The Hallowed Hunt

By: Lois McMaster Bujold

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Lois McMaster Bujold returns to the vivid, perilous world of her previous masterworks, the Hugo Award-winning Paladin of Souls and Hugo and World Fantasy Award-nominated The Curse of Chalion, with this tale of devotion and strange destiny.

The half-mad Prince Boleso has been slain by a noblewoman he had intended to defile. It falls to Lord Ingrey kin Wilfcliff to transport the prince to his burial place and to bring the accused killer, Lady Ijada, to judgment. His mission is an ugly and delicate one, for the imminent death of the old Hallow King has placed the crown in play, and the road he travels with his burden and his prisoner is fraught with danger. But in the midst of political chaos, magic has the fiercer hold on Ingrey's destiny, and Ijada herself may turn out to be the only one he dares trust.

Don't miss Lois McMaster Bujold's other books about Chalion, The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls.

©2005 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2007 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Inventive, with engaging characters and lively storytelling." (Denver Post)

"Bujold's reworking of a classic romantic situation is distinguished by its setting in a well-crafted world and masterly creation of characters whose fates will keep readers turning the pages." (Booklist)

"Absorbing....Bujold's ability to sustain a breathless pace of action while preserving a heady sense of verisimilitude in a world of malignant wonders makes this big novel occasionally brilliant and not a word too long." (Publishers Weekly)

Not as good as I’d hoped.

The narration was fine, but to be honest the story was weird and difficult to follow at times. It might be a book better read than heard. The character’s behavior was also not what I would call typical, and without a lot of dreams bringing people together at just the right time the story would fall apart. Not as entertaining as other reviews led me to believe.

One of favorite title

This is a wonderful book, a grate story, i have enjoined reading it and i enjoined listening to it even more.

Good Read

It was a good change not the vampire bit me or the wolf chased me down or the routine of fantasy books
It was actually different for a change a good story behind it something very different thank you I couldn’t sleep until I finished it
The characters were human they felt pain and they were not invincible which is good for a change so now we know we’re not or we don’t have to be super heroes to make a difference

Wonderful!

I love Bujold’s fantasies, and will read/listen to this one again and again. When a prince’s murder and a forbidden magic forces a cat’s soul into Lady Ijada, Lord Ingrey must confront his own demons and his growing love for the insightful and indomitable Lady Ijada to save a kingdom from a growing evil. Marguerite Gavin does a lovely job of bringing this book to life. #Magical #Witty #HappyEnding #Suspenseful #TorturedHero #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

Good story

The story was pretty good; sufficiently intriguing and interesting with good twists. I wasn't a fan of the writing though. It felt needlessly convoluted and could have been much better told in more plain language. I had trouble following a lot of important parts because of it

loved this story!

A great story, wonderful writing, well read. The characters are so interesting and feel very real. I recommend it highly.

Story great; narrator needs work

I don’t understand how someone becomes an “award-winning” audiobook narrator without evidencing even a basic grasp of English prosody. The narrator read so many sentences as if they were completely divorced from the surrounding text, placing emphasis on exactly the wrong words and failing to express the contrasts and comparisons intended by the author. I am extremely disappointed that the audio version of this work has been wasted on a narrator who seemingly couldn’t be bothered to actually read it first. First-year drama students could do better.

Complex, Confusing and Slow

This is clearly a talented writer with great characters and a rich world setting. However, the terminology of the world, the complex nature of the gods, spirits, pantheons and mixtures and meshing there of is really hard to follow, even for someone like who's read a lot of her stuff. The big scene at the end is also incredibly confusing with all the god and sprit stuff going on and I could pretty much have skip it and been perfect fine.

There are pace issues too and I think its accentuated by the epic/semi arcane language that is used that takes extra effort to listen too. Actually, there is a little bit of yoda dialogue going on with word order and just isn't needed though intended I think to amp the drama and setting.

Finally, the sexual repression of the two main characters is highly annoying and distracting. Had they simply hooked up from the start, like 90% of all people would regardless of tome and place, then we could have totally avoided off the pain and agony of them wanting each other the whole darn book.

The Narrator Needs A Dictionary

The word "geas" appears 46 times in this book. Obviously this is an important topic to the book. The narrator apparently didn't think so because she mispronounced it EVERY SINGLE TIME. You would think she would check pronunciation on such a significant and frequently used word. I researched online and found one major pronunciation and a couple lesser used ones. None matched the one used 46 times by the narrator of this book. IT WAS SO IRRITATING. She has pleasant voice and doesn't do to badly at voices. She just need to do her homework and use a dictionary.

Of course that was only the most frequently used of the mispronounced words in this book. Honestly who doesn't know how to pronounce "chimera"?

The book itself is excellent.

My least favorite of the 3 Audiobooks

I liked The Hallowed Hunt less then the Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls. I don't think it was the fault of the author or the narrator. I had trouble keeping my place in the story from time to time, particularly when there were changes in setting or time lapses. I think it would have helped to have the narrator say, for example, “Chapter 5.” I enjoyed the story very much, I really like the setting and mythology, and the characters were very interesting. Besides getting lost from time to time and having to go back to find where I was, it was a good listening experience.