Bedside Books

This was number eight of nine and was Guy Gavriel Kay's The Last Light of the Sun. At bottom it's the story of Alfred the Great set in Kay's own particular take on Dark Age Europe,  and the action takes place mainly in Wessex, with bits in Wales and Denmark too, and with characters from all three places getting tangled up in each other's lives. It's basically the same material that Bernard Cornwall used for his The Lost Kingdom et al, although Kay gets over the ground much more lightly and quickly. (As a quick digression I have never managed to finish a Cornwell novel, although I have tried several, including the free Kindle version of The Lost Kingdom. I have the greatest admiration for his work ethic as a writer, such a refreshing contrast to some other writers I could mention ... , I just find the finished product to be not to my taste.) This wasn't my favourite Kay book, as I didn't engage with many of the characters, very unusual for me with this author, which is not to say that I didn't feel a prickle a the back of my eyes at the death of one of them, and there was a bit too much self conscious portending of doom - something to which he seems to be becoming more prone. That said it was an enjoyable read. 

And as that was number eight of nine I daresay you're probably thinking that I now only have one bedside book left, but if that is what you're  thinking , you're sadly mistaken.  Because somehow, while I was working my way through that pile, a second pile grew up. The other three library pot luck books. A Christmas book from the OH, a Mother's Day book from Son No 1. A book passed on by a friend. So I have tossed the ninth of the original nine into the second pile which now comprises seven books and I shall soon be making a start on them. I just have this awful feeling that by  the time I get to the bottom of that one, there will be another one that has 'growed like Topsy' on the top of the drawers!