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)

Performance is a disaster

I love Audible as well as LMB, however, Kate's performance unfortunatly renders this work unlistenable.

Reader is too Sing-Song

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, the reader distracts from the story. The subtle humor of this author is lost when the reader so carefully rounds out every sound. A succession of things are read in a sing-song voice. The meaning is lost. The reader also mispronounces a few words and hasn't bothered to find out what they mean. Leaded windows do not have "leeds" - those should be pronounced "leds."

What other book might you compare The Hallowed Hunt to and why?

This is the third in a trilogy in a world with 5 gods, and all of them examine theology in some way while telling an exciting tale.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Too many sentences sounded just alike. More acting was needed.

Was The Hallowed Hunt worth the listening time?

Maybe. But I think I will get this title in another format to read again so I find out what I missed.

Don't miss this one

I think this is one of my favorite stories by Lois. it's dark and yet optimistic and beautiful.

The story was great, the reader was okay

I love Lois McMaster Bujold as an author. Her stories are fabulous and so is this one. The reader did not do the story justice. She has a very beautiful voice, but she doesn’t have the knack of a great reader: the range of her characters are limited so it can get confusing on who is speaking and the reading often times comes off stiff. The reading wasn’t so bad that I didn’t want to abandon the story, but it definitely wasn’t in the same league as Grover Gardner where I could just get lost in the story.

Convoluted, complex, yet intriguing new world

I think this is going to require another listen in the year ahead. I was already familiar with LMB's World of the Five Gods, but the tightly intertwined world of politics, history, religion, family connections, and avenues to power were more complex than in her other books in this universe. The narrator skillfully handled the various male and female voices with creativity.

Bujold at her best

Bujold is one of the only fantasy/sci-fi authors I've read who actually takes the premises of her worlds seriously. The characters are interesting and 3D and plot has many surprising and satisfying twists. The performance is pleasing, clear, and well paced.

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.

Poor choice of narrator

This wasn't my favorite in the series, but just because something's not my favorite doesn't mean it's not good. Bujold is a fantastic writer, so I'm sure this IS some people's favorite.

It could have been much better, though, with a narrator who was better suited to the material. She's not terrible, she's just completely wrong for this book. The main issue is her overall tone, but it doesn't help that nearly all of the characters are men, and the narrator struggles to differentiate between their voices. When a male character does sound different, it's usually due to an overdone caricature-type voice, which is distracting and grating.

The narration was a travesty.

This is the "least" of the three iniitial "5 Gods" books, but I think it is still a good book worth reading. The narrator was not good. On many occasions she changed the words of the text to make them sound more modern and more American. I honestly think she just didn't recognize perfectly valid idioms and grammar that is influenced by English writers and past centuries, so she just changed them to something that made more sense to her. In many cases, this actually changed the meaning of the sentence. Total bummer.