Blood Hostages

Planescape: Blood Wars #1

by J. Robert King

When his uncle is abducted by a pair of gargoyles at the behest of an eight-armed god, Aereas joins his cousin Nina on a perilous journey into a bizarre and twisted world where they uncover a plot to turn the tide of the Blood War and unleash a horrific evil. Original. 75,000 first printing.

Genres: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Fiction, Novels

314 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Tiberius Bones · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are only a few reviews on goodreads for this novel and they are all bad. However, there are no reasons given for the hatefest this book is receiving. I picked this book up at a Walmart when I was a kid. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have re-read it multiple times. It isn't a masterpiece, but the visuals are imaginative Nd the plot works. The environments are crazy and the characters are strange and quirky as well. I've not read any of the others in the trilogy, as they are hard to find. Again, I am not saying this book is amazing, but isn't as bad as the one sentence reviewers would have you believe. If you are looking this boom up on goodreads because you think it sounds interesting, I say give it a chance!!

[Bram Gommer · Rating 3 out of 5]

oldddd book, found it in a second hand store in Canada. read it for the DnD connection pretty funny read. just has old stereotyping, I like the setting

[Anthony Emmel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, gaming genre fiction: sometimes you're good, occasionally brilliant but usually mediocre. Oh where to start?

I'm more lost going through this book than Aereas and Nina seeing Sigil for the first time. No good point of reference at the beginning. Nothing to set up a trans on why we should care about these characters. We had 39 minutes in a movie to learn about Luke; one would think that a book would take the time for a decent set up!

And the teenage angst! And the "forbidden love." It's clear from the get go that. Nina isn't really his cousin. It's worse than Luke and Leia!

I'm going to continue with the series in a couple of weeks, after I get something decent in my brain. Maybe it'll get better. One can only hope.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full review here:

https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/...

Not the greatest reading, but enough pearls to make me hope they get polished in the subsequent volumes.

[E J · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite this being a D&D tie-in book and thus open to a less mature audience, what would you assume with the words 'blood' appearing twice and 'wars' in the book's title about the potential of the adult themes in the story? If you were me, you'd assume at least a mature rating. I mean, I came from after reading Planescape: Torment, the massive tome of a novel that adapted the game. If the gritty atmosphere and nature of the philosophical and existential metaphors spread throughout pretty much the entirety of that acclaimed story doesn't invite adult readers, again despite it being a D&D tie-in book, then I don't know what does.

So, hopefully you understand my disappointment, if not disgust, when I discover "Blood Hostages" reads as if it's geared to a young adult slash adolescent audience. Why not just call it "The Fantastic Adventures of Two Kids and Their Romp in Planescape?" What else am I supposed to think when you have a character who's a gnome called Boffo? Why would I care about Aereas, a beta male kid dragged into adventure by a tomboy of a girl? This is the fantasy of an actual beta male kid who daydreams about this sort of tosh.

I think the author was misguided or misdirected to write for a young audience for a setting that really shouldn't cater to them. I will say that the book is well written in that it's fun to read; I actually enjoy purple prose to some extent. I'm up to chapter 4, but if this story doesn't draw hints of something more intriguing by the end of Part 1, then fuck it; I'm burning this book in the name of the Infinite Layers of the Abyss.

Edit: DNF

Just... no. This should've been a comic book, what with all the action and descriptions of scenes and what people were wearing, what weapons they wielded. A frightful bore to read. You know what this reminds of? Shadowrun fans who are distracted by the chrome, the gadgets, the funky fashion, stupid pink hair mohawks, awesomeburger samurai swords wielded by awesomeburger cyborgs wearing sunglasses and whatever shit. Similarly, I imagine those who enjoy this book are taken in by the myriad sights, sounds and sensory experiences that the Planescape setting affords. This book's for Sensates. With a emotional maturity of an 8 year old.

[Nilquest · Rating 1 out of 5]

kids killing a maralith in one round... i don't think so

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

"At best we've got ourselves a sneak job, at worst, an all out donnybrook!" One of my favorite lines.

I don't know why this book garners so much hate, this book is jam packed with the variety that only a blooming imagination could conjure written, captured with an artistic and agile pen: "Its magic glowed with the outlines of lashing wings and tails, making the sorcery shield look like crinkled purple wool."

Yup...its even got purple prose.

Got your hubbly bubbly handy?
Good!
Because in this book you'll encounter Portals, gods, fiends, a temple of impossible proportions, a trip to Gehenna and the six hundred sixty fifth layer of the Abyss, its a precursor to Inception by nearly 20 years! So don't forget to bring your journal kids, it's all on the table in this rollicking adventure, because this is Planescape and the power of the mind is just as powerful as the sword and/or the pen.

Plenty to chew on and garnished with a plethora of rare vocabulary words to boot

***Bring back Planescape literature! A movie please! And a third game to follow Torment and Tides of Numenaria. Planescape was so awesome, omg! The concepts, the literature, the artwork, the flavor text, the font, so good! SO MUCH LOVE!!! <3<3<3<3<3<3<3***

[C Teahouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Am I making a name for myself for reading and reviewing these obscure fantasy novels? Probably not, but I’ll have a good time with it anyway.

This book is certainly not the strongest in character development but the sheer imagination in the Planescape setting is enough to keep me reading. This is one of those books that suffers from the supporting characters completely outshining the main characters. Half fiend mercenaries with talking manta rays and inter dimensional wood workers? Give me more of THAT and fewer “teenager with angst” guy... but I guess you have to cater to your audience.

That all said, if you like Planescape this is still worth reading. The second book is better too, ratcheting up the weirdness to 11. Jump on in

[Emmanuel Pothos · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book in the trilogy is exciting in itself and serves as a great appetiser for the far more engaging second book.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

A criterion for any Planscapes fan. A little cringy due to love ineterest. Writing is hard to follow at times

[Gregory · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit of a tour through the setting, with the two main characters as fish out of water discovering the wonders of the multiverse. However, not very compelling.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have only myself to blame really. Most of the old TSR novelisations for Dungeons and Dragons have a well-deserved reputation of being badly written shovel-literature written more to take advantage of kids that didn’t know any better. I had thought that the inherent coolness of the Planescape setting might mitigate against this, but I was disappointed; Blood Hostages is not a good novel by any definition.

While this isn’t a particularly horrible example of the genre, it does suffer from a lot of the problems endemic to this sort of novel:

• Poorly defined characters with no clear and consistent personalities or motivations
• Characters doing bizarre things for no apparent reason (multiple volunteers signing up for a fight against The Lady and then a trip to the Lower Planes without any tangible promise of a reward?)
• A large cast of characters, most of whom have little relevance to the plot, leading to heaps of “who are they again?” moments
• Prose that’s purpler than a boxful of eggplants

There are some perks, it’s nice to see some places in the Lower Planes, and the book is agreeably fast paced, rather than getting bogged down in too much exposition. But there are lots of books that have interesting settings and a good pace, but don’t suffer the crippling flaws that this novel does. Recommended for Planescape completionists only.

[Brendan Coster · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really bad book. This is also a pretty good crappy planescape novel. So I'm averaging out 2 stars in general and 4 stars for what it's meant to be. I was also led to believe this book had more happening in Sigil and it leads you to think it may - but like "Pages of Pain" it pretty quickly diverts you down a dark alley and then elsewhere which has almost nothing to do with Sigil itself. It failed me on that front, enough so that while I have the next two books (picked up rather cheaply during our Philly book buy! yay!) I'll probably stagger them between others, I don't feel compelled to eat up the trilogy anytime soon. The bleak abyss of endless winds is by far the most interesting and terrifying part of the book, I'll probably use it!

Finally, as a personal note, RE: my own D&d campaigns, I'm calling that after reading the last line of the book my wife says something like, "That bitch! Ugh... I totally understand how Artus feels..."

[Joel Schwan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book delivers an enthralling adventure through the intricate realms of Planescape. A standout moment for me is the pulse-pounding escape from the blood-soaked maze, where the Aereas's resilience and resourcefulness shine amidst a harrowing labyrinth of danger and treachery. I highly recommend if you're a fantasy reader.

[Justin Salisbury · Rating 1 out of 5]

I enjoy D&D novels in general, but this series is horrible.

[Jan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boooooooooooooooooooriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing