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Mystic Warrior (The Bronze Canticles, Book 1)

Mystic Warrior (The Bronze Canticles, Book 1)

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $16.47
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Sadly, this book is just plain horrible......
Review: Let me first state that I am huge Dragonlance fan and an admirer of Tracy Hickman's work. I really had high expectations for this book. I mean it sounds cool right? Three worlds, one where dragons rule over men and dwarves, one where fairies are at war with centaurs, and a third with goblins searching these huge titan robots for technology. I bought it and I have to admit that I didn't even finish it. I got maybe 3/4 of the way through before I just gave up. You keep asking yourself: Is this really the same guy who wrote the Dragonlance Chronicles? Makes you wonder how much input he really had.
Now to the book itself. The main character Galen right off is given the ability to talk to inanimate objects. Terrible and stupid idea. (Wasn't a show on television with the same plot cancelled after just two episodes?) (Yes, Wonderfalls)! He spends the rest of the book in a slave caravan maoaning about his wife. Am I supposed to like this guy? Then the story shifts to the fairy world. Expecting exciting battles between fairies and centaurs. Nope, nonexistent. The goblin world is even worse and horribly drab. All the time you are wondering how these stories are going to connect and whether you really care or not.
Terrible characters, no excitement or action, tediously long dream sequences which make no sense, boring dialogue, I can't go on! I have no intention of even glancing at the second novel. R.A. Salvatore's recommendation is on the back cover. But if you read it closely it seems like he is really reviewing the author's previous work and never even read this piece of garbage. Salvatore deserves better.
In conclusion, this should get no stars! Only read this book if you can borrow it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Blah blah blah blah
Review: I bought this book right out when it first came out and i am still trying to force myself to finish the book so that i can stick it in the back of the collection to be forgotten about. It starts out okay but it just takes a nose dive after a while and it just doesnt get better from there on. I will borrow the next one before i go out and but it

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I don't know where all these reviewers came from, but they do not know what they are talking about. It is a great Book, I enjoyed every minute of it and I can't wait till the next one. Any one know when the next one is? I would definitely recommend it!


Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What Plot?
Review: I obtained the audio book to "Mystic Warrior" by Tracy & Laura Hickman, and I have to say it is one of the worst books on CD that I have ever listen to. The storyline jumps around so much that who knows what the plot is all about. The Characters are flat and do not seem to develop during the adventures. I stop listing to the book for a few days as I became bored with it, but since I paid good money to rent the CD audio book I finished it. The story proceeds at a snails pace and there are far to many gaps in the storyline with all the jumping around. I found myself not really listing to the books as just trying to get through the CD's so that I could send the CD's back to Blackstone audio books. This is my first experience with Tracy Hickman's work and I am not impressed. Mr. Hickman needs to take a page out of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" books or Terry Goodkind "Sword of Truth" Books on how to develop a new world and have characters progress through out the story. I will hold my judgment on further books by Tracy Hickman until I experience a few other stories, but I do not think I will read or listen to the sequel to "Mystic Warrior".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Mystic Warrior promises trilogy will be great entertainment
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Mystic Warrior. The different worlds are distinct and unique and the characters are clearly differentiated. Lots of action. Cool plot. Thought-provoking struggle between good and evil. It's easy to see that there will be enough story for the trilogy, but the authors don't leave you hanging at the end of the first book without some sort of wrap-up. Can't wait for the next one. Way to go Tracy and Laura.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Good plotting and world-building, but overwritten
Review: I've enjoyed many of the books I've read where Tracy Hickman has collaborated with Margaret Weis. So I was really eager to read the first book in the Bronze Canticles when it first came out in hardcover. When I finally got to reading it, even though I really liked the world, I found his writing style to be way too clunky and overwritten.

A couple examples of what I mean. He says, "Bertika's hair was a brown nimbus..." which I find to be a bit too odd of a description. When describing a window, he finishes by talking about the world "beyond its glazing." This is just in the first few pages. Personally, I find that kind of writing difficult to wade through, and a little pretentious, as if the authors are trying to show just how many words they know.

I'll be looking forward to other things Tracy Hickman and his wife are involved in, but I just can't recommend this book due to the difficult to slog through writing.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Mystic Boredom
Review: I've liked Hickman's work in the past, but I found this story rather slow.

While Galen is likeable enough, he's too complacent with his 'insanity' and I quite simply didn't CARE about him OR his madness. The visions he had seemed more suitable to a Disney movie (I kept thinking of Belle with the talking broomsticks and teacups), and quite frankly I found Galen's relationship with his wife boring. (Then again, I prefer my fantasy characters to be single at least at the beginning of a story).

