Kendermore

Dragonlance: Preludes #2

by Mary L. Kirchoff

Before the War of the Lance, carefree kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot is enjoying the company of his friends at the Inn of the Last Home when a bounty hunter arrives and charges him with desertion for violating the kender laws of prearranged marriage. But Tasslehoff's intended has pulled a disappearing act of her own. The race is on to see who gets dragged to the altar first in a tale of adventure replete with magic, monsters, and mayhem.

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

346 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Mary L. Kirchoff (b. 1959) is an American author of fantasy and young adult novels.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I had enjoyed this one more but some of the randomness of the denouement had me annoyed and disappointed. Also, #Justice4Gisella! I am deeply dismayed and surprised that her character was summarily killed in the lead up to the finale. As the (to date, anyway) only female dwarf character I have ever encountered written to be sexy, funny and independent I feel she deserved far better. Also, after literal decades reading about Tas' friendship with a woolly mammoth I felt its introduction and departure to be pretty anti-climactic.


OK this isn't her but Archduchess Gisela Habspurg of Austria, same diff.

I will be reading my next Mary Kirchoff solo outing with trepidation.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I seem to be one of the few people who really liked the character Tasselhoff, but since I started with the "Legends" series I was introduced to him after he'd started to mature as a character. His portrayal in this book is merely two-dimensional. Don't get me wrong, I love reading ABOUT kenders in the Krynn sourcebooks (especially the list of innocent explanations they use when caught stealing. Ex: "Maybe it fell in my pocket."), but having an entire city of half-sized lunatics as main characters cheapens the whole idea. Every kender was just a cliche, and a cliche of something invented by someone other than Ms. Kirchoff. I got the idea she didn't really know how to write the story, so she just quoted liberally from every description she could find about kenders, and then strung a rough plot around it.

That said, the kenders were more interesting than any of the other races that appeared. I really WANTED to sympathise with the human doctor living in Kendermore, and the dwarven bounty-hunter sent to catch Tas; those two suffered a LOT in this book. But let's face it, they deliberately involved themselves with a city of kenders, and then they were continually surprised when things didn't go well. Irritating.

[Jasher Drake · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was FANTASTIC! If you want to see Tasslehoff...
Be late for his wedding, ride a dragon, become friends with a woolly mammoth, be hunted down by a bounty hunter, sing sea shanties, hire a crew of gully dwarves, do a pulley job, be kidnapped by gnomes, get stuck in a huge glass jar, get transported to candy land, stop the dark queen, have dinner at an ogre's house, put out fires with water spouts or steal the dwarf queen's ring, then this book is for you!

[Jake Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first half. Then it got ridiculous to the point of almost being bad. Overall it was okay but i was kinda bored even at the end. But it is a story youd expect of Tasselhoff. Frankly I aint a fan of Kenders

[Elaine Reinhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful and enjoyable read. Well written and entertaining.

[Jake · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reads like bad fanfic. I made it through less than 30 pages. The worst thing about it is that like all bad fanfic, it takes established (and beloved, by some) characters and makes them unrecognizable at worst, and just naggingly off at best. Flint is described as "jolly." Tika (who would be maybe 14) gets so turned on by Tanis's hot bod that she spills some ale. The author even gets physical characteristics wrong -- Tika has dark hair, Flint's preferred weapon is a hammer. To be fair, I didn't finish the book, so maybe these two details are the beginning of glorious arcs where by the end Tika either starts dyeing her hair red or letting it be its natural red color, and Flint decides to start using an axe. But the stories of why Tika has red hair or why Flint wields an axe are not really begging to be told.

The world building (which is what I came for, hoping even if it was largely unreadable as a novel, there would be some nuggets I could use in my D&D game) is equally bad. Everything we know about kender says they would very much NOT have an elaborate code of laws like the frigging knights of Solamnia and send bounty hunters from Kendermore to Abnasinia to arrest people for nonviolent transgressions. But that's the plot device the author chooses to get Tas to Kendermore.

The writing is also terrible. I edit professionally and could not turn off my editing switch for even a sentence. The author uses words imprecisely, uses two adjectives when one (or none) will do, and constructs awkward sentences.

Yeah, don't read this thing. Writing this review was a questionable use of my time, but it was way more enjoyable than the 20 minutes I spent trying to forge through prose that wouldn't have made it out of a community college intro to creative writing workshop.

[Mykah Drake · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I didn’t go in expecting Chronicles or Twins-level stakes, I’m surprised at just how fun of a romp it was focusing on some of the more lighthearted aspects of the world of Dragonlance and having an entire novel dedicated to the antics and idiosyncrasies of kender-kind. I’m currently starting a new D&D campaign irl with some mates where I’m playing a kender, so this was grade-A study material for me - Mary Kirchoff just gets the level of wonder and mischievousness that the halfling race is known for, and she is clearly relishing the experience of showcasing these characteristics (and in such well-written prose, too!).

For a low-stakes book intentionally made to flesh out the setting of Ansalon, Kirchoff has a lot of fun playing around with the world and characters, while still injecting some serious heart and emotion into the story. Yay for finally getting Tasslehoff’s woolly mammoth lore! Yay for come-to-life dragon carousels! Yay for lore-friendly candyland! And a slightly more grim Yay for the brilliant idea of gnomes with a life-quest of having to begrudgingly collect one of every species and put them on display for posterity; hey, at least they let their subjects pick out their jar of choice!

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novel based in the world of Dragonlance. This novel is about Tasselhoff who is a kender and one of the original characters in the first trilogy. This book takes place 5 years before that trilogy. This was just an average read. The author didn't completely nail the character and I thought different plotlines were out of place to the story. I would only recommend this book if you are a serious fan of dragonlance.

[Tinta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, well developed characters and I enjoyed the storyline!

[Graham · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very disappointing story. On the face of it, this is a fantasy novel set in the Dragonlance world, one of the many preludes to the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy that kickstarted the whole thing. This one features Tasslehoff Burrfoot, a hobbit-style character who was merely comic relief in the original stories, so it had its work cut out from the start.

Unfortunately, Kirchoff decided to make this an out-and-out comedy, and even worse, one aimed at 5-year-olds. Thus we have talking mammoths, worlds where everything is made out of candy, and more incessant scenes with gnomes and gully dwarves and friendly ogres than you can handle without wanting to tear your hair out. Needless to say, my sense of humour is a little more developed than that offered in the gags on display here, so I didn't find any of it funny - or fun for that matter. Instead, it was a chore to slog through, despite having a high level of readability.

Tas's character has zero development, so we're no closer to really understanding what makes him tick than we were in the other books. Characterisation is superficial, to say the least. For a story ostensibly about kender, KENDERMORE doesn't really have anything to say at all about the race; the human and dwarf supporting characters are much more interesting. When I read the original Chronicles trilogy back as an adult, it disappointed me, but this tale's even worse so I'd definitely recommend skipping it.

[Austin E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tasslehoff Burrfoot is at Solace with his friends, a dwarf bounty hunter comes while they are talking and tells him he is under arrest. Tasslehoff was suppose to get married to the mayor of Kendermor's daughter. Because he hasn't they are holding his favorite uncle, Trapspringer Furrfoot, in prison. Tasslehoff wants to save his uncle. So he sets off for Kendermore.
The theme for this book is, people should do things before they get in trouble for not doing them. One piece of evidence is that since Tasslehoff didn't marry the mayor's daughter before they put his uncle in prison. Another piece of evidence is that the dwarf bounty hunter actually sells things, so she wants to sell some things that will go bad but has to take a long route so she should have just sold them before. Another piece of evidence is, they sent someone to get Tasslehoff after a while so he was reluctant to go so they should have done it earlier. That is why the theme is people should do things before they get in trouble for no doing them.
I really liked this book. One of the reasons is because it goes deeper into what happened to Tasslehoff before the Dragonlance: Chronicles. It is also very funny because of Tasslehoff. It had a lot of things that I didn't expect. Over all it was a pretty fun book.

[Tom Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a steady and consistent 3 star book till the 1/2 mark. Then it went wild and bumped itself to a 4. It explains a thing about kendermore that I never understood a reason for in chronicles and had all the best call backs of Tass’s wild stories mentioned or played out.

Thoroughly fun, and the hook was NOT what I had anticipated. All around an unexpected, fun, fill in gaps, with a few heart string tugs story.

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

These early Dragonlance novels are somewhat disappointing. They aren't bad, but the writing seems a little unpolished, or perhaps written for a slightly younger audience. They also aren't structured the best....this often feels more like a series of unrelated events than it does a novel. Still, there are some enjoyable characters here.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay story for fans of Tasselhoff; though I think there were too many side stories.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kender are unique to the Dragonlance setting and there’s one thing that Dragonlance novels have liked to do, thus far, and that’s milk them for all they are worth. Whilst it would have been nice to have seen the preludes tackle a solo adventure with Tasslehoff a bit more akin to the magic ring short story that came earlier, there’s logic –and a lot of mileage - in broadening the scope, introducing us to the kender homelands, more Kender characters and upping the comedy. From time to it’s also very funny and very successful.

