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Spelljammer: The Cloakmaster Cycle #3
The Maelstrom's Eye
Teldin Moore's quest for the truth about his mysterious cloak leads him on a search for a fal, a genius slug, but his odyssey traps him between Scro forces and an evil behemoth as he draws ever nearer the secret of the great ship Spelljammer. Original.
314 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 12, 2012
Teldin and the Imperial Elves
11 March 2012
I remember as a teenager that when I saw a roleplaying product written by Roger Moore I would always say something along the lines of 'woah, James Bond roleplays, how cool is that!' to which the reply would always, without fail, be 'it's not that Roger Moore'. Of course, how could two people with the same name become famous. Quite easily, both of them are named Roger Moore, though the James Bond Roger Moore is far and away more famous than the roleplaying Roger Moore.
The Roleplaying Roger Moore
This book continues the story of Teldin Moore (no relation to Roger) as he tries to uncover the mystery of the cloak that he is wearing (we pretty much worked it out by the third book anyway: it was one of the helms, or magical engine, that allows the owner to fly the legendary Spelljammer). Moore starts off on the Rock of Bral - sort of one of those populated asteroids which is a major trading hub. It is like a sailor's town (like Amsterdam) where pretty much all of the rough and rubbish seems to congregate, and is generally also a place where adventurers can find quests.
We are also introduced to the Elven Fleet in this book and witness the beginnings of the second Unhuman War. The elven fleet are Elves who have assigned themselves of keeping law and order in the known spheres and in some ways reflect the British Imperial Navy of the 19th Century. However there is not much behind the navy, such as a major base or home world. Where the British were an empire, it does not appear that there is a similar empire where the elves are concerned.
I will also mention the Unhuman War. In the Spelljammer Universe there was a war between the goblins and the elves, mostly over supremacy of the space lanes. The elves won the first war, but it is clear that the goblinoid races were not defeated, they simply went into hibernation while they rebuilt and decided to have another shot at the title. I found it interesting that the creators of Spelljammer decided to have such a war because it appears to be more of a background event than something the players would be involved in directly. In anycase, Dungeons and Dragons is always presented from a humanocentric point of view. Granted there are times when there will be no humans in a party, but it still seems to come from this point of view. I guess it has a lot to do with us being human.
11 March 2012
I remember as a teenager that when I saw a roleplaying product written by Roger Moore I would always say something along the lines of 'woah, James Bond roleplays, how cool is that!' to which the reply would always, without fail, be 'it's not that Roger Moore'. Of course, how could two people with the same name become famous. Quite easily, both of them are named Roger Moore, though the James Bond Roger Moore is far and away more famous than the roleplaying Roger Moore.
The Roleplaying Roger Moore
This book continues the story of Teldin Moore (no relation to Roger) as he tries to uncover the mystery of the cloak that he is wearing (we pretty much worked it out by the third book anyway: it was one of the helms, or magical engine, that allows the owner to fly the legendary Spelljammer). Moore starts off on the Rock of Bral - sort of one of those populated asteroids which is a major trading hub. It is like a sailor's town (like Amsterdam) where pretty much all of the rough and rubbish seems to congregate, and is generally also a place where adventurers can find quests.
We are also introduced to the Elven Fleet in this book and witness the beginnings of the second Unhuman War. The elven fleet are Elves who have assigned themselves of keeping law and order in the known spheres and in some ways reflect the British Imperial Navy of the 19th Century. However there is not much behind the navy, such as a major base or home world. Where the British were an empire, it does not appear that there is a similar empire where the elves are concerned.
I will also mention the Unhuman War. In the Spelljammer Universe there was a war between the goblins and the elves, mostly over supremacy of the space lanes. The elves won the first war, but it is clear that the goblinoid races were not defeated, they simply went into hibernation while they rebuilt and decided to have another shot at the title. I found it interesting that the creators of Spelljammer decided to have such a war because it appears to be more of a background event than something the players would be involved in directly. In anycase, Dungeons and Dragons is always presented from a humanocentric point of view. Granted there are times when there will be no humans in a party, but it still seems to come from this point of view. I guess it has a lot to do with us being human.
