Requiem for the Sun (The Symphony of Ages) - Hardcover

Requiem for the Sun is the standalone sequel to the USA Today-bestselling Rhapsody trilogy (Rhapsody , Prophecy , and Destiny ). This novel will please fans of Elizabeth Haydon's high-fantasy series, but it may confuse newcomers because numerous characters from the trilogy return, and most are introduced in the book's early pages.

In the peace following the events of the trilogy, the singer Rhapsody believes she and her husband, the part-dragon Lord Cymrian, can at last start a family. Meanwhile, the assassin-king Achmed seeks to rebuild Canrif, his mountain capital. Then Lord Cymrian rejects Rhapsody's heart's desire; the giant Sergeant-Major Grunthor hears the earth itself screaming; the Dowager Empress of Sorbold, a realm of deep magic, dies under suspicious circumstances; and a powerful unknown enemy, as ancient and youthful as Rhapsody, seeks stealthily to steal her for himself. --Cynthia Ward

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.