's Best of 2001
In a book world awash in sword-slinging fantasy novels, each trying to out-Jordan the other, the arrival of yet another big new series on the scene is... no big deal. But much to the delight of readers bored to tears by doorstopper clones, Elizabeth Haydon's three-part tale is unique, thrilling, and utterly romantic from start to finish. The story of a magical singer of extraordinary power and her battle with a blood-soaked demon began in Rhapsody: Child of Blood and continued in Prophecy: Child of Earth. The trilogy's final volume, Destiny: Child of the Sky offers fantasy fans something they crave, but don't often see--a great ending.

When last we saw our lovely heroine Rhapsody and her two best friends Achmed and Grunthor, they had just rescued the Sleeping Child from the evil tendrils of the F'dor. But as they found out through the tragic loss of their young friend Jo, the three must follow the demon's trail of violence and blood, finding the children it has spawned across the land in order to track it down and destroy it once and for all. As in the previous two books, Rhapsody's love of her friends and desire to save children in danger drive her most reckless actions.

Elizabeth Haydon delivers us from the fantasy traps of never-ending plots, wooden characters, and yawn-inducing battles. She takes much of her style from romance and suspense novels, rather than historical fiction, giving her books real depth of emotion and humanity. It's true that there are spots of sentimentality that may leave some hardened adventure fans groaning, but that very thing may help explain why Haydon's books have succeeded with crossover romance readers so admirably. We can only hope she'll set her sights on another swoony adventure as soon as possible. --Therese Littleton


From Publishers Weekly
Following Rhapsody: Child of Blood (2001) and Prophecy: Child of Earth (2000), Haydon concludes her high fantasy trilogy featuring the beautiful skysinger Rhapsody, who generates magic from music, with a dark, cataclysmic book filled with almost constant action. With the evil Rakshas destroyed in volume two, Rhapsody and her two shady half-breed sidekicks, clairvoyant assassin Achmed and the jolly green giant Grunthor, undertake a quest for the blood of the Rakshas' children, which they hope will help them solve the mystery of the hidden demon F'dor, the creator of the murderous Rakshas. Wielding her fire sword, Rhapsody summons starfire and metaphysical music for her final confrontation with the demonic force intent on world destruction. Though obviously inspired by music theory, Norse and Celtic folklore, and seemingly by such authors as Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Patricia A. McKillip, Anne McCaffrey and Palmer Brown (Cheerful), the author uses a fluid writing style to build a world uniquely and compellingly her own. In this shimmering symphony of exhaustive (though not exhausting) detail, epic myths, music and magic intertwine in a resounding fugal crescendo. Haydon fans sorry to see the end of the trilogy can take heart in knowing that the Rhapsody saga's vast historical timeline contains plenty of unexplored epochs and eras ripe for future book treatment. (Sept. 1) Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in perpetuity.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Called across time to fulfill her destiny, the harpist Rhapsody joins with the Firbolg king Achmed and his giant companion Grunthor to attempt to fight the powerful and elusive F'dor, a demon-born danger that threatens the fabric of existence. As the three champions' path grows more perilous, they learn to use the special gifts alluded to in ancient prophecies. Haydon's conclusion to her "Rhapsody" trilogy (Rhapsody, Prophecy) blends Celtic lore with Asian myth to produce a world both strange and hauntingly familiar. A good choice for fantasy collections. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
To conclude the sweeping high-fantasy trilogy begun and continued in Rhapsody: Child of Blood (1999) and Prophecy: Child of Earth (2000), Rhapsody, Achmed, and Gunther, the three of the Prophecy, carry out their roles as saviors of the land by gathering up the demon-spawned children, ridding them of demon blood, and using that blood to track the demon. At the same time, Rhapsody persuades the factions of the Lirin to reunite and becomes their monarch. After a horrific battle in which Rhapsody, Achmed, and Gunther obliterate the demon, Rhapsody is reunited with her soulmate, Ashe, and sounds the long-lost Cymrian horn, summoning all the Cymrian line for a climactic battle with an ancient dragon, the reunification of the land, and Rhapsody's self-healing. Meridion, the time editor who has been changing events throughout the trilogy, also realizes his destiny as the child whose soul was conceived eons ago in the land where he brought Rhapsody and Ashe together and set them on their inevitable course. Destiny so meshes with the preceding volumes that rereading them seems almost mandatory for fully enjoying the nuances and effects of Meridion's time editing. Haydon has gathered and woven the threads of her story into a carefully patterned whole. Complex but extremely satisfying. Sally Estes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"Filled with detail and a complex, multi-faceted plotline, and readers will quickly pick up on the echoes of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth and David Eddings Belgariad series, as well as Celtic and Norse mythology, and even a dash of Mozart's Magic Flute."--Toronto National Post & Mail



Review
"Filled with detail and a complex, multi-faceted plotline, and readers will quickly pick up on the echoes of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth and David Eddings Belgariad series, as well as Celtic and Norse mythology, and even a dash of Mozart's Magic Flute."--Toronto National Post & Mail



Book Description
A FELLOWSHIP OF THREE

To stand against the F'dor-- an ancient, vile being intent on destroying the world-- a fellowship has been forged: Rhapsody, a Singer of great talent and beauty; Achmed, an assassin with unearthly talents; and Grunthor, a giant of jolly disposition and lethal skill with weapons.

Driven by prophetic visions, the three know that time is running short, know that they must find their elusive enemy before his darkness consumes them all. But after their final, brutal confrontation with the F'dor, their world crosses the threshold of disaster and faces utter oblivion. The action reaches a fevered pitch, achieving a crescendo of tragedy, love, and triumph of human spirit over world-shattering cataclysm.

With death at hand and the world crumbling at their feet, these three will finally discover their true ...

DESTINY



From the Back Cover
A FELLOWSHIP OF THREE

To stand against the F'dor-- an ancient, vile being intent on destroying the world-- a fellowship has been forged: Rhapsody, a Singer of great talent and beauty; Achmed, an assassin with unearthly talents; and Grunthor, a giant of jolly disposition and lethal skill with weapons.

Driven by prophetic visions, the three know that time is running short, know that they must find their elusive enemy before his darkness consumes them all. But after their final, brutal confrontation with the F'dor, their world crosses the threshold of disaster and faces utter oblivion. The action reaches a fevered pitch, achieving a crescendo of tragedy, love, and triumph of human spirit over world-shattering cataclysm.

With death at hand and the world crumbling at their feet, these three will finally discover their true ...

DESTINY

"Filled with detail and a complex, multi-faceted plotline, and readers will quickly pick up on the echoes of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth and David Eddings Belgariad series, as well as Celtic and Norse mythology, and even a dash of Mozart's Magic Flute."--Toronto National Post & Mail



About the Author
Elizabeth Haydon first began writing in the fourth grade. Writing a play was one option in a history assignment so, along with a couple of friends, she put on a fairly awful play she had written which was called The Clue in the Diary. Writing fiction became a dream at that point. She took courses in college, but didn't believe she would be able to make a living from it.
She had read C.S. Lewis as a young child, J.R.R. Tolkien as an older one, and some fantasy in college, but had lost touch with the field after that. She was working in educational publishing in 1994 when she met up with an editorial friend and mentor in New Orleans at the American Library Association conference. He asked her to write for him a fantasy that might cross over to other genres and contain some of their shared mutual interests: medieval music, history, anthropology, and herbalism among others. Since they had been drinking Dixie Blackened Voodoos, she was initially hesitant to take on the project, worried that he might have been a bit tipsy when he suggested it. But when it became clear he really wanted her to do it, The Symphony of Ages was born.

These novels have made numerous "Best of the Year" as well as national bestseller lists. The Romantic Times called it "an epic saga worthy of Eddings, Goodkind & Jordan". A harpist and madrigal singer, Elizabeth Haydon lives on the East Coast with her husband and three children, where she is writing fantasy novels for both The Symphony of Ages for adults and the Adventures of Ven Polypheme for children.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Reading this novel is like listening to a great work of music. The story of Destiny -- the final book in Elizabeth Haydon's marvelous trilogy that began with Rhapsody and Prophecy -- centers around Rhapsody, Achmed, and Grunthor -- three half-blooded outcasts who escaped their home island of Serendair, only to find that evil had followed them. Once leaving the bowels of the earth in which they traveled, they learned of their home world's destruction and the fate of its people.

Destiny takes up directly after the events of the last two books. The F'dor, now alone after the destruction of his Rakshas, is plotting and maneuvering different groups of people, preparing for the final battle. While he's setting up the destruction of the world, Rhapsody and Achmed take to finding the Rakshas' children, hoping to separate them from the demon's blood and giving Achmed a way of finding the elusive F'dor.

As the story progresses, the characters are manipulated and moved through areas and situations with grace and purpose. Only Rhapsody, Achmed, and Grunthor can be trusted not to be the evil entity, yet they aren't perfect, either. Still, you can't push aside the other characters without wondering who they really are and what their true goals are in helping or thwarting our heroes, and the story pulls at your emotions as you try to figure out who the demon's host actually is. Elizabeth Haydon has managed to create a world and its inhabitants that you want to learn more about. (Lisa Harshberger)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

First there was Rhapsody, which Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, called "one of the finest high fantasy debuts in years." Then came Prophecy, of which the Romantic Times said, "Fans eagerly anticipating the second book from Elizabeth Haydon elevates craftsmanship to a new level of excellence as she deftly weaves mythology and fantasy, catching our hearts with the extroadinary power and intensity of both characters and concepts. This series already has 'landmark' written all over it." (41/2 Star, Gold Medal Review)

Here is Destiny, the triumphant conclusion to the Rhapsody Trilogy.

In Rhapsody, a fellowship was forged, three companions who triumphed over great adversity: Rhapsody, a singer of great talent and beauty; Achmed, an assassin with unearthly talents; and Grunthor, a giant of jolly disposition and deadly skill with weapons. Having fled the F'dor — an ancient, powerful evil — the three emerged on the other side of the world, only to discover that fourteen centuries had passed. Their homeland had been destroyed, their people scattered across several continents, and everyone they had ever known had long since passed . . . except, perhaps, the F'dor.

Prophecy continued this powerful epic. Driven by a vision, Rhapsody rescued the religious leader of her new homeland while Achmed and Grunthor sought evidence of the F'dor. The three learned they might be their world's only hope, heroes spoken of in the Prophecy of the Three, but time was running short. They had to find their elusive enemy before his darkness consumed them all.

Destiny concludes this masterful trilogy. Rhapsody and Achmed seek out the offspring of the F'dor, hoping to use them to hunt it down, while Grunthor prepares the Bolglands for war. But as they near the completion of their quest, their world crosses the threshold of disaster and faces utter oblivion. With Destiny, Haydon brings the action to a fever pitch, achieving a crescendo of tragedy, love, and triumph of their human spirit over world-shattering cataclysm.

In addition to traveling the world, Elizabeth Haydon enjoys music, anthropology, and folklore, and is an accomplished herbalist. A harpist and madrigal singer, she lives with her family on the East Coast, where she works as an editor in educational publishing.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Following Rhapsody: Child of Blood (2001) and Prophecy: Child of Earth (2000), Haydon concludes her high fantasy trilogy featuring the beautiful skysinger Rhapsody, who generates magic from music, with a dark, cataclysmic book filled with almost constant action. With the evil Rakshas destroyed in volume two, Rhapsody and her two shady half-breed sidekicks, clairvoyant assassin Achmed and the jolly green giant Grunthor, undertake a quest for the blood of the Rakshas' children, which they hope will help them solve the mystery of the hidden demon F'dor, the creator of the murderous Rakshas. Wielding her fire sword, Rhapsody summons starfire and metaphysical music for her final confrontation with the demonic force intent on world destruction. Though obviously inspired by music theory, Norse and Celtic folklore, and seemingly by such authors as Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Patricia A. McKillip, Anne McCaffrey and Palmer Brown (Cheerful), the author uses a fluid writing style to build a world uniquely and compellingly her own. In this shimmering symphony of exhaustive (though not exhausting) detail, epic myths, music and magic intertwine in a resounding fugal crescendo. Haydon fans sorry to see the end of the trilogy can take heart in knowing that the Rhapsody saga's vast historical timeline contains plenty of unexplored epochs and eras ripe for future book treatment. (Sept. 1) FYI: Haydon donated all her royalties from Prophecy to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in perpetuity. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal