I will preface this by saying I really wanted to like this book, and in the beginning I did. This book started off with some genuinely interesting characters, it had a traditional epic fantasy flavor and the writing itself was more than competent. It's a shame that the book turned out to be such a huge disappointment. By the time I was half-ways through, I was certain I wasn't going to read any of the sequels.

_Rhapsody_ is not the worst fantasy novel I've ever read. It's slightly more original than most dumbed-down Tolkien rip-offs like Brooks and Jordan, more original than the you've-read-this-a-thousand-times-before sword and sorcery tales of Eddings. There's nothing downright offensive in it that would make me want to tear out my hair or throw the book across the room. And as I said, it starts off well.

When we are first introduced to the three main characters they seem, if not wholly unique, at least genuinely interesting. Rhapsody begins the book as an average-looking woman with some fighting ability (nothing fancy, but she she can hold her own in a scuffle). Her real power comes from her singing. She is a gifted singer, and in Haydon's world this comes hand in hand with control over certain elements depending on the singer's speciality. Rhapsody is a "namer" which means she can invoke the properties of a thing by singing it's true name - for example she can make wilted flowers bloom again, or make a forest magically conceal her to hide her from her enemies. Personally, I thought this was a lovely idea, original and yet you can easily see the connection to folklore and mythology. Rhapsody also has a disadvantage in using her power because her teacher disappeared a year before she would have "graduated," so to speak, so she is still learning to control and master her abilities. Rhapsody also has a complicated past, in that she was formerly a prostitute, and she still has to come to terms with some of the horrible things she had to go through in that life. Now this is a major cliche of female heroines in fantasy and science fiction, I know, but I thought the author handled it well, and it made me want to know more about Rhapsody and see her overcome her past. She is also half "Lirin" (elf) but that is not a particularly big deal in Haydon's universe and merely adds another dimension of culture and spirituality the character. Now as far as I'm concerned this background has the potential to create a very interesting, unique and likable heroine for a fantasy novel. As I said, I was very interested in Rhapsody, to begin with.

The other two main characters are less complex, but still somewhat intriguing: the first is a giant troll-like warrior who looks something like a monster, speaks with a funny accent, and claims to have eaten elves, like Rhapsody. The reader is never quite sure if he's joking or not, but he seems to have a genuinely care for Rhapsody, who he calls "Yer Ladyship" or "Duchess" partly to make fun of her and partly out of affection. The second is your typical fantasy assassin character - swathed head to foot in black robes, able to move through the shadows without being detected, never misses his quarry, etc. etc. What I found interesting about him was Haydon's choice to make him absolutely, revoltingly ugly. His face is lined with scars, a piece of his nose is missing, he has no lips to speak of, his eyes are different sizes, colors and not even symmetrically aligned on his face, and so forth. He's also your typical cold, stoic fantasy character who at first appears to be annoyed with Rhapsody but grows to appreciate her strange abilities, and finally her as a person.

It's really a shame that this all falls apart, about two hundred pages into the story, when Haydon makes some rather poor choices (poor because they're cliche, and obvious wish-fulfillment fantasies on the author's part) about what direction to take these three. Long story short: Rhapsody uses her magical singing to pass the three of them through a great fire, and when they come out the other side Rhapsody is beautiful. Not only beautiful, but the most beautiful woman in the world. Another reviewer mentioned how villagers would throw flowers at her feet just for being so beautiful, and that was not an exaggeration. As well, she is now the perfect singer, with a healing ability that was before tentative, now so awesome she can heal someone's burned out eyes as easy as you please. Plus, for some reason, the author decided she needed to have complete control over the element of fire, and an awesome magical sword with a flaming blade. The previously cold assassin character is now head over heels in love with this new, ultra beautiful Rhapsody, and the fire even magically restored her virginity! If the character wasn't a Mary Sue to start with, she most certainly turned into one at this point.

Now for the point about three hundred pages in where I decided I really couldn't bring myself to read the rest of this series: for all of Haydon's skill with writing, she obviously knows next to nothing about exposition. About half-way through the novel the reader is tortured with pages and pages (and pages!) of one old man explaining everything about Haydon's universe. The text reads like a history text book, only less interesting because it lacks the depth or breadth of real history. Some passages the author even repeats after a couple pages, lest we've forgotten where a group of fictional people derived their name. Much of the information she piles on is superfluous, at least at this point in the story, and even what is important is handled in such a clumsy, amateurish way as to thoroughly annoy the reader. World-building is very important to any fantasy novel, but a good writer should know that the reader does not need to know every detail of the history and geography of your entire world, especially not all at once.

Another serious problem with the story, as another reviewer I believe has pointed out, is that although there are occasional skirmishes (no real battles to speak of) it is always extremely clear that the three main characters will quickly and easily decimate their foes and never get a scratch. This is boring in the extreme, as readers can only feel a thrill of danger for the characters if the characters are actually in danger. These three heroes are so ridiculously masterful at fighting that this is never a concern. I could overlook that if action took place in some other sense - perhaps romance or some form of emotional driven character development. But it doesn't. Despite the assassin being smitten with the newly beautiful Rhapsody he never does anything about it. There is as little in the way of feelings/emotional action as there is in the way of battles or fighting. So all in all the book falls flat, being reduced to characters that began with potential that was squandered, leaving them one-dimensional and cliched, a story in which there is no real danger for them, no real romance, and no real development, and a world that relies entirely upon clumsily done exposition to explain what makes it unique and why we should care about it.

All in all I could not recommend Haydon's _Rhapsody_ and do not feel impelled to get anymore books in this series. In fact, my own copy is going very quickly to the local used books store.....2/5 ( )

Very long, epic series, probably one of my favorites, has a great bunch of characters, and they are well fleshed out. I lied this series very much and it is on my Favorites list, Yes it's super long but I think it's worth it, it will absolutely give you an escape for however long you want. Also has some elements of Fae mythology. I really enjoy it and tend to pick it back up every few years to read again. ( )

A good start to a series. I'm not the biggest fan of Rhapsody, but I love the other characters. The story is epic, but it moves fast and keeps you stuck to it. ( )

Blurb from Amazon
Rhapsody, a young woman trained as a Namer, can attune herself to the vibrations of all things, tap the power of true names, and rename people, changing their basic identities. Her magic lies in music: "Music is nothing more than the maps through the vibrations that make up all the world. If you have the right map, it will take you wherever you want to go," she tells her adoptive brothers. They are "the Brother," a professional assassin able to sense and track the heartbeats of all natives of the doomed Island of Seren, their homeland, and his giant sidekick Grunthor, a green-skinned Sergeant Major who enjoys making jokes, using edged weapons, and honing his cannibalistic palate. Inadvertently, Rhapsody has renamed the Brother Achmed the Snake, breaking his enslavement to Tsoltan the F'dor (a fire-born demon). Tsoltan sends minions in pursuit to rebind Achmed. The three escape into the roots of a World Tree, Sagia, emerging transformed into another country and century. But have they truly escaped the F'dor's evil? And how does all this relate to the prologue's story of Gwydion and Emily, two young lovers brought together across history and then separated by the mysterious Meridion

My Review

Excuse me while I clear my eyes... they glazed over at about the half way point.

There were only two things that bugged me about this book but they were enough to ruin the whole book for me. The fact that it was incredibly boring and the main character Rhapsody.

Ugh, Rhapsody there is nothing that irritates me more than a character with absolutely no flaws (okay there is probably something I find more irratating but I can't think of it right now). Rhapsodys is soooooo beautiful (actually she is the most beautiful person that ever existed in the history of the world) that people follow her around in droves, crash ox carts, start wars to get her attention and throw flowers in her path as she walks by but of course being absolutley perfect she has no idea anyone finds her attractive. Excuse me while I roll my eyes. The only actual flaw that Rhapsody has is that she is just soooo innately good and trusting that she often puts herself and her companions at risk. Of course really who could fault her for being that wonderful. Puh-leese, this got very old very quickly and I was soon hoping somebody would just kill her off already.

However, for someone to kill her off their would have to be some action taking place. Sure there were some battle scenes but most of them took place off stage and it was always obvious that Rhapsody and her crew would have no trouble taking them out without causing any injury to themselves. I would have given up on this book entirely but it kept tricking me into thinking it was going to get better. There would be long bouts of the same boring old thing (i.e. 200 pages of the three of them crawling along a root underground and Rhapsody having nightmares 200 PAGES!!) then there would be a short bout of wannabe action and it would fade into tediousness again. Take for example after 200 pages of crawling they finally emerge from the root YES something must happen now. I guess if you want to call 60 (count em 60) pages of an old guy giving a lecture on everything that happened while they were in the root something. I'm getting sleepy again just thinking about it.

Anyways, I slogged my way through this book because I wasn't sure if I was going to try the second book or not. Thankfully the last half of the book made the decision an easy one. How it was possible that the first half of the book (the part that only consisted of them crawling around in the dark) was actually less boring then the second half I still don't understand but I won't put myself through another of these books. I know these books have a number of rave reviews but they were definitely not for me. ( )

I liked the unconventional story approach, although the middle contained too much exposition and some of the focus seemed lost towards the end. I felt the author was clearly female, but not to a 'chick lit' extent. ( )