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Planescape: Torment
A novelization of the popular 1999 computer game Planescape: Torment.
By taking the original text from the game, then developing it into a story through chronicling and narrating the story, the whole plot has been edited into an epic fantasy tale.
"Original text (C) 1999 Interplay productions: Chris Avellone and Colin McComb. All Rights Reserved.
Additional material was adapted from ShadowCatboy's Torment LP on the Something Awful forums.
Also containing parts adapted from the Rhyss Hess edition.
Editing and revision by Logan Stromberg."
By taking the original text from the game, then developing it into a story through chronicling and narrating the story, the whole plot has been edited into an epic fantasy tale.
"Original text (C) 1999 Interplay productions: Chris Avellone and Colin McComb. All Rights Reserved.
Additional material was adapted from ShadowCatboy's Torment LP on the Something Awful forums.
Also containing parts adapted from the Rhyss Hess edition.
Editing and revision by Logan Stromberg."
1218 pages, ebook
First published March 1, 2011
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166 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 1, 2026
This is the second novelization of Planescape: Torment I've read (after the one by Rhys Hess), and it captures the charm and philosophical thrills of the original game as vividly as I remember them. (Adding its own scintillation--like Morte snoring, hee-hee.)
I shuddered at the realization that some of the Nameless One's first conversations hold the key to everything that he's about to go through--but without going through it he has no way of making sense of them. That's torment of the finest degree.
Since my brain has recently been wading through its own private torment, I don't think my words can do justice to the book. So instead I offer you a selection of choice bits:
https://choveshkata.net/forum/viewtop...
I shuddered at the realization that some of the Nameless One's first conversations hold the key to everything that he's about to go through--but without going through it he has no way of making sense of them. That's torment of the finest degree.
Since my brain has recently been wading through its own private torment, I don't think my words can do justice to the book. So instead I offer you a selection of choice bits:
https://choveshkata.net/forum/viewtop...
May 19, 2020
This really is a novelization, a lot of effort being made to go through the game as it's played, going way beyond merely describing and attempting to make events flow more naturally. There is a lot of added writing, and much of it is actually really, really good, greatly improving an already great story. The intermissions and the multiple and fitting storytellers are also a nice touch, and successfully including that evil alternate path was quite a feat. Powerful sections follow that moment, gathered together, and later the writing improves even further. The Maze is notable, but largely fixing Curst, which was the one part of the game's story that seemed lacking to me, is even more so. And what follows is better yet, adding many more details, written and fitting so well, developing, explaining, fleshing out and, in the end, providing closure... Or perhaps not, considering the epilogue, but I'd call that a good way to end it as well, even if it may not fit with the original concept.
It's in bad need of editing, however. I'd have thought that a fan effort would have been thoroughly corrected since it was first released, but it's full of typos, missing or repeated words, places where first and second person get mixed and, worst of all, places where the idea seems to have been changed in the middle of a sentence and the old text wasn't deleted before continuing with the new. There are also moments when the one writing the descriptions of actual gameplay seemed to get bored, skipping more, which can be rather jarring, and those persuasion scenes from Curst also seem rushed. But the worst "crime" is modifying "Longing". To change what may well be the best piece of writing in a game... I guess the idea was to clean it up, maybe even "complete" it to some extent, but it just doesn't work that way, the original text being all about raw emotion and being torn in that manner. Also, don't those memories about Deionarra contradict it? Or does that section refer to another moment?
It's in bad need of editing, however. I'd have thought that a fan effort would have been thoroughly corrected since it was first released, but it's full of typos, missing or repeated words, places where first and second person get mixed and, worst of all, places where the idea seems to have been changed in the middle of a sentence and the old text wasn't deleted before continuing with the new. There are also moments when the one writing the descriptions of actual gameplay seemed to get bored, skipping more, which can be rather jarring, and those persuasion scenes from Curst also seem rushed. But the worst "crime" is modifying "Longing". To change what may well be the best piece of writing in a game... I guess the idea was to clean it up, maybe even "complete" it to some extent, but it just doesn't work that way, the original text being all about raw emotion and being torn in that manner. Also, don't those memories about Deionarra contradict it? Or does that section refer to another moment?
