The Hallowed Hunt (Chalion series, 3)

A competent court officer sent to investigate the strange circumstances surrounding a prince's death finds the woman accused to be much more than he imagined. The strange circumstances grow stranger as the man charged with her transport across country for delivery into the hands of justice discovers there is more to himself than he had imagined as well. It seems that the difficulties surrounding this case will not resolve themselves easily; not without divine intervention and the revelation of ancient secrets. This is the first of Lois McMaster Bujold's books I have read and I am very impressed with her writing. You do not read one of her books; you enter her world. The mythical world of Chalion. In a few words, she is able to brush characters of unique human proportion in meticulous detail. She sets these characters into swirls of political intrigue within this fantasy world from the Middle Ages and puts them on collision course with supernatural forces. Of course it all leads to a romance of superhuman proportions and a clash of titanic spiritual powers. Once you accept the theological construct in her world of five gods, and some may find this difficult, the story is both realistic and compelling. She applies the spiritual fantasy consistently and with an even hand as in earlier books of Chalion. This is not a book for the squeamish and some may be disturbed by the use of animals that is depicted, but if one cannot put evil into a story of good verses evil, then what is the point? I'm not generally a fan of fantasy, preferring to keep my stories closer to the real world, but Lois has captured me as a reader with her use of description and subtlety and made me wonder about earlier books where she has turned her hand to other genres. But Chalion, no doubt, requires further exploration. I would recommend this book to anyone desiring to read for escape and great entertainment. I would not recommend it to young readers or those not morally or spiritually well grounded, lest they try to bring pieces of that world back into ours. Reviewed by Hugh Mannfield at stormbold.com.

Lois Bujold is, I believe, the best living writer of fantasy/SF, and this book should plese old fans and make new ones. It is sometimes described as the third volume of the Chalion trilogy, but uses no characters - mortal at least - from the earlier books. It does continue to use the complex "quintarian" religion of the earlier books, built around worship of five gods known as the Father, Mother, Daughter, Son, and Bastard. And, as in the prior books, the gods play a role and make cameo appearances at key junctures. In this book Ingrey, a landless minor nobleman, has been assigned to take the lady in waiting Ijada back to the capital where she will be tried and probably executed because she has just murdered a prince. Ingrey soon finds out that the murdered prince was involved in dark and dangerous magic, but that is only the first of a series of revelations. Ingrey discovers he has a dangerous enemy, but his enemy has used a powerful spell to become truly invulnerable to attack. With the King lying near death, is there a plot to capture the throne, or is some subtler goal being sought? As Ingrey searches for the answer to these mysteries, he also searches for the truth of his own past, to learn why his own father used forbidden animal magic similar to that used by the murdered Prince on him, and the nature of the wolf spirit he now carries. As in any Bujold book, we can expect iteresting characters, a well-built world, and plenty of excitement. Other reviewers have disagreed, but I thought this book better than 2004 Hugo winner "Paladin of Souls".

There is one author whose books I buy immediately, in whatever format is available, and her name is Lois McMaster Bujold. If I could afford it, I would have a person stationed outside her house with instructions to ship me the galleys as soon as corrected. Right after I had finished my third or fourth re-reading of the superb Paladin of Souls, the second book in this series, The Hallowed Hunt arrived, and I think it the equal of any Bujold book, but differently shaped. Bujold's great theme, in both the Vorkosigan and Chalion series, is the exploration of what exactly it takes to do great deeds: what personal qualities are required, what beliefs the hero or heroine may hold, how society may strengthen or impede the protagonist in accomplishing the near-miraculous. The Hallowed Hunt is typical of Bujold's immensely fruitful exploration of how prudent people get pressed into the service of things much larger than they, and how they survive. The plots are always fiendishly entangled, the characters always worthy and entertainingly flawed, the dialogue always crisp or eloquent, the descriptive passages vivid and painterly. There is usually a long slow buildup to an impossibly stressful and dangerous climax late in the book. The Hallowed Hunt differs from other Bujold novels in that the stress starts early, attains a convincingly glass-shattering pitch of tension, and holds it until the pitch actually lessens slightly at the end. There is no writer I know of who can equal Bujold in involving the reader in her heroes' frantic thoughts as they try to figure out what's happening to them in time to prevent any of the various disasters they can all imagine. Bujold's great generosity always gives us plots as full of moral struggle as of physical adventure. She shows us that changing your assumptions about yourself or the universe is just as dangerous as swordplay or politics. All of this and a great sense of ironic humor. Start with this book, or start with any Bujold book, just start. And enjoy.

This is Bujold's 3rd novel in the world of Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls. It is not really a sequel, however, as there are no overlapping characters or reference to the events of the other two books. It can thus be read independently whether or not you have read the others. I can't help feeling slightly disappointed that Bujold seems to be focusing on this fantasy series, as I really hoped that there would be more to the story of Miles Vorkosigan. Still, Bujold has as fine a hand with fantasy as she has with science fiction. In some respects, it is fairly conventional fantasy, set in a medieval culture with a spice of magic thrown into the mix. Still, her stories are very far from formulaic. Bujold's approach to fantasy reminds me of that of Dave Duncan, in that the magic in her stories derives naturally from a rich and well-realized theology. All three of her Chalion books have a "mythic" quality in that the stories ultimately revolve around the relationship between gods and man. As usual, the characters are well-drawn and interesting, managing to be convincing while retaining the capacity to surprise the reader. As the three books go, I find it not quite as engaging as Curse, and about on a par with Paladin.