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The Bronze Canticles #3
Mystic Empire
New York Times bestselling author Tracy Hickman and his wife Laura deliver the third and final installment of their monumental, dragon-filled epic fantasy.
496 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 26, 2005
11 people are currently reading
418 people want to read
About the author
Tracy Hickman
454 books2,736 followersNYT Best-selling fantasy authors Tracy Hickman, with his wife Laura, began their journey across the 'Sea of Possibilities' as the creators of 'Dragonlance' and their voyage continues into new areas with the 'Drakis' trilogy, 'Wayne of Gotham', a Batman novel for DC Comics and his
'Dragon's Bard' collector's series
. Tracy has over fifty books currently in print in most languages around the world. A record of both Tracy and Laura's DNA currently orbits on the international space station and he is the writer and editor of the first science-fiction movie actually filmed in space. Follow us on
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
April 25, 2013
I found the last of the series dragged a bit. Perhaps it was because it no longer featured an underdog mystic class struggling to survive but instead it centered on the class conscience ancestors, who have become bigoted against non-magic 'commoners.'
August 30, 2023
2.5 stars
September 27, 2024
Tracy Hickman minus Margaret Weis does not work so well. Tracy Hickman plus Laura Hickman does not work so well. . . . Go find Margaret, Tracy; get down on your knees and beg her to join forces with you once again. Both of you are better together.
Tracy is obviously the world-builder of the famous Dragonlance duo, and he has done a superb job in this trilogy(?) thus far. This is/was the final book detailing the colliding paths of three worlds that had originally been one, are currently separate but overlapping through dreams & magic, and are now on a collision course of reunification. Each world is fully realized and populated by one of each primary race: Human, Fairy, Goblin. There are completely different sets of world outlook, religions, vernacular. No ifs, ands, or buts about it – Tracy provides a good setting.
On the other hand, he and wife Laura don’t bring much depth to most of their characters; even build a few characters across the trilogy(?) arc on the same template; and several times force characters to make leaps in logic. I also found a few contradictions in information in this book.
The Hickmans do write dragons very well. Excellent descriptions of dragons in action and appearance are found throughout the book. And I liked the newly discovered race of humans introduced in this book. The Hickmans are, however, rather blase with their dwarves, over-extravagant with their goblins, and predictable with their fairies.
One of the things I disliked about this trilogy(?) is the unusual decision to not utilize the same characters throughout. Book Two takes place a generation after Book One; this book eighty years after Book Two. That is, in the human world. It seems to be roughly the same in the goblin world, but characters in the fairy world stay fairly constant. There are features of all three worlds I like; components I don’t. Book One, Mystic Warrior, was a decent read, one that, though I felt it below the efforts of a Weis & Hickman work, did entice me to read more. The characters of all three worlds in this book are the most developed in the entire trilogy(?). Book Two, Mystic Quest, lived up to its name by creating quests for characters in each of the three worlds – and the reader. While the goblin’s was actually the most interesting, the reader’s was the most unsavory: finding meaning to the tale. Not one to stop a trilogy(?) after getting two-thirds of the way through it, I waited for Book Three.
I almost regret doing so. The little bit of spark Hickman did create and the fact I know I would always wonder what happened helped me persevere. Yet the ending provided in this book is quite unfulfilling. The beginning of the book — actually, the whole series to this point — leads a reader to believe several specific points will be addressed upon its climax. Sadly, they are not; in fact, even worse, the ending is so vague it leaves one with the feeling there is no climax but more to come. Hence, my (?) after every trilogy throughout this review.
To build a series upon setting seems to be what the Hickmans are trying to do. It worked (for the most part) when readers thought this was a trilogy, but utilizing their sundered worlds and story ideas as the primary recurring ‘characters’ over a longer story arc falls far short of addictive reading. A setting and idea driven plot such as this would have worked much better as a single overly-large novel. This weak ending has put my curiosity to rest, so I’m not sure I will read any future books in this series. Would I recommend Mystic Empire: Book Three of the Bronze Canticles by Tracy & Laura Hickman to my friends? I have to say No – only diehard fans should waste their time in such a manner.
Tracy is obviously the world-builder of the famous Dragonlance duo, and he has done a superb job in this trilogy(?) thus far. This is/was the final book detailing the colliding paths of three worlds that had originally been one, are currently separate but overlapping through dreams & magic, and are now on a collision course of reunification. Each world is fully realized and populated by one of each primary race: Human, Fairy, Goblin. There are completely different sets of world outlook, religions, vernacular. No ifs, ands, or buts about it – Tracy provides a good setting.
On the other hand, he and wife Laura don’t bring much depth to most of their characters; even build a few characters across the trilogy(?) arc on the same template; and several times force characters to make leaps in logic. I also found a few contradictions in information in this book.
The Hickmans do write dragons very well. Excellent descriptions of dragons in action and appearance are found throughout the book. And I liked the newly discovered race of humans introduced in this book. The Hickmans are, however, rather blase with their dwarves, over-extravagant with their goblins, and predictable with their fairies.
One of the things I disliked about this trilogy(?) is the unusual decision to not utilize the same characters throughout. Book Two takes place a generation after Book One; this book eighty years after Book Two. That is, in the human world. It seems to be roughly the same in the goblin world, but characters in the fairy world stay fairly constant. There are features of all three worlds I like; components I don’t. Book One, Mystic Warrior, was a decent read, one that, though I felt it below the efforts of a Weis & Hickman work, did entice me to read more. The characters of all three worlds in this book are the most developed in the entire trilogy(?). Book Two, Mystic Quest, lived up to its name by creating quests for characters in each of the three worlds – and the reader. While the goblin’s was actually the most interesting, the reader’s was the most unsavory: finding meaning to the tale. Not one to stop a trilogy(?) after getting two-thirds of the way through it, I waited for Book Three.
I almost regret doing so. The little bit of spark Hickman did create and the fact I know I would always wonder what happened helped me persevere. Yet the ending provided in this book is quite unfulfilling. The beginning of the book — actually, the whole series to this point — leads a reader to believe several specific points will be addressed upon its climax. Sadly, they are not; in fact, even worse, the ending is so vague it leaves one with the feeling there is no climax but more to come. Hence, my (?) after every trilogy throughout this review.
To build a series upon setting seems to be what the Hickmans are trying to do. It worked (for the most part) when readers thought this was a trilogy, but utilizing their sundered worlds and story ideas as the primary recurring ‘characters’ over a longer story arc falls far short of addictive reading. A setting and idea driven plot such as this would have worked much better as a single overly-large novel. This weak ending has put my curiosity to rest, so I’m not sure I will read any future books in this series. Would I recommend Mystic Empire: Book Three of the Bronze Canticles by Tracy & Laura Hickman to my friends? I have to say No – only diehard fans should waste their time in such a manner.
March 14, 2024
6/10
While the major storylines are mostly resolved, some relatively important threads are left dangling. So the ending was somewhat disappointing from that standpoint. Still, the individual stories of several main characters conclude with some sense of redemption, fulfillment, and hope. However, I didn’t feel very connected to the characters other than Theona.
Having so much time elapse between the events of each book, without much reference to what happened during the intervening decades, damaged the sense of continuity the reader wants. Too many things were left unexplained.
Overall, the series was uneven—so many unique ideas and aspects, some ingenious twists on standard fantasy tropes, but some gaping holes. What was the relationship between the dreaming/Deep Magic and the more mundane “surface” magic? How did the Songstones work? Or the Book Magic? There were all these interesting magic systems but they were simply presented and used, never explained. In the first book, there was at least some exploration of the dreaming/Deep Magic as the various characters were learning to use it, but since then, no further exploration or explanation. The goblin world was obviously set in the remnants of a more mechanical, technical world, but that aspect was never explored. (Maybe it was irrelevant to this story, but my mind kept wondering about it.) And what was the relationship between the small, “house dragons” of Rhai-Tuah and the great dragons?
I wanted to like this but overall it was disappointing.
While the major storylines are mostly resolved, some relatively important threads are left dangling. So the ending was somewhat disappointing from that standpoint. Still, the individual stories of several main characters conclude with some sense of redemption, fulfillment, and hope. However, I didn’t feel very connected to the characters other than Theona.
Having so much time elapse between the events of each book, without much reference to what happened during the intervening decades, damaged the sense of continuity the reader wants. Too many things were left unexplained.
Overall, the series was uneven—so many unique ideas and aspects, some ingenious twists on standard fantasy tropes, but some gaping holes. What was the relationship between the dreaming/Deep Magic and the more mundane “surface” magic? How did the Songstones work? Or the Book Magic? There were all these interesting magic systems but they were simply presented and used, never explained. In the first book, there was at least some exploration of the dreaming/Deep Magic as the various characters were learning to use it, but since then, no further exploration or explanation. The goblin world was obviously set in the remnants of a more mechanical, technical world, but that aspect was never explored. (Maybe it was irrelevant to this story, but my mind kept wondering about it.) And what was the relationship between the small, “house dragons” of Rhai-Tuah and the great dragons?
I wanted to like this but overall it was disappointing.
August 16, 2022
The first one was meh. The second one was a cliche riddled mess. THIS is not even worth the paper used to print it. The cliches simply get worse, the blatant reuse of tropes familiar to anyone who has ever read a book in this genre is nauseating, and the lack of connection to ANY of the characters means your give-a-s**t level for this book is subterranean. If I had bought this book, rather than taking it out of the library, I'd want my money back. I lost interest after the first 50 pages, skipped to the end 3 chapters and struggled to maintain enough interest to just finish this! Total crap!
February 6, 2022
Like between the 1st and 2nd books, there was a significant time jump between the 2nd and 3rd books that caught me off guard. It's a little bizarre, but I still really enjoyed this book and it was interesting to see the three worlds finally "collide". I wish the dragons had a bit more of a role, but I still enjoyed this series as a whole.
March 25, 2017
The first book I have read in this series, is the third. I would be interested in reading more. The characters were easy to follow and I enjoyed the story line.
August 10, 2017
The end of this magnificent series.
August 24, 2018
Esperaba algo más, pero estuvo bueno. 5/10
April 23, 2021
It seems like there should have been another book between #2 and #3 or, at least, a nice prologue to connect the two. It feels like a lot of history was skipped.
April 29, 2021
The story was all right but would have preferred it to be more closely connected to the first two books in the series.
January 14, 2025
I think that if I had read the frist books in this series it might have made more sense. There were a lot of good moments. Good action pieces and characters.
April 17, 2012
This appears to be the epic conclusion to an amazingly written series. By saying "appears to be" I mean that to my shagrin I can't find any other books in the series. Its not that it ended with a cliffhanger, I just wanted more because they're SUCH good books! It definately ended openly though, so that if the authors ever DID write more it wouldn't be hard. These books have so much depth to them. For instance, the human world in this series has existed in its current state of government and culture for over 400 years and it FEELS like it. It doesn't seem like the authors just made this up as they went along, it feels like they spent hours and hours working out all the details to make the series believable. They succeed. Not only that but the characters are flawed and relatable, despite their strange powers and connection to what is called "Deep Magic" and "The Dream".
I have issues with religion in books. These books are all about religion and magic, but they are written in such a way that I just... wasn't offended. Maybe its because the gods mentioned in the books are never actually worshiped or really made into characters (except once...). Well, okay I take back the worshiping part, that is if you can count dragons as gods, in which case the Pir (the main religious group) worship the dragons all the time.... I suppose they never really SHOW the religions in practice much, but you can tell that they're THERE I suppose.
Anyway; the books center on people called (in the first book) lunatics and crazy people and then later (in the second and third books) Mystics. They are founded by a young man called Galen Arvad and the books follow him and his descendants as their new culture progresses.
Now bear with me everyone, because this will sound weird, but the books are actually about THREE worlds that are the SAME world. Kinda. The three worlds are as follows: The world of humans, the world of fairies and the world of goblins. The three worlds are connected through the Deep Magic that the Mystics from all three worlds (Note: They are called Sharajin by the fae and Technomancers by the goblins, only the humans refer to those who have knowledge of the Deep Magic as Mystics) use. They are connected by a Dream that is shared by all three races. They often meet each other in the Dream world and it is there that they exchange Magic. Each person who enters the Dream has a partner who is from one of the other worlds.
Its in the third book that things really start to get complicated though.
I know, I know; it wasn't ALREADY complicated?!
As a matter of fact, no, that was the easy part. :P However, as I said before the authors are such good writers that it all makes sense somehow. It just sounds wacky beyond all reason.
*Spoliers for Mystic Empire*
The worlds begin to develop what are called "Rift Gates". These are used to instantly teleport to anywhere in the world as long as there is another gate at the point you want to get to. The gates are controled by Songstones in the human and fairy worlds and books in the goblin world (read Mystic Warrior and Mystic Quest to discover the signifigance of books to the goblins if you don't already know. However if you don't knwow that then you shouldn't be reading this part of the review, so go away! =P Just kidding, but read at your own risk). Each world uses them for different things; the Mystics to get from place to place quickly, the goblins to conquer other worlds and the fairies to save their race. I'd go into more detail but unfortunately I don't have time right now. Hopefully I'll be able to get more in depth later. For now though; TTFN- ta-ta for now! :)
I have issues with religion in books. These books are all about religion and magic, but they are written in such a way that I just... wasn't offended. Maybe its because the gods mentioned in the books are never actually worshiped or really made into characters (except once...). Well, okay I take back the worshiping part, that is if you can count dragons as gods, in which case the Pir (the main religious group) worship the dragons all the time.... I suppose they never really SHOW the religions in practice much, but you can tell that they're THERE I suppose.
Anyway; the books center on people called (in the first book) lunatics and crazy people and then later (in the second and third books) Mystics. They are founded by a young man called Galen Arvad and the books follow him and his descendants as their new culture progresses.
Now bear with me everyone, because this will sound weird, but the books are actually about THREE worlds that are the SAME world. Kinda. The three worlds are as follows: The world of humans, the world of fairies and the world of goblins. The three worlds are connected through the Deep Magic that the Mystics from all three worlds (Note: They are called Sharajin by the fae and Technomancers by the goblins, only the humans refer to those who have knowledge of the Deep Magic as Mystics) use. They are connected by a Dream that is shared by all three races. They often meet each other in the Dream world and it is there that they exchange Magic. Each person who enters the Dream has a partner who is from one of the other worlds.
Its in the third book that things really start to get complicated though.
I know, I know; it wasn't ALREADY complicated?!
As a matter of fact, no, that was the easy part. :P However, as I said before the authors are such good writers that it all makes sense somehow. It just sounds wacky beyond all reason.
*Spoliers for Mystic Empire*
The worlds begin to develop what are called "Rift Gates". These are used to instantly teleport to anywhere in the world as long as there is another gate at the point you want to get to. The gates are controled by Songstones in the human and fairy worlds and books in the goblin world (read Mystic Warrior and Mystic Quest to discover the signifigance of books to the goblins if you don't already know. However if you don't knwow that then you shouldn't be reading this part of the review, so go away! =P Just kidding, but read at your own risk). Each world uses them for different things; the Mystics to get from place to place quickly, the goblins to conquer other worlds and the fairies to save their race. I'd go into more detail but unfortunately I don't have time right now. Hopefully I'll be able to get more in depth later. For now though; TTFN- ta-ta for now! :)
April 28, 2011
So, there were yet again a new generation of characters, with very few still continuing or referenced, from the prior novels. Again, very sketchy character development, and very little explanation of root issues which have yet to be explained or resolved by these societies. A disappointment all around. I do not recommend the series to anyone, for any reason. Characters are underdeveloped, usually too unpredictable or undefined in character to even become loveable, and even the root problems which characters are trying to solve are never fully defined so as to be understood by the readers, much less the characters! Some interesting issues were raised, but never dealt with fully, or in a compelling or understandable fashion.
The series was a hand-me-down from one cousin to his sibling to me; I was asked to read it first, before the sibling, to check it out! Probably not worth my time or trouble. I am still unhappy about the problems of the book did not address well.
The series was a hand-me-down from one cousin to his sibling to me; I was asked to read it first, before the sibling, to check it out! Probably not worth my time or trouble. I am still unhappy about the problems of the book did not address well.
January 10, 2014
This contains spoilers. You've been warned.
ok... Where to start? I don't even know. The whole series continually repeats the little prophecy:
.....which world will rule
.....which world will submit
.....and which will die
well excuse me for finding all three worlds very much alive and SEPARATE at the end of this series.
Binding of the worlds?
A portal opened. A small battle was fought. Portals closed. The end.
Also my predictions from the very beginning were correct and just once I would like to see the more villainous and experienced (at least in war) win. The goblins should've bagged that. Its literally all they do. But no of course not. Human has to have speshul magic no one else has and be able to let the hoo-mans come out on top.
Shoc--king.
SPOILER: the worlds never bind. They all live. All three are still very much alive and well.
I'm disappointed. I expected more.
ok... Where to start? I don't even know. The whole series continually repeats the little prophecy:
.....which world will rule
.....which world will submit
.....and which will die
well excuse me for finding all three worlds very much alive and SEPARATE at the end of this series.
Binding of the worlds?
A portal opened. A small battle was fought. Portals closed. The end.
Also my predictions from the very beginning were correct and just once I would like to see the more villainous and experienced (at least in war) win. The goblins should've bagged that. Its literally all they do. But no of course not. Human has to have speshul magic no one else has and be able to let the hoo-mans come out on top.
Shoc--king.
SPOILER: the worlds never bind. They all live. All three are still very much alive and well.
I'm disappointed. I expected more.
June 28, 2007
The connection of the three worlds has long been expected and comes with mixed results. The story is still good and vibrant but the various tones of the worlds are changed. With these new interactions the goblins lose the humor which was so prevalent before and the humans have gained the melancholy tone of the fairies. Additionally, I felt the goblin's story was lacking in general, Lunid hardly appears in the last half of the book save her sacrifice. I appreciate the open ending and hope that the Hickmans come back to the series and create at least one more volume as the third one was sadly lacking after the first two.
September 9, 2010
Good ending, and we got to see more of the world. I quite liked the shaman civilization.
This book is mainly concerned with the human world though, I would have liked more goblin and more faerie scenes. (The goblins are my favorite.)
To enjoy this trilogy you have to realize that there is a lot of time between each one. The characters in each book are different (with the exclusion of the near immortal faeries.)
I think they are trying to cover a lot of ground here, I hope the other six books get written, I'd like to see if this story goes way into the future. (Mystic space travel anyone?)
This book is mainly concerned with the human world though, I would have liked more goblin and more faerie scenes. (The goblins are my favorite.)
To enjoy this trilogy you have to realize that there is a lot of time between each one. The characters in each book are different (with the exclusion of the near immortal faeries.)
I think they are trying to cover a lot of ground here, I hope the other six books get written, I'd like to see if this story goes way into the future. (Mystic space travel anyone?)
November 3, 2011
This was a nice concluding book to the trilogy that spanned decades. The authors did a nice job drawing me into caring about new characters, which honestly isn't always easy to do. I tend to prefer series books which deal with the same characters that you have become invested in. Since this particular trilogy dealt more with the world/s rather than just the people they had to spend time in each of the three books getting the reader to care about the new characters they were focusing on and at the same time make the world/s compelling enough to make you wish to pick up each new book. I feel they accomplished this very well.
October 26, 2012
I really enjoyed this book! The characters flowed and the story went with them. I was always eager to see what was going to happen next and it was always painful when I had to stop for things like work. The only problem I had with this one is that it's the last one! It left the story open with more story to tell and while the stories are supposed to be leading up to the "Binding of Worlds" it just never gets to it. I believe it could have happened with just one more book but the Hickman's never wrote that fourth book to this series. I really hope they go back and really finish that last untold piece of the story. It's something I would look forward to!
December 7, 2011
So I just finished this one today and think it was the best of the three, though again, it had a large time gap between it and the prior one which made for a slower start which just seemed to bog things down for me in the beginning. Once it got going things improved and I sped through the end pretty eagerly.
Good Reads says it's the last but there's definitely room left for at least another one at some point. Time will tell I guess.
Good Reads says it's the last but there's definitely room left for at least another one at some point. Time will tell I guess.
November 6, 2010
I liked this book, though, I wish it hadn't skipped so far ahead from the last book. With each book, this one being no exception, they seem to end in the middle of the story. There is little to no closure. I wish the ends had been tied up a little bit more but overall, I did like the series and the characters, especially with this last book. Lunid made me smile.
August 7, 2016
This was a great book to end the series. Well-written characters, exciting plot... all in all, much better than Mystic Quest. There's not much I can say without risking spoilers, so I'll just leave it at: this series is very much worth reading.
June 22, 2010
A good conclusion to a trilogy that started very slowly. I had trouble getting into the first book in the series, but the 2nd and 3rd each drew me in more than the last.
May 13, 2008
If I could give this book half a star I would. It was seriously that pathetic. Worst read ever, boring, a poor finish to a poor plot, please spare us the torture Hickman.
July 25, 2008
*BIB*
September 20, 2009
It's not great literature, but they do a good job of taking an interesting concept (the three separate but linked worlds) and weaving it through the trilogy in a satisfying way.
June 1, 2011
It was a great book.
September 18, 2012
don't think I'll give this author another try.
August 10, 2013
Interesting series. Eager for the next intallment.
March 6, 2008
If I could have givent his 0 stars I would have.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews