Rhapsody : Child of Blood

Rating:
Summary: A waste of my weekend
Review: I started off really liking this book because I thought it had interesting ideas. However, the book soon turned into a huge historical lecture with too many similar sounding names and events that I started to get confused and to not care. The worst of it for me is Rhapsody. I found the fact that Rhapsody became a perfect woman who lost her previous "soiled" state and who transformed into a beauty that causes all men to become blithering idiots totally degrading to women. By making Rhapsody unaware of her beauty and the power her beauty has over men, the author appeared to try to cover up how ridiculous all of this is. I'm just very tired of reading books that portrays all heroines to be skinny and beautiful. What is wrong with an imperfect woman, both in the physical and mental sense, that saves the day? I felt disappointed and angry that I wasted a good part of my weekend reading this horrible book.

Rating:
Summary: Yawn
Review: I've tried reading this at least three times, and have never gotten more than three or four chapters with out getting bored or falling asleep.

Rating:
Summary: A satisfying debut from a promising author
Review: Elizabeth Haydon's debut novel Rhapsody: Child of Blood shows her talent for character development and narrational magic. In the story's epic duration are all the ingredients for a fascinating read: creation myths handed down in succeeding generations, cataclysms with the power to destroy half the world, prophecies of Tolkein-esque mystery, and characters of such power and unpredictable appeal make the rest of the series a given.

The title character, Rhapsody, is introduced to us as a mysterious bard who has learned to Name. This unanticipated wrinkle in the normal fantasy world gives the singer inconceivable power over the temporal and the spiritual of that world. Yet though she knows her profession holy and takes it very seriously, her knowledge of the immensity of her power remains dim. Her unassuming personality in the face of her talents and grace makes her both loveable and awesome, a perfect combination for a fascinating character. She is joined in her flight from danger by two mercenaries. Contrary to Rhapsody's first impression, these deadly warriors, Achmed and Gunthor, are not the villains they might appear. Through their long journey into places that time forgot, the three grow close and learn each other's pasts. Like Rhapsody, Achmed and Gunthor both possess and develop powers that set them apart from other races, making these three a combination unlike any other in their world. This is important, for in their future lies a fate where much rests on their singular abilities and their trust.

While losing nothing of the grand scale Tolkien pioneered in his much-loved Fellowship, this trilogy's foundation spends many pages lovingly developing the characters, their triumphs and their failures. For these details alone, this story cannot be missed. You'll speed straight through it begging for more. Watch out for the first 15-20 pages, though, and don't worry: it gets much better.

Rating:
Summary: A fantasy with a smile
Review: The difference between the Rhapsody series and most of the fantasy genre is that Haydon actually has you feeling good about the characters. You feel remorse and pity for Rhapsody through out the story but she still manages to get a smile out of all the other characters, which therefore gets a smile out of you. Some series like the "Wheel of Time" series drags and you keep reading because you care about the characters and what to see what happens to them. This is still the case with this series but it also leaves you light-hearted during and after you have finish the books.
I recommend this book to females that are more into the romance novels but are looking for something a little different. I have gave a few of my co-workers this book and they had never read fantasy series before and have fell in love with Rhapsody.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful fantasy novel
Review: Rhapsody is a singer of some talent. She is in training to become a Namer, a person who has the ability to affect people by using only their names and music, when her life is changed forever. When being chased by servants of an "old friend" she turns for help in two unlikely people. They are Grunthor a good-natured cannibalistic Firbolg and the Brother, a trained assassin who is unwillingly working for a dark evil. Of course she doesn't know this at the time. Unfortunately her powers of a Namer kick in and she finds herself unwillingly changing the name and more of one of her helpers. Now the people who were once her helpers have become more like her captors, guiding her in a long journey through the center of the earth itself. Unfortunately when they immerse they find themselves in a place much different from the land they grew up in, a different time and place entirely. The team tries to learn what they can about this new place and they soon learn that some of their dangerous problems have followed them.

