panguitch's Full Review: Lois McMaster Bujold - The Hallowed Hunt: Library ...
Lois McMaster Bujold’s Curse of Chalion is one of my favorite fantasy novels. It’s very different from the genre’s standard fare. Bujold’s world is not only inventive, she handles her characters with a tender deftness, though her art always serves her story, not the other way around.
I was somewhat put off by the sequel, Paladin of Souls. The style was familiar, but the tone shifted. The religious elements were made less mysterious and more mechanical, there seemed to be a discrepancy in the magic systems, and most of all, the romance took center stage. And it was most certainly a romance from the female perspective. I breathed a sigh of relief when Bujold returned to the male perspective for the third book, The Hallowed Hunt. It’s not that I don’t enjoy female protagonists. It’s just that I squirm when they fall into metaphorical descriptions of the male anatomy, particularly ones that, however tenderly they may rest in the woman’s mind, would do far less than flatter the man if spoken aloud.
The timing of The Hallowed Hunt in relation to the previous two books is unclear. More certain is that it is set in another area of the world, though not too distant, and has nothing to do with the characters or events of the previous novels. It is, for all intents and purposes, a standalone, and can be read either before or after the others.
The protagonist is Ingrey kin Wolfcliff, a lord who lost his inheritance because his father was found practicing the forbidden arts of the ancient shamans. The ritual went sour and his father died, but young Ingrey was less fortunate, surviving but possessed by a wolf’s spirit. The religious authorities permitted him to live after they bound the wolf within him, but his life is that of a pariah.
He now serves Sealmaster Hetwar, doing the dirty work to which his disrepute and wolfish ferocity lend themselves. As the story opens Ingrey is in the midst of such a task. Prince Boleso has been murdered by a woman he may have been attempting to rape as part of his own shamanistic ritual. Lady Ijada is not what Ingrey expects, however. In fact, as he escorts her back to the capital to stand trial, he finds himself strangely compelled to murder her himself. As he fights that impulse he begins to suspect a much deeper plot that binds the two together and a foe who would use them both as pawns in an unorthodox play for the throne.
The romance between the protagonists is clearly set up from the beginning. However, its predictability is mediated by Bujold’s extremely light touch, and in fact I found myself enjoying the savor it lent the main storyline. Ingrey is a hardened man, a man whom other men fear. But he does not melt for Ijada in any trite way. Instead he awakens to his feelings in a gradual progression that most lovers should recognize. In fact, though there is nothing revolutionary in the matter of this romance or its characters, it never once felt clichéd (neither did I have to squirm). This is an indication of Bujold’s remarkable skill.
Ijada is something of a blank slate, naïve and intensely curious about both Ingrey and the situation in which she now finds herself. She is entirely likable, but not as strong a personality as Ingrey, who is the only point of view character. The other characters are generally well-constructed. The priestess Hallana is an amusing mother-figure for Ijada, paradoxically flighty and incisive. Wencel, the lord to whom Ingrey delivers Ijada, is a deliciously ambiguous element, and his effect on the story arc is very well crafted. Perhaps the only disappointment was Hetwar, who failed to make the impression I expected, much as the Fox of Ibra in Chalion.
What’s most remarkable about the book is that Bujold has now introduced an entirely new magical or religious system with each of her three fantasy novels, and each is interlaced with the others in complex and credible ways. In this iteration she is more successful than in Paladin despite bridging a wider gap. The Quintarian family of gods and the system of demon-possessed sorcerers are now set against the older order which they supplanted: the shamanism of the ancient Weald which involves the infusion of animal spirits into warriors, granting them significant powers. As the story progresses flesh is continually added to the concepts of this new system and its relationship to the Quintarian religion.
One of the things I love best about Chalion is that the religion is more than decorative. It underlies the plot, it motivates the characters, and the story’s meaning and success hinges on it. The same is true in The Hallowed Hunt, and though it sometimes veers toward the mechanical applications Paladin indulged, it holds much more to the model of Chalion. In fact The Hallowed Hunt is in many ways a bridge between the two preceding novels, so it’s not surprising that I prefer it over Paladin, but less than Chalion.
All three novels are very good, and while I would not place The Hallowed Hunt among the greatest of fantasy novels (as I might Chalion), I do heartily recommend it.
– Panguitch
"Have you ever overheard two women discussing men? Men are crude liars, comparing their drabs, but women—I’d rather have a Mother’s anatomist dissect me alive than to listen to the things the ladies say about us when they think they are alone."
From the Hugo Award-winning author of Paladin of Souls comes the third novel in her enthusiastically received epic historical fantasy--a magnificent e...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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