Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: I have to have MORE!
Haydon's character's are fleshed out and believeable. Sarcastic at times, despondant at times, downright mean every once-in-awhile, usually intelligent and witty, but always INTERESTING. I enjoy reading about them, and while the extra long prolouge daunted me at first I was fully enrapt by the time I'd entered the book proper. I enjoy the barbed witticisms and her intelligent characters most of all, but the story keeps you wondering and draws you into the book well...This HUGE book was a breeze to fly through because it was so enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: New Book
Review: I love to read and I do plenty of it. I saw this book on the new release tabe at the book store and picked it up. I have to admit that it wasn't what i expected. Haydon sure can write. The book is pretty good, but not one of my favorites. I thought the characters were developed well and the plot was ok. I felt like it was predictable though. When the prophecies come in to play it gets a litte long winded. All in all, it was an enjoyable book.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Pulp Fantasy
Review: This book was actually good enough to keep me up late one night. That hasn't happened in a while. The book introduces some novel ideas concerning the manipulation of history by unseen powers and the redemption of three former miscreants into a force for good. There is an underpinning of some kind of titanic struggle between good and evil that is fairly intriguing since all the players are not fully specified as the plot of this first book in the series unfolds. The book suffers however from the typical moral vacuum that permeates modern fantasy and is probably simply a reflection of the warped values of our dying civilization. The hero, Rhapsody, starts her wonderful life's journey by a moment of casual sex, that is glorified by the author as some kind of religious experience, but would be classified as statutory rape in a sane society. The statutory rape experience is supposed to be the meeting of Rhapsody's true soulmate, and when they are torn apart she responds by running away from home and becoming a prostitute. (sigh)
Please explain why it is necessary to provide filler pages of gratuituous sex and immorality in order to sell books? It does nothing to further the storyline and actually detracts from it in my opinion. ... This book on the other hand defines good in the usual pathetic humanistic style as being "if it feels good then it can't be that bad". So casual sex outside of marriage is fine, even expected. The worldview is the typical paganistic multiple goddess, mother earth ...[stuff] that turned a generation of female college graduates into unwashed, barren, airheads. Murder's OK too as long as it furthers the overall good. It sort of reminds me of the old soviet dictator's mantra during a purge, "if you want to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs." Having said all that, hat's off to the author for a fine piece of imaginative fiction. She has talent, even if it is misused in some portions of the book. I might even buy the second book in the series, after all the author's got bills to pay. ...I would have liked it better if the casual immorality were dropped, but I've come to expect it now from the new generation of authors, no doubt having been spoon fed moral relativism from government controlled education. ...
Rating:
Summary: Amazing fantasy debut
Review: Elizabeth Haydon has scored a real winner with "Rhapsody". This is a fantastic tale that keeps the reader guessing as to what is coming next. "Rhapsody" is a very memorable saga full of adventure and wonderfully fresh ideas about fantasy. Too many books in this genre today are cut from the same mold-not this one. Haydon has created a vivid yard with the talent of a master. This is a book that will cause you to find reasons to avoid other tasks in order to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: A "for-sure" Hit Series
Review: I recommend this book to any reader, even if your not a science-fiction fantasy fan. It hooks you in and keeps you there. When I first bought the book I didn't really care for it much because I only read the first couple of chapters, and I gave up on it. Eventually I picked it back up and I was really surprised at how good it was. The character's personalities are developed really well, and it's not the same-old magic and toadstools kind of book. Haydon does such a good job that when you read the last page you're mad that it ended. I can't wait till I can afford to buy her other books.
Rating:
Summary: Yes!
Review: I loved this book! Elizabeth Haydon's writing style is perfect! She doesn't spend too much time on one thing so that it isn't boring. This is a fast paced book with lots of prophecies to figure out that are slowly unravled, giving the reader time to figure it out themselves. The end of the trillogy is full of unexpectedness and has a happy ending behind it all. All of the questions the reader collects throughout the trillogy are answered in the end but not all at once, just the big nagging one about Meridion: Who is he? What is he? However if you don't like fast paced books, this isn't for you or is you get grossed out easily. Elizabeth Haydon's wonderful writting style alows the reader to only read the dialouge in some of the gross romantic scenes. A wonderful start to a wonderful trilogy!
