Conundrum

Dragonlance: The Age of Mortals #1

by Jeff Crook

On a dark spring night, nine weeks behind schedule, the MNS Indestructible, a Class C Submersible Deepswimmer, departs Sancrist Isle with a crew of twenty and a callous disregard for the inevitable.

Armed with top-secret devices, a band of intrepid gnome explorers sets out on a legendary journey to sub-navigate the continent of Ansalon and determine why very large rocks float. Though the fate of the world does not hang in the balance, theirs certainly does.

This is their story--and the story of a single member of that ignoble Conundrum, the heroic gnome featured in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's best-selling War of Souls trilogy.

Genres: Dragonlance, Fantasy, Fiction, High Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Ebooks, Science Fiction Fantasy

314 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 2001

About the author

Jeff Crook and his lovely wife, Lady Jessica, live in the Quinn family home among Jeff's ancestors -- not in the Native American or even the John-Boy Walton sense, but in the Stephen King sense. As their niece Nickie said, "Those stairs are spooky!" There, Jeff grows tomatoes and grass (more grass than tomatoes), sometimes he works, and he writes the rest of the time, neglecting most everything else, except the cat that must be fed from time to time.

Jeff's first Dragonlance novel, The Rose and the Skull, hit the shelves in March 1999. He also worked on a second Dragonlance novel for the Crossroads series. One of his stories was also included in the 2000 Dragonlance anthology, Rebels and Tyrants. His story, "The Fractal," appeared in Relics and Omens, poetry in "The Final Word," and five AD&D adventures in Dungeon Magazine. He is currently the editor of Campaigns, the newsletter for the Southern Realms region of the RPGA.

When not writing or working or gardening or feeding the kitty, Jeff occasionally likes to mingle with humanity. He enjoys his food a bit too much, and wine is an expensive hobby he could probably do without, except life wouldn't be worth living. And when everything is quiet and the house is dark, the cat is asleep and the computer is turned off, Jeff lies in bed listening to things go bump in the night. He tries to turn off his brain so he can go to sleep, but it doesn't always work.

Reviews

[Savannah B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so funny! Also a childhood favorite thays carried on into adulthood.

[BLDinMT · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delightfully silly adventure!

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very enjoyable, quirky read.

[audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

But more like 2.5 stars.

The first half of the book, is fun: comically severed heads (I am 9), gnomish inventions gone six different kinds of haywire, Palanthas, glow-worms, giant octopi and reinventing scuba gear.

The second half of the book is grim and humorless and for the love of all things holy, people, a winch is a windlass turned by a crank to hoist things, and a wench is a country lass or working girl, so:

Conundrum and Commodore Brigg were helping the professor modify one of the ascending kettles so that it could be lowered by means of a wench attached to the stern of the Indestructible

sets my teeth on edge. Ymmv.

Plus everyone needs to quit hating on gully dwarves. Y'all are mean.

And do I even need to mention that two of the three female characters in the book are both killed on the same page they're introduced? One of them gets the luxury of a name, the other is -- and I am being charitable here -- coerced into a wizard's bed, then when she wakes up to the coercing, he tosses her out the window. I would have greatly enjoyed the story more had she tossed the wizard. The third character appears in the last two pages of the book, nameless.

Still, it's really hard for me to not enjoy scuba-open-water-drowning-town exploration stories, especially when they involve gnomes, who I maintain don't get enough Dragonlance love in the first place.

[Christina Stind · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book with gnomes, a kender, gully dwarf and a gnome-build ship called the MNS Indestructible - what could possibly go wrong???
I expected this to be a typical gnome book with a kender thrown in for added humor and that's true. However, even though I liked the book and had an enjoyable read and some smiles along the way, the book didn't quite live up to my expectations. Maybe because the title is a bit misleading - Conumdrum is expected to be the main character but I really don't feel like I really got to know him in this book. But for a light and fun read, this book fits well.

[Jim C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book set in the Dragonlance setting. A bunch of gnomes and a kender set out in a submarine on an adventure. Do I really need to say anymore? With gnomes and a kender how can this be a bad book? I enjoyed this book. This book isn't your typical fantasy book with the world hanging in the balance. It was just a story about one team's adventure and it at times made me chuckle and at other times made me a little sad. I recommend this book to all. I think you will enjoy this band of people and their adventure.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this was very different. I thoroughly enjoyed this story about gnomes circum-/sub-navigating the continent of Ansalon. Crook got the tone right in most parts, although there were a few moments that felt a bit too silly for the rest of it. The cast of characters felt fresh and interesting to me, even though I’ve read about countless gnomes, kender, and Knights of Neraka. After reading The Siege of Mt. Nevermind, I definitely preferred this gnome story over others.

[James Kinsley]

Nothing terribly dreadful led me to abandon this, merely a realisation that I was putting off finishing it. It's a world I have v fond memories of, Dragonlance was a gateway fantasy series for me. But my tastes have moved on, and though this is fun in parts, it's no classic, even by Dragonlance standards. I gots other things to be reading.