April 25, 2013
Endure, in enduring grow strong.
With this in mind I have undertaken the reading of this mammoth of a novelization (after all the game that the book draws from is famous for having a record amount of written text of all games, still I didn't expect it would be of War and Peace proportions). I ended up enjoying it immensely as I found it to be rather a successful novelizations of my all-time favorite games.
If you have played the game, you are likely to absolutely enjoy it, it's easy to follow, the original text is skillfully framed with narrative descriptions and interludes on behalf of the editor and Let's Play author (original available here: http://lparchive.org/Planescape-Torment/) which only added to the experience. I particularly enjoyed reading the various closure passages addressing the fate of some characters and locations that the protagonist have visited over the course of his journeys as well as short epilogue, which also contributed to the closure and made the transaction from game to book media all the better.
Even if you have not played the game it is still worthy, though somewhat complex fantasy tale of a man plagued by his inability to die, amnesia, namelessness and multitude of actions his past "incarnations".
With this in mind I have undertaken the reading of this mammoth of a novelization (after all the game that the book draws from is famous for having a record amount of written text of all games, still I didn't expect it would be of War and Peace proportions). I ended up enjoying it immensely as I found it to be rather a successful novelizations of my all-time favorite games.
If you have played the game, you are likely to absolutely enjoy it, it's easy to follow, the original text is skillfully framed with narrative descriptions and interludes on behalf of the editor and Let's Play author (original available here: http://lparchive.org/Planescape-Torment/) which only added to the experience. I particularly enjoyed reading the various closure passages addressing the fate of some characters and locations that the protagonist have visited over the course of his journeys as well as short epilogue, which also contributed to the closure and made the transaction from game to book media all the better.
Even if you have not played the game it is still worthy, though somewhat complex fantasy tale of a man plagued by his inability to die, amnesia, namelessness and multitude of actions his past "incarnations".
March 5, 2025
"Un símbolo que te marca de por vida. El símbolo es *tormento*, es lo que atrae a otras almas atormentadas a uno. La carne sabe que sufre, incluso cuando la mente lo olvida, por lo que el símbolo se lleva siempre en la piel."
Una excelente adaptación a ya un excelente juego, te lleva en el viaje de un hombre muerto que no puede morir, descubriendo cada cosa horrible que hizo en sus previas reencarnaciones, y al final del dia busca pagar por ello.
La historia es compleja y difícil de meterse en un principio, pero una vez que te engancha no hay vuelta atrás.
Una excelente adaptación a ya un excelente juego, te lleva en el viaje de un hombre muerto que no puede morir, descubriendo cada cosa horrible que hizo en sus previas reencarnaciones, y al final del dia busca pagar por ello.
La historia es compleja y difícil de meterse en un principio, pero una vez que te engancha no hay vuelta atrás.
March 5, 2025
"Know that I have walked your path many times."
It feels like a good fan adaptation, a love letter, to the Planescape universe, knowing how to novelise a playtrought of the game.
It knows how to characterise the characters and missions quite well, as well as all the complicated philosophy that appears in the title. It gets long and sometimes repetitive (but understandably so).
Dak'kon, I miss you terribly.
It feels like a good fan adaptation, a love letter, to the Planescape universe, knowing how to novelise a playtrought of the game.
It knows how to characterise the characters and missions quite well, as well as all the complicated philosophy that appears in the title. It gets long and sometimes repetitive (but understandably so).
Endure. In enduring, grow strong.
Dak'kon, I miss you terribly.
February 9, 2013
Superb. Flawed - as a game script doesn't quite work naturally as a novel, there is such a volume of dialogue, but framing it in such a way and linking the original words with love and appreciation for the source material this is a novel anyone who liked the game should read. Even worth taking a chance on it if you just like a decent fantasy yarn.
A superlative game, and a very enjoyable book.
A superlative game, and a very enjoyable book.
