Alf is an unforgettable and vivid main character, albeit not one who easily wins the reader's full sympathy.

When first introduced in The Isle of Glass (1985), he is an insufferable prig.

Blessed with a fair, radiant beauty and a brilliant mind, immune to the normal ravages of age and death, he tries to lose it all and become a simple, mortal monk. Baffling as this is to those who lack such boons, they still might accept it. Alf is clearly a holy and well-meaning man. But he holds everyone else to the same high standards of self-abnegation. When he returns good for evil once too many times — turning loose the ruffian squires who have tried to kill him — it takes a royal mission to keep him safe. He also sets the groundwork for the kidnappings and persecutions in The Hounds of God, many years later. One...