REQUIEM FOR THE SUN

Sequel to Haydon’s Rhapsody Trilogy fantasy/romance, begun impressively with Rhapsody: Child of Blood (1999). In Serendair, the ex-whore and harpist Rhapsody, who has Namer magic, gets revirginated, falls in with the assassin Achmed the Snake and his jolly giant sidekick and Sergeant-Major, Grunthor. She gains a fiery sword to help her fight the F’dor, who intend to wake the Primal Wyrm from the world core and level all with fire. In Prophecy: Child of Earth (2000), they recklessly rescue the endangered Sleeping Child from the F’dor while Rhapsody at last unites with her beloved Ashe. The Island of Serendair has been lost beneath the sea for over a thousand years as new plots interweave Lirin’s Lady Cymrian (Rhapsody) and Ashe Lord Cymrian with Esten, dark Mistress of the Ravens Guild of foundry artisans, and with Achmed, whose Bolgs now rebuild Castle Canrif of Ylorc, and with Grunthor. The half-human Queen Rhapsody and her Lord Cymrian care for the Navarre orphans—Gwydion, who assumes his late father’s title, and Gwydion’s young sister Melisande. Lirin and Ylorc are loosely allied with relentlessly sunbaked Sorbold, ruled by greedy, aged Dowager Empress Leitha, famed as the Gray Assassin and mother of her poisonous Crown Prince Vyshla, though her end nears. The fate of the world depends on the Sleeping Child now in a vault under Ylorc, for her altar imprisons beneath it the F’dor children of fire set on rising to destroy the Earth. Rhapsody herself begs Ashe to impregnate her, though he fears a child will kill Rhapsody, yet when she finally is pregnant she must keep it a secret from the risen demons. The worst happens when her old enemy Michael returns from the dead, casting no shadow but burning villages and sending her to be raped by his ship’s crew.

An opera of the four elements, moody and melodious.