great book has to close somewhere. Even if I wasn’t ready.
The Runes of War was an unexpected, explosive, magical ride, and I’m so glad I let that dragon-filled cover seduce me. Jane Welch, you officially have my attention.
I showed up for the dragons…
But I stayed for the characters.
Branwolf had me instantly. This man is my kind of ruler. He's stubborn, loyal, head-strong, and unwilling to take “your son is dead” as an answer. The way he refuses to give up, marching out on his own if he has to? That kind of raw, relentless love hit me right in the chest. And Casper? He’s everything you want in a classic hero without any of the annoying flaws that sometimes ruin them. No arrogance. No dithering. Just a solid, compelling protagonist you genuinely want to root for.
But nothing, nothing, prepared me for the magic system. This stuff is absolutely unhinged in the BEST possible way. The idea of harnessing the power of gods, the sheer chaos and force behind it, the beauty and destruction interwoven into every spell… I was obsessed. This is the type of magic you feel in your bones, the kind that makes you lean forward and grin like an unhinged gremlin because you know things are about to go down.
And the dragons? Oh. My. God. The audacity. The brilliance. The absolute chef’s kiss of revealing that dragons didn’t go extinct at all, they were just vibing, living on long after humans assumed they were gone. A massive middle finger to evolution and its smug little extinction theories. I LIVED. I’m genuinely sad this one had to end… but every great book has to close somewhere. Even if I wasn’t ready.
The Runes of War was an unexpected, explosive, magical ride, and I’m so glad I let that dragon-filled cover seduce me. Jane Welch, you officially have my attention.
March 27, 2019
Loved re-reading this book after not having read it since ut was first published. Live the ertailed descriptions, was able to immerse myself in the settings and relate to the characters feelings.
May 31, 2022
Feels a little dated.
January 3, 2025
This is the second time I'm reading this, being now at least 20 years older, out of my awkward teenage years and deep into a different kind of awkward adulthood. The first time around I tagged along for the story, identifying deeply with Caspar and his unfortunate crush on the perfect girl Brid who, based on her description looks nothing like, but in my head still had the face of, my own then-crush. This time, after I'd become more cynical and read a few more stories, I spent quite some time focusing on the various ways the story is flawed, while at the same time having a pretty sweet and an enjoyable time of it overall, smoothly carrying on to book 2, expecting more of the same, since I remember hardly anything about it.
In any case, in Jane Welch's world, a global cooling is coming, caused by the people of the main country switching religions from the traditional, nature-obeying cult to a new One God religion that likes to build cathedrals and burn witches (no words of floating ducks though). A wave of climate refugees from the north are coming and the only thing in their way is a castle on a hill in the middle of a pass, where the story starts (or another pass that has no castle, but it's slightly harder to use). The castle is perfectly defended except its unguarded well which leads into an unmapped labyrinth of corridors where people disappeared in the past. After a mysterious sound is heard coming from the well, a party of soldiers plus the castle baron's brother and - despite the baron's orders - his son go down to figure out what's going on. Shenanigans ensue, ancient artifacts are randomly stumbled upon, the One-ness of one of the characters is revealed, a high fantasy journey across the face of the world is started and the details of the quest are revealed in the traditional drip-drip form where either the magic only ever works for the time needed to reveal the next clue but not the whole story, the enemy catches up to the characters to delay the progression, or the characters that possess the knowledge simply refuse to tell the others - and the reader - for it being too soon etc.
There are many other flaws in the story, being it illogical acts from the characters (the Baron goes away alone in search of his own son), weird sidetracking (the traitor story arc that is legally there, similarly to how the beaver is legally fish so that it can be eaten on Fridays) or abandoned pieces of narrative (in the end, did the labyrinth beneath the castle get sealed off or not?). However, despite all of this, and the story generally sounding like a high fantasy 101 that you can get a dime a dozen, I, once again, had a really good time reading this. I enjoy reading about nice nature and Jane Welch serves that environment masterfully. I like celtic-inspired magic and here we go, a prime example of it kicking pseudo-Christianity's ass left and right (in fact, the first time around this story and its lack of subtlety was one of the reasons I started thinking more deeply whether being an active catholic was for me). Overall, it contains many elements of high fantasy, which is a thing I like and if you like a thing, you don't always need - or want - a "thing-but-different", just more of the same. Have you ever ordered the same thing in the same restaurant multiple times? There you go!
The Runes of War, despite containing what I'd consider some teething issues, is a very nice fantasy story and I could not be happier about having forgotten absolutely everything about book 2, since I get to read it again for the first time now.
In any case, in Jane Welch's world, a global cooling is coming, caused by the people of the main country switching religions from the traditional, nature-obeying cult to a new One God religion that likes to build cathedrals and burn witches (no words of floating ducks though). A wave of climate refugees from the north are coming and the only thing in their way is a castle on a hill in the middle of a pass, where the story starts (or another pass that has no castle, but it's slightly harder to use). The castle is perfectly defended except its unguarded well which leads into an unmapped labyrinth of corridors where people disappeared in the past. After a mysterious sound is heard coming from the well, a party of soldiers plus the castle baron's brother and - despite the baron's orders - his son go down to figure out what's going on. Shenanigans ensue, ancient artifacts are randomly stumbled upon, the One-ness of one of the characters is revealed, a high fantasy journey across the face of the world is started and the details of the quest are revealed in the traditional drip-drip form where either the magic only ever works for the time needed to reveal the next clue but not the whole story, the enemy catches up to the characters to delay the progression, or the characters that possess the knowledge simply refuse to tell the others - and the reader - for it being too soon etc.
There are many other flaws in the story, being it illogical acts from the characters (the Baron goes away alone in search of his own son), weird sidetracking (the traitor story arc that is legally there, similarly to how the beaver is legally fish so that it can be eaten on Fridays) or abandoned pieces of narrative (in the end, did the labyrinth beneath the castle get sealed off or not?). However, despite all of this, and the story generally sounding like a high fantasy 101 that you can get a dime a dozen, I, once again, had a really good time reading this. I enjoy reading about nice nature and Jane Welch serves that environment masterfully. I like celtic-inspired magic and here we go, a prime example of it kicking pseudo-Christianity's ass left and right (in fact, the first time around this story and its lack of subtlety was one of the reasons I started thinking more deeply whether being an active catholic was for me). Overall, it contains many elements of high fantasy, which is a thing I like and if you like a thing, you don't always need - or want - a "thing-but-different", just more of the same. Have you ever ordered the same thing in the same restaurant multiple times? There you go!
The Runes of War, despite containing what I'd consider some teething issues, is a very nice fantasy story and I could not be happier about having forgotten absolutely everything about book 2, since I get to read it again for the first time now.
December 16, 2009
This is what I would call "High Fantasy" and is very enjoyable.
It is a bit telegraphed to start with, but then the action starts to move a lot faster and carries the reader along before you notice.
It is a bit telegraphed to start with, but then the action starts to move a lot faster and carries the reader along before you notice.
August 12, 2011
This book could have been shortened tremendously. Very slow. Not a lot happens. Ending was very anti-climactic. Not crazy about the characters...but still, for some very odd reason, find myself wanting to finish the trilogy.
August 11, 2016
I dislike the character shifts, otherwise its wonderful.
September 30, 2021
50 page rule applied during the prologue - I had misgivings when I looked at the map, and they were fulfilled by the prologue. Read it all before.
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May 26, 2014Just Right
I've just started reading this book because it has an interesting blurb.
I've just started reading this book because it has an interesting blurb.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews