The Symphony of Ages series: The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme series, Book 1 Elizabeth Haydon Starscape Fiction, MG Fantasy Themes: Fantasy Races, Merfolk, Pirates, Seafaring Tales *****
Description
In the long-lost Second Age of the world, two great books were written by one great man: the legendary Nain explorer Ven Polypheme, author of The Book of
All Human Knowledge and All Magical Things. Little is left of his personal life and records, but historians and scholars have labored long and hard to
produce this book, an account of his first-ever adventure and the beginning of his life of exploration.
Nains, diminutive long-lived people best known for their mines and their beards, mostly live underground, but some "upland" Nains live and work on the surface among
humans and the other races. Only one Nain family, the Polyphemes (founded by Magnus the Mad), inexplicably yet skillfully turned their talents to the crafting of
seagoing ships. Charles Magnus Ven Polypheme, better known as Ven, has just turned fifty (closer to twelve or thirteen by human standards), the youngest son of the
Polypheme shipbuilder family. Unlike his brothers, he loves the sea, just as he loves dreaming of what lays beyond the horizon and longs to learn everything there
is to know about everywhere he can explore... which, until now, has been mostly limited to his home town and his family's shipbuilding factory. Today, however, he is
to take a newly-crafted vessel out for its Inspection before its christening and sale, the first time he has been trusted with this all-important task.
It's supposed to be a routine run around the bay, but things go wrong from the very start. Soon, Ven finds himself all alone in a world far bigger, wilder, and more
dangerous than he could ever imagine, wrapped up in a grand adventure involving sea people, Fire Pirates, kings, and even terrors from beyond death... not to mention a
magical floating island from the beginning of Time itself.
Review
At first glance, this had all the trappings of a typical sea-fantasy adventure, but within the first few chapters it becomes readily apparent that Haydon takes things
far beyond "typical," integrating a great many fresh ideas into a genre which, in the wake of recent pirate-mania, is on the verge of being saturated. Ven makes a brave
yet human hero, willingly tackling almost every new task set before him even as he recognizes that his own insatiable curiosity can be more a danger than an asset - a nice
change of pace from some stories (who make their Reluctant Heroes so reluctant they'd never in a million years get past that to become a hero.) Haydon's races superficially
resemble classic humanoid races (Nains as Dwarves, others as Elves or Fairies, etc.), but even when she does use an existing mythical race (as the merrows, or merpeople),
she gives them enough life and originality to avoid easy comparison to others. As noted, this book uses Haydon's pre-existing Symphony of Ages universe, though these
adventures in the "Second Age" predate her other works. If you're unfamiliar with her other books, though, it shouldn't affect an outsider's enjoyment - when I read this
book, I was completely unfamiliar with Haydon's previous works, and it was through The Floating Island that my curiosity was sufficiently piqued to track them down.
This is a very enjoyable book, the start of a series I eagerly look forward to following.
Incidentally, the cover of the edition I read features, quite prominently, a sea dragon. Sea dragons are mentioned in passing, but never does Ven actually meet one. Under
normal circumstances I'd be disappointed, but I enjoyed the story too much to care. Besides, there's at least one more book in the works; I highly suspect Ven be exploring more
wonders above and beneath the waves then.
The Symphony of Ages series: The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme series, Book 2 Elizabeth Haydon Starscape Fiction, MG Fantasy Themes: Fantasy Races, Thieves, Urban Tales ****
Description
Ven Polypheme, the Nain boy adventurer, has just received his first assignment as Royal Reporter to the young King Vandemere of Serendair. The king's father received a
mysterious object before his untimely death, a glowing stone in a riddle-inscribed box, but what the stone is and who gave it to the king nobody seems to know. To find
the answers, Ven and his friends from the Crossroads Inn must venture into the Gated City, a former penal colony wherein felons and their descendents trade in all manner
of strange and magical things, from enchanted armor to stolen childhoods... and where the ill-rumored Thief Queen of the Raven Clan holds sway. The Gated City is a place
of wonders beyond compare, and dangers beyond reckoning; has Ven's insatiable curiosity finally gotten him and his friends in too deep?
Review
A fairly fun and fast-moving story, much like Ven's first adventure, picks up fairly quickly and keeps moving. For some reason, I found the loose ends - setups, clearly,
for Ven's future adventures, which will extend for at least one more book - more blatant, and something about the resolution felt a bit too neat and quick after all he and
his friends went through getting there. Also, like the first book, a dragon features rather prominently on the cover of the edition I read. While this book at least mentions
dragons in some remotely story-related context, it has no more reason to star a dragon on the cover than the first book did; the third book sounds like it deals with an
actual dragon, but it's still a bit irksome. I still enjoyed it, but marginally less than Haydon's first Polypheme book; I'm still looking forward to Ven's next adventure,
but this time I'll wait for paperback.
Rhapsody, a half-Lirin woman with a long, painful past mostly of her own making, is a gifted Singer, able to use her voice and music to enhance or alter the vibrational
patterns of the world around her - in essence, to work magic. Studying for the rank of Namer, a Singer powerful enough to rename and thus remake an entity's energy, her
teacher vanishes just as an old enemy from her darker days returns.
The Brother was born an assassin, member of a fading elder race whose very existence was dedicated to wiping out the evil, fireborn demons known as the F'nor, among the
first species ever to walk the earth. By a cruel twist of fate, the Brother now serves a F'nor-bound master, an evil man who stole his name and with it his freedom. He and
his giant Bolg assistant Grunthor were fleeing their latest dire task, a task too heinous even for his hardened heart, when they run into Rhapsody... a chance encounter that
gives Brother the freedom he has longed for yet puts them all in greater danger than ever.
What started as a simple flight from mutual and separate pursuers quickly turns into something much greater. The three reluctant allies find themselves on an epic journey
across the known world, down the Roots of the earth, and even through the fiery heart of the planet itself, a journey that will take them countless miles and centuries away
from everything they have ever known... and, perhaps, bring them at last to where they truly belong.
Review
Having first "met" Haydon when I read The Floating Island, I tracked down this book, the first in her Symphony of Ages series, to see if it used the same
wondrous world. Happily, it does. It's a very good sign when the first paragraph of a story hooks you into a solid day or more of reading. Haydon creates not just the usual
continent-and-coastline world of fantasy epics, but an entire planet full of mingling and clashing races, cultures, and histories. The races she builds and the story she
tells have roots in standard fantasy fare, but grow far beyond that, easily taking on rich lives of their own. Only one character irritated me, and she was introduced fairly
late in the game; she might redeem herself in future installments. Hopefully, I won't have to wait too long before I acquire some manner of book budget and can begin tracking
down the next books.
(I have the second book in the trilogy, but for some reason I keep stalling out when trying to read it; her characters get more stubbornly obtuse and self-pitying, and the
irritating one dominates more plot time. Still, I love the universe enough that I hope to plow through someday - maybe I just need to back up and take a fresh run at it...)
The half-Lirin woman Rhapsody and her companions, the brutish giant Grunthor and the former assassin Achmed, are refugees from a land and a time swallowed by
centuries. Unfortunately, an ancient evil, the one that destroyed their homeland of Serendair centuries ago, has also come halfway around the world to continue its
quest for complete chaos and destruction. As Achmed and Grunthor continue building their Bolg kingdom in the abandoned subterranean city of the late King Gwylliam
(once a shining beacon of hope for the displaced - and immortal - first generation Serendair refuguees, but now a curse after his actions destroyed the very land he
once united), Rhapsody sets out into the world of Men to follow her own path. Her often-prophetic nightmares warn her that the evil demon plots against a religious
leader, but her efforts to save the man are complicated. The demon acts most often through a host, who can be entirely unaware of the dark influence compelling their
actions... and thus impossible to track until it is too late. She also keeps crossing paths with the handsome, mysterious man known as Ashe, whose tormented past is
as shrouded as his motivations. In a land full of secrets and lies, Ashe could be a powerful ally - or an enemy as terrible as the demon itself.
As Rhapsody pursues the demon's agents and works to thwart its plans, King Achmed and Grunthor discover a long-lost secret beneath the mountains that not even the
great architect Gwylliam found... and, with it, more clues to the prophecies that might save the world - or see it consumed in demonic fire.
Review
I have a few books running around that managed to lose themselves after I started reading them; recent reorganization efforts unearthed them, and I've been slowly
picking my way through them. This book is one of them, so perhaps my rating should be taken with a slight grain of salt. What I loved about the first book in this
series (Rhapsody) was the wonderfully realized world - not just a continent, not just a short span of years, but an entire globe, peopled with disparate
cultures and races that merge and break through the centuries - Haydon created. Here, she continues the process, but I found my interest waning as my eyes glazed, with
large chunks of information interrupting the flow of the story. Her characters, intriguing in the first volume, start to feel strained as she develops them further.
Actually, it was the heroine Rhapsody and her significant friend Ashe who nearly whined me out of finishing the book, going to elaborate, nearly comical lengths to
bemoan and bewail their Tragic Pasts and Deep Dark Secrets. Once their relationship kindles (as expected), they bemoan and bewail even in their happiness.
The story, when it moves, does at least move quickly, and when Rhapsody and her friends actually do learn something (instead of dancing around it or taking history
lesson breaks), they tend to act on it in a reasonably intelligent manner. Those moments seemed to be a bit thin, given the overall length of the book... and Haydon
still has (at least) one more to go to wrap things up. By this point, though, I'm starting to wonder how much of the third book will be world-building and
character-whining padding as opposed to actual story. Still some nice ideas in there, and still an impressive world, but I just had to push myself too hard to keep
reading to merit a Good rating. I'm not sure I have the reading stamina to wade through much more.
