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A review by ashleylm
The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold
3.0
I'm shocked, shocked I tell you to give a work by Ms. Bujold anything less than 4 or 5 stars, but this one didn't really grab me. For the most part Nothing Happened. I expect that, say, in a mystery, where the plots often consist of people finding out details about the past ("Now tell me, Lady Barknell, where you were between 7 and 9 yesterday evening at the time of the crime!") but it's not what I expect for a rip-roaring fantasy adventure, or whatever this was.
And it was so confusing--not the characters, not what was happening, but the rules about what had happened, could happen, should happen, etc., vis-a-vis all the supernatural elements. It made me long for The Lord of the Rings which, granted, had a very detailed back story, but essentially it boiled down to "ring bad, destroying the ring good" which is clear and easy to appreciate.
As usual, she writes well, and individual sentences are pleasant, and the paragraphs pass by nicely—you never wince and wish her editor were more careful—but it was about 2/3 through before something New actually took place, as opposed to people learning more about old stuff that had already occured, and by then it was too little too late. I went all the way to the end (it's a decent book, just not up to her usual standard) and did not feel the ending was so magnificent as to alter my take on the bulk of the book—the ending was every bit as dull and confusing.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
And it was so confusing--not the characters, not what was happening, but the rules about what had happened, could happen, should happen, etc., vis-a-vis all the supernatural elements. It made me long for The Lord of the Rings which, granted, had a very detailed back story, but essentially it boiled down to "ring bad, destroying the ring good" which is clear and easy to appreciate.
As usual, she writes well, and individual sentences are pleasant, and the paragraphs pass by nicely—you never wince and wish her editor were more careful—but it was about 2/3 through before something New actually took place, as opposed to people learning more about old stuff that had already occured, and by then it was too little too late. I went all the way to the end (it's a decent book, just not up to her usual standard) and did not feel the ending was so magnificent as to alter my take on the bulk of the book—the ending was every bit as dull and confusing.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!