The Hallowed Hunt [Hardcover]

First off, I got addicted to LMB way back with "Shards of Honor", so I'm a fairly die-hard fan. She never writes the same book twice, but still produces fresh, thoughtful, great reads. She's a rare author I measure only against herself. Okay, that said...

It took me a bit to adjust to her fantasies but they're well worth it; different from her Vor series, but just as good in their own way. The worldbuilding has LMB's trademark vividness, and she spins great stories from it. Chalion/Ibra and the world of the the Five Gods lost some of its internal cohesiveness in this one, though. I couldn't place it in time or location, and some basic underpinnings became confusing with the introduction of an ancient form of magic. Many themes in this series explore how individuals respond to supernatural/divine challenges. Even after rereading Hallowed Hunt, I'm still a bit foggy about how the ancient forest magic fits in with the rest.

The main characters are also weirdly flat for LMB; 'weirdly' because her characterizations usually are so vivid they jump off the page. Several supporting characters--a roistering sailor/prince, a divine who vents chaos as an adaptation to pregnancy--spring to life immediately. The hero's history and travails are well limned but he still remained muted for me. The heroine, who comes late to spirit-invasion--and during a near rape at that--remains almost an outline of a character. Why and how she came by her extraodinary acceptance of threatening, bizarre things that happen to her are never really explained.

These caveats really are fairly minor. A less-than-great Bujold is still excellent reading. Her gorgeous use of language is still intact, as is her sly, wry, sideways humor. I bought the book and don't regret the purchase. I'm sure I'll reread it again, just with less enjoyment than "Chalion" and "Paladin". I hope LMB revisists this world, because it still holds some heady potential.

It's good tale, and most readers would enjoy it on its own merits. Devoted Bujold fans may be left a bit flat, but even her rare stumbles are still miles beyond much of what's out there.

The Hallowed Hunt is not at all a sequel to The Curse Of Chalion or Paladin Of Souls ... and yet the new reader would almost certainly be missing quite a bit without having read those two books. The world of these books is something similar to but not quite like medieval Europe. But the religion is based upon a theology of five gods. And so is the series of books (the first one for the Daughter, the second for the Bastard, and this one for the Son).

There are no common characters or even settings, as Chalion is a far-off land, barely known by the people of this novel. (So calling this the third "Chalion Book" is something of a misnomer.) But in a sense The Hallowed Hunt is a direct descendent of the other books. The first one introduced the five gods and the concept that they can only work in this world when people give up their free will and let the gods use them. The second introduced something called "demon sorcery," in which a demon (an entity of concentrated chaos) is controlled by (or controls) a human being. And this book uses those two ideas and adds another kind of theology (magic is not quite the right word to use in these novels).

What really sets Hallowed Hunt apart from the other two is the scope of the tale. The others involved a story of human politics interwoven with the divine, while the current book focuses nearly the entire plot on the supernatural -- the political machinations of the court and the temple are somewhat of a minor complication if not a complete red herring.

Instead, the book is partially a ghost story and partially an examination of medieval philosophy. What really was the "divine right of kings"? If you take it seriously that a king is annointed by the gods, then what does that mean about their responsibilities to the gods and to their subjects? When something goes wrong and the gods need a helping hand, what must the king be willing to sacrifice?

Unfortunately, while the theological mystery and wonder is much more complex than before, the book lacks the wonderful secondary characters that made Chalion (and to a lesser extent Paladin) really come alive. This is mainly because the three key characters interact mostly among themselves (partially due to a need for secrecy, partially because the plot demands it, but mostly because the real story takes place in the divine realm where these three interact but ordinary mortals cannot usually comprehend).

As with the other books in this series, the world is convincingly medieval, the characters are convincingly human, and the romantic plot (which all of them have) is convincingly mature. Because of the shift in focus to center almost exclusively on the supernatural, The Hallowed Hunt has a very different feel to it. I would rate it approximately equal to (but very different from) Paladin Of Souls, and not quite as good as Curse Of Chalion. But then, Curse Of Chalion is one of the very best novels I have ever read. This one is, perhaps, only "quite good".

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.

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