Mystic Warrior (Bronze Canticles) – Tracy & Laura Hickman

 SGD $10

Consigned item sold "As Is/ Where Is" with no guarantees, warranties, refunds or exchanges. New York Times bestselling master of fantasy Tracy Hickman and his wife, author Laura Hickman, offer the first book in a major, new, dragon-laden epic fantasy. The Bronze Canticles is an expansive new saga chronicling the world-altering changes that take place as three connected universes--the Human world, the Goblin world, and the Faery world--are slowly drawn together. In Book One, young Galen Arvad, a human with magical powers, must avoid the ritual that puts those with such talents to death. It seems that in the eyes of the community magic is a sign of lunacy, and in a yearly ritual the local "crazies" are offered up to the Dragon Priests. Having successfully dodged the "elections" for many years, Galen is suddenly captured and hauled away with others that are deemed "insane." Now, as Galen's wife, Berkita, and his friend, Cephas the dwarf, set off to rescue him, Galen learns of the fate that awaits him...a fate far worse than even his own death. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly Three universes converge-faerie, goblin and human-in this impressive and provocative fantasy, the first of a new series from bestseller Tracy Hickman and [his] Dragonlance cocreator, Laura Hickman. Galen Arvad, a newly married blacksmith, struggles to discover the nature of a dream state connecting him with inhabitants of the faerie and goblin realms. Galen tries to hide this uncanny connection, but fails when he runs afoul of the Dragon Priests in Benyn Township, whose people equate magic with insanity. Galen's wife, Berkita, and his dwarf friend, Cephas, vow to rescue him. Meanwhile, Galen strives to understand how his fate intermingles with the destiny of a faerie Seeker who wishes to aid her war-torn people and a goblin toiling amid the vast mechanical machines left by Titans. This emotionally intense novel's meticulously crafted magical system and likable characters evoke an atmosphere both timely and timeless. While lively action sequences and rich descriptive passages provide plenty of excitement, mature examinations of politics and individual responsibility lend philosophical weight and emotional poignancy. Sure to hit many bestseller lists, this is a fine example of socially conscious and unpredictable imaginative fiction. Review "Mystic Warrior is an exciting, adventure-filled read from two of the great storytellers and world builders of all time." -- Margaret Weis, author of Mistress of Dragons --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. "You want me again?" said the dragon., May 29, 2004 By David Roy This review is from: Mystic Warrior (Bronze Canticles) (Hardcover) Tracey Hickman and dragons go together...well, almost as well as Margaret Weis and Dragons. So it's no surprise that one of the co-creators of the Dragonlance Chronicles has written another book involving dragons. In this case, Mystic Warrior is also book one in yet another fantasy series (doesn't anybody write stand-alones anymore?). The trick to making these series interesting is to have a world that the reader enjoys entering and learning more about. Does that happen in this case? I'm happy to say that Hickman, and his wife, Laura, have created a novel world using some standard fantasy tropes and turning them on their side a bit. While some clichés are still used (dwarves live underground, dragons are mean and nasty), they add just enough new stuff to make a fascinating first book.

Mystic Warrior is a tale of three different worlds. All of them occupy the same space, but on a different plane, and communication between these worlds is only possible for certain people through what appear to be dreams. On the faerie world, the inhabitants are under attack from hordes of satyrs and centaurs as their way of life is threatened. On another, goblins scour the countryside looking for ancient machines that can be made to work, especially signs of the old Titans who inhabited the land before goblinkind. On the human dominated world, Galen is a master ironworker along with the dwarf Cephas, who runs the forge. Each year, the local religion runs what they call an "election," where people who have some form of insanity are magically brought out and taken away. Galen has had objects talking to him for years, but he has managed to avoid being present for the Election and has thus been passed over. Not this year, however. Taken away from his loving wife and his livelihood, he is forced into a war between five dragons who have marshaled their forces for 400 years, fighting insignificant battles over nothing. But Galen discovers that the "insanity" that made him one of the elect is actually a form of magic, a magic linking all the worlds together, allowing one of the faeries, the "winged woman" of his supposed dreams, to aid him. But will he survive long enough to learn what this magic is?

I loved the concept of these three linked worlds, especially when images are taken from one of the worlds and seen by other characters who have no idea how to interpret them. Dwynwyn, who happens to be the winged woman Galen sees, has her own problems in the faerie realm dealing with her people's problems. However, she and Galen are linked in some mysterious way, and they end up helping each other even though they don't understand what it is that they are seeing. The main goblin character, Mimic, is also involved in some other, more obscure way. The other characters never see him, but the war between the mechanical beings that he sets up for his ruler, the Dong Mehaj-Megong, to enjoy bears a striking resemblance to the war that Galen is currently fighting in.

The story takes us along the three storylines, jumping back and forth between them as we see the rise of Mimic from a lowly 4th class engineer to much higher in the goblin social structure. We see Dwynwyn's attempts to safeguard her charge, the princess Aislynn from the onrushing hordes and a forced marriage to cement an alliance that would bring her people to the point of oblivion. The Hickmans slowly start to merge the storylines as the book wears on. At first, each story has its own chapter, using the chapter breaks to jump to something else. As things become more tightly entwined, the breaks are more frenetic, jumping three or four times per chapter and ramping up the tension. This effectively darkens the mood as we come closer to understanding how everything links together. The pacing of the book is really nicely done in that sense.

This caused me to read the last half of the book at an accelerated rate, as I wanted to find out what happened next. Unfortunately, the first part of the book dragged at times. I wasn't as interested in the characters as I could have been, especially Mimic and the Goblins. The Goblin world is given short shrift in the beginning of the book, and thus the scenes that take place there aren't as interesting as the other two worlds. It would have been nice to learn a little bit more about Goblin culture aside from the acquisition of mechanical artifacts and how possession of these is the ultimate status symbol. The other problem is with some of the characterization. It wasn't necessarily bad, but it wasn't that interesting either. Galen tended to whine a lot right after he was selected, and while that may be understandable in real life, it's not that interesting to read about. Tragget, the Inquisitor of one of the dragon's religions, and the person who saw Galen in his dreams, is a bit more intriguing, but the political fighting within the church just became boring. It picks up when we start to learn the secret behind the religions, especially how all of the dragons interact. After that, the book grabs you and doesn't let you go.

It's a shame that the beginning is such a struggle, as Mystic Warrior would be a first-rate book otherwise, and one I would recommend whole-heartedly. Instead, it's just a very good book. It will be interesting to see where the Hickmans go with this. If the more boring set-up at the beginning of this book becomes necessary in subsequent books, I'll stand corrected. That doesn't mean that it couldn't have been made more appealing, though. David Roy https://www.amazon.com/Mystic-Warrior-Bronze-Canticles-Hickman/dp/0446531057/