Hallowed Hunt (no spoilers)
Jun. 6th, 2005 03:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalFinished this a couple of days ago. Overall it's an interested read. If Cazaril from Curse of Chalion was supposed to be Lois' take on a romantic older man minus Aral Vorkosigan's occasional berserker tendencies, then Ingrey is Aral with the berserker tendencies intact and the reputation to match.
The good things about this novel are many. As always LMB has a marvelous ear for dialog, and for memorable secondary characters. It's set in a very different part of the Chalionverse, a land that is obviously still in transistion from the days of barbarian glory to something more civilizaed (even if the civilization was imposed from the outside). There's a real feeling of traditions lost, and new ones being tried on and not fitting all that comfortably just yet. I also liked the ending, even if it is rather bleaker than usual for Lois, though hope is certainly there too.
That said, I still couldn't shake the feeling the Lois was pulling the plot out of her ass. Characters tend to pop in straight from left field, while others are left behind. The machinations of the Hallowed King's court on the eve of his anticipated death didn't feel particularly believable and for that matter neither did the love affair between Ingreay and Ijada. Though I'll give her points for providing the villian with a unique motivation. Suffice it to say he's not out to take over the world, though his own goal is just as egotistical, and in violation of the traditional compact between between a good leader and his men.
So in summary, it's not Lois' best novel, at least in the Chalion universe, but at least it's heads above the last Vorkosigan novel.
The good things about this novel are many. As always LMB has a marvelous ear for dialog, and for memorable secondary characters. It's set in a very different part of the Chalionverse, a land that is obviously still in transistion from the days of barbarian glory to something more civilizaed (even if the civilization was imposed from the outside). There's a real feeling of traditions lost, and new ones being tried on and not fitting all that comfortably just yet. I also liked the ending, even if it is rather bleaker than usual for Lois, though hope is certainly there too.
That said, I still couldn't shake the feeling the Lois was pulling the plot out of her ass. Characters tend to pop in straight from left field, while others are left behind. The machinations of the Hallowed King's court on the eve of his anticipated death didn't feel particularly believable and for that matter neither did the love affair between Ingreay and Ijada. Though I'll give her points for providing the villian with a unique motivation. Suffice it to say he's not out to take over the world, though his own goal is just as egotistical, and in violation of the traditional compact between between a good leader and his men.
So in summary, it's not Lois' best novel, at least in the Chalion universe, but at least it's heads above the last Vorkosigan novel.
