Rating: 
Summary: I don't understand how ANYONE could like this...
Review: I've read all the forgotten realms books and (obviously) lots of other stuff besides, and the book with the ironic title of Pages of Pain is the worst book I have ever read, bar none. It is so incoherent that I don't know where to start. The vast majority of the book is the characters wandering around in a maze. JUST WANDERING. My God, this man Troy Denning should be put to death.
Rating: 
Summary: The most daring AD&D novel to date
Review: In a genre overfilled with narratives of treasure-seeking elves comes a truly original work. "Pages of Pain" spins the story of a man with no memory, ordered by a god to deliver a "gift" to the enigmatic and terrible ruler of Sigil, a city more or less at the center of the universe. The Amnesian Hero hopes that the task will lead to the restoration of his past -- but the mysterious Lady of Pain intends to show him that desire is what makes anguish possible. Denning's novel is told from a shifting point of view and is unlike any other in the AD&D mythos. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: The most daring AD&D novel to date
Review: In a genre overfilled with narratives of treasure-seeking elves comes a truly original work. "Pages of Pain" spins the story of a man with no memory, ordered by a god to deliver a "gift" to the enigmatic and terrible ruler of Sigil, a city more or less at the center of the universe. The Amnesian Hero hopes that the task will lead to the restoration of his past -- but the mysterious Lady of Pain intends to show him that desire is what makes anguish possible. Denning's novel is told from a shifting point of view and is unlike any other in the AD&D mythos. A must read.
Rating: 
Summary: Turgid prose, dull characters, dull adventure
Review: Is there a rule that all Planescape stories must star an amnesiac invincible hero? It's hard to write a third-person narrative about a nameless hero. The author's solution is to alternate strictly between "the Amnesian Hero" and "the Thrassan". I found two places in the book where this pattern is broken -- the scars, presumably, from an editor's knife.Pages of Pain has some good moments on the philosophy of mazes, and of being a hero. But it's not a good book. Here's a taste: "Then my body nettles with a blistering itch no ointment can heal, and the greater my woe, the more scalding the anguish that seethes from the the greater my woe, the more scalding the anguish that seethes from the empty well inside. I boil in my own sick regret and I cannot staunch the flow. I burn with the shame of a thousand evils I cannot recall, and still the well pours forth..." Mixed metaphors abound (like the hot breathy kiss with long fingers!) and the prose is turgid -- swollen and distended -- making it hard to read. The editor should have cut more. The bad prose is confounded by a terrible choice of typeface. The book reads like an account of a roleplaying afternoon. Most of the story takes place inside a dull hazy maze, fighting a dull hazy monster, while the characters make maps and get steadily weaker. None of them have any character. The author has rolled up their stats, and looked up a page of quirks/specials for each, and spends the story revelling in these quirks. There's little character development, and little substance to the characters behind their quirks. If like me you enjoyed playing the computer game "Planescape: Torment", and you're looking for a way to extend that experience, you probably won't find it in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Troy Denning Is Truly Gifted
Review: Like Shakespeare, Mr. Denning's strength is equally "howhe says it" as "what he says". His descriptions aredone in ways that make you see, hear, taste, smell and feel what he wants to tell you. His writing style does justice to a Greek/Roman hero and Greater Devil alike. Troy is a master of panipulating the level of tension; you have to keep reading because something suddenly dawns on you and you wonder if Troy was thinking about that too. And he was always thinking about that too. The author is obviously a very intelligent individual. Kharfud, the Tanar'ri, had the patient, intelligent, pure evil that I would expect. Normally, I cannot read more than 20-30 pages at a sitting, but I ended up finishing pages of pain in 2 days. I couldn't put it down. Self discovery is FUNDAMENTAL to the theme of the book. The best book I have read in a long time, fantasy or not.
Rating:
Summary: Another Denning Disappointment
Review: Once again Troy Denning shows us that he can take a great campaign setting and utterly destroy it. ... the first half was great, a very good adventrue type novel. Then he gets trapped in the mazes which turns into some symbolic crap about pain and suffering. When I want symbolism i'll read a great classic, but I didn't want symbolism I just wanted a good fantasy book, which in this case did not deliver. Also, Denning still does not know how to write something in the first person point of view. At times it seems like the book is simply narriated, but then it turns into the Lady of Pains specific observances as to what is going on around the hero. The same thing was attempted with Crucible: Trail of Cyric the Mad and failed just like this book.
Rating:
Summary: Another Denning Disappointment
Review: Once again Troy Denning shows us that he can take a great campaign setting and utterly destroy it. ... the first half was great, a very good adventrue type novel. Then he gets trapped in the mazes which turns into some symbolic crap about pain and suffering. When I want symbolism i'll read a great classic, but I didn't want symbolism I just wanted a good fantasy book, which in this case did not deliver. Also, Denning still does not know how to write something in the first person point of view. At times it seems like the book is simply narriated, but then it turns into the Lady of Pains specific observances as to what is going on around the hero. The same thing was attempted with Crucible: Trail of Cyric the Mad and failed just like this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts great, but then gets bogged down
Review: Pages of Pain is a wonderful book at first. The city of Sigil is described beautifully and all of its inhabitants react to the main character interestingly. The main character himself is a pompous paladin who also is well-developed. The problem comes just before the half-way point of the book when the hero is thrown into a maze. This is itself not a problem and is consistant with the Planescape setting. The problem is that the hero spends the entire rest of the book just wandering around hunting the 'maze monster.' The previous depth and complexity of the story is all but abandoned. Sure, there are a few interesting tidbits left in the characters, but the last half of the book is disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: I love Planescape
Review: Planescape is a wonderful videogame. The novels are superb and I recommend you buy them. The novel tells a wonderful plot and gives you infrormataion about the town of Sigil. Great Book!
Rating:
Summary: Half good.
Review: Precisely that. The first half is good. The second half, whilst in the maze, is bad. I got so sick of the pointless wandering about that I skipped ahead to the ending. The prose is pretty good, but there is little sentence variety. The sentences didn't all have to be so long! Reminds me of those run-on sentences from the eighteenth century... And the hero? The first time I saw the summary, I thought it was the PS:T novelization with a different plot. As for his companions....after the first few sentences in which you meet them, they promptly lose all personality. They could have all been killed and I doubt the plot would have been affected much. Final verdict: Don't buy this book. Borrow it, just for that first good half.
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