Preview of The Hounds of God Summary:

The tragedy of intolerance of difference is a motif woven through the whole trilogy. It is a basic theme in this novel. Alf spent earlier years desperately trying to be something he was not, a humble monk. Now that he has dropped the monk's persona, his family and his king must also suffer. They are hounded and tortured, and they finally survive only by accepting banishment.

Much fantasy is built around a struggle between good and evil. The Hounds of God shows the conflict here as more complex than in many medieval sagas. Even Jocelin, the renegade monk, believes he does God's will in trying to destroy the elvenfolk.

Alf, who spent his long youth in futile pursuit of mortal weaknesses and mortality, still has moments of ridiculous self-abnegation. Things often go awry when he believes he is setting them right. Often a visible evil is not one's...