The Mantle of Kendis-Dai: A Starshield Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Margaret Weis (Author), Tracy Hickman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 1997

Created by the bestselling team of Weis & Hickman, Starshield introduces their newest fantastic universe with an unforgettable, magical, grand adventure!

Rebellion threatens to rock the very foundation of civilization.  If the wrong side wins, the people will be at the mercy of minds with no conscience or humanity.  The only hope for freedom lies with the Mantle of Kendis-dai, a relic reputed to hold the power of absolute Truth.  But the Mantle of Kendis-dai is long lost in the mists of myth and time...if it ever really existed at all.

Merinda Neskat, dedicated to the pursuit of Truth above all, is determined to find the legendary Mantle.  The key to her quest is a group of lost Earthpeople, led by the feckless Jeremy Griffiths, who holds knowledge he shouldn't have--and doesn't understand.  Together, Merinda, Jeremy, and his companions set off on a dangerous race against time and deadly enemy forces, seeking a mysterious world that holds the secret that can save them--or destroy the path of civilization forever.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Created by the bestselling team of Weis & Hickman, Starshield introduces their newest fantastic universe with an unforgettable, magical, grand adventure!

Rebellion threatens to rock the very foundation of civilization.  If the wrong side wins, the people will be at the mercy of minds with no conscience or humanity.  The only hope for freedom lies with the Mantle of Kendis-dai, a relic reputed to hold the power of absolute Truth.  But the Mantle of Kendis-dai is long lost in the mists of myth and time...if it ever really existed at all.

Merinda Neskat, dedicated to the pursuit of Truth above all, is determined to find the legendary Mantle.  The key to her quest is a group of lost Earthpeople, led by the feckless Jeremy Griffiths, who holds knowledge he shouldn't have--and doesn't understand.  Together, Merinda, Jeremy, and his companions set off on a dangerous race against time and deadly enemy forces, seeking a mysterious world that holds the secret that can save them--or destroy the path of civilization forever.

About the Author

Margaret Weis was born and raised in Independence, Missouri. She attended the University of Missouri, Columbia, graduating in 1970 with a BA in creative writing. In 1983, Weis was hired as book editor at TSR, Inc., producers of the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. Here she met game designer Tracy Hickman and the two teamed up to write the bestselling Dragonlance novels. Weis has two children, David and Elizabeth Baldwin. Weis and husband Don Perrin live in a converted barn in Wisconsin with two collie dogs, Laddie and Robbie; a Sheltie, Jo-jo; and two cats, Nickolai Mouse-slayer and Motley Tatters.

Tracy Raye Hickman was born in Salt Lake City. He currently resides in a large Victorian home he built for his wife and four children in the tall mountain pines of Flagstaff, Arizona. He has co-authored with Margaret Weis four New York Times bestselling series, including the Death Gate Cycle and the Dragonlance series which have more than eleven million copies in print and has published his own solo works as well.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (August 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345397614
• ISBN-13: 978-0345397614
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,642,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, September 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Mantle of Kendis-Dai: A Starshield Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

I am a rather new fan of M.W and T.H, seeing as I viewed the Dragonlance as an extreme dissapointment, however, I was rather impressed by the skill and infinite emotion they placed in this book.

This book is an inviting mixture of fantasy and science fiction, somethign that is terrible underrated these days, and involves spaceships and synthetic minds, temples and legends come true. It is a mind-boggling exeperience that really sets the wheels of thought into motion.

I would recommend this book to any fan of science fiction and fantasy, and, to any fan of M.W and T.H, this is by far the best I have read by them.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A grand tale of power, betrayal, and ancient legends, December 30, 2002

By 

Yiwei Sun - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mantle of Kendis-Dai: A Starshield Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

This book opens up a new universe in the fantasy/sci-fi genre. It begins a series that seeks to combine the best tenets of science and technology with the absolute power of sorcery and magic. It paints a picture of a dynamic universe, a universe that is not filled with the same "stuff" as we would like to believe. The story begins with one of the main protagonists of the story, a strong woman character of the Omnet.

This book tells of her life as she sought to correct mistakes told in the first chapters of the book. In enters the second of the two protagonists, Jeremy Griffiths. A replacement astronaut for the first FTL space voyage that humanity has sent to the stars. They were hopeful to just collect "bacterial samples". Obviously they took a bigger bite than they intended since plutonium isn't radioactive in one of the areas they passed through. You will have a grand time as Griffiths is faced with the command of the mission and his ascendance to something more than he bargained for. Because at the end, their voyage will lead to the Mantel of Kendis-dai, a long ago legendary artifact of the greatest Empire in the galaxy, an empire headed by a human Emperor with 3 absolutely powerful artifacts. The Mantle to give wisdom and knowledge, the Nightsword to shape the universe to the user's will, and the Starshield to create peace throughout the galaxy. These sound like mere artifacts, but this is the new galaxy we are talking about. And in the new galaxy, where magic and technology exist side by side and layer on layer, legends are real.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Slow start. Great ending., November 4, 2000

By 

David Joy (Amboy,WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mantle of Kendis-Dai: A Starshield Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

It took me a quarter of the book before I got into it. The body of the book was average, but the ending more than made up for it. A Margaret Weis book with a happy ending? Out of the 18 books of hers I've read, this book probably has the happiest ending. Actually it may have been too happy. It doesn't leave you hanging for the next book of the series like most of her books do.