# PLANESCAPE Novels: Are they any good?



## dead (Aug 25, 2008)

I was thinking of buying the PLANESCAPE line of novels but was wondering if they are worth investing in. Five novels were released:

- Pages of Pain
- Torment

The Bloodwars Trilogy
- Blood Hostages
- Abyssal Warriors
- Planar Powers

Has anyone read these and are they any good?

Are they canon?

Is there any good reference material?

Thank you!


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## Starglim (Aug 25, 2008)

_Pages of Pain_ is excellent. I can't speak for the others.


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## cmrscorpio (Aug 25, 2008)

The official novelization of the game Torment is TERRIBLE.  If you've never played the computer game, you will be completely lost and unable to follow the weakly written story that has little to do with the *awesome* story in the game.  Instead, download the unofficial novelization of the game that uses the actual game dialogue available here:

http://http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html


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## ProfessorCirno (Aug 25, 2008)

Avoid the Torment book like the plague.  Can't say I know anything about the others, though.

If you really want an awesome Planescape experience, I would actually advise _playing_ through Torment.


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## Mephistopheles (Aug 25, 2008)

ProfessorCirno said:


> Avoid the Torment book like the plague.




Agreed. I got the book with the game and I'm glad I played the game first. To be honest after playing the game I couldn't understand why they bothered with a novel; the game has a word count that dwarfs the average novel. I don't recall the exact figure but I think it was something in excess of half a million words.


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## Fyrie (Aug 25, 2008)

I've only read Blood Hostages, but I remember thinking it was good and very authentic to Planescape. It suffers the weaknesses of most DnD books in that it is pulpy and formulaic. The writing style is geared to a little bit older of an age than the original Dragonlance books are.

Skip the torment book. Play the game. It's one of the best games ever made.


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## Shemeska (Aug 25, 2008)

Avoid the Blood War trilogy. The books were written in a vacuum of knowledge about the setting itself, and they break some of the setting conceits and basic notions to the point that it gets goofy.

Pages of Pain is actually a really good book. Much better if you divorce it partially from the setting, but it's a genuinely good read. Take everything in the plot with a grain of salt as far as it relates to Her Serenity, but I enjoyed it.

Didn't read the Torment novel, so can't comment on it.


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## Aluvial (Aug 25, 2008)

I actually enjoyed the trilogy a great deal.  They were quick reads, with an interesting plot.  As for the setting, I looked at all of these novels as "possible" for their specific settings.  

It's like the Greyhawk books with the Justicar.  Not my Greyhawk, but a possible Greyhawk.  I liked those too!  Can't remember all of the titles...

Aluvial


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## Oryan77 (Aug 25, 2008)

It's been almost 15 years since I read these. Overall they are good reads but they aren't _awesome_. I'm a huge PS fan and a 3.5 PS DM, but I read these books when I first started learning about the PS setting. So I'm trying to give my opinion based on someone unfamiliar to the setting and not a stickler over setting accuracy. The trilogy isn't very popular among PS fans, but as a book to read just for fun, I thought it was worth reading and they still had some pretty creative scenarios.


- Pages of Pain = Good book but it all takes place in a Lady of Pain maze. There are only 2 characters in the book but it's still an interesting read. You don't really learn too much about Planescape though.

The Bloodwars Trilogy
- Blood Hostages = Good book but it's very confusing in the beginning. Throughout the rest of the book you really need to reference monster manuals so you understand what races the characters are in order to visualize them. The books don't really explain what a race is when it introduces new characters. It explores the Planescape setting pretty well.

- Abyssal Warriors = Good book but it can also be a little confusing to read like the first one. It has a few good scenarios in it that explores the PS setting. It doesn't hold true to PS setting rules, but it doesn't really matter much because you don't really feel like you're reading a true PS setting book anyway.

- Planar Powers = Interesting book but it has absolutely nothing to do with the Planescape setting other than hearing about the Lady of Pain. The main character pretends to be a god by sticking a human guy in a closet, shrinking him down so tiny that the human doesn't realize he's in a closet. The fake-god turns the closet into his own world for the human guy to live in. It's sort of an Adam & Eve scenario.


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## Anthraxus (Aug 25, 2008)

Heh, I just picked up Blood Hostages at Half Price Books on Saturday. I haven't actively sought out the Planescape books, but I keep an eye out for them at HPB. This is the first PS book I've bought there, so I can't comment on the quality.


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## Keefe the Thief (Aug 25, 2008)

All the books except Torment are good reads, but most of them are more "i heard something about the setting and was inspired by that" novels than "i got the setting and followed canon." Which is actually pretty cool. I´d love to have a campaing in the setting interpretation of Planescape the trilogy describes. But if canon is an issue for you, you shoud stay with the boxed sets.


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## Kobold Avenger (Aug 25, 2008)

The Torment novel is the only one I read, and there was quite a lot of differences between it and the actual game itself.

I heard it was based on an earlier version of the game as well.


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## Thanael (Aug 25, 2008)

cmrscorpio said:


> The official novelization of the game Torment is TERRIBLE.  If you've never played the computer game, you will be completely lost and unable to follow the weakly written story that has little to do with the *awesome* story in the game.  Instead, download the unofficial novelization of the game that uses the actual game dialogue available here:
> 
> http://http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html




Fixed that link for you: http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html

...very interesting. I´ll have to read that some time soon.


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## ShadowDenizen (Aug 26, 2008)

Surprised no-one's mentioned it, but there's also "Fire and Dust." (It's not "official" per-se, but it surpasses [IMO] the published stuff.)

THoughts from the author  here.
And the novel is  here.


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## Graf (Aug 26, 2008)

ProfessorCirno said:


> Avoid the Torment book like the plague.  Can't say I know anything about the others, though.
> 
> If you really want an awesome Planescape experience, I would actually advise _playing_ through Torment.



This... is the best advice ever. 

If you haven't played Torment you've missed out on something that everyone should experience.


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## Orius (Aug 26, 2008)

Only read the first two books in the Blood Wars trilogy and I didn't care for it, particularly the second one.  The first one was ok, but after that the story turned into a huge train wreck.


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## dead (Aug 26, 2008)

Thanks for everyone's feedback.

I guess I'm after the books for resource material rather than a good read.

From the evidence here, it looks like maybe I should avoid them unless I find them dirt cheap.

I have another question:

Are there any references to the events that take place in these novels in any of the official gaming supplements?

Thank you!


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## Shemeska (Aug 26, 2008)

dead said:


> Are there any references to the events that take place in these novels in any of the official gaming supplements?




None whatsoever for the Blood War trilogy and Pages of Pain. 

The Torment novelization (or Torment itself really) has been referenced. Specifically in that one of its central figures, the night hag Ravel Puzzlewell, was discussed in Dragon magazine. By extension, the events of Torment can be assumed to have taken place in some form or fashion within the mainline campaign setting.


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## Keefe the Thief (Aug 26, 2008)

dead said:


> Thanks for everyone's feedback.
> 
> I guess I'm after the books for resource material rather than a good read.
> 
> ...




See, both Pages of Pain and the trilogy are clearly novels written after someone read some Planescape and the cool stuff in there made his brain go *brzzzzt*. You know, like an electric discharge. That makes them pretty cool, BUT you cannot be sure that the *brzzzt* that happens when you read Planescape has anything to do with their *brzzzt*.


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## Orius (Aug 27, 2008)

Shemeska said:


> None whatsoever for the Blood War trilogy and Pages of Pain.




Not entirely.  _A Guide to the Astral Plane_ does quote a line from one of the Blood War books, IIRC, but it's just for flavor.  There are no rules that are inspired by anything that happened in the books.  Of course, that's not surprising given that the uncle or whatever kind of broke the rules of the setting the way it was (I think he built portals or something, where the PS setting pretty much says that's impossible).



> The Torment novelization (or Torment itself really) has been referenced. Specifically in that one of its central figures, the night hag Ravel Puzzlewell, was discussed in Dragon magazine. By extension, the events of Torment can be assumed to have taken place in some form or fashion within the mainline campaign setting.




There was a Rogue's Gallery in a 1998 or 1999 issue that had several of the Torment NPCs.  That's probably what you're talking about unless there were later articles that also mined Torment for material.


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## Wycen (Aug 27, 2008)

dead said:


> The Bloodwars Trilogy
> - Blood Hostages
> - Abyssal Warriors
> - Planar Powers
> ...




I read the Blood Hostages novel back when I wanted to play Planescape but didn't have a group, (I think we were playing Greyhawk or Dark Sun).

It was ok.  

Then I read most of Abyssal Warriors and towards the end I hurled the book across the room, (because of what the author did to the hero - I prefer happy endings).  I couldn't stand the foil and skipped over her crap.  I picked the book up off the floor to make sure I read the final chapter.

Then the TSR finance problems were in full swing so I didn't think the final novel would ever come, but sadly it did.

Read the first and last chapter of Planar Powers.

Are they canon?  They can't possibly be because you cannot teleport into/out of Sigil.  That is the most glaring error I remember.


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## weem (Aug 27, 2008)

I love Planescape (own most of the RPG books)

As far as the novels go, I only read Pages of Pain (and I did that when it was new). I remember liking it a lot, but it's been a while... may have to pull it off the dusty shelf and read it again.


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## NiTessine (Aug 27, 2008)

ShadowDenizen said:


> Surprised no-one's mentioned it, but there's also "Fire and Dust." (It's not "official" per-se, but it surpasses [IMO] the published stuff.)
> 
> THoughts from the author  here.
> And the novel is  here.



Yeah, I actually googled up the link before clicking on the thread title. I can heartily recommend _Fire and Dust_.

The only other Planescape novel I've read is _Torment_, and I agree with the general opinion here. Forget the novel. Play the game instead.


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