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Spelljammer: The Cloakmaster Cycle #1
Beyond the Moons
Little did Teldin Moore know there was life beyond Krynn's moons--until a crashed spelljamming ship demolished his farm and changed his life. With a dying alien's magical cloak and cryptic words, Teldin quickly discovers that he's a popular fellow with killers and cutthroats.
312 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 1991
13 people are currently reading
532 people want to read
About the author
David Zeb Cook
90 books78 followersDavid "Zeb" Cook is an American game designer best known for his work at TSR, Inc., where he was employed for over fifteen years. Cook grew up on a farm in Iowa where his father worked as a farmer and a college professor. In junior high school, Cook playing wargames such as Avalon Hill's Blitzkrieg and Afrika Korps. "I was primarily a wargamer, but there wasn't any role-playing available then," although in college, he was introduced to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game through the University of Iowa gaming club. Cook earned his B.A. in English (with a Theater minor) in 1977. He married his high school sweetheart, Helen, with whom he had one son, Ian. Cook became a high school teacher in Milligan, Nebraska, where his students gave him his nickname of "Zeb"; the name derives from his signature, which is dominated by a stroke resembling a 'Z'.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
February 10, 2011
Poor Krynnish farmer Telden Moore has a space ship crash land in his field. The dying captain gives him a magical cloak and soon every miscreant in Wildspace is on the trail of Telden and his cloak. Will Telden's life ever be the same?
Even though I played a fair amount of D&D when I was a lad, I was never compelled to read any of the related novels. Fifteen years later, I was in a haze of nostalgia when I decided to give the Cloakmaster cycle a try. While I wasn't wowed, I was quite entertained.
Sure, the plot isn't overly unique. Hell, the summary above looks like the origin of the Hal Jordan version of Green Lantern. Still, it was a fun read. You've got hippo-headed mercenaries, octopus-faced aliens, mysterious blue-skinned merchants, sailing ships that ply the spaceways, and, in later books, Giant Space Hamsters. The Spelljammer itself, a manta-ray shaped ship with a city on it's back, remains the goal of the series throughout.
Without giving too much away, Telden does a lot of running and getting betrayed on his quest for the Spelljammer, exposing the reader to the wonders of Wildspace (and hopefully enticing him to buy the Spelljammer boxed sets. Those TSR guys were sneaky.)
Any flaws? Sure. The writing. Each of the six books is written by someone else and the quality varies. This is one of the better ones. Also, the plot is pretty linear and predictable. Still, for gaming fiction, it's not bad. By the end, Telden is in space and firmly entrenched in his quest.
Not a bad read but you probably should already be a Spelljammer fan before reading it.
Even though I played a fair amount of D&D when I was a lad, I was never compelled to read any of the related novels. Fifteen years later, I was in a haze of nostalgia when I decided to give the Cloakmaster cycle a try. While I wasn't wowed, I was quite entertained.
Sure, the plot isn't overly unique. Hell, the summary above looks like the origin of the Hal Jordan version of Green Lantern. Still, it was a fun read. You've got hippo-headed mercenaries, octopus-faced aliens, mysterious blue-skinned merchants, sailing ships that ply the spaceways, and, in later books, Giant Space Hamsters. The Spelljammer itself, a manta-ray shaped ship with a city on it's back, remains the goal of the series throughout.
Without giving too much away, Telden does a lot of running and getting betrayed on his quest for the Spelljammer, exposing the reader to the wonders of Wildspace (and hopefully enticing him to buy the Spelljammer boxed sets. Those TSR guys were sneaky.)
Any flaws? Sure. The writing. Each of the six books is written by someone else and the quality varies. This is one of the better ones. Also, the plot is pretty linear and predictable. Still, for gaming fiction, it's not bad. By the end, Telden is in space and firmly entrenched in his quest.
Not a bad read but you probably should already be a Spelljammer fan before reading it.
August 20, 2017
A book with, sadly, no real redeeming features.
The characterisation is almost non-existant, the writing is mediocre to poor, and virtually nothing happens (it's a travelogue that doesn't bother talking about the places you're passing - like sightseeing in a tunnel). Bizarrely, this introduction to the Spelljammer setting has very little Spelljammer in it - it feels like passing time before the story can leave the planet.
A book in which a mediaeval peasant and his space-hippopotamus companion are chased by psychotic fascist spider-eels intent on conquering the galaxy ought not to be this... unremarkable.
However, it should be said that the book isn't totally worthless. I actually found it a pretty quick and easy read, and not offensively bad (barring a few dialogue tropes of the genre). And there's something interesting here about how much it wants to surprise and disconcert the reader. Several cliche plot developments are set up, only to be subverted, we get a few attempts at an "peasant's eye view" reanalysis of the grand heroic events of the main Dragonlance books, and it's all surprisingly ruthless (and bloody) in crushing hopes and dreams and hurting the characters (the opening chapters are some of the most overtly grim that I've read; my initial reaction at the time included the phrase "Little House on the Prairie meets Predator"). The author, incidentally, was a TSR game designer who wrote the campaign setting for Planescape, so it's not like he's an untalented hack. He just maybe doesn't have "writing novels" as his talent.
Unfortunately, the limitations of the author, and the limitations of the assignment the author was given, overcome the more interesting glimpses we get. The result is far from the worst book I've read, but has nothing positive to really recommend it. I can't even suggest it for people who want to find out about Spelljammer, since it seems as though almost all the content of that setting will have to wait for the rest of the series...
Anyway, my fuller review is over at my blog.
The characterisation is almost non-existant, the writing is mediocre to poor, and virtually nothing happens (it's a travelogue that doesn't bother talking about the places you're passing - like sightseeing in a tunnel). Bizarrely, this introduction to the Spelljammer setting has very little Spelljammer in it - it feels like passing time before the story can leave the planet.
A book in which a mediaeval peasant and his space-hippopotamus companion are chased by psychotic fascist spider-eels intent on conquering the galaxy ought not to be this... unremarkable.
However, it should be said that the book isn't totally worthless. I actually found it a pretty quick and easy read, and not offensively bad (barring a few dialogue tropes of the genre). And there's something interesting here about how much it wants to surprise and disconcert the reader. Several cliche plot developments are set up, only to be subverted, we get a few attempts at an "peasant's eye view" reanalysis of the grand heroic events of the main Dragonlance books, and it's all surprisingly ruthless (and bloody) in crushing hopes and dreams and hurting the characters (the opening chapters are some of the most overtly grim that I've read; my initial reaction at the time included the phrase "Little House on the Prairie meets Predator"). The author, incidentally, was a TSR game designer who wrote the campaign setting for Planescape, so it's not like he's an untalented hack. He just maybe doesn't have "writing novels" as his talent.
Unfortunately, the limitations of the author, and the limitations of the assignment the author was given, overcome the more interesting glimpses we get. The result is far from the worst book I've read, but has nothing positive to really recommend it. I can't even suggest it for people who want to find out about Spelljammer, since it seems as though almost all the content of that setting will have to wait for the rest of the series...
Anyway, my fuller review is over at my blog.
May 10, 2022
What a ride. This is probably a rather slow read to many, but I enjoyed it. It’s more of a Dragonlance novel, than what I’d imagine from a Spelljammer setting one, and it does have the Dragonlance logo on the back (so this is the 4th I’ve read of those). The second book is set in the Forgotten Realms, so I am very much looking forward to that.
September 24, 2011
It's the story we all know and can relate to: a simple country farmboy goes off to war and comes home to tend the family farm when all of a sudden a spaceship crashes in the field, the boy gets befriended by a hippo-headed military man, and he gets stuck with a powerful artifact that dangerous forces want to take for themselves. I think we've all been there.
The pacing was a touch slow in parts, and I have to assume that the only reason the novel series started in the Dragonlance series was because the series HAD to visit all of the big three TSR settings, as the rest of the series dealt with hardly anything else from Dragonlance.
Anyway, this is the first in a series of SpellJammer novels and I think that it was pretty good. People who are fans of the setting or are fans of light heated silliness and adventure should find something enjoyable, but anyone who doesn't like the less serious elements of the SpellJammer setting may not find it to their liking.
The pacing was a touch slow in parts, and I have to assume that the only reason the novel series started in the Dragonlance series was because the series HAD to visit all of the big three TSR settings, as the rest of the series dealt with hardly anything else from Dragonlance.
Anyway, this is the first in a series of SpellJammer novels and I think that it was pretty good. People who are fans of the setting or are fans of light heated silliness and adventure should find something enjoyable, but anyone who doesn't like the less serious elements of the SpellJammer setting may not find it to their liking.
August 18, 2019
Okay so this space ship crash lands on a farmer's house and ruins all his melons and he gets a magic cloak that doesn't do anything, so then the farmer and his new friend, a giant gun-toting space hippopotamus-man, are on the run from these fascist space spider-eels who want the do-nothing cloak and who have giant insect-ape slave/servants who sometimes carry them around like Oscar the Grouch and Bruno the Binman, and so Farmer and Hippo keep running and get the help of some crazy tiny scientists who live in a hollowed out volcano who build a new space ship out of spare parts, and they all run away into outer space.
Pros:
- fun, light, easy fantasy romp
- I wanted to read something in the spelljammer setting, and this was unarguably that
- The gnomes were funny
Cons:
- My copy had typos and grammatical errors, which was distracting.
- Tropey and predictable. Shallow, one-dimensional characters
- The cloak itself is a super lame plot device. The fate of the multiverse depends on it! But it literally does nothing. We should have been given some kind of a taste or a hint at its powers, assuming it has any.
- I wanted some outer space stuff, and didn't get any until the epilogue
- The entire sea-faring bit was.. very D&D campaigny: "Here's a tangential side quest so you can level up a little bit before the next big encounter."
Overall, very entertaining, but pretty poorly written and executed.
Pros:
- fun, light, easy fantasy romp
- I wanted to read something in the spelljammer setting, and this was unarguably that
- The gnomes were funny
Cons:
- My copy had typos and grammatical errors, which was distracting.
- Tropey and predictable. Shallow, one-dimensional characters
- The cloak itself is a super lame plot device. The fate of the multiverse depends on it! But it literally does nothing. We should have been given some kind of a taste or a hint at its powers, assuming it has any.
- I wanted some outer space stuff, and didn't get any until the epilogue
- The entire sea-faring bit was.. very D&D campaigny: "Here's a tangential side quest so you can level up a little bit before the next big encounter."
Overall, very entertaining, but pretty poorly written and executed.
May 22, 2023
A fun read. I read this when it first came out and have recently found a copy of the entire series. It is as fun as I remembered which I can't say for some of the other forgotten realms type books. This book is really an honorary Dragon Lance book more than any other and the conceit of the series allows us to visit all the different D&D settings.
Fun stuff.
Fun stuff.
December 15, 2021
This is the first part of the hexalogy of The Cloackmaster Cycle, and since it is the first part, they only go into the "wildspace" or the "phlogiston" at the end of the book. So most of the book takes place after the War of the Lance on the planet Krynn, in the country Solamnia within the Dragonlance Sphere / Fantasy Setting / Franchise. And that was for me a disappointment.