May 17, 2026
I was excited for this entry in the Cloakmaster cycle. It was the highest rated in the series on Good Reads and the first fully set in Wildspace. Honestly it barely gets a 3 star rating from me. I found it the worst entry in the series so far by far.
First the writing is definitely worse than the previous two authors. There’s some elements that haven’t aged well, and I’m normally not easily bothered by that stuff, but I found it kind of cringe worthy at parts.
The vibe is all over the place. Previous Spelljammer books I’ve read kind of felt like pirate sea adventures but in outer space. This one felt almost like a Space Opera but with magical sail ships as stand ins for Faster Than Light ships. It’s fine but not exactly what I signed up for.
It’s also the first to have substantial multiple POV characters. General Vorr makes a decent antagonist. And his chapters fill out the universe some.
The story veers all over the place and felt like throwing darts at a board. I don’t think many of the elements pay off in the rushed ending. Many of the character stories just don’t deliver.
The settings and magic of wildspace is wondrous and charming. It’s great to have Gomja back even if his story was weak. And the action is sold and the prose has more forward momentum than Nigel Findley’s even if his entry in the series was much better.
It was decently entertaining but definitely a mess. I hope the next entry is better.
First the writing is definitely worse than the previous two authors. There’s some elements that haven’t aged well, and I’m normally not easily bothered by that stuff, but I found it kind of cringe worthy at parts.
The vibe is all over the place. Previous Spelljammer books I’ve read kind of felt like pirate sea adventures but in outer space. This one felt almost like a Space Opera but with magical sail ships as stand ins for Faster Than Light ships. It’s fine but not exactly what I signed up for.
It’s also the first to have substantial multiple POV characters. General Vorr makes a decent antagonist. And his chapters fill out the universe some.
The story veers all over the place and felt like throwing darts at a board. I don’t think many of the elements pay off in the rushed ending. Many of the character stories just don’t deliver.
The settings and magic of wildspace is wondrous and charming. It’s great to have Gomja back even if his story was weak. And the action is sold and the prose has more forward momentum than Nigel Findley’s even if his entry in the series was much better.
It was decently entertaining but definitely a mess. I hope the next entry is better.
June 21, 2026
I really really like the Spelljammer setting itself. But characters, other than the protagonist, are so easily forgotten... The authors change between books, and they sometimes forget to include some characters and even side story arcs from the other authors. The gnomes of book 1, on the flight from Krynn, are simply forgotten throughout the story. The author doesn't mention them anymore once Teldin, the protagonist, makes new friends, and Teldin himself even wonders what happened to them in somewhere halfway through this book. Probably the author realized that the previous author forgot about those characters...
His main love-interest in the beginning of this book simply wanders off, because Teldin does not even have one scene with her. The character says she literally feels ignored, leaves a note that she is going to pursue other goals in life, and leaves. Which is actually very funny, it's literally the author who says he does not know how to include this love-story into his story.
And yet, despite all these shortcomings, I like this book, because it reads as a travelogue through wildspace. Bizarre planets, locations, meteoroids such as The Rock of Bral or weird alien races such as The Juna. Strange spaceships shaped like butterflies or scorpions. And Teldin as a simple farmer is a fine point-of-view from which to experience this setting.
You should start reading this with the expectations of watching a cartoon for teenagers.
His main love-interest in the beginning of this book simply wanders off, because Teldin does not even have one scene with her. The character says she literally feels ignored, leaves a note that she is going to pursue other goals in life, and leaves. Which is actually very funny, it's literally the author who says he does not know how to include this love-story into his story.