Kirchoff has a good sense of fun and the initial scenario we’re presented with is delightfully silly. Tas is apprehended by a Dwarven bounty hunter who is being paid to get him back home to Kendermore to fulfil a marriage obligation. Also, to ensure that he returns, his uncle Trapspringer has been put in prison (albeit a somewhat freeroaming Kender prison). Meanwhile a human, Phineas, finds half of a treasure map and is determined to speak to Trapspringer and subsequently track down Tas in order to get it.
For the first part I was enchanted and enjoyed the surreal, slightly nonsensical silliness of it all, particularly a scene in which a Kender judge solves the problem of dual cow-ownership. Unfortunately Kirchoff can’t really maintain the weirdness or the surreality, and whilst we do get a lot of fun situations, the more it turns into a road-trip the less peculiar it becomes and the author starts to hope we’ll be content with a scattershot assortment of friendly ogres, talking mammoths and antagonistic gnomes (with a life quest to capture and preserve one of every species). Actually, I probably was content, and whilst it goes too far with mechanical dragons coming to life, Kirchoff is able to keep it quietly humorous elsewhere and I laughed a lot at, say, the ogre who particularly enjoyed playing pick-up-sticks (with gold sticks, no less!).

It’s not easy to maintain the balance, unfortunately. The plot does take a back seat and there’s not really any characterization to speak of, so whilst we have good characters there’s the over-riding sense that nothing happens and the climax is included simply because every book needs one. If you read Kendermore you’ll wonder what exactly you got out if it – if you smiled or laughed a few times then it was probably worthwhile.

Another Dragonlance novel that I enjoyed because it couldn’t be written by anyone else and it couldn’t be set anywhere else. There’s no pretension to big things here, so whilst I never achieves them, it doesn’t really have to. Read if you like Kender. Or pick up sticks.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second volume of the Dragonlance preludes. The first one is a a disappointment, and the second one continues to disappoint. There is so much potential with the backstories of the main characters of the Dragonlance Chronicles that I find myself a bit frustrated by it not being realised. We could have had a richer and deeper tale in which the characters were developed. Instead we have fairly shallow characterisation and a plot that wanders all over the place to arrive at nowhere.

The main plot line is a bedroom farce. It weaves about a little, we have one or two villains, but the end is never quite in doubt. The story resolves itself, but it leaves the reader wondering what happened next? The Dragonlance Chronicles don't answer this question, which causes it to fail as a piece of backstory?

Perhaps the writers should have been given a tighter brief? Something like the fellowship gathers at the Inn of the Last Home, they agree to meet there in five years time, and we would like to hear more about them. The book must start at the farewell meeting, and end at their reunion five years later. It's a bit of a straightjacket, but the writers could put anything in between those book ends.

This book gives us an account of the few months after the farewell meeting, but says nothing about the entire time after that. This is why it disappoints. Add to this that the book is not particularly well written and drags on in places, and you can see why even ardent fans of Kender might want to give it a miss.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any story with Tas has to be a good one, and this one was extra kender. Tas is wanted back in Kendermore to be married to his birthmate. It isn't that Tas has anything against her. He is just too busy to get married.

So there is a price on his head, and quite a few people are out for the bounty. It didn't take long before Tas got involved with a dwarf named Gisella and her human helper named Woodrow. Gisella is a hoot. She um sells her favors sometimes for whatever supplies she needs. But don't feel bad for her. She loves to use her voluptuous body to tempt men and to get pleasure for herself. As wild as Gisella is, Woodrow is her opposite. He is meek and takes commands easily.

This means, of course, that Tas can talk him into all sorts of hijinks. No one could see some of the things they get themselves into ever happening. The carousel, for instance.

At the same time, a greedy human who lives in Kendermore is trying to find a quick way to get rich. He does a terrible job being a doctor to the poor kenders, who will believe just about anything. So the human Phineas goes with Tas's uncle to the ruins to find Damaris, who is Tas's birthmate. Phineas is hoping for treasure, of course.

They find a portal to another place instead. That portal is hilarious. And each person's reaction to the new world is hilarious.

I think this story would have been even more funny if Flint had shown up. He would have been driven mad by the mascap hijinks going on. Tas being the hero at the end was surprising and really amazing. It just made me love him all the more.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.5

Bit of a nostalgic read for me. Trying to go through the many boxes of book I have and read what I have before passing them on to someone else.

Difficult to believe that the dragonlance books are approaching 40 years old. This title is only 35 years old and must admit couldn’t remember it.

Thought it was not badly written, the two linked plots moved at a fair pace, characters were easy to visualise, enjoyable humour.

Yes compared to modern books this was much simpler, written to entertain, not worried about using familiar tropes or ideas, and aimed squarely at dragonlance and dnd fans.

Overall this was a fun little read (although 300+ pages isn’t that short) that was very entertaining.

It’s a pity that wotc (& hasbro) have no interest in either keeping the book range going or reprinting these old books in ebook form at least (compared to how the older Star Trek titles have been treated).

Definite recommendation for newer readers of fantasy or those who remember these books with fondness.

[Dustjacket · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't looking forward to a book about kender, and this book was somehow worse and better than I expected at the same time. At the very least, it did provide with some fun and interesting chapters, but all in all this novel feels like a meandering Saturday morning cartoon in which most of the events are meaningless.

Unfortunately Tasslehoff and the other kender remain pretty shallow, though Kirchoff does do more to distinguish their personalities from one another, it still doesn't quite make them feel like a fully fleshed out race. Just because they're silly, kleptomaniacs, and don't feel fear, doesn't mean they can't have deeper moments and more three dimensional personalities. Damaris and Tass' uncle Transpringer end up being more likeable than the main character himself.

The most unforgivable thing this book does is kill off the most likeable and unique character for apparently no reason. The book really took a nose-dive after that. This book was ultimately unsatisfying and directionless.

[Mysty Vander · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adventure.

Or two.

Maybe three.

There was a lot of characters who came and went and I found Kirchoff didn't scratch beneath any of their surfaces - including Tasslehoff's. We get a peak that he is more than a "just a kender" only twice, briefly. The whole tale felt dry for a Dragonlance wanderlust and there were several issues of continuity with the main series. The writing is acceptable but doesn't leave much to be intrigued. The ogre, Vinsent, I do wish we saw or spent more time with him within these pages, he was an interesting take on a very often stereotyped race in the world. I would argue he had more depth than Tass, even.

Overall, it was a read. Not terrible, but not quite good, either, and played off of the stereotypes of races in Krynn far too heavily.

[Mikaël · Rating 3 out of 5]

While reading it, I thought it was pleasant enough but trying to find something to say about it after the fact, I find I don't really know what to say. The story jumps from ordeal to ordeal but never focuses on anything long enough to give it any substance which, since it's a book about Tas, is fitting enough I guess

It woulda benefitted from cutting a few plot points and having a more concise story 'cause as it is, it's pretty forgettable, even just a day later

[Marianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like Preludes 1, with Sturm and Kitiara, would have been a better book about Tasslehoff. Kendermore is about sad serious things, following responsibility, and feels like it's missing the light-hearted banter that would have caught me for a kender book.

If you read both, perhaps imagine Sturm or Kitiara in Tasslehoff's role, and Tasslehoff in Sturm's. It will make more sense.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's refreshing to be able to read something without being inspired enough to make notes or pick it apart. This was light reading for the nice weather days that I could sit outside. Those days are as over as this book.
Gisella was my favourite character, so full of life.
This was one of those books where a mixture of stubbornness and inertia got me to the end.

[Gayle Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this a little more than I thought I would, but it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. It gives some good background story to one of the original characters, but was a little too much on the silly side. Even in fantasy, there has to be believability within the fantasy world. Aspects of this story really stretched it.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m really loving all of the Dragonlance series books and was so excited to find that there was a book all about my favourite character. I really enjoyed reading more about kenders and their day to day lives, along with Tass and his adventure! I’m definitely going to be looking out for more Dragonlance novels every time I go to the book store now

[Carmen Little · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was into the story until Denzil showed up again in the middle. Everyone’s motivations and the plot kind of went to shambles after that.

This was educational on what kenders are like which was my main goal in reading this book. They’re really quite nonsensical and quirky and at times annoying, which is unfortunate.

[George Barr · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more because I love the Dragonlance series and I like Tasselhoff. But the story is just too odd. It almost feels like it's not set on Krynn at all, just a generic fantasy world. The story feels childish most of the time and it just wasn't very good. I've read worse books than this, but I won't be rereading this one.

[Antonio Meridda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Protagonista di questa avventura è il kender Tasselhoff, ladruncolo ingenuo che non capisce, come quelli della sua razza, la contorta morale umana. E che al suo posto, utilizza la contortissima morale kender.

[Cynik · Rating 2 out of 5]

These preludes books were written without care for continuity with the original Dragonlance trilogy. Entertaining on their own but have read two of them and both involve characters in things that they "learned" as new in the Dragonlance trilogy.

[Akeesa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly meh adventure. Had some good parts. Felt very childish at times and then there is sudden assessing and death which throws the balance off.
Kender behavior was abundant which was bit overbearing.