I really enjoyed this book. Elizabeth Haydon is a talented author with descriptions that make you feel like your almost there. This fat little novel is a very impressive work, especially as a fantasy debut novel. Her world is original and for once the story line is not a photocopy of every other fantasy novel. Rhapsody is a great heroine. In the book, she is part Lirin, an almost elvish race. Although she is not that easy to relate to she is very well crafted and fascinating. Achmed and Grunthor are two other fascinating main characters that you can't help liking, despite their faults. My only real complaint is the character of Jo. It seems like whenever a novel picks up a teenage character they are either immature and near unbearable or act too old for their age. Jo was the former. Still, this didn't impair my enjoyment of this book at all. I couldn't bear giving it less than 5 stars! It was very good and at times it really made you think. I would highly recommend this book to fans of all sorts of fantasy, including young adult readers. I can't wait to read the next two novels in the trilogy, Prophecy and Destiny.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Epic Fantasy Read
Review: I enjoyed Rhapsody a great deal. The characters are interesting and likeable (except for maybe Jo, Rhapsody's adopted sister), the story was well plotted, and the villians are original. Rhapsody seems to be a troubled yet surprisingly gentle and well natured character. She starts lonely and disillusioned at the beginning of the book but finds her place and family with a cannibalistic soldier and a hideoua masked asassin. I enjoyed Haydon's work and will read her other books. This was a solid read and would give this three and a half stars if it were possible.

Rating:
Summary: Love it!
Review: This book is full of mystery. At the beginning we meet two charactors, but what do they have to do with the rest of the story? What does Emily have to do with Rhapsody? Slowly the story starts to reveal itself and the charactors begin to warm up to it. Yet throughout there are questions like, And what could Achmed be afraid of? What is the F'dor? Will they ever get home? Where is home? What happend to the charactors before this? Though most questions stay a mystery some become known. And the most important question of all; will Rhapsody ever find a home? This story is wonderful and full of action, with twists at ever corner, and surprises at every turn, this book is a must read for anyone that enjoys a good fantasy book, with a mysterious plot.

Rating:
Summary: High fantasy!?!
Review: I don't know how this can be billed as high fantasy or be compared with Tolkien. It's poorly and inconsistently written. There are some very strange swings in the character's motivations and personalities and the story wavers between attempts at high myth and scenes that are ridiculous and embarassing. Example: At one point the main character uses her magical abilities to make the astounding discovery that a particular artifact is a toilet. The further I got into the book, the more I stopped caring about the characters. Frequently, the dialog made me wince.

Throughout, the book lacks the sort of ethical and aesthetic vision necessary to high fantasy, although the author occasionally does a good job evoking the grandeur of a fallen past.

This is pulp fantasy. There are some interesting ideas and scenes here, and the author has some talent--but she lacks the judgment to use it well.

Rating:
Summary: Passionating after all.
Review: This is the first book of the Rhapsody Trilogy (followed by Prophecy and Destiny).

After a beautiful, enchantingly romantic opening chapter telling the love story of Emily and Gwydion, the focus brutally shifts to a different setting. In the streets of Easton on the Island of Serendair, we meet Rhapsody, a small, blonde, green-eyed and strong-headed Lirin Singer, who earns her daily bread as a prostitute. When she learns that Michael, her most tyrannic client also known as The Wind of Death, is back and is looking for her, she runs away. It won't be long until Michael sets his men after her.

And soon she runs into Achmed and Grunthor, a strange man in a black hood and a giant Bolg soldier, whom she begs to protect her. Together they leave the city, and Rhapsody finds herself caught up in events. For fear of being forever hunted by her former lover and his horde, she reluctantly follows Achmed and Grunthor in a quest she knows nothing about, in a neverending journey through the bottomless roots of Sagia the legendary tree. When they finally emerge a hundred pages later and after what seemed like ages, they discover they're on the other side of the world, and of time.

After such an exciting intoduction, I found it a little bit hard to get into Rhapsody's story, probably because I wanted to hear more about Emily and Gwydion, or maybe because I found the journey through the root a tad long, even though it was nice to witness the birth of Grunthor and Rhapsody's friendship. However, my disappointment didn't last long, and after a few more pages I was definitely hooked again, my heart racing each time I felt I would find a clue, that there might be a connection with the overture after all. I just couldn't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Rhapsody captivates
Review: I admit that the beginning of the story confused me a little when the story suddenly changed from the young couple we meet to a different place with different people. It was the question of what happened to the couple and who is Meridion that we also meet at the beginning that made me keep reading.

The answer of what happens to Emily and Sam is one that unfolds throughout the course of the story, though it is never told outright in this book. Elizabeth Haydon gives enough clues for you to figure it out.

In the story, we meet Rhapsody, a Namer of great power even if she doesn't yet realize it. She soon meets up with Achmed and Grunthor, and that is when the adventures that will forever change her begin.

Rhapsody is a wonderful beginning to Haydon's trilogy about the battle against the F'dor, which stretches across time and their world. Haydon's world and characters come alive within the pages and keep you reading until you reach an ending that will raise even more questions in your mind and make you reach for book two.