The book is mainly aimed at 14-16 year olds, with very flat stereotypical characters, bad jokes and is in general not that well written. A lot of confusing situations because of practical jokes or simulated jump scares don't work well. In general, I don't think they will ever do in the context of a novel. You notice that David Zeb Cook is the creator of the Spelljammer DnD game and the writer of those source books. So it reads a bit like reading the play of a role-play game, with all the strange quirks that roleplay-characters have and also the way certain actions are turning out. This is because of the rule-system of the Dungeons and Dragons game. Or I hope at least that a lot of the silly nonsensical situations can be explained because of this.
It's an ideal book for getting to know the concept of Spelljammer as a game. The spelljammer ships, with their special helm, the idea of space, the most popular spelljamer playable race "Giff". And they used the setting of Dragonlance as a starting ground to launch into space because Dragonlance was the most popular fantasy setting of Dungeons and Dragons at the time.
Only recommended if you are really interested in the spelljammer universe, not for general Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts.
Another downside: book 2 is almost impossible to find at a good price 2nd hand.
Spelljammer didn't take off in the eighties, and was replaced by creating a new DnD franchise called Planescape, which was very popular. Which focuses on the Outer Plane, with the City of doors connecting all the different planes of reality (and thus all Dungeons and Dragons games and novels) with each other.
The book is mainly aimed at 14-16 year olds, with very flat stereotypical characters, bad jokes and is in general not that well written. A lot of confusing situations because of practical jokes or simulated jump scares don't work well. In general, I don't think they will ever do in the context of a novel. You notice that David Zeb Cook is the creator of the Spelljammer DnD game and the writer of those source books. So it reads a bit like reading the play of a role-play game, with all the strange quirks that roleplay-characters have and also the way certain actions are turning out. This is because of the rule-system of the Dungeons and Dragons game. Or I hope at least that a lot of the silly nonsensical situations can be explained because of this.
It's an ideal book for getting to know the concept of Spelljammer as a game. The spelljammer ships, with their special helm, the idea of space, the most popular spelljamer playable race "Giff". And they used the setting of Dragonlance as a starting ground to launch into space because Dragonlance was the most popular fantasy setting of Dungeons and Dragons at the time.
Only recommended if you are really interested in the spelljammer universe, not for general Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts.
Another downside: book 2 is almost impossible to find at a good price 2nd hand.
Spelljammer didn't take off in the eighties, and was replaced by creating a new DnD franchise called Planescape, which was very popular. Which focuses on the Outer Plane, with the City of doors connecting all the different planes of reality (and thus all Dungeons and Dragons games and novels) with each other.
November 13, 2022
This was a reread. I'm certain very few people have read this twice.
I originally read this maybe 6-7 years ago when I found the complete cycle of Spelljammer books at a used bookstore. I never read the other books and they all sat on the shelf all that time. Fast forward to this past September, when the latest D&D supplement, the 5e version of Spelljammer gets released. I was excited for that book and decided to start the old novel series, to get into the lore of it.
I've read an ok number of the old Forgotten Realms/D&D books. About a dozen R.A. Salvatore books. One or two Ed Greenwood books. The first Ravenloft boom. The first Planescape book (which was awful). Pools of Radiance (equally as awful. Maybe some more. Either way I'm familiar with the point of these books: high fantasy adventure. These are intellectual books. The women characters (if there are any) are usually written poorly. Any romance is cringe worthy. The action and weird monsters are why you read these books, also being 10-16 years old during the late 80's or 90's helps too. You aren't going to learn anything but it might be fun.
Beyond the Moons has some of the unfortunate aspects of these old novels. I believe there are two woman characters in this whole book and one dies in the first chapter - which is sort of an unintentionally hilarious scene. Main character Teldin speaks to the dying captain of the crashed spelljamming ship, asks a bunch of idiotic questions, and instead of answering she straight up proclaims " No more questions. I am dead." and then dies. I've never read a line like that in a book before. The writing in the first chapters of the book is ROUGH. Teldin is an unlikeable asshole, Gomja the giff (a talking humanoid hippo guy) is a one note "honorable" warrior type. There's some traitorous mercenary types, there's some xenophobic elves, there's some gnomes that are presented as insufferable morons despite being mechanical geniuses. It's very obvious these characters are from 30+ years ago because D&D and Wizards of the Coast wouldn't let some of the stereotypes fly anymore (and for good reason. It just ain't good).
The book plods along, there's a cringy almost romance between Teldin and Cwelanas, the first mate and daughter of a captain of an elven ship (a seafaring vessel. There is very little space travel in this book). But you know what? As this book moves through the plot, it gets better. The last 60-ish pages are downright good, as the penultimate battle between Teldin, Gomja, the gnomes, and the Neogi and their Umberhulks rages. The action sequences are nicely written and exciting. Teldin gets his ass handed to him and needs to be saved by Gomja and the gnomes. It's nice to see the protagonist as not quite an unharmable Drizzt type.
I very much enjoyed the ending to this book, as it certainly delivers on it's main goal - high fantasy adventure. Yes, there are some problems with this book but I think few examples of media from the 90's are entirely untarnished by time. The Cloakmaster series has five different authors over the six books so here's to hoping some of the problems are smoothed out.
I originally read this maybe 6-7 years ago when I found the complete cycle of Spelljammer books at a used bookstore. I never read the other books and they all sat on the shelf all that time. Fast forward to this past September, when the latest D&D supplement, the 5e version of Spelljammer gets released. I was excited for that book and decided to start the old novel series, to get into the lore of it.
