July BOTM: Rhapsody

[FicusFan]

I just finished reading this book. It was not a book I would have chosen on my own, but it was not bad. I liked the writing and the voice of the author. I will say that she was much too wordy, but perhaps that was a newbie thing.

I liked the characters and the story, though I thought it got a bit convoluted and there was too much backstory and sidestory. It seemed EH was using a lot of Welsh stuff for her world. Her characters seemed a bit plastic, and everything seemed to 'work out' for the Firbolg (who I think are part of the Irish faries ?) but It still managed to hook me into finishing it. I almost gave up when they were stuck in the tree.

I thought the outside editor (gods ?) was an interesting touch, but perhaps too much for the story, as was the missing boyfriend.

I am not sure I will read the rest of the series though. I liked the first book, but I already have so much of my own to read and the next 2 books in the series don't look any smaller. I am also sure that there will be a happy ending.

[Gilliam]

IIRC Haydon has also written romance stories under another name and I thought that there was an underlying Mills & Boon theme in the book. Overall I enjoyed the story with the only critism being Rhapsody's beauty. I found it so hard to believe that she would consider herself replusive.

Haydon is currently writing book 5 set in the Rhapsody world.

[rune]

I have actually got most of the books in this series so far I remember this first book was a little confusing for me. The story began in one era, and one world and then switched to another without being very clear that had happened.
However, the relationship between the three characters was developed I thought this book turned into a pretty good read. I thought Haydon used magic in an orginal way too with interesting new creatures, which makes a change. My favourite character had to be Achmed

[Priestvyrce]

Though I did enjoy the novel, I thought that she needed to get on with it. There are some passages, the most glaring going through the roots of the Tree, were a bit too long and tedious. Also, her main character, Raphsody, was a bit on the "too perfect" side for my tastes.

[Rob B]

I read this when it first came out and enjoyed it at the time, at least enough to pick up the subsequent 2 volumes in hardcover.

A fairly entertaining story, but I remember being quite annoyed with the naivete of the main character, especially with the repetitive self-doubt.

[FicusFan]

I agree the main character was a tad too perfect. I also thought her belief that she was ugly and scarry looking was just plain silly.

The thing I had the most trouble with was her 'fear' of being under the earth. No matter how frightened you are, or how un-natural it seems after 1400 plus years you would lose that feeling. People just can't stay at that high an emotional pitch forever, they burn out. She might have become apathetic and curled up to die, but she would have been a different personality after being in that situation that long.

I of course also don't think the 3 of them could have gone 14oo years without bathing.