Perhaps its my fault for listening to the audio version, which only prolonged the first section of this novel -but I found this book tedious and dry. Perhaps the sequel will be better?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Quite Frankly, I Didn't Like This Book
Review: Mystic Warrior is an excellent story about three worlds that were actually the same world. The intricate plot follows the fortunes of an avatar on each of the three worlds, tying them together in a magical convergence where they learn to master the powers that connect the three worlds. As politics, war, and intrigue engulf the heroes, they must let go of all they think they understand about their world or be swept under by the tide of advancing magic.

Mystic Warrior is a deep, fascinating story set on interesting worlds. The plotting is intricate and the politics are real. I can see why many people don't get this story. There are layers to it that defy a casual reading. It may be going a bit far to say this is the next Tolkien or Jorden, but it has that epic feel to it.

Read and enjoy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: In Your Dreams
Review: Mystic Warrior is the first novel in the Bronze Canticles series. In a world far from our own, five Dragonkings rule through a theocracy, the Pir Drakonis. At the same time, the seven lords of the Faery fight for domination in a centuries old war. Yet twelve kings of the Goblins reign supreme over their people. Three worlds with a shared terrain and a shared destiny, entirely separated, except in the dreams of certain individuals, who are usually mad.

In this novel, Galen Arvad is a human blacksmith who has strange dreams at night and hears the voices of crafted things during the day. He fears for his sanity and avoids the Election, where a dragon staff selects the mad for collection into the peace of the dragonkings. But he is found out by the guardians and marched to the square to stand with his wife and her family. When the staff is brought forth, Galen is proved to be one of the Elect.

Dwynwyn is a faery of the Royal Servant class and a Seeker. She has been charged by Queen Tatyana with finding a new truth to protect the city of Qestardan and its people from Lord Phaeon, who has brought overwhelming might against them. She has visions of a tall non-Fae man who has no gift, but may be the savior of all her people. But she sees him only in dreams and they can't understand each other's speech.

Mimic is a goblin engineer fourth class in the service of Dong Mahaj-Megong. While serving under chief engineer Lirry, Mimic dreams of a man and books. One day he finds a working machine (a clock). Lirry immediately claims the device for himself, but only Mimic can keep it working. Lirry uses this working device to climb to the top echelon of society, with Mimic riding on his coat tails (or, to be more precise, under his cloak).

In this story, these three people, and others, meet each other in their dreams and sometimes help each other. Of course, one usually doesn't bring back a magical object from a dream, but Galen does. Moreover, swords start coming to him when needed.

Galen also keeps meeting Tragget, the Lord Inquisitor, in his dreams. Tragget travels to Benyn to find Galen and, quite by accident, scares him into the hands of the Pir Guardians, leading to Galen's Election. Tragget learns that Galen has acquired the power to change reality through his dream experiences and wants the same power to overthrow the dragonkings. At least, Tragget sometimes wants to overthrow the dragonkings, yet other times he wants other things, usually when faced with his mother. He just can't decide what he wants.

Let's make one thing perfectly clear: Galen is a little bit crazy. At least, he is into heavy denial. He thinks everything is a big mistake and can be cleared up if only someone will listen to him. Very heavy denial!

By the end of the book, the course of events in all three worlds has been disrupted, but the outcome is very uncertain. The madmen have inserted a strong dose of chaos into all three societies. Stay tuned for the next installment.

Recommended for Hickman fans and for anyone else who enjoys complex tales of madness, chaos, and strong determination in a fantasy setting.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Disappointingly Average fare from Excellent Author(s)
Review: The Bronze Canticles rested within my "to be read" stack for several months, before I picked it up last week.

Before going further, I should state that I am, in general, a tremendous fan of Tracy Hickman. Besides his well known "Dragonlance" series (co-authored with Margaret Weiss), I also found his solo novel "The Immortals" to be a tremendous effort. However, I never "clicked" with this novel.

I found Galen, one of the 3-4 protagonists, to be "whiny". I found Mimic to be aptly named (a positive) and insufficiently detailed. Additionally, Dwynnwyn, the faery portent, was (initially) stoically presented. By the end, she's running roughshod (albeit through means not of her own) over the humoursly recalcitrant Xian.

And perhaps that is the gist of it: the book is ~420 pages. It has 3 (again, at least) protagonists, large (easily readable) typeface, and, as a result, none of them are fleshed out. While each viewpoint, ala George RR Martins A Sword of Fire and Ice series, drives the plot forward, there are still great, inexplicable "gaps" in the storyline.

To whit: if Galen is "unaware" of his "mystic power" and "Deep Magic", how does he facilitate the end game (of book 1)?

I suppose, in reading this critique, it may be asked why the book didn't garner "*" versus "***". At least that part is easily explainable:
(a) I like the author(s), and am more than willing to cede at least one extra point for that alone and
(b) the last portion of the book, "Warriors", rised substantially above the muck (but not dreck) that precedes it. A "****" quadrant to conclude the book.

And perhaps that's the summary: Disappoingtly average muck that rises substantially at the end; enough so that I, at the least, will read volume 2.


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