I've read an ok number of the old Forgotten Realms/D&D books. About a dozen R.A. Salvatore books. One or two Ed Greenwood books. The first Ravenloft boom. The first Planescape book (which was awful). Pools of Radiance (equally as awful. Maybe some more. Either way I'm familiar with the point of these books: high fantasy adventure. These are intellectual books. The women characters (if there are any) are usually written poorly. Any romance is cringe worthy. The action and weird monsters are why you read these books, also being 10-16 years old during the late 80's or 90's helps too. You aren't going to learn anything but it might be fun.
Beyond the Moons has some of the unfortunate aspects of these old novels. I believe there are two woman characters in this whole book and one dies in the first chapter - which is sort of an unintentionally hilarious scene. Main character Teldin speaks to the dying captain of the crashed spelljamming ship, asks a bunch of idiotic questions, and instead of answering she straight up proclaims " No more questions. I am dead." and then dies. I've never read a line like that in a book before. The writing in the first chapters of the book is ROUGH. Teldin is an unlikeable asshole, Gomja the giff (a talking humanoid hippo guy) is a one note "honorable" warrior type. There's some traitorous mercenary types, there's some xenophobic elves, there's some gnomes that are presented as insufferable morons despite being mechanical geniuses. It's very obvious these characters are from 30+ years ago because D&D and Wizards of the Coast wouldn't let some of the stereotypes fly anymore (and for good reason. It just ain't good).
The book plods along, there's a cringy almost romance between Teldin and Cwelanas, the first mate and daughter of a captain of an elven ship (a seafaring vessel. There is very little space travel in this book). But you know what? As this book moves through the plot, it gets better. The last 60-ish pages are downright good, as the penultimate battle between Teldin, Gomja, the gnomes, and the Neogi and their Umberhulks rages. The action sequences are nicely written and exciting. Teldin gets his ass handed to him and needs to be saved by Gomja and the gnomes. It's nice to see the protagonist as not quite an unharmable Drizzt type.
I very much enjoyed the ending to this book, as it certainly delivers on it's main goal - high fantasy adventure. Yes, there are some problems with this book but I think few examples of media from the 90's are entirely untarnished by time. The Cloakmaster series has five different authors over the six books so here's to hoping some of the problems are smoothed out.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2018
The first of seven Spelljammer books
8 May 2012
Look, I am not going to give any of these books a really high rating simply because they are shameless spinoffs from an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons setting. While that won't bother many people, for me it is a part of my life that I have put behind me simply because there is so much more quality writing out there that I really don't have time to waste reading what is in effect an advertisement (or an accessory) for a game.
Once again, it does not mean that the setting or the story is bad, but then it does not necessarily mean it is good either. This is pretty much an average book written by an author who is probably more adept at writing complex rules and adventure models (though I must admit he is a lot better than Ed Greenwood: wait until I start adding some of his books and see the number of 1s that they score). For a teenager/young adult that has not been exposed to the classics, then they are okay books, but one should always be looking forward to more challenging works of literature.
Spelljammer is a setting for the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game and it is set in space. When I first heard that TSR (as it was then) were planning on creating such a setting, my expectations where incredibly high. However I must say I ended up becoming a little disappointed, namely because I was expecting something more like a high science-fiction setting with real spaceships and more realistic planets, however it turned out that it wasn't. Personally, that was not a bad thing because what Spelljammer does is that it turns science-fiction into a fantasy setting, meaning that wooden ships ply the spacelanes, and people can survive without complex life support systems.
As for this book, it deals with a farmer named Teldon Moore who witnesses a meteorite crash near his farm. When he investigates he finds a dying woman who puts a cloak around him - however it suddenly turns out that he cannot remove this cloak. Basically it is an artifact and the only way to remove this artifact is to either kill yourself or be killed by somebody else. Once again, it is an artifact, meaning that it is an incredibly powerful item, so surprise surprise, lots of people want to kill him to get it.
I won't go into any further details here about this particular item because that is for the latter books (there are six in the series I believe). This one particular story is more of a springboard to take the main characters into space, and also to introduce the reader into this new and exciting realm. As I have said previously, and will say again, these books are more for fantasy roleplayers who want to understand their game world better, but in many cases it doesn't really do all that much to advance the imagination. An imaginative person should be able to develop adventures without the need of books, though they can and do help. As for me, these days I use Shakespearian plays as a means of developing adventures.
8 May 2012
Look, I am not going to give any of these books a really high rating simply because they are shameless spinoffs from an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons setting. While that won't bother many people, for me it is a part of my life that I have put behind me simply because there is so much more quality writing out there that I really don't have time to waste reading what is in effect an advertisement (or an accessory) for a game.
Once again, it does not mean that the setting or the story is bad, but then it does not necessarily mean it is good either. This is pretty much an average book written by an author who is probably more adept at writing complex rules and adventure models (though I must admit he is a lot better than Ed Greenwood: wait until I start adding some of his books and see the number of 1s that they score). For a teenager/young adult that has not been exposed to the classics, then they are okay books, but one should always be looking forward to more challenging works of literature.
Spelljammer is a setting for the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game and it is set in space. When I first heard that TSR (as it was then) were planning on creating such a setting, my expectations where incredibly high. However I must say I ended up becoming a little disappointed, namely because I was expecting something more like a high science-fiction setting with real spaceships and more realistic planets, however it turned out that it wasn't. Personally, that was not a bad thing because what Spelljammer does is that it turns science-fiction into a fantasy setting, meaning that wooden ships ply the spacelanes, and people can survive without complex life support systems.
As for this book, it deals with a farmer named Teldon Moore who witnesses a meteorite crash near his farm. When he investigates he finds a dying woman who puts a cloak around him - however it suddenly turns out that he cannot remove this cloak. Basically it is an artifact and the only way to remove this artifact is to either kill yourself or be killed by somebody else. Once again, it is an artifact, meaning that it is an incredibly powerful item, so surprise surprise, lots of people want to kill him to get it.
I won't go into any further details here about this particular item because that is for the latter books (there are six in the series I believe). This one particular story is more of a springboard to take the main characters into space, and also to introduce the reader into this new and exciting realm. As I have said previously, and will say again, these books are more for fantasy roleplayers who want to understand their game world better, but in many cases it doesn't really do all that much to advance the imagination. An imaginative person should be able to develop adventures without the need of books, though they can and do help. As for me, these days I use Shakespearian plays as a means of developing adventures.
February 8, 2019
Imagine the hero's journey, only once you get to the "refusing the call" step you simply just stopped. Like, if in Star Wars Luke found his dead relatives and then told Obi Wan he has cousins in Anchorhead, so he still isn't going to Mos Eisley.
I bought this book because I was interesting in seeing a Spelljammer adventure. In the opening sequence a Spelljammer crashes, then the story is just two guys traveling around in the Dragonlance setting for three hundred pages. There is a cloak macguffin introduced immediately, but it is never explained.
Spoilers: almost nothing changes by the end. Every character Teldin meets is left behind. His personality (close to friends, suspicious of strangers, quick to anger) doesn't change. He doesn't learn anything or have any growth. While everyone else grows; Gomja goes from being a rank and file soldier intimidated by command to an amazing leader; the elven sailor goes from being human racist to nearly falling in love with Teldin; even Teldin's old war buddy went from treating our protagonist like a son to wanting to sell him off to murders. Teldin's big change? In the beginning he's on a farm, but at the end he's NOT on a farm. Wow.
I bought this book because I was interesting in seeing a Spelljammer adventure. In the opening sequence a Spelljammer crashes, then the story is just two guys traveling around in the Dragonlance setting for three hundred pages. There is a cloak macguffin introduced immediately, but it is never explained.
Spoilers: almost nothing changes by the end. Every character Teldin meets is left behind. His personality (close to friends, suspicious of strangers, quick to anger) doesn't change. He doesn't learn anything or have any growth. While everyone else grows; Gomja goes from being a rank and file soldier intimidated by command to an amazing leader; the elven sailor goes from being human racist to nearly falling in love with Teldin; even Teldin's old war buddy went from treating our protagonist like a son to wanting to sell him off to murders. Teldin's big change? In the beginning he's on a farm, but at the end he's NOT on a farm. Wow.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 20, 2022
I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons since the early 1980s and I've heard that the latest edition of D&D was dusting off and bringing back the old Spelljammer concept. I'd never gotten into it for one reason or another, mostly because no one I knew at the time was really into it; so I thought I'd read Beyond the Moons just in case I get a second chance.
My overall view is good but not great. The plot moves along fairly well with pretty good pacing but with a fair amount of predictability. At pretty much every stage of the book I felt I knew more than the protagonist did about the situation. The characters aren't bad, although the protagonist is a little bland and not terribly bright. He gets a sidekick very early on who is interesting and well written, but because of his character he can only be a sidekick.
This is the first book in the Cloakmaster Cycle and very early on the protagonist gets the aforementioned cloak. It is clearly magical, he can't take it off, it is apparently very powerful and he is being hunted for it. It is a lot like Frodo's ring except it doesn't do anything that gives the protagonist any advantage. One of my main gripes about this book is that you don't learn anything more about the cloak other than what I've described above.
Finally, the book is set in Krynn from the Dragonlance setting. I know many people love it but I've never been much of a fan. Too many of the characters and even races seem to be played for comedy and in this one, the Gnomes from Mount Nevermind definitely hold that role.
If you're a D&D fan, especially of Spelljammer and Krynn I'd definitely say this might be a series for you. If you're a fantasy fan and looking for something, the Cloakmaster Cycle will likely be a good choice but if you're looking for something of substance to ease you away from reading Game of Thrones or something, you might want to keep looking.
My overall view is good but not great. The plot moves along fairly well with pretty good pacing but with a fair amount of predictability. At pretty much every stage of the book I felt I knew more than the protagonist did about the situation. The characters aren't bad, although the protagonist is a little bland and not terribly bright. He gets a sidekick very early on who is interesting and well written, but because of his character he can only be a sidekick.
This is the first book in the Cloakmaster Cycle and very early on the protagonist gets the aforementioned cloak. It is clearly magical, he can't take it off, it is apparently very powerful and he is being hunted for it. It is a lot like Frodo's ring except it doesn't do anything that gives the protagonist any advantage. One of my main gripes about this book is that you don't learn anything more about the cloak other than what I've described above.
Finally, the book is set in Krynn from the Dragonlance setting. I know many people love it but I've never been much of a fan. Too many of the characters and even races seem to be played for comedy and in this one, the Gnomes from Mount Nevermind definitely hold that role.
If you're a D&D fan, especially of Spelljammer and Krynn I'd definitely say this might be a series for you. If you're a fantasy fan and looking for something, the Cloakmaster Cycle will likely be a good choice but if you're looking for something of substance to ease you away from reading Game of Thrones or something, you might want to keep looking.
October 2, 2021
This novel was a tie-in to Spelljammer, a setting for Dungeons and Dragons, and a sequel of sorts to the more popular Dragonlance novels and games. Spelljammer was Dungeons and Dragons... in space! Magical flying ships, decks open to the stars, with strange, alien creatures. If you've seen the movie "Treasure Planet," you get the idea. But aside from a four page prologue, this central idea doesn't appear in the novel. Even this prologue doesn't clearly establish the fact that it takes place in space. Aside from one or two ambiguous mentions, a reader unfamiliar with the setting would think it was a sea battle.
Then we meet the main character, Teldin, a farmer. A flying ship falls from the sky, and lands on his house. The dying captain, an exotic alien woman, gives Teldin a magic cloak, tells him to keep it from some bad guys, and expires. Her cabin boy, a bipedal, intelligent hippopotamus-man(!), named Gomja, assumes the worst, and tries to kill Teldin, but his flintlock pistol explodes, stunning him. This begins a strange, bickering relationship between the two. The bad guys, searching for the cloak, massacre a nearby family. Teldin and Gomja then begin a long journey which forms the bulk of the novel. I stopped reading here, and skimmed the rest.
The bad guys are called neogi, strange creatures with fat spider-like bodies, with heads like moray eels. They are physically weak, and so have big hulking monster servants, called umber hulks, to do their dirty work. Either of these creatures are bizarre and confusing on their own, but in combination, seem completely ridiculous.
So, we have the standard, mostly mundane, medieval fantasy world of Krynn, from the Dragonlance novels, invaded by aliens.
The many weaknesses of the novel stem from its origin as a game tie-in. Central to the game is the idea of character levels. A player creates a character, who starts poor, weak, and easily killed. They go on adventures, which usually consist of killing monsters and taking their stuff. For this, they get experience points. With enough experience, they go up a level, making them harder to kill, and better able to kill monsters and take their stuff.
Both Dragonlance and Spelljammer require higher level characters. All of the creatures inherent to the settings would be instantly deadly to low level characters. If a low level character comes into the game, he has to spend a great deal of time fighting boring, low level threats until he's buff enough to stand a chance in the cool parts of the setting.
Teldin is a low level character. He's a peasant, farming melons. He once served as a mule skinner in a war, but didn't fight. He is uniquely ill-equipped to deal with monsters from outer space. Like a similar character in the game, he has to best several weaker challenges before he even stands a chance against the greater threat. The bulk of the novel is a side quest, a distraction from the main action. This might have been more entertaining with another more motivated character, but Teldin seems bland, generic, and aimless.
The title, "Beyond the Moons," is a lie. Aside from the prologue, it takes place entirely on the ground. What could have been a soaring adventure is sadly earthbound, or should I say Krynn-bound?
Then we meet the main character, Teldin, a farmer. A flying ship falls from the sky, and lands on his house. The dying captain, an exotic alien woman, gives Teldin a magic cloak, tells him to keep it from some bad guys, and expires. Her cabin boy, a bipedal, intelligent hippopotamus-man(!), named Gomja, assumes the worst, and tries to kill Teldin, but his flintlock pistol explodes, stunning him. This begins a strange, bickering relationship between the two. The bad guys, searching for the cloak, massacre a nearby family. Teldin and Gomja then begin a long journey which forms the bulk of the novel. I stopped reading here, and skimmed the rest.
The bad guys are called neogi, strange creatures with fat spider-like bodies, with heads like moray eels. They are physically weak, and so have big hulking monster servants, called umber hulks, to do their dirty work. Either of these creatures are bizarre and confusing on their own, but in combination, seem completely ridiculous.
So, we have the standard, mostly mundane, medieval fantasy world of Krynn, from the Dragonlance novels, invaded by aliens.
The many weaknesses of the novel stem from its origin as a game tie-in. Central to the game is the idea of character levels. A player creates a character, who starts poor, weak, and easily killed. They go on adventures, which usually consist of killing monsters and taking their stuff. For this, they get experience points. With enough experience, they go up a level, making them harder to kill, and better able to kill monsters and take their stuff.
Both Dragonlance and Spelljammer require higher level characters. All of the creatures inherent to the settings would be instantly deadly to low level characters. If a low level character comes into the game, he has to spend a great deal of time fighting boring, low level threats until he's buff enough to stand a chance in the cool parts of the setting.
Teldin is a low level character. He's a peasant, farming melons. He once served as a mule skinner in a war, but didn't fight. He is uniquely ill-equipped to deal with monsters from outer space. Like a similar character in the game, he has to best several weaker challenges before he even stands a chance against the greater threat. The bulk of the novel is a side quest, a distraction from the main action. This might have been more entertaining with another more motivated character, but Teldin seems bland, generic, and aimless.
The title, "Beyond the Moons," is a lie. Aside from the prologue, it takes place entirely on the ground. What could have been a soaring adventure is sadly earthbound, or should I say Krynn-bound?
March 3, 2021
Teldon Moor is a young farmer in Krymm working reasonably hard to support himself. As he steps off his porch he sees a flaming "beast" from the sky toward him. He leaps aside to avoid it and it crashes into the house, smashing in the roof, destroying the house, the henhouse skattering the farm stock. As the "beast" settles into the house, a figure is flung to the ground, a woman who is dying. With her last words she unfasstens the cloak she wears, gives it to him and tells him to keep it from the neogi whatever that is.
As he surveys his damaged farm, an even stranger figure accosts him. Holding a weapon the figure believes that Teldon has killed his captain. When he is able to explain what happened the stranger lowers his weapon as they hear something or someone coming. It's the neogi! The two hide and scurry away. Little does Teldon know that his life is to change dramatically and that his companion is a creature called a giff, dedicated to soldiering.
Teldon discovers that he cannot remove the cloak so the duo begin a search for someone who can help him do so. From the farm to Astinius to Mount Nevermind, the pair travel first meeting the priest who sends them to see the gnomes at Mount Nevermind. The neogi follow, murdering whoever get in their way. Teldon and the giff find their way through battle after battle, just trying to survive. As Teldon views the cruelty of the neogi, he becomes determined to keep the cloak.
An exciting story, this read keeps one turning pages quickly to see what happens nexxt. It's a great well written tale and an introduction to the Cloakmaster series. I can't wait to read the next in the series, Into the Void by Nigel Findley.
As he surveys his damaged farm, an even stranger figure accosts him. Holding a weapon the figure believes that Teldon has killed his captain. When he is able to explain what happened the stranger lowers his weapon as they hear something or someone coming. It's the neogi! The two hide and scurry away. Little does Teldon know that his life is to change dramatically and that his companion is a creature called a giff, dedicated to soldiering.
Teldon discovers that he cannot remove the cloak so the duo begin a search for someone who can help him do so. From the farm to Astinius to Mount Nevermind, the pair travel first meeting the priest who sends them to see the gnomes at Mount Nevermind. The neogi follow, murdering whoever get in their way. Teldon and the giff find their way through battle after battle, just trying to survive. As Teldon views the cruelty of the neogi, he becomes determined to keep the cloak.
An exciting story, this read keeps one turning pages quickly to see what happens nexxt. It's a great well written tale and an introduction to the Cloakmaster series. I can't wait to read the next in the series, Into the Void by Nigel Findley.
January 2, 2020
This was my second time reading this particular book. The first time I just didn’t get into it. I admit it does have a slow build and not a lot happens at the start of the book but I actually enjoyed it as I got to know the two main characters.
Teldin is an ex-solider returned home to farm who has a medieval-fantasy/steampunk space ship crash land on top of his home. An alien called a Giff, humanoid-hippo alien named Gomja sees Teldin sitting over his dying captain as she gives him her magical cloak. A cloak that won’t come off once clasped.
So begins Teldin’s quest to find someone who can take the cloak off and send the alien Giff back into space. The antagonist aliens are called neogi. They’re the size of a dog but a cross between a spider and snake. They use Umber hulks as slaves and all they want to do is get the cloak and enslave all the planets in the universe.
If you’re willing to wait for the story to get going and are into trying a weird blend of space and fantasy give it a shot. This is the first of five books. Keep a look out for future reviews of those books.
Teldin is an ex-solider returned home to farm who has a medieval-fantasy/steampunk space ship crash land on top of his home. An alien called a Giff, humanoid-hippo alien named Gomja sees Teldin sitting over his dying captain as she gives him her magical cloak. A cloak that won’t come off once clasped.
So begins Teldin’s quest to find someone who can take the cloak off and send the alien Giff back into space. The antagonist aliens are called neogi. They’re the size of a dog but a cross between a spider and snake. They use Umber hulks as slaves and all they want to do is get the cloak and enslave all the planets in the universe.
If you’re willing to wait for the story to get going and are into trying a weird blend of space and fantasy give it a shot. This is the first of five books. Keep a look out for future reviews of those books.
May 30, 2021
“Beyond the Moons (Spelljammer: The Cloakmaster Cycle, #1) was written and published as an introduction to the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting of Spelljammer, a AD&D adventure set in space. The target audience were players interested in the new setting.
The story is a travelogue following Teldin Moore, an unassuming farmer on the planet Krynn (following the War of the Lance - Dragonlance Trilogy) after a ship from the stars crashes in one of fields. Teldin is given a magic cloak from the dying alien captain and sent on a quest to return it to the creators.
Teldin is joined on his quest by Gomja a young Giff, think of a humanized hippopotamus who walks on two legs.
The writing is on par with a novelization of a movie, but lacks the descriptive details often found in travelogues. The book does a good job introducing the Spelljammer setting to its readers but lacks in character development and story detail that would propel the book.
The story is a travelogue following Teldin Moore, an unassuming farmer on the planet Krynn (following the War of the Lance - Dragonlance Trilogy) after a ship from the stars crashes in one of fields. Teldin is given a magic cloak from the dying alien captain and sent on a quest to return it to the creators.
Teldin is joined on his quest by Gomja a young Giff, think of a humanized hippopotamus who walks on two legs.
The writing is on par with a novelization of a movie, but lacks the descriptive details often found in travelogues. The book does a good job introducing the Spelljammer setting to its readers but lacks in character development and story detail that would propel the book.
February 12, 2019
This book really surprised me. As an old-school gamer, I was looking for D&D based novels for nostalgia purposes, but most of what I got my hands on didn't grab me at best, or was unreadable at worst. I read one from Paul Kidd, which was kinda fun, because it had a lot of tounge-in-cheek humor and inside jokes for old-school gamers like me, and I read a few of Salvatore's Drizz't novels, which I thought were "just okay." But this one took my by surprise. It grabbed me right from the start. The characters were multi-dimensional and the world seemed real. The story was well paced and held my interest throughout. I would recommend this to any D&D fan, but also fans of fantasy novels in general. This one holds its own with any fantasy novel I have read in the last ten years.
November 14, 2025
The entirety of this book happens on Krynn which was probably due to their desire to tap into the larger fanbase. Unfortunately, there's no spelljamming happening until the very end and for some reason the author seems hell-bent on making the protag leave the planet alone. I would imagine it'd be way more interesting to cut the travels in half, put the kinda-love interest and the second character into the party and boldly spelljam where no farmer has spelljammed before but what do I know. Still a bit salty how at the very end .
May 31, 2019
Pretty fun read.... but the dang map in the beginning actually spoils a lot of the plot points.
And here's somewhat of a SPOILER for the book:
The whole book takes place on the original Dragonlance planet.... so I was a bit dissapointed, because I was wanting a space/multi-dimensional travel story, but they never get on a spelljammer ship until the end.
And here's somewhat of a SPOILER for the book:
The whole book takes place on the original Dragonlance planet.... so I was a bit dissapointed, because I was wanting a space/multi-dimensional travel story, but they never get on a spelljammer ship until the end.
November 2, 2024
This was the second book in the D&D Spelljamming setting I've read. This book is the first in a series. I really enjoyed this one. It is set on Krynn,the world of Dragonlance. It was intresting the mixture of both worlds in the book. I'm really intrested in reading the rest of the series to see where the adventure goes from here.
June 27, 2019
Full review here:
https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/...
While this ain't exactly DragonLance fiction, it's still pretty amusing. I look forward to what the next volumes hold.
https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/...
While this ain't exactly DragonLance fiction, it's still pretty amusing. I look forward to what the next volumes hold.
January 26, 2017
I'm quite enjoying this series so far. The powers of the cloak are slowly being revealed and gnomes make for very amusing encounters.
March 29, 2018
I can't believe I once read this, but then I was young.
I remember digging the hippo though.
I remember digging the hippo though.
September 6, 2018
An interesting premise, but could benefit from better editing.
October 19, 2020
While it took me in an unexpected direction, it was a well written fish-out-of-water romp. I've already ordered the second book!
June 15, 2021
Reasonably written, just wished the author would have taken the opportunity to let more krynn into the plot and a bit more suspension wouldn't have hurt.
April 22, 2022
An ok book about how a farmer called Teldin find himself with a magical cloak, an alien and a adventure. Good start and introduction to the series.
December 12, 2023
A fun book in my favorite setting, Dragonlance. Able to remain unique but honoring Dragonlance well.
August 29, 2024
It's a good introduction to the Spelljammer set, but the plot is really basic.
February 11, 2016
Pretty good book! For me, reading a book based on Dungeons and Dragons can be a bit of a crap-shoot. Salvatore's are the best, followed by Greenwood's and Cunningham's. The rest are sort of a mix of nifty ideas and odd execution.
For example, Salvatore, Greenwood and Cunningham generally take inspiration from DnD (usually, the Forgotten Realms world as far as I know) and don't use much 'game material'. For example, you never see someone 'leveling up', they use magic sparingly and aren't afraid to make up new stuff, especially Greenwood, since he invented the Forgotten Realms in the first place. If characters get more powerful, they are seen gaining and practicing with new weapons, or getting new training with a master, or just generally fighting more powerful foes.
I've seen other authors screw up by putting to much DnD flavor in and getting it wrong. For example, someone will go from peasant dirt farmer to super warrior in zero seconds. Or they'll put in oddly specific details that are wrong, which makes the target audience (at least me) annoyed. For example, one book I read based the main plot around a half elf who was really old... Everyone who encountered her was freaking out about it, absolutely astounded that she was 350 years old, so old she must be the oldest thing around! Even dragons and elves were doing this, which would have been pretty neat if elves didn't live for over twice that or that dragons lived for 5000 years!
So anyway, I liked this book. It is set in Krynn, and uses the idea of 'spelljamming', or magical space travel. The story was pretty fun, didn't drag much, set up the next book in the series, and didn't hit any of my game novel pet peeves that I can remember. For example, he didn't go from dirt farmer to super warrior, he sort of went from 'retired soldier farmer guy who didn't do much actual fighting' to 'guy who can defend himself with a spear and use his wits to survive' after a few days of training. I'm okay with that! Also, I liked the cover and title. I've read a lot of books lately with misleading cover art and/or titles, so this was pretty cool. The cover depicts a scene from the beginning of the book pretty accurately, and the title is plausible. Yay!
For example, Salvatore, Greenwood and Cunningham generally take inspiration from DnD (usually, the Forgotten Realms world as far as I know) and don't use much 'game material'. For example, you never see someone 'leveling up', they use magic sparingly and aren't afraid to make up new stuff, especially Greenwood, since he invented the Forgotten Realms in the first place. If characters get more powerful, they are seen gaining and practicing with new weapons, or getting new training with a master, or just generally fighting more powerful foes.
I've seen other authors screw up by putting to much DnD flavor in and getting it wrong. For example, someone will go from peasant dirt farmer to super warrior in zero seconds. Or they'll put in oddly specific details that are wrong, which makes the target audience (at least me) annoyed. For example, one book I read based the main plot around a half elf who was really old... Everyone who encountered her was freaking out about it, absolutely astounded that she was 350 years old, so old she must be the oldest thing around! Even dragons and elves were doing this, which would have been pretty neat if elves didn't live for over twice that or that dragons lived for 5000 years!
So anyway, I liked this book. It is set in Krynn, and uses the idea of 'spelljamming', or magical space travel. The story was pretty fun, didn't drag much, set up the next book in the series, and didn't hit any of my game novel pet peeves that I can remember. For example, he didn't go from dirt farmer to super warrior, he sort of went from 'retired soldier farmer guy who didn't do much actual fighting' to 'guy who can defend himself with a spear and use his wits to survive' after a few days of training. I'm okay with that! Also, I liked the cover and title. I've read a lot of books lately with misleading cover art and/or titles, so this was pretty cool. The cover depicts a scene from the beginning of the book pretty accurately, and the title is plausible. Yay!
March 18, 2025
It’s been nice to finally get round to reading a book I’ve long wanted to it.
It’s a little long but still enjoyable introduction to spell jammer. One of the older setting these days for d&d.
It’s a little long but still enjoyable introduction to spell jammer. One of the older setting these days for d&d.
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