The Hallowed Hunt
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 Dustjacket of first hardbound edition | |
| Author | Lois McMaster Bujold |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | David Bowers |
| Language | English |
| Series | World of the Five Gods |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Eos (HarperCollins) |
Publication date | May 24, 2005 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) & E-Book |
| Pages | 480 (first edition, hardcover) |
| ISBN | 0-06-057462-3 |
| OCLC | 56840415 |
| 813/.54 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3552.U397 H35 2005 |
| Preceded by | Paladin of Souls |
The Hallowed Hunt is a fantasy novel by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold, published in 2005. It placed fourth in the annual Locus Poll for best fantasy novel,[1] and the series it is a part of, World of the Five Gods, won the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2018.[2]
This novel is set in the same world as two of Bujold's previous fantasies, The Curse of Chalion (2001) and Paladin of Souls (2003), but in a country ("the Weald") well to the south of the Ibran Peninsula, i.e. with a cooler climate. The earlier books introduce a setting in which technology and society parallel those of a late medieval Earth, with a strong but decentralized religion of five gods. Many of the conflicts in those books have to do with the relationships between human protagonists and demons (spiritual beings which cause disruption) capable of co-inhabiting their bodies. The action of The Hallowed Hunt takes place about 250 years earlier,[3] in a region which still has strong memories of the culture which preceded conquest from the north and imposition of the five-god religion, centuries earlier. In this earlier culture, leaders practiced shamanism. This involves the intentional accumulation of the spirits of dying "kin" animals, one by one, into new animal bodies, with the powerful final spirit taken into a warrior. This is not the same as demonic possession, but it involves a similar problem of acknowledging a divided spiritual self. While Curse of Chalion focuses on the Daughter (teacher and nurturer) among the five gods, and Paladin of Souls on the Bastard (master of disasters), The Hallowed Hunt presents the warrior realm of the Son.
