I've been rereading through the Chalion Trilogy, and just finished this one. As are the other books in the series, this is a story of bloodlines, inheritance, both mystical and concrete, heroism and romance. As are the other books, it is well-written, moves at a well-judged pace, and winds in to a satisfying conclusion.
Although the Five Gods figure in the story - Bujold's favourite, the Bastard - playing his usual tricks - they have here some difficulty in absorbing an older order, animistic and shamanic. The people of this tradition have welcomed into their souls the animae of various creatures : wolf, horse, deer and so on. Our hero has, in his boyhood, been possessed by a wolf, and the woman he comes to love has been invested by a big cat. Together - and with a little help from their friends - they must thwart the plans of a man who is, in his person, a repository of kings : or properly, The King. The Hallowed Hunt, a reference to an old belief found throughout Northern Europe and beyond, is here reduced to a three-day race across the country involving three of the main characters, and ending up at an ancient necropolis, where rite and counter-rite play out to a finale willed by the gods.

Bujold's use of her anthropological material is deft. The romance is somewhat perfunctory and under-motivated. I found it difficult to understand what attraction the hero could exercise over the young woman - or, indeed vice versa, but this may be because I found the illusion of character to be quite sketchily achieved in the present volume. Other relationships are also unconvincing. But the story and the mythology both draw the reader in. A fair book to read in these dreadful times.