The Hallowed Hunt

I think Lois McMaster Bujold has exactly the right idea with the Chalion series. Each book stands alone, but if you have read the first one (Curse of Chalion), you get all the background material you need to understand the geographical, political, and religious systems of her world. This means that later books (Paladin of Souls and The Hallowed Hunt) can have fresh new characters and plots, but we don't have to endure many info dumps. The magic system, meanwhile, gets more and more complex, as we learn more in each book. Perhaps best of all, the plot can wrap up at the end of each novel.

What I like best about Bujold is her wonderfully imaginative and complicated magic. I love how she lets the reader discover it a little at a time (it would be overwhelming if she threw it all at us at once). We learn about the magic as the characters do, and this makes for a lot of mystery and tension. Plots get deeper, more complex, and scarier throughout this series.

Bujold's characters are always deep, especially the point-of-view character whose private thoughts we are privy to. In The Hallowed Hunt, that character is Ingrey, a nobleman who bears a wolf spirit and has been charged to transport the noblewoman Ijada to the capital, for she's been accused of killing the prince who tried to rape her. The prince was dabbling in some dark sorcery which affected Ijada, and together Ingrey and Ijada must unravel the mystery of the spirit animals. As they learn more and more, the magic get deeper, darker, and actually quite frightening.

The Hallowed Hunt is another excellent installment in the Chalion series. I'm not rating it as highly as the others, though, because I felt like the climax at the end wasn't quite as tight as the previous two books. Ingrey, the hero, ended up correctly guessing some of the solutions and Bujold threw in a bit of romantic fluff involving two beating half-hearts that made my eyes roll. But, all in all, it was a very good fantasy and I sincerely hope that Bujold will grace us with more Chalion stories in the future.

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The Hallowed Hunt continues on in the same world as Curse of Chalion and Paladin of souls, a world that Lois McMaster Bujold has crafted with a skill that makes me seethe with jealousy. While Chalion investigated the Gods of this realm and Paladin focused on the demons, Hunt delves into the theology of tribal shamans who existed before the “modern” times of the story. Just being able to use the words “delves into the theology of tribal shamans” kinda makes me feel like I'm back in a religious studies course only far more interesting.

If you love Bujold's worldsmithship, you really need to continue this series. That said, I was a little sad that none of the characters from previous books, not even Ista or Cazaril make so much as an appearance. Indeed, this book is set outside of Chalion in a completely different province. I can't really find fault in the characters, but for some reason I just didn't bond with them as easily as I did the other two leads. I think if Hallana's character had been replaced by Ista, I would have enjoyed the book a lot more. We would have had to shift some of the other character's godly alignments, but it would have been completely worth it to have Ista back.

Hunt is still a better book than many I've read this year, but in the end, I'd sooner return to the earlier novels for my love of their protagonists. Still, I don't think I'll ever get sick of Bujold's intricately detailed worlds, and for that alone it deserves four stars.

A lot of the reviews of this are along the lines of Chalion, but not. That's exactly what this book is. It is closer to [b:Paladin of Souls 61904 Paladin of Souls (Chalion, #2) Lois McMaster Bujold https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388350884s/61904.jpg 819610] than [b:The Curse of Chalion 61886 The Curse of Chalion (Chalion, #1) Lois McMaster Bujold https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1322571773s/61886.jpg 1129349] in feel, focusing more on theology than politics, and the meshing of old tribal theology with the Quintarian gods. Of course there's also a bit of romance chucked in for good measure and a happily ever after (mostly). Of the three it is my least favourite, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a good read in it's own right - especially if you enjoyed the previous Chalion books.