While the story’s conflict feels like a cautious shrug, it remains an interesting piece, with Scandinavian-myth inspired characters. Sigurd, the youngish protagonist, deals with the loss of his home and his beloved grandmother, only to be swept up with the very people she had warned him about. He struggles to understand a different world of magical folk immersed in a permanent war.The protagonist, Sigurd, is meant to fill the role of young, impetuous, reluctant hero, but seems maddeningly young. He complains (a lot), makes demands, insists that he’s going to do something or other, then doesn’t, making him seem ineffectual. Even though he has been lied to, he is often horribly, frustratingly obtuse, despite obvious dangers and intentions of others. He does get to be the hero sometimes, although the book’s strengths lie more in the area of description, world-building, suspense, and mythology than in action.Boyer maintains a compelling ambiguity with the characters Sigurd encounters. The good guys may not be as good as advertised, and the bad guys are surprisingly pleasant and polite, at least to Sigurd, whose services they want. Everyone, really, except for bloodthirsty goblins, seems pretty nice to each other, and no one ever gets to a point of being properly backstabby and hateworthy. If anything, one feels appreciative of their having to put up with Sigurd’s grousing (Rolfr, at least, remains Sigurd’s steadfast, irrepressible friend throughout, and is likeable. He makes a superior Moonglum/Samwise/Wulfhere to Sigurd’s Elric/Frodo/Cormac Mac Art). Why is Sigurd the hero? Because he’s the focalizer of the narrative.This contributes to a feeling (by this reader) that the story doesn’t quite commit itself to anything: (view spoiler)[Sigurd insists he will open the mysterious box which is his birthright, then doesn’t, and no one really thinks to steal it from him. Ragnhild, one of the the only women in the book, is supposed to be a spoiled, nasty shrew whose way you’d better stay out of or else, but kind of isn’t, because she’s the love interest. Sigurd, with a cursed sword in his hand, slays Halfdane, the man he hates, who then turns out to be… Sigurd’s father! Except that he didn’t really die, and everyone is pretty understanding about the whole affair. (hide spoiler)]
Do You like book The Wizard And The Warlord (1983)?