Rating:
Summary: A great start to a fun trilogy...
Review: As I stated in a review of the final book of this trilogy, I really despise trashy romance novels. This trilogy lifts some themes and basic writing style from those types of novel, but is infused with more intelligence, better writing, and a lot more fantasy (the sword-and-sorcery variety rather than the usual sexual type).
The characters are very well developed and interesting in this novel, and the plot is kept mysterious by the author until the third book (which is where all of the various story threads are satisfyingly concluded).
This is also a fabulous series because it does not drag on and the story is concluded in three long novels, that will give hours of fun to many readers.
Highly reccomended.
Rating: 
Summary: Horribly cliched
Review: Without going into the details of the plot of the book, which is probably best summarized by [the] reviews and the comments of others, I'm here basically to warn you that this piece is horribly cliched, lacking any degree of uniqueness to the plot that is sustained by the author, and many other problems that are not at all addressed by the second and third books of the series. The heroine, Rhapsody, is not only gorgeous, but supernaturally, fantasically, amazingly gorgeous who can charm any person, any man to her feet, and of course, she doesn't realize this. Add to that Ashe, ...for both his sappiness and ineptibility. The other two characters, Grunthor and Achmed are the only two worthwhile people in the story, but unfortunately, in the second and third books, they are much left behind while the attention is focused on Rhapsody's adventures, and of course, she succeeds in every one of them. Generally, the book continues to follow this fashion, often leaving out explanations before moving on to new plot twists. Sometimes, the author seems to want to start a different tangent, but is afraid that because its not the usual plot device used by other fantasy books, she quickly withdraw and falls back into the general cliches. Anyway, its [an awful] book. Just writing about it makes me angrier :P
Rating:
Summary: Ok story, *Pathetic* Characters.
Review: There were a lot of interesting things in this book. I liked the setting. I liked the details in the setting. I like the idea behind the plot. But I can't get past the fact that the characters are horrible. Horrible Horrible Horrible. Apparantly Haydon doesn't trust the reader enough to develop a liking for the characters on their own (with good reason). So she sets out to make them the Ultimate Heroes. There's always one character in a series of books that is utterly perfect. They can do no wrong. Everything they touch turns to gold, they are incredible with a sword, they are the most beautiful maiden of seven kingdoms, bla bla bla. Try reading an entire book full of them. That's what this book is. See, it's not unusual enough that Rhapsody is a halfbreed whore with a talent for Naming (something *extremely* underused in the entire series) and a cocky Robin-Hood attitude. Oh no. She has hordes of followers that would create armies to go after her. She charms the socks off of her kidnappers and becomes their buddies. Or how about her beauty that is so unreal that she thinks she's ugly because people stare so much at her, never suspecting that she is really completely gorgeous! How about that! Or when they pass through the element of fire, she becomes /one/ with the element and can control it. When they discuss a magic sword of great power, oh looky--there it is! And it's Rhapsody's now! What a surprise. Not. I won't even get started on her companions, or the snivelling Jo, or the utterly annoying plot device known as Ashe. After reading this, I got the impression that the author didn't feel like her characters could hold the story on their own, so she had to slap every sort of 'cool' thing she could on them to make them Powerful. It's bad enough to the point that you feel like the author is talking down to you, because she's afraid you won't 'get it'. Even though 'it' has been spelled out for you nine times every chapter. I wasn't impressed. You won't be either.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive
Review: I was struck at the way Elizabeth Haydon pulled off the journey on the root. Although the time jump made me pause and scratch my head, the willing suspension of disbelief was not long in coming. I disliked Meridion and the whole concept, since that seemed to me to be an add-on and a distraction, but the book was really great. I read the whole series and must admit that the first one is my favorite. Rhapsody got a little whiny toward the end of the series and things dragged a little, but I would certainly pick them up again.
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