And yet, despite all these shortcomings, I like this book, because it reads as a travelogue through wildspace. Bizarre planets, locations, meteoroids such as The Rock of Bral or weird alien races such as The Juna. Strange spaceships shaped like butterflies or scorpions. And Teldin as a simple farmer is a fine point-of-view from which to experience this setting.
You should start reading this with the expectations of watching a cartoon for teenagers.
July 7, 2008
Giant Space Hamsters. Python-esque humor. Numerous navies from all over Wildspace looking for Teldin Moore and the Cloak of the First Pilot. What else needs to be said?
Still reading this one. I'll rate it once I've finished.
Still reading this one. I'll rate it once I've finished.
May 10, 2022
Another Spelljammer novel.
This picks up shortly after the last book. Teldin is on the Rock of Bral. He meets a pretty young woman whom he realizes, to his horror, is a Kender. Quickly breaking things off and writing off his losses to the Kender's borrowing, he meets with Imperial Elves and gets more backstory on his cloak and his ultimate quest: The Spelljammer itself. A lot of action sequences ensue as Teldin is chased across half of known space by the Neogi villain of the previous books, back from the dead and hiding as a lich, the Scro (It's Orcs backward and the novel even tells us this. They're Super Orcs), and the Elves (Who decide after Teldin leaves to tail him, hope he dies, and take the cloak. Eventually they abandon this waiting business and just decide to kill him themselves).
There's a lot going on here and before you've got a grip on any one thing a confusing action sequence ensues to send the characters hurtling away because heaven forbid we let anything settle.
Teldin has a new sort-of love interest the Kender called Gaye. She doesn't steal. Much. Kender are halflings, though, which generally means they look like children. It is revealed that Gaye is a half-Kender and the text goes on about how she looks young but not, like, *too* young and looks human enough and is actually much older than she looks and after awhile I realized that the text was working way too hard to make a relationship seem not creepy for one to not happen in some form. The text goes on about how they have feelings but they don't understand them and such. It's a very teen romance sort of take for characters who are approaching middle age. In any case between all of the action setpieces the massive multi-way ship battles the text kind of just loses the thread and gives Gaye and Teldin an inner monologue each where each admits they're falling for the other Which is.. a stretch. Gaye definitely is infatuated with Teldin but from the page Teldin learns she's a Kender to the moment they say goodbye Teldin is nothing but a huge jerk to her. In the last few pages Gaye even randomly mentions having a sensei and spouts a some japanese before exiting the story and while the text says they each know this is goodbye forever, it clearly isn't. Gaye will be back in a later book. The character has way too many unanswered questions and the lingering romantic thread demands some kind of resolution.
The book fulfills a trope commonly seen in comic books based around superhero teams. When the book is going to change writers it is common for the outgoing writer to kill or ambiguously remove most or all of the team so the new writer can come in with a blank slate and not have to worry so much about fidelity. The crew of the Probe, the ship Teldin was on in the last book, is killed off in a couple of ship battles. Aelfred, Teldin's friend from the last book, exits here. He does get to go out like a badass but a flashback has to follow his death scene or else it would demand questions like "How the fuck did he end up *there*?!" Sylvie, the helmsman from the last book, gratuitously dies. She is revealed as Aelfred's love interest but really gets all of a dozen lines in the book and mostly serves as a living lie detector in one scene. Her death comes out of left field with a ship passing overhead taking a ballista potshot at a small group on the ground and hits a bullseye. I think her being paired with Aelfred is largely done to try and make her death matter to the audience but she's otherwise such a non-character that it seems more to give Aelfred free reign to kill himself in a heroic vengeance sacrifice.
The books is another link in the chain of the plot and it's just not well executed. The action scenes are forgettable save for one scene where the lead Scro is ambushed in his office. The final battle is especially confusing as multiple illusions are used to mislead several characters as it ends up being a 3 or 4 way battle and all of Teldin's antagonists are ultimately killed off. The board has been cleared and a new antagonist will have to rise in the next book, I suppose.
The dialog is pretty rudimentary. The gnomes have interesting speech but aside from Aelfred's verbal tic of calling Teldin "Old Son" you could file the name off the dialog and I probably couldn't tell you who said it. The book is just messy. The chase isn't terribly compelling and the action scenes come so fast that they feel disruptive and not in a way that makes a reader feel for the characters but mostly "Goddammit another stupid fight."
This picks up shortly after the last book. Teldin is on the Rock of Bral. He meets a pretty young woman whom he realizes, to his horror, is a Kender. Quickly breaking things off and writing off his losses to the Kender's borrowing, he meets with Imperial Elves and gets more backstory on his cloak and his ultimate quest: The Spelljammer itself. A lot of action sequences ensue as Teldin is chased across half of known space by the Neogi villain of the previous books, back from the dead and hiding as a lich, the Scro (It's Orcs backward and the novel even tells us this. They're Super Orcs), and the Elves (Who decide after Teldin leaves to tail him, hope he dies, and take the cloak. Eventually they abandon this waiting business and just decide to kill him themselves).
There's a lot going on here and before you've got a grip on any one thing a confusing action sequence ensues to send the characters hurtling away because heaven forbid we let anything settle.
Teldin has a new sort-of love interest the Kender called Gaye. She doesn't steal. Much. Kender are halflings, though, which generally means they look like children. It is revealed that Gaye is a half-Kender and the text goes on about how she looks young but not, like, *too* young and looks human enough and is actually much older than she looks and after awhile I realized that the text was working way too hard to make a relationship seem not creepy for one to not happen in some form. The text goes on about how they have feelings but they don't understand them and such. It's a very teen romance sort of take for characters who are approaching middle age. In any case between all of the action setpieces the massive multi-way ship battles the text kind of just loses the thread and gives Gaye and Teldin an inner monologue each where each admits they're falling for the other Which is.. a stretch. Gaye definitely is infatuated with Teldin but from the page Teldin learns she's a Kender to the moment they say goodbye Teldin is nothing but a huge jerk to her. In the last few pages Gaye even randomly mentions having a sensei and spouts a some japanese before exiting the story and while the text says they each know this is goodbye forever, it clearly isn't. Gaye will be back in a later book. The character has way too many unanswered questions and the lingering romantic thread demands some kind of resolution.
The book fulfills a trope commonly seen in comic books based around superhero teams. When the book is going to change writers it is common for the outgoing writer to kill or ambiguously remove most or all of the team so the new writer can come in with a blank slate and not have to worry so much about fidelity. The crew of the Probe, the ship Teldin was on in the last book, is killed off in a couple of ship battles. Aelfred, Teldin's friend from the last book, exits here. He does get to go out like a badass but a flashback has to follow his death scene or else it would demand questions like "How the fuck did he end up *there*?!" Sylvie, the helmsman from the last book, gratuitously dies. She is revealed as Aelfred's love interest but really gets all of a dozen lines in the book and mostly serves as a living lie detector in one scene. Her death comes out of left field with a ship passing overhead taking a ballista potshot at a small group on the ground and hits a bullseye. I think her being paired with Aelfred is largely done to try and make her death matter to the audience but she's otherwise such a non-character that it seems more to give Aelfred free reign to kill himself in a heroic vengeance sacrifice.
The books is another link in the chain of the plot and it's just not well executed. The action scenes are forgettable save for one scene where the lead Scro is ambushed in his office. The final battle is especially confusing as multiple illusions are used to mislead several characters as it ends up being a 3 or 4 way battle and all of Teldin's antagonists are ultimately killed off. The board has been cleared and a new antagonist will have to rise in the next book, I suppose.
The dialog is pretty rudimentary. The gnomes have interesting speech but aside from Aelfred's verbal tic of calling Teldin "Old Son" you could file the name off the dialog and I probably couldn't tell you who said it. The book is just messy. The chase isn't terribly compelling and the action scenes come so fast that they feel disruptive and not in a way that makes a reader feel for the characters but mostly "Goddammit another stupid fight."
