Rating: 
Summary: Disappoints
Review: The jacket cover for "Rhapsody" claims that Elizabeth Haydon is gifted with talent for humor, realistic dialogue, and solid character development, and these are not idle boasts. In fact, the trio of protagonists in this book are quite engaging, and their dialogue is sharp and witty, at least at the start. We have Rhapsody, a former prostitute who's on the run from an overly enthusiastic client. She meets up with Achmed and Gunther, two mysterious outlaws who have something to do with a shadowy archvillain bent on destroying the world. (I've never understood why these archvillains can't be satisfied with less grandiose evil plans such as robbing from their employees' 401K plans.) The principle joy of the book comes from watching the personalities of these three characters bounce off each other. I readily admit that I did laugh out loud at some of their exchanges, and admire the subtle and persuasive way that the author handled the development of their characters during the opening section.The problem is more or less everything else. Plotting, pacing, and worldbuilding don't just suffer, they get flogged within an inch of their life. First of all, the quest that the three characters go on kicks off with a huge section of wandering underground. This set of chapters ought to have been shortened to a fraction of its current length. Upon emerging, they find themselves in a land that's at war, though inexplicably nobody seems to know who is doing the fighting or why. Other than establishing a vaguely hippie-ish religious system, Haydon makes virtually no attempt to explain what this culture is like. Despite the war, everybody that they meet appears to have nothing better to do with their time than provide lengthy lectures on topics ranging from herbology to history, and these sermons serve no visible purpose other than to fill space. There's also some swordfighting, quite tedious since the three good guys can easily paste any number of villains. I can't honestly claim that I reached the ending of "Rhapsody", my usual determination to finish whatever I start having flagged after three hundred pages of such emptiness, but at least I'll know better than to buy the sequels.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Fantasy Book
Review: Rhapsody, the first book in Elizabeth Haydon's wonderful series, is one of the best books I've ever read, second only to Haydon's own "Destiny", the third book in the same series. Haydon's work is unbeatable. The characterization is perfect. Every kind of person is displayed in one way or another in this book. There's action, emotion, drama - EVERYTHING. I found myself sucked into this book. I read half the book in the first day, no lie. However, it is a bit confusing. By the end of the book, the reader is confused about a few things, but all that gets cleared up in the next book in the series, "Prophecy". All in all, if you're looking for a new fantasy series to get into this, do NOT pass up this series. You'll love it.
Rating:
Summary: Blah
Review: First off, I'll say that the writer's style is decent and the story has a lot of good elements (particularly Grunthor), but at heart this is more or less a romance novel of the harlequin persuasion. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, girl re-emerges eons later and a bumpy romance ensues whilst a side-line struggle between good and evil is fought. I could hardly bear to read one more word about the heroine by the time I forced myself to finish reading the trilogy. Too beautiful, too perfect, too talented; her only flaw is that she's too stupid for words. I believe that the author was attempting to make her selfless--adding another point to an already overwrought pantheon of virtues--so I can't even give her credit for introducing a flaw that made her likable. I found Rhapsody remarkably hard to sympathize with because a) she was perfect, and b) she made idiotic, bone-headed decisions, not to mention assumptions, whose only purpose was to drag the story (and, oh, yeah, the "romantic tension") just that little unnecessary bit longer. Perhaps both romance and story were supposed to be epic, but an epic story needs an epic lead and I felt absolutely no respect for this heroine.
Rating:
Summary: Unexpectedly excellent!!!
Review: I did not know what to expect when I picked up this book to read. I was just looking for a fantasy novel to pass the time while I wait for the lastest Jordan and Goodkind books. I was most surprised when I started to read Rhapsody. It was totally different from most of the fantasy novels I have been reading lately. I must say it is a bit sappy and romantic but that only adds to it's allure. I especially love Grunthor. He brings humor at the most opportune of times to balance out the sappiness of Rhapsody.
I was so surprised when I finished reading the book the first time. I was like WOW!! I immediately started back from the beginning and read it in it's entirity again. I have tried reading a different book after Rhapsody but I could not get my mind to concentrate on any other book. I had to read the whole trilogy before I was finally appeased. This is a most excellent book by Elizabeth Haydon. I hope she brings out more in the future. If you want to read a great story then this is it. I recommend this book with all my heart.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but...
Review: Okay, let me just point out that I have not yet read the rest of the series and so some of the things that bother me now may not bother me later on in the series. Overall, this was a very good book. I found it hard to put down, even through the extensive history lessons. Rhapsody is a wonderful character and I felt like I was actually there, most of the time. I wouldn't be as harsh on it as some of the other reviewers because I liked it quite a bit but I did have some problems with it. 1.) "Perfect" characters annoy me. I found myself grumbling and rolling my eyes when people swarmed over Rhapsody the moment they saw her because she was "Beauty itself". 2.) Having just discovered that I am a hopless romantic I wanted somthing to happend between Achmed and Rhapsody. It is disappointing me because, as I look ahead to the other books, I discover nothing ever does happen. What a shame, they would be so good together. 3.) It irks me when Haydon is compareed to Tolkien. I'm sorry, but NO ONE can be compared to Tolkien, he was, and is, in a class all his own. In fact, all I have found similar between the two authors is the extensive histories in their books. Haydon obviously spent a lot of time developing the past of her story and did a fine job of it, in my humble opinion. All in all, read it if you want a great fantasy experience, just don't get your hopes up aout the whole Rhapsody/Achmed thing. It makes me sad but perhaps it'll work out for the best.
Rating:
Summary: I WANTED to like it...kind of...
Review: .... I am disappointed, however, to have it recommended by Amazon.com and, I admit, slightly embarassed that I dragged through the whole thing. Haydon must have some talent to keep me turning pages through an amazingly inconsistent, poorly paced, and laughable story. It is wrong to see this compared to Tolkien or even the better of the imitators. Just plain false advertising. Haydon is no where near the Jordans and Goodkinds let alone George Martin or Stephen Donaldson or the GOOD imitators..Of course, I was travelling and didn't have too many options. If I recall the book has a dedication, acknowledgements, a preface, a prologue, a forward, AND an amazingly bizarre and mysterious probably time-travel-related framing story, followed by a very creepy little 13 page non-sequitur love story before we even really MEET the main characters. If you like your women strong and beautiful and tough and funny, you'll like Rhapsody the character. Though I'm not sure how many times I needed to be told just how AMAZINGLY beautiful she is, even before she walks through the fire and then gets reborn kinda as REALLY AMAZINGLY beautiful...as far as world-building goes, she may have cooked herself up a kind-of-interesting world, but then again a lot of it gets destroyed completely in the first third of the book without the characters having a chance to to do anything about it...we never very well understand Rhapsody's magic singing powers and get the sense that she does; they seem to arise as needed for the plot at the moment; that's a bit typical of fantasies in general but there is an EASE about the way Rhapsody comes up with special powers that just makes it all seem a bit cheap. Before we really even gotten to know her, her new pal presents her with the challenge of singing a giant world-sized planet-eating dragon to sleep. No prob. Out with the harp, leave it on autoplay, on to the next adventure. Also disturbing is the basic lack of a real thrust to the plot. Since their whole world is destroyed in the first third of the book, the characters are pretty much left to their own devices in the second two thirds, and after doing some exploring they do what any of us would do with a bunch of superpowers and no real job: they start their own kingdom of civilized mountain trolls. Well, sure, why not? But it's all just so very easy.... Unless you like your romance with a VERY healthy dose of romance, or are 13 and a girl, skip it...
Rating: 
Summary: Oh man...
Review: I'm not going to waste too much time here. Wow, oh wow, is this book bad. It is the most unbeleivably dull and repetetive load of trite I have ever made the mistake of holding. Let me list all the faults, starting...well, think of any technique or aspect in literature and its done wrong. The plot is so forced, random and cliched, constantly clashing or dragging or just being generally stupid that you seek refuge in interesting characters. You fool. There are none. The characters are the same kind of dung dropped from the dead corpse of the plot : Rhapsody is a cookie-cutter beautiful heroine, Achmed the snake is your typical 'I'm a scarred, cold hearted asassin dude' and...that big guy, I've forgotten his name, well, he's just a big strong dude like you get in cartoons.
Now, as if that weren't bad enough, let me just tell you a little bit about the writing style. It is absolutely atrocious. It's the kind of thing you hear in junior high english class and everyone is laughing hysterically. Everything is so awkward, so poorly described, the dialogue is like digesting concrete and you just wince, and wince and cry out loud 'why am I being punished, why?' and eventually you'll do what I did, that is, rend the book asunder and go watch scooby doo instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful World Building and Well Defined characters
Review: Haydon is a wonderful writer, with lovely prose and an eye for details and realistic world building. She manages to tell a descent story without boring us to tears with academic prose. Rhapsody tells the story of the beautiful singer and former prostitute, Rhapsody who whilst running away from an overly persistant customer, runs into two strange men, the deadly hunter Achmed and the mighty gentle Giant Grunthor whom she inadvertently ends up traveling with. What starts out as a minor kidnapping evolves into a traverse across time as the three companions fulfill their destiny with an ancient prophecy telling of the three. For being her first novel, there is the first novel clutter and clunky movement, but it does seem that Haydon has true talent. Whilst Haydon does fall a bit short with the fantasy cliche of making the herione supernaturally beautiful and spends pages upon pages praising her beauty and talent, the novel is otherwise filled with memoriable characters. Such as Achmed and Grunthor, who make the story worth reading as well as the larger plot which Haydon expertely reveals as time goes on. Hadyon should be an author to watch in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Wow, this is great!
Review: The first thought that came to my mind when I finished this book was "I have to get the sequel!" The beginning is a little bit confusing because it doesn't exactly seem to fit in the story. Once you get past that, however, the book is excellent. It is full of so much detail that you feel as if you are an invisible person walking side by side with the characters, watching their every move. The characters are extremely well developed. The plot is very complex but didn't get very confusing. The author never really goes too off-track to confuse you. There is enough variety to satisfy; the same thing doesn't happen over and over again. I don't have much else to say. The book is great, and I am extremely satisfied.
Rating:
Summary: A mix between fantasy and the pappiest of romance books
Review: I bought this based on the strength of customer reviews, but could not get past 10 pages. It's really that bad. I got as far as reading about a young hero magically transported somewhere else where he meets and falls in love with a woman, all within a few hours. There's language like "the way she looked at him started a sensation in his groin.." I am not kidding! Terrible. Avoid at all costs if you are a fan of martin, Jordan, Tolkien, etc.
They should put this on supermarket chekout lines.
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