“This may sound silly, but I really do believe kids and adults should read fantastical literature,” says Elizabeth Haydon, author of the popular “Symphony of Ages” fantasy series.
But she doesn’t say that just to keep her royalty checks coming.
“Up until about 400 years ago, we didn’t have any realistic fiction in Western culture. Before that, all of our culture and history was handed down to us in fantastical form. I think that’s important. It taught us to be bigger than we are and to expand our imaginations.
“Not just because that’s a fun thing to do, but because it’s critical to our survival.”
sin King
In the latest volume of the "Symphony of Ages" series, The Assassin King (published by Tor Fantasy in 2007), Haydon tells a story of war and sacrifice with military parallels to both World War II and life in the 21st century. Although it is officially Book Six in the series, the author says, “Readers can start with The Assassin King. It was deliberately formulated so that people could come in and meet these characters as they are now and taste the history.
“One of the things I was pondering as I was moving forward with this series was how geography had played into the Allies’ favor during WWII. Your threatening conquerors were sort of middle-continent -- ultimately spreading out from there, but more or less geographically contained.
“My question became: What if my aggressor nations were on the ring, and you were in fact defending the middle land? From a tactical point of view, that was my inspiration. What was most interesting to me was looking at real-world geography and the geography of the greater fantasy world.
“It’s also a story about sacrifice, about how much one is willing to sacrifice for nameless others, against one’s own interests. That is mirrored over and over by the choices all of the different characters are forced to make.”
Haydon believes that fantasy fiction can help us better weigh those kinds of choices in the real world. In fact, she points out that science-fiction and fantasy authors have an important role in society. One that goes beyond merely giving fans a great read.
The Power of Fantastic Fiction
“Science fiction and fantasy are seen as the embarrassing little cousins of real fiction,” she says. “But I think they have traditionally been the delivery system by which we hand important stories down through history to our subsequent generations.
Today’s science-fiction and fantasy authors are “helping to exercise those muscles of imagination that not only give us pleasure but can also keep us safe,” Haydon believes. “If we had a more muscular capacity as a society to imagine things, we might be safer from people who [can imagine things].”
For example, she believes that many people were caught completely off-guard by the terrorist attacks of 9/11 because of the Western world’s deepening lack of wide-ranging imagination.
“People said, ‘No one could have imagined that this could happen.’ In fact, many people had imagined something just like that could happen.”
For Haydon, fantasy, science fiction, and horror all help to build “a musculature in the mind that allows us to grow and think ahead.”
The “Symphony of Ages”
Haydon’s “Symphony of Ages” series has been very well reviewed by critics (in both Booklist and Publishers Weekly) and by readers, who are anxiously awaiting the next volume. Since the author has given no indication when a further volume will appear, now is a great time to go back to Book One (Rhapsody: Child of Blood) and dig in.
Here are the series books, which have been divided into three main groupings:
The Rhapsody Trilogy
- Rhapsody: Child of Blood
- Prophecy: Child of Earth
- Destiny: Child of the Sky
The Middle (or Bridge) Books
- Requiem for the Sun
- Elegy for a Lost Star
The War of the Known World Trilogy
- The Assassin King
All of the above series titles are currently in print. Most are also now available in Kindle e-book editions.
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