October 7, 2021
This book was by far the best so far in the series which is admittedly a low bar since the first 2 were meh at best. It could be that I had so low of an expectation after the first 2 that I just thought this was decent. I haven't been a fan of Teldin so it didnt hurt that Gomja is back along with Sylvie and Aelfred since I liked all of them. They added quite a bit of new characters with some being good and some not so much. It starts with Teldin meeting with the Imperial Fleet on Rock of Bral and getting some additional information about the cloak and pointed in the direction of a fal named One Six Nine. They also gained a kender named Gaye and a gnome named Dyffed. After they leave the Rock they are attacked by the scro fleet and Teldin learns his cloak allows him to be the helm. Unfortunately his landing skills aren't very good and he destroys the Probe on Ironpiece which is where Gomja enters the picture. From there they are attacked again by the scro fleet and they need to make a quick getaway in a gnome ship. They get away but eventually are attacked again. This time as they are about to enter One Six Nine's sphere. Once again another crash landing this time by Sylvie. They eventually get back in the air and Teldin takes the helm again since Sylvie is exhausted and Loomfinger isn't cutting it. Teldin escapes the scro again and they find One Six Nine. From there everything goes crazy. The elves attack followed by the scro and basically everyone dies or Teldin leaves behind but he knows much more about the Cloak of the First Pilot and where to go next.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 26, 2025
Wanted to like this more than I did.
I had vague, fond memories of the game and the comics, so when I found this at a library sale grabbed it.
It's a decent adventure story, nice world building, decent cast, good sense of humor and solid action set pieces, but there's too much effort put into the author shouting 'This is a big saga!!' and that's the least interesting part of the book and acts more as a distraction.
I had vague, fond memories of the game and the comics, so when I found this at a library sale grabbed it.
It's a decent adventure story, nice world building, decent cast, good sense of humor and solid action set pieces, but there's too much effort put into the author shouting 'This is a big saga!!' and that's the least interesting part of the book and acts more as a distraction.
March 2, 2020
I’ve read three books in this five book series and I don’t care. I don’t care about the main character Teldin Moore or about his quest to find the elusive Spelljammer ship. The writer has been different with each book and I’ve yet found one that really grabbed me and made me hunger to find out what happens next so I will not continue in the series and I’m totally OK with that.
Read
March 21, 2026More crazy spelljammer shenanigans in this third volume of the original Spelljammer series. This time our heroes find themselves between the great cosmic battle of space elves and scro (space orcs), with both sides deciding they want the cloak that controls the most powerful spelljammer in existence. There also a half-kinder romance, a lich, and a fox lady. What's not to like?
July 13, 2019
Full review here:
https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/...
It is kind of silly, but it's also hard to to get excited when the ship lands on a "megafauna", a giant creature with a foot that's about the size of a continent.
https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/...
It is kind of silly, but it's also hard to to get excited when the ship lands on a "megafauna", a giant creature with a foot that's about the size of a continent.
May 23, 2022
Teldin and his quest to find out about his magical cloak continues. Gomja is back and he faces elves and Scro.
February 15, 2025
The third book in the Cloakmaster Cycle was another good story in Teldin Moore's journey. It was another intresting story. I am really enjoying this Spelljammer series.
March 17, 2017
I enjoyed the strange characters but very few have a tendency to survive in these novels.
May 8, 2026
At this time in the series is when I found myself unable to put the book down! Addictive adventure.
February 11, 2016
Well, the third book of the series was actually pretty uneventful, more of a placeholder really. The author of this one (the authors are different for each book in the six part series) decided it was going to be more about the adversaries this time.
