I've been catching up Lois McMaster Bujold's World of the Five Gods series, and just finished The Hallowed Hunt. This is book #1 in the series, but it was the third one written and I have explained elsewhere that I prefer to read series in that order. This installment takes place several hundred years before the time of The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls, a few hundred years after the Five Gods pantheon displaced the older Weald animal magic. That older magic plays a central role in the book. But this being a romance series the focus is on the protagonist, in this case a very dark and troubled soul named Ingrey. I forgot to mention that he is brooding. His charge is to take a Lady who murdered a prince who was trying to rape her for trial.
Ingrey is a different kind of protagonist for Bujold, in that he is highly capable and meant to be unlikable. He had a wolf spirit thrust upon him as a young man and only with difficulty kept his sanity. It's slightly unnatural and kind of makes the book drag, I struggled to read it at times. But the struggle was worth it for the resolution--the book comes to a satisfying conclusion as Ingrey comes into his own.
This book was not bad but I can't rate it up there with the others. I give it 3 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment