Prophecy: Child of Earth

Having found an ancient dragon claw in the depths of Ylorc, Rhapsody vows to return it to it's original owner. Accompanied by the mysterious Ashe, Rhapsody sets off on another journey, this time to find the dragon Elynsynos and return the piece of her missing hoard before the dragon takes her anger out on the surrounding countryside and her Bolg friends. Less than pleased at Rhapsody's decision, but knowing they are unable to change her mind, Achmed and Grunthor stay at home in Ylorc as they search to uncover more secrets that Gwilliam left behind. Yet evil never sleeps and the threat of the F'dor continues to grow, whether they know it or not.

Prophecy is the second on the Rhapsody trilogy and larger Symphony of Ages series. The story show more picks where events in the first book leave off. The beginning of the story plods, literally, as there is a lot of travel in the first portion of this book. Haydon does a decent job getting the reader through by using this time for some friendly banter and also as a way to give more background information about the world and the characters. Haydon's descriptive writing is beautiful and yes there is a lot of it. The dialogue is both fun and cringe worthy, but in a good way. Seeing how badly some of the interactions go and almost making us feel embarrassed for the characters does a good job of making the characters feel human.

That said, you'll either love or hate Rhapsody as the story progresses. She is definitely in Mary Sue territory. While I found her somewhat annoying at times overall it didn't bother me or hinder my enjoyment of the story.

This book definitely takes on a more adult theme. There is a lot more romance in this book than the first as well as more violence. Haydon is not afraid to get into details either so it may not be the best series for a younger reader.

I'm still enjoying my reread. It is as I remembered it from years past. show less

I liked the first book of this series quite a bit, even if it was uneven at times; this second book left me very disappointed.

The plot meanders, the characters become caricatures (with Rhapsody herself becoming almost insufferably perfect). Extensive subplots are thrown in and then completely ignored. I can't help but think that this book takes on the tone and narrative sophistication of a cheap romance pulp novel (not that I read cheap romance pulp novels). I think Haydon has the potential to be a writer I would like quite a bit, but I'm not sure that she wants to be a writer that I would like quite a bit.

My guess is that, after carefully working through Rhapsody over an extended period, she rushed to finish volume 2 for a publisher's show more deadline, and didn't the constructive feedback from an editor that might have made the book better.

Obviously, there are plenty of people who liked this one, but I'm not one of them. show less

Trigger Warnings: Sex, mild language.

4.75 I absolutely loved this book. The world is so vivid and its history is so just as interesting as its peoples. Rhapsodie's character is so well developed. Her perspectives were clear and consistent throughout the entire story and relatable. She's a loveable character with a huge heart. A few things bugged me like how everyone had a crush on the main character how unbelievably beautiful she was, but the reasons behind it and the way it helped develop the character was worth it. The relationships in this book seemed like they could be real and not all happy go lucky, which was nice although it took up a lot of the plot.

I loved the first book; Rhapsody, and straight away i ordered this so i could continue the story. I wish i had left it as a standalone. The whole point of a fantasy book in my opinion is the action, adventure and magic. I don't mind a romance in there as well of course because that is life. realism.
What Haydon does here though is introduce us the evil they will inevitabely encounter and also introduce us to a pairing that will inevitabely flourish into a romance. clean cut and fair enough. But to have to read one hundred pages about them "making love" when they finally do get together and then be cheated with 2 pages of the confrontation with the evil shortly afterwards it just leaves you severely let down and with 100 pages still to show more read i had lost all interest. show less

I liked the first book, the story line, the world and the characters - although I found Rhapsody a bit annoying. In this book, I still like the story line, the world and most of the characters. Rhapsody can be very annoying and some of the characters are just clueless. In addition, an entire romance novel had been embedded in the book. There are long, tedious discussions about:
1. How beautiful Rhapsody is and what nice clothes she has
2. How handsome Ashe is
3. Their feelings for each other - deep love, confusion, misunderstanding - they've got it all.
If the romance to action ratio remains the same I probably won't make it through the third book even though I would like to know how the story ends.

I believe the symphony of ages series has become one of my favorites despite myself. A fun if kind of dark book that will appeal to a lot of fantasy readers. The characters are very well written, which makes all the difference to me.