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Summary: Its by far the best book Ive ever read and Ive read all AD&D
Review: An exellent action book with amazing detail never bored for a moment Troy really keeps the reader involved
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Summary: Excellent Reading!
Review: Another excellent novel from the writer of the Prism Pentad DarkSun Series! Pages of Pain is the story of the Lady of Pain of the mysterious city of Sigil the hub of the multiverse. Set against this backdrop is the story of the Amnesian Hero and his unfortunate quest to deliver a gift from the god Posiedon to the Lady. This was an impulse buy for me because I have not read a AD&D based book in quite awhile and I was not disappointed in any aspect. A definite must read for anyone looking for some fantasy that is out of the norm.
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Summary: Best Planescape novel to date, but that's not saying much...
Review: As of the date of this review, there are 4 published novels for the Planescape setting. Of the four, this is by far and away the best. However, it leaves much to be desired. The Planescape setting is brilliant, with endless possibilities for storys and settings. There is potential for great novels that could dwarf the more popular Forgotten Realms novels - but so far none have materialized. Instead, we have novels that either poorly explore the Setting with implausible storylines (such as the Blood War Trilogy) or novels that are too focused on one aspect of the setting, such as Pages of Pain. The novel has, in my opinion, three faults: One, the majority of the novel stays in one area, with the characters essentially doing the same thing, with the same goals. This makes the book quite tedious. Two, the characters are extremely one-dimensional. Each character essentially thinks the same things and has the same motivations throughout the novel - they do not grow. Three, the most mysterious figure in the Planescape setting, the Lady of Pain, is presented as a somewhat normal being in the story. Part of what makes the Planescape setting (particularly Sigil) so alluring is the fact that no one *really* knows the Lady of Pain. No one talks to her, knows where she lives, knows her motivations, or knows her past. This novel presents her "talking" to the reader in the first person, talking about her feelings and glimmers of a past for her. I thought this a poor choice by the author. In the end, a not too satisfying representation of an excellent setting.
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Summary: Bloody Brilliant
Review: Denning's work on this book is marvelous. It rights it as if you are almost the Hero himself. When he's thirsty and exhausted, you feel thirsty and exhausted. And then the Lady of Pain talks to you. Which only makes the feel of the book more personal. I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone that likes mythology, or fantasy, etc. Great job Mr. Denning!
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Summary: Pages Of Pain bring pages of insight, flair, and sadness.
Review: Finally, a text longer than a paragraph giving us fellow gamers a taste of what the Lady Of Pain is really like. Her thoughts are laid out, and one finally learns of her origin. The best part of the book, though, is the justicfication of why pain is so integral to the multiverse. The book's story is original, written in a way, that it in itself actually ties in with a emotionaly painful paradox. This book is a must read...
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Summary: The greatest Troy Denning book of all time
Review: For those who gave this book anything less than 5 stars need to have there small brains examined. Its by far Troys best work. It's in a lack of a better word AMAZING!!
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Summary: Strange and beautiful
Review: Have you ever read a poem, or seen a movie without completely understanding them - yet still found you really loved them? This is one of these stories. This is the story of a memory-less hero, who embarks on a quest to find his memory. The tale of his exploits is not an ordinary adventure tale: his adventures are poetic - philosophical. This a story which really makes the reader think. I know I did not fully comprehend all of it. Yet it is worth the read. This book will be great to anyone who loves philosophical fantasy novels - or loves the planescape setting.
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Summary: A worthy successor to the classic Theseus
Review: I think that if one simply removed the planescape logo and offered this as the Modern Theseus, it would have been more widely read. This is an amazing book. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a classic, but rather a modern myth for modern times. The story's narration was excellent, and the ending wasn't necessarily shocking and instead more akin to a tragedy in which you know what will happen but are enthralled anyway.
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Summary: I couldn't *not* put this book down! (but some OK elements)
Review: I was so *excited* to read this book, having just recently discovered, and delved quite deeply into, the Planescape campaign setting. I love Planescape, it's wonderful as a backbone for a campaign, and perhaps it's partly the fault of the campaign setting itself that novels about it aren't all that "interesting" character-wise, because to be TRUE to the setting, BELIEFS ARE EVERYTHING. But the characters in this novel acted more like NPCs than PCs, if you know what I mean -- so very VERY one-dimensional that with each page I became less and less interested in where their one-dimensional journey (try to picture THAT one!) would take them. Their goals were flat and uninteresting, and their personalities never developed. One thing I noticed -- no one seems to SLEEP in the book (OK, a few times, but not enough); no time passes, really, or at least not enough to give any meaning to the rudimentary development the characters undergo. [Sigh...] I was so excited to read this book, but frankly I couldn't finish it, because I stopped caring about whether the characters would succeed or fail, or anything in between. But: nice descriptions of settings here, although a bit dark (even for Sigil)...
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Summary: Mind numbing
Review: I was so excited that a novel in the Planescape setting finally arrived (I read this book years ago), and so incredibly disappointed with the story. This book is boring. About a third of the way through it began to test my willpower. The only reason I finished this novel was for closure. The characters never really seem to develop, there is a very weak attempt at a romantic plot, and the prose is flat out boring. I've never read any Troy Denning books before this one, and now I specifically avoid them.
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