I just finished reading the Rhapsody Trilogy by Elizabeth Haydon. (Rhapsody: Child of Blood, Prophecy: Child of Earth, Destiny: Child of the Sky) Overall, this series was engaging and kept me reading. This was a high fantasy tale, full of magic and romance. I enjoyed the adventure, I enjoyed the world, but most of all I enjoyed the romance.
I am wary of high fantasy. I find that much of it reads like a D&D game. I can almost hear the dice rolling during battle scenes. Moreover, much of it is the same ill-conceived Tokien-wannbe drivel. I read it because I am enthralled by magic, bu I am usually disappointed and disillusioned.
This series managd to rise above the rest in a few important ways. First, and most importantly, is the issue of character. I enjoy stories with believable, well-conceived, and likable hero/heroines…especially with heroines. Rhapsody’s self-sacrificing attempts to become a martyr did grow wary at times, but she was naive without being stupid, sweet, and innocent despite her whorish past. She was a fun character to like.
Second, there was the romance. This subplot began the trilogy and was compellingly written. I did not believe that I would stay interested in the romance if it drug itself out for three novels, but I was wrong. The tension remained high throughout.
Third, this novel was not a quest. While there were other familiar elements to this tale of high fantasy, I did not have to sit through a frantic search for the magical sword/ring/orb during which time we became intimately familiar with the map the author had drawn.
Finally, the magic felt real and natural. There were no arbitrary and ridiculous rules governing the magic to get in the way. It was not without its price, either.
Alas, though this trilogy was good and I will probably seek out the follow-up books, I will not list this series as one of my favorites. It suffered from a few flaws which, in the interests of fairness, I will also relay.
First, it took me some time to get into the first book. It began with a boy being sent back in time and falling in love with a girl. They have a whirlwind romance and decide they are soulmates, and then, as abruptly as he arrived, he returned to his own time and broke the young girl’s heart.
Then we switch geers entirely to a woman who turns out to have been that young girl, but it takes some time to put that together. She is going by a different name and never thinks of herself as “Emily” again. This break was jarring and it made it needlessly difficult to figure out what was going on when all that had to be said was, “Emily became known as Rhapsody.”
The other serious problem I had with this trilogy was the withholding of information by the great manipulator from the future who was looking back and trying to change the timeline. I was kept at a distance from him until the very end of the last book, where all of a sudden I learn everything that I should have known in that very first scene, when he sent the boy back in time. If I had known who he was and what he was trying to do more clearly it would have increasd the suspense for me.
On a more minor note, I noticed a few too many info-dumps and I disliked the recaps of events that had come before, even across books, since this was not a tirilogy that could have possibly been read out of order.
But with these few reservations, I liked the book. If you like magic, adventure, and romance then I think you will like this book. It was simple, magical fun.