Customer Reviews

Prophecy (Gollancz Sf S.)

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Even the curmudgeons seem to have a hard time dismissing this new writer. They fume about the "hype" her first book, Rhapsody, received, try to pick it apart and complain, and yet in the end they all kind of grudgingly admit they enjoyed it a lot. Perhaps I am unique in that when I don't like something I'm reading, I don't bother to finish it.

It was literally painful for me to put this book and its predecessor down. The characters are beautifully written, full of warts and hidden gifts. The plot hums along, with fast paced action giving way to more methodical, contemplative passages, similar to, gee--life! This is not a book for someone who enjoys mindless pap. It's a book that makes you think, and feel, and marvel that one person can devise such a clever history, can show so many different sides of people, can make you laugh and shudder and cry and want to scream all within a few pages.

Prophecy is a much faster read than Rhapsody. It is written without compromise; Haydon takes brave steps with characters that NO other fantasy writer would dare take. She is the new master of this genre.

There's one major problem; the romance. I might be somewhat oversensitive to this but there were two plotelements that threw me off this book immensely:

- Rhapsody's larger than life flawless character: I'm a big fan of the underdog. Rhapsody is Altruism made flesh to an extend that is really stretching the boundries of suspending disbelief. It got so bad at a few points I had to put the book down for a few days to restore my will to read any further.

- The Romance: I'll not spoil what romance, but it's dragged out far too long. It's really as if the author lost herself, and wanted to be Rhapsody so bad she started writing more of her bedroom fantasy instead of a story. These scenes frankly disgusted me at some points. Not because of their graphicness, I must say she did a fairly good job at that, but at their unrealistic sweetness.

Well, if you have a strong stomach when it comes to sappyness, you'll love this book. The plot is rather strong, the prose is phenomenal, though overly grandiose at points. The characters, with the exception of Rhapsody, are rather realistic and pleasant to read about.

All in all, I'd pick it up if I had nothing better to do.. Definately not worth a rush to the bookstore though.

Recommendations: CS Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy.

Prophecy, child of earth is easily the best book I have read this year, just as Rhapsody, child of blood was the best one I read last year. It is vastly superior to the works of the current "masters" of the genre. The battle scenes are sharp and focused, the emotions raw and real, and the characters are the best in fantasy, bar none. Four different people recommended this series to me before I finally bought Rhapsody because I am so sick of what passes for Epic Fantasy these days.

The female characters in this book are amazing--whether it's the dragon, the Grandmother, Oelendra or the two women from the previous book. I think Grunthor and Achmed are the best pair of male characters around.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has a taste for fantasy, and even those who don't.

Since I am obviously in the minority in seeing this book as lacking, let me affirm that I am an enormous fan of modern fantasy. Sadly, though, there are certain characteristics of fantasy writing today, which many fantasy authors cannot help but include in their work, that I cannot stand. If nothing else, this book helped me to verbalize and understand these.

First, Rhapsody is shallow and unsophisticated as a character. Her motivations are so purely "good" and "selfless" that after a point you get fed up with it- it can be nauseating, at times. Second, Rhapsody seems able to cough up some new mystical power every other day. You're never particularly worried at a "close call," because you know the author will come up with some unbelievable stretch to get everyone out of it. Please. Third, the romance... my God!!! If you have a strong enough stomach to put up with the lovey-dubby companionship and "perfect lovemaking" that takes all night (and she spares no details), I take my hat off to you. Lastly, the book plays out like a morality lesson, or a treatise on feminism. It almost reminds me of one of those "made for Lifetime TV" movies.

This book is for those who read fantasy to look for a flowery world with unbelievably perfect and invincible characters. If you're after something else, try George RR Martin or, better yet, Ursula Le Guin (from whom Haydon heavily borrows).

I just finished this book and did in fact enjoy it. But I can't run around raving about how good these books are when I have problems with them.

First though, I must say that the series is enjoyable. I'll stay away from all of the compliments, as everyone else is gushing with praise, so I'll play devil's advocate.

These books have problems that everyone seems to overlook. First, there is just too much pointless character development on Rhapsody. I'm really glad that everything works out for her, sort of, but I don't need chapters wholly dedicated to her crying, kissing and loving. I'm not in the habit of reading romance novels, and now I really know why. I have my own imagination, so everything doesn't need to be spelled out. I'm happy for the central characters, but isn't it enough just to cover the events and some feelings? I don't need to be bombarded with how peoples' hearts are overflowing and such.

There is so much time spent on Rhapsody and her broken heart that the plot often gets ignored. The book starts strong, stays that way for much of the book, then gets boring, but ends strong. I feel no sense of impending danger for the characters. Even when they go up against one of the main bad guys, they kill him with very little effort in about 10 seconds. It seems the only challenge they received was from fighting a stupid tree. Maybe I'm jaded and shallow, but I like sword fights and sorcery. I like my fantasy to have huge battles of good versus evil with armies and monsters and heroes and villians. That just isn't happening here.

Overall, I recommend people read these books (they are entertaining), but don't expect so much out of them. Any book that gets as high a rating as these should be better. This series does NOT compare with Jordan, Goodkind, Martin, Brooks, Farland or any other of the great series being written today. It definately isn't Tolkein.

Read them, but with a grain of salt.

Elizabeth Haydon is the Jane Austen of the Fantasy world! In a genre populated by stereotypes straight from Dungeons and Dragons she has developed characters that are wonderfully orginal and compelling. In Prophecy we get to know them even better while they establish themselves in their new world. Rhapsody continues to be endearingly naive as she searches for her role in this world and her almost childlike adoration of Ashe, which is sucking her dangerously into the devious political machinations of the Cymrians. Ashe seem to mean well but somehow in spite of his love for Rhapsody, seems to lead her into danger, deception and tragedy. In contrast Achmed, who in most books would be the archetypal villain, always seem to be on hand to help and support her, in spite of his suspicious and cynical nature (not to mention a deliciously dry sense of humour). Between these two opposites stands Grunthor, who gets some of the best lines in the book (and thats saying something!), loyal and protective of them both. Even the minor characters in this book are richly drawn, from the selfish Tristan to the manipulative and amoral Llauron and the unforgettable oracle sisters.

In terms of the plot, the story moves forward with increasing pace. We learn more about Achmed and his Dracian heritage, some of Ashe's secrets and Rhapsody comes to terms with her past and her powers. We also learn quite a few of Grunthor's increasingly gory marching songs. Just one thing- Who on earth is the F'dor? Roll on book 3 to find out all and complements to Elizabeth Haydon for resisting the temptation to stretch the story out into a never-ending multi-book saga like so many others. Still, I do hope that she will write may more books in this universe and about these characters - I will read them all!

I have been hungering for this book since last fall when I read Rhapsody. Haydon is an extremely talented author, certainly the brightest to come along in this field for a long time. Her characters are well drawn and her use of language is superlative. My favorite is Achmed, the sour mooded king of the Firbolg, but was a hard choice between him and Grunthor, who is even more visible in this book than he was in the first. Haydon's female characters are not the cool and flawless heroines of more typical writing styles. This was worth every minute of the wait. Great; now I have to suffer for a year until Destiny: Child of the Sky.

I really wanted to like this book. I liked "Rhapsody" well enough and thought that it had a lot of potential as a first novel. Unfortunately, "Prophecy" is a huge step backwards for Haydon.

The Good: Haydon has a knack for vivid description. All of the locales in the novel are evocative and well written. She's also a pretty fair action writer, as these things go. Her world is well developed and interesting. Rhapsody's Naming magic is generally interesting, as are the general elemental magic abilities. Several of the minor characters (Elynsynos, Lord Stephen, Lord Trystan) are better than the main characters.

The Bad: Haydon strips all of the endearing character traits from her two best characters, Achmed and Grunthor, and turns them into annoying charicatures. Instead, the entire book focuses on Rhapsody.

This is a huge problem, because Rhapsody is a fundamentally uninteresting character. She's "perfect" in every way: perfectly beautiful, perfect student, perfect lover, perfect friend, perfect warrior, perfect diplomat, etc., etc., ad nauseum. Her only "flaw" is that she doesn't realize how beautiful she truly is, and is self depricating because of it. Of course, that never makes any difference, because she never fails at anything she attempts and ends up getting the perfect man anyway. The only plus here is that she spends less of this book going from emotional equilibrium to indignant rage at the drop of a hat. Speaking of Ashe/Gwydion/Sam, he's an empty suit for Rhapsody to have sex with.

