The Wizard and the Warlord by Elizabeth Boyer

The Wizard and the Warlord was written in 1983 by Elizabeth Boyer, and I encountered the book while visiting a used bookstore as I searched for a New York Birthday gift.  I paid the hefty sum of $2.00 to read the book, and that was probably $2.00 more than I should have given for the privelege.

The book could have potentially been great, as the storyline allowed for some interesting options and dynamics.  However, the actual implementation of ideas by the writer left a lot to be desired.  For starters, the book reads like it is written by a third party with multiple personality disorder, about a character who suffers from the same disorder.  The thought processes and emotions of the main character ("Sigurd") are hard to follow, and the decision-making of said character follows an erratic pattern.  It gave me a headache trying to follow the character development, and there seemed to be little rhyme or reason to the author's direction for the character in most of the book.

Another problem was the existence of three distinct races in the book.  The author seems to be drawing upon some type of analogy to humans, elves, and dark elves, but the attempt to make the races in this book unique leads to all kinds of issues.  Perhaps the biggest issue is when the author attempts make all of the races some type of viking-barbarian, and introduces concepts of magic that will leave an experienced fantasy reader pondering whether or not the author was drunk at the time she wrote the work.  Another issue is that the author attempts to give the main character's magic a mind of its own, whether in response to need or some subconcious desire of Sigurd.  For the majority of book, his abilities exist as a separate character almost, and the reader is left puzzling as to why.

The story is fragmented, flows poorly, and the plot leaves a lot to be desired.  The central theme of the book seemes to be Sigurd's growing up, but instead what is portrayed is the story of a bumbling oaf suffering from some type of paranoid schizophrenia.

If you have $2 and some time you want to lose forever, this book might be a decent read, but it isn't one that I recommend in the least.