I was at a church sale in March or so when this book caught my eye. Among the piles of Michael Crichton and Danielle Steel, The Dwarf distinguished itself by positively reeking of intellectual superiority. It was two bucks, so I bought it on a whim.
The story is stark, simple, and holds few surprises. The setting is apparently a realization of Macchiavelli’s The Prince, or so say the liner notes. The Prince in question rules a small kingdom from his castle, and is a renaissance man that enjoys all sorts of physical and scholarly pursuits. Throughout the book he has to make many challenging decisions about how to handle his warlike neighbours and how to balance the expenses of war with the necessity of providing for his people.