I mentioned above that Haydon's descriptive writing is strong. This is outlined all the more because her dialog is utterly insipid. Achmed answers everything with an annoying question or a "cutting" quip (such as when he shows a diplomat several examples of fabrics and wines that are of a manufacture the diplomat has never seen before. The diplomat asks, quite reasonably, where Achmed acquired them. Achmed's withering response to this perfectly reasonable question? "Don't be an idiot"). However, even that pales in comparison to the "banter" between Rhapsody and Ashe. If teen couples in ice cream parlors cooing "I love you!", "No, I love you more!" cause you to roll your eyes, stay far, far away from this book.

Finally, there are structural issues with the book. Not a lot happens in the first place, but the story slams to a halt when Haydon decides it would be worth the time to have Rhapsody and Ashe have sex for 35 pages. No really. They continue to have sex and coo at each other intermittently for the final 200 pages of the novel. In addition, a minor character is raped, "Rosemary's Baby" style, in teeth gratingly awful detail (note to fantasy authors: most of us don't read fantasy for vivid descriptions of rape, it's unpleasant). The demon that rapes this character looks exactly like Ashe, yet when Rhapsody discovers this she's so perfect that she never has any difficulty around Ashe. Apparently she has no imagination.

Anyway, after this interlude we get a false climax, where the novel seems like it's over. But it isn't. It continues for another 130 pages, most of which is setup for the third novel in the trilogy and could easily have been put elsewhere (like in the third book).

In addition, Haydon writes mostly in third person limited. However, at certain points she switches,without warning, to third person omniscient. This book needed to be locked in a padded room with a savage editor for about a month. Several hundred pages could easily have been shaved off of it.

I had intended to end the review with a section devoted to the moments of unintentional comedy. My favorite is when Rhapsody enters a forest and uses her naming magic to know the forest's exact dimensions, take strength from the forest, and know the positions of four expert trackers that are following her. However, several days later she is ambushed by a platoon of the same trackers and is taken utterly by surprise. That happens within the same chapter, by the way. However, I can't in good conscience recommend the book on those grounds because the comedy scale drops in the later stages. I couldn't even muster up more than a groan when Haydon used the phrase "make love" just about every other word during the "sex romp" portions.

The bottom line here is that the only thing stopping this book from being forgotten in the Harlequin Romance section of your local book store is a little bit of tarting up with magic, dragons, and several hundred pages of unnecessary length. Do yourself a favor and read any of the myriad other fantasy writers who do it better.

As hard as it was for me to believe that an author could make magic of this intensity twice, Elizabeth Haydon has repeated the glory, and in fact surpassed RHAPSODY, in the sequel, PROPHECY.

The book picks right up where the first left off, and lets loose action twice as fast as before. This book, unlike the single point of view in RHAPSODY, splits into two fronts, following Achmed and Grunthor through mysterious ruins in Canrif to discover deep magic and tragic answers there. In the meanwhile, Rhapsody and Ashe travel westward to find the ancient lair of the fierce and mighty dragon Elynsynos.

PROPHECY is full of mystery and magic, more action, romance, sadness and trimph. It also has some of the most beautiful "music" [well, lyrics] I have ever read. I could hear the tunes in my head as I read the words.

I HIGHLY recommend this book. I read every fantasy I can get my hands on, and I don't believe I have ever read better epic fnntasy than this, at least any that was written in the second half of the 20th century.

Rhapsody is torn between loyalty to her friends and adoptive family and the emotions she feels toward Ashe--a man who just might be possessed by the demons that are trying to destroy the world. This is the very personal and emotional core that drives an exciting fantasy adventure forward. Because we care very deeply about Rhapsody--frankly, because Elizabeth Haydon makes us care about her--we cannot help making a profound emotional investment in the story and in Rhapsody's survival.

All of the major characters from RHAPSODY are back. With demons threatening destruction of her new world, Rhapsody cannot sit back and enjoy Achmed's new place as a king. Rather, she (along with Ashe) undertake the trek to one of the last dragon's lairs. There Rhapsody makes another friend (it is a talent) and is gifted with another challenge.

Fantasy fans will definitely enjoy this one.