Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Book Review - Rhapsody by Elizabeth Haydon

Posted by LunaMoth at 9:56 PM

Rhapsody
Author - Elizabeth Haydon
Series - Symphony of Ages #1
Genre - Epic Fantasy
Number of Pages - 656
Published - June 15th 2000
Publisher - Tor Fantasy 

Rhapsody is a woman, a Singer of some talent, who is swept up into events of world-shattering import. On the run from an old romantic interest who won't take no for an answer, Rhapsody literally bumps into a couple of shady characters: half-breeds who come to her rescue in the nick of time. Only the rescue turns into an abduction, and Rhapsody soon finds herself dragged along on an epic voyage, one that spans centuries and ranges across a wonder-filled fantasy world.

I read this about 10 years ago and liked it. I had decided to re-read it since i never went past the first book in this trilogy. My views had not changed much, it is a lovely story and I quite enjoyed it, however, now that I have re-read it with some understanding of world buioding, character development and such, I can now see the flaws that I did not so many years back. 

 The pace and world building are nice, it is a long book so there is a lot of information to process. So much in fact that I sometimes found myself skipping pages in my kindle to get through some of the droll information being fed to me, too many descriptions or long stories marred the pace of the book.

 The characters are also a mixed bunch. Some, like Achmed, are a great personality that I thoroughly enjoyed. Achmed and his partner Grunthor added humor and charm to the book, even Jo the street girl added charm and imagination to the rather wishy-washy plot. The one that I did not warm up to was Rhapsody, our main heroin. Her use of music to heal/harm and whatnot was imaginitive but her overall personality was so.. annoying! 

 Really... every guy who sees her on instant loves her, wants her and she is oblivious to it all. NO ONE is such an airhead. I got tired of her goody-goody twinkle toes routine. Sure she can be a bad ass with Daystar but that does not redeem her rather blase nature. 

 There is little action here, there is some but it is not major and there is no romance at all (for which i found refreshing) It is your straight A typical epic that goes from point A to point B with little in between. I will read the second book because I enjoyed the story and wish to see what happens to Achmed and crew but I also wish to see if Rhapsody grows up or gets a clue.

 

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