Once again, Elizabeth Haydon delivers a novel that is difficult to classify. To be sure, it is a fantasy: temperamental dragons and melodious Lirin and frighteningly-visaged Firbolg stalk its pages. And it is certainly a romance: two long-lost lovers come to know one another again, though whether they can find happiness is less a matter of choice than one of manipulation and prophecy. It is an historical novel, a storytelling novel, a religious novel and a political one. It is, as the narrative so charmingly puts it, a novel of scholarship and the search for knowledge, dying on the altar of greed and the lust for power.

In short, Prophecy: Child of Earth is an elegantly crafted novel of breadth and depth, populated by all too human characters and a frustratingly masked evil, set in a land with shaky political and religious foundations. Prophecy is the second book of Rhapsody. (Book one being Rhapsody: Child of Blood; book three, Destiny: Child of the Sky.) This is not a series that may be read out of order; anyone starting with Prophecy will undoubtedly be confused and bored.

When last we left them: a.k.a. The Plot

Achmed, Grunthor and Rhapsody have established themselves as the leaders of the newly-formed Bolgish kingdom of Ylorc. Their relations with the neighboring provinces of Roland aren't exactly the friendliest (which may be due to the underlying fear the people of said provinces have of being killed and eaten by the monstrous-looking Bolg), but they have established ambassadorial relations and are working on economic ties.

Rhapsody is determined to return the dragon's claw dagger to its rightful owner, the dragon Elynsynos. The mysterious cloaked man of mists, Ashe, offers to guide Rhapsody to the dragon's lair. The two set off northward on a journey that may reveal to them what the reader already knows.

In Rhapsody's absence, Achmed and Grunthor, having studied Gwylliam's maps, seek out a hidden annex deep inside the mountain. Will they find the lore of the ages, or something even more valuable?

And all the while, the F'dor is stalking and plotting, waiting for (and creating) the opportunity to cover the earth in flames, an outcome that Meridion, at his Time Editor, wants desperately to prevent.

Commentary

I am eternally frustrated in my attempt to summarize the plot of this novel. It has no plot. Well, not exactly. The plot advances with a sidestepping motion, perhaps. In a sense, for the majority of this novel, absolutely nothing happens. Haydon begins with a leisurely look at the events of book one through the eyes of dreamers Rhapsody, Achmed, Grunthor, Ashe, and Jo. Following that, the book is essentially a series of meetings and conversations punctuated by staccato whip-cracks of violence, danger, anger, and mistrust.

So how can I enjoy a book in which nothing happens? Several reasons, actually: the author's style, her structure, the depth of her characters, and her ability to twist cliches into new and different forms.

For style, I offer up a passage that touches on some of the many themes in the novel, from the midst of a conversation that touched on many more, which, when read in context, had me near tears:

"Do you like copper, Pretty? It is really nothing more than the spent blood of dragons of my kind, just as the vein of gold that formed your locket once ran in the veins of a golden dragon. Emeralds, rubies, sapphires--nothing more than the clotted life's blood of ancient dragons of various sub-races, various colors. It is what we leave behind in the hope that Time will maintain our memory, but it never does. Instead, it serves only to adorn the breasts of women and the empty heads of kings."

The prose is a curious mixture of obscure and antiquated terms (those who already know what a catafalque is have my earnest admiration) and more recent terms not often used in fantasy (Jo is consistently referred to as a teenager - not an adolescent or a young woman, but a teenager.). It's an odd combination, but it works.

The structure of the book is particularly fascinating to me; not to the point that it pulled me out of the story, but interesting enough that I may read through it again just to see how the author makes it work. The events are somewhat surreal, as if they occur in a dream state. Various elements - memories, dreams, words and phrases - are repeated throughout in a kind of rhythmic echo. The elements are drawn from Rhapsody and from Prophecy, so if repetition of any kind causes your brain to go numb, your eyelids to drift closed, and your hands to slacken their grip, I highly suggest avoiding this book unless you are in need of a remedy for insomnia.

The majority of the book is devoted to seeking out answers to various questions, meeting the people who can provide those answers, and learning from them. The history of the Cymrian people, the lore of Creation, the five elements and the races that sprang from them, the identity and motives of Ashe, hints at the identity and motives of Meridion, details of Rhapsody's early life, of the Dhracian culture and purpose, of the task the Three have yet to finish: all are explored, all are answered, some more than once. As Rhapsody travels, she collects pieces of the puzzles from the people she encounters - and the reader must as well. Readers with careful, patient attention and a good eye for detail will appreciate the pace of this book much more than those who long to race ahead.

The depth of Haydon's characters was something that impressed me in Rhapsody, and though the field is slightly broader in Prophecy, the original characters still retain the focus, while the secondary characters often appear to have more depth than the reader can see. One gets the feeling that they had lives before Rhapsody, Achmed, and Grunthor appeared, and that they will continue them afterward - it isn't as though they were blank slates awaiting their turn on the stage and returning to stasis upon completion of their lines. Ashe becomes a main character (which truthfully, wasn't an unexpected development, though I won't say why) and a source of distrust and division for Rhapsody, Achmed, and Grunthor. Other characters pass in and out, the political and religious leaders of Roland and Sorbold foremost among them, while some, like Elynsynos and Oelendra, may stay with you even after the last page is turned. The most prominent figure in the story, though, is Rhapsody, and I'll let her speak for herself:

"I don't know if I would recognize evil if I saw it. You see, my judgment is not always the best. People who are generally considered monstrous or subhuman are some of the people I love the most, while I seem to be distrustful of those in regal positions and of honorable reputation. I'm not good at discerning who I should trust and when I should keep my mouth shut. I could be very dangerous in a position like that."

As for the cliches, I'll simply say that for all that this is a fantasy, it's also a romance, and certain conventions exist. Sometimes the author uses them, and sometimes she subverts them.

A warning, for those who need that kind of thing: the soldiers make crude jokes, the occasional bloody death occurs, and the sex is semi-graphic.

The inside of my paperback copy states that the royalties (the author's earnings on the book) are being donated to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which you can visit at www.pedAIDS.org online.

Haydon's own website, www.elizabethhaydon.com, offers a multitude of delights for Rhapsody fans. For anyone who read my review of Rhapsody: Child of Blood and wonders, yes, I did try the prescience quiz to guess the events of Prophecy. My result? Of the fourteen questions, I guessed three answers correctly, eight incorrectly, and had three partially correct (on multi-sectioned questions). So I stand by my claim: even when Haydon's being predictable, she's unpredictable.

Paperback, 697 pages
ISBN: 0-812-57082-0
List Price: $7.99



Recommended: Yes