Teldin Moore, the guy from the first book who put on a magical cloak without knowing what it was, was chased away from his home and across the face of his home planet of Krynn in the first book, then... wait, I've already forgotten what happened in the second book. I guess he ditched everyone he knew from the first book, then went in with a new crew. Oh, he killed the evil old mind flayer captain of the new ship, and took over along with the rest of the bridge crew. Oh, and he totally forgot that he spent the first book learning how to fight with a spear, finally getting a cool magical one... the spear is never mentioned again, and he sort of learns how to fight with a short sword - truly the lamest of the swords. Meanwhile, the cloak gave up some of its secrets, and now Teldin can change his appearance, understand other languages and sometimes use magic to speed himself up (haste?) or increase his fighting ability (true strike?).
So now in this book Teldin takes some advice from the last book and contacts the Elvish imperial fleet for more info about why everyone wants to kill him for his cloak. They lie to him about what they know about his cloak and send him on a trek to a giant slug sage in another star system, secretly following him. Meanwhile, bad guy space orcs called 'scro' are interrupted in their super revenge against the elves by an evil space lich, who convinces them to all chase after Telden. Most of the story revolves around the Elves, the Scro, the Lich, all scheming against each other and fighting one another as Telden slips away again and again. By the end of the story, all Telden's friends are gone again. Sort of. Two are dead, one leaves (before the author of the next book can kill her off) and one is just not mentioned, but he's resolved to do this alone... You know, as long as the next author agrees.
As a book, the author has a few problems, especially how he switches from one person's first person point of view to another person right next to them without any warning. It is jarring, since they're right there next to each other looking at the same stuff, so when their thoughts are different you have to go back to make sure where the hand-off was.
As a series... pretty choppy. I don't think the authors talked to each other ahead of time, and there isn't much of a guiding hand in the story. Each book so far has quickly thrown out most of the development from the previous book, tossing out characters so they can introduce their own. I have higher hopes for the fourth book though, since I've read and enjoyed books by Elaine Cunningham before...
Teldin Moore, the guy from the first book who put on a magical cloak without knowing what it was, was chased away from his home and across the face of his home planet of Krynn in the first book, then... wait, I've already forgotten what happened in the second book. I guess he ditched everyone he knew from the first book, then went in with a new crew. Oh, he killed the evil old mind flayer captain of the new ship, and took over along with the rest of the bridge crew. Oh, and he totally forgot that he spent the first book learning how to fight with a spear, finally getting a cool magical one... the spear is never mentioned again, and he sort of learns how to fight with a short sword - truly the lamest of the swords. Meanwhile, the cloak gave up some of its secrets, and now Teldin can change his appearance, understand other languages and sometimes use magic to speed himself up (haste?) or increase his fighting ability (true strike?).
So now in this book Teldin takes some advice from the last book and contacts the Elvish imperial fleet for more info about why everyone wants to kill him for his cloak. They lie to him about what they know about his cloak and send him on a trek to a giant slug sage in another star system, secretly following him. Meanwhile, bad guy space orcs called 'scro' are interrupted in their super revenge against the elves by an evil space lich, who convinces them to all chase after Telden. Most of the story revolves around the Elves, the Scro, the Lich, all scheming against each other and fighting one another as Telden slips away again and again. By the end of the story, all Telden's friends are gone again. Sort of. Two are dead, one leaves (before the author of the next book can kill her off) and one is just not mentioned, but he's resolved to do this alone... You know, as long as the next author agrees.
As a book, the author has a few problems, especially how he switches from one person's first person point of view to another person right next to them without any warning. It is jarring, since they're right there next to each other looking at the same stuff, so when their thoughts are different you have to go back to make sure where the hand-off was.
As a series... pretty choppy. I don't think the authors talked to each other ahead of time, and there isn't much of a guiding hand in the story. Each book so far has quickly thrown out most of the development from the previous book, tossing out characters so they can introduce their own. I have higher hopes for the fourth book though, since I've read and enjoyed books by Elaine Cunningham before...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 15, 2011
This is the one where the hero gets caught up in the meta-plot (what little there was) of SpellJammer. Overall it was good, for a tie-in novel.
March 13, 2013
Great story. I love this series.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews