Books due back at the library. Spent the afternoon finishing two of them:

The Last Light of the Sun: pleasantly elegaic retelling of the story of Alfred the Great by Guy Gavriel Kay. His version of the Norsemen, the Erlings, was rather harsh. From what I’ve read of the sagas it was not inaccurate. His Celts and Englisc; the Cyngael and the Anglcynn was enjoyable to read. Not Kay’s best stand-alone novel – that is probably Tigana – it had moments of better-than-average high fantasy style.

The Eyre Affair: temporal anomalies and literary absurdities clash in the first of a series of books that have proven to be popular. What more can be said about about a book that has a century long conflict in the Crimea, Baconian street evangelists, gang clashes between the surrealists and the pre-Raphaelites; not to mention pet dodos? This proved to be a real hoot, must reserve the second in the series: Lost in a good book, which is literally true.