Mystic Warrior: Bronze Canticles, Book One by Tracy and Laura Hickman
Look, sometimes life can be a little weird. So, like, if you’re reading this TOTALLY AWESOME series called The Bronze Canticle and you just finished Book Two and you’re so geeked for the next one you can’t see straight maybe you go back to school before Book Three hits and maybe you even become the first person on either side of your family to get your degree but by then you’re so caught up that you didn’t get the book, and then you get a divorce…
Yup. Lost track of the series. But maybe what’s even weirder is that I kept remembering the last scene of Book Two but not what book it was from. Then I remembered that it was by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis, only I remembered WRONG because it’s by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman, and I figured I’d just used Margaret Weis’s name to find the thing because her name is listed first usually, but then I gave in and finally searched under Tracy’s name and found it, but I had to start over because it’s been over fifteen years…
Yeah, weird. You feel me?
But totally worth it. I just finished reading Mystic Warrior: Bronze Canticles, Book One by Tracy and Laura Hickman and I’d go through all of that again just to get my hands on this one. But it gets better because I actually have the next two as well. I just haven’t read them yet. I’m going to though.
Yeah, I’m rambling. Did you expect better? Have you ever read my blog before?
*SIGH*
Anyway…
Mystic Warrior is a book that’s told in three parts. One centers on a human named Galen Arvad. He’s got a bit of a mental illness, he thinks. That’s unless it’s something else and he just doesn’t know it. Then there’s a faery named Dwynwyn. She’s a seeker in search of truth, but she’s nothing at all like Richard Cipher/Rahl. And then there’s Mimic who is totally a goblin engineer only he doesn’t play World of Warcraft. Got all that?
Good. There will be a quiz later. Did you bring your number two pencil and a Scantron?
SHOOSH!!!
You’re lucky I’m not making you use a blue book.
Anyway…
The three exist on worlds separate from each other but they can communicate in their dreams. Ideas pass back and forth between worlds and as the story goes further on and things get more complicated and more interconnected. The three find ways to influence each other’s worlds without even being there. It’s like the Marvel multiverse only it makes sense.
Mystic Warrior is epic fantasy at both its finest and its weirdest. The fates of three worlds hang in the balance and these three people (too of which are relative nobodies at the beginning of the story) have huge roles to play. They don’t know that at the beginning of the story. I’m not sure one of them knows it at the end of the book. It doesn’t matter. They’re all in this together and this plot is going places.
The action in Mystic Warrior doesn’t let up. Whether it’s one person fleeing or another accidentally headed into danger unexpectedly or flat out mass battle, there’s always something going on. Mystic Warrior is not the book you read to put yourself to work, but it will keep you at work during a boring shift at work while you’re wondering what comes next.
I want to know how much planning went into writing this book. The way everything draws together is amazing and it didn’t happen by accident. I don’t know much about Laura Hickman’s writing career, but Tracy has been publishing since at least the Eighties and that experience shows here. I mean, I’m betting that editing Mystic Warrior was still a major undertaking but this thing hangs together despite how spread out the plot is. I’m as big a supporter of first time authors as you’re likely to find but you’ll never find something like this series out of a newbie. And granted, Mystic Warrior was published in 2004, but Tracy had roughly twenty-ish years of publishing experience even then. There’s too much going on and it’s handled so well.
It should go without saying that the world(s)building here is magnificent. Each separate setting has its own backstory that’s really well done. At least one world is built a little better than the people in that part of the story realize, but I digress. Every SF/F story needs a world but The Bronze Canticle needed three and they all deliver. I’m really amazed at how well the three worlds play off of each other while still maintaining their individual flavor.
What we don’t get to see is how and why the three separate worlds are linked as tightly as they are. There is something beyond our sight going on here. I can’t remember what it is of if, indeed, we find out what that is in Book Two. Then again, the Hickmans must have simply been too smart to let out all their secrets in the first book when there are two more left.
This may not make sense to anyone who hasn’t read the book (and you are, of course, welcome to read the book then re-read my review) but I was kind of concerned that we were going to get an Eighties style training montage. You know, the one where Our Hero doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground and, after roughly three minutes of intense music and waving their hands around, becomes a master warrior capable of taking on the whole world with the power of their massive fighting skills? Didn’t happen. Sure, there’s a similar sequence, but after that Our Hero is slightly less pathetic. That I can deal with.
I can’t wait to read the next one again. I remember how it ended but I’ve forgotten much of what led up to it. I’ve done a lot of reading and writing since then. Unfortunately though, it’s going to have to wait. May is the Month of the Veteran here at Jimbo’s and I’ve got six books written by veterans to review with four of them to be posted over Memorial Day Weekend. Look for a combined review of the last two come June though.
All in all though, I’m really glad that I managed to figure out what these books were and buy copies. It’s been a good time so far and it’s bound to get better from here.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 New Truths
Mystic Warrior: Bronze Canticles, Book One
Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman
Aspect, 2004
Mystic Warrior is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.
Mystic Warrior: Bronze Canticles, Book One