November 24, 2020
Difficult to rate this book. The writing is uneven, ho-hum in parts, brilliant and vivid in others. As a work of novel fiction, it doesn't quite work. By including skads of dialogue that is basically colour and bears no real consequence, the story is bloated and drags on. Also, to mention the writing again, the quality in some parts is plain juvenile and puerile. You'd be asking yourself if this was written by a horny male teenager, obsessed with Annah's pale white skin and generous mams or a 6 year-old. "And then I died". Come on, do better than that. I know the author/s were approaching this book from an abstract POV and just trying to get a point across, but it's straight up lazy. An authorship crime. You just don't fucking write something like that.
Now that my gripes are out of the way, everything else is brilliant. The ambition, the philosophical introspection and parallels, the scope of the story, the huge cast of characters and their different personalities, the sprawling exploration and world building. I wanted more of it all while simultaneously piqued by The Nameless One's quest and where it was going. Attempting to execute an undertaking this huge deserves at a minimum 3.5 stars. The sum of my gripes and praises adds another 0.75 stars. I don't think it's a story I can read again, but at the very least I treasure it in my memory, especially finally resolving the story and reaching its ending after having stopped playing the game a third of the way more than 20 years ago. The torment (see what I did there?) of having an incomplete journey in my mind is finally at rest. Like the protagonist, I metaphorically march into the Blood War of life.
4.25 tormented shadows out of 5.
Now that my gripes are out of the way, everything else is brilliant. The ambition, the philosophical introspection and parallels, the scope of the story, the huge cast of characters and their different personalities, the sprawling exploration and world building. I wanted more of it all while simultaneously piqued by The Nameless One's quest and where it was going. Attempting to execute an undertaking this huge deserves at a minimum 3.5 stars. The sum of my gripes and praises adds another 0.75 stars. I don't think it's a story I can read again, but at the very least I treasure it in my memory, especially finally resolving the story and reaching its ending after having stopped playing the game a third of the way more than 20 years ago. The torment (see what I did there?) of having an incomplete journey in my mind is finally at rest. Like the protagonist, I metaphorically march into the Blood War of life.
4.25 tormented shadows out of 5.
August 21, 2024
As a D&D player I do love Planescape dearly, but I haven't managed to play the original videogame back in my day (and I don't have good general experience when playing old games). So, naturally, when I've learned about the novelization of the game, I was excited - I get to experience the events of the game without playing it.
And what can I even say? Perhaps, videogame-based books aren't my thing. Maybe I shoul've seen this one coming but the book is really boring. It does start pretty interesting - the Mortuary is an eerie and spooky place, and there's this mystery about protagonist's past. Sounds exciting, but as soon as the hero and his companion leave the Mortuary, the book turns into a slog. The plot barely progresses, as the heroes do all sorts of... side activity? They talk to random prostitutes, mess up (or get messed up by) some hobos in the alleys... and this happens A LOT. One could argue, well, that is a true low-level D&D experience. But it's not a D&D game, and it's not a videogame either. A living person wrote this book, and they coul've made some adjustments - after all, the book doesn't have to reflect every single thing that happens in the book.
Some obscure minor spoilers. Approximately at 66% of the book the plot finally progresses and the protagonist finally meets the man he was supposed to find to recover his memories, perhaps at the beginning, and picks up a quest from him. But at this point I have already lost my faith in this book, and I've lost any hope that something of any significance is ever gonna happen in this story. It is a shame, the book gives an impression that it is professionaly written, the language used by an author is quite rich and it very much succeds to evoke certain atmosphere for a reader - the author just had to include all the useless parts of the game in the book. Perhaps I will eventually truly finish reading it - time will tell.
And what can I even say? Perhaps, videogame-based books aren't my thing. Maybe I shoul've seen this one coming but the book is really boring. It does start pretty interesting - the Mortuary is an eerie and spooky place, and there's this mystery about protagonist's past. Sounds exciting, but as soon as the hero and his companion leave the Mortuary, the book turns into a slog. The plot barely progresses, as the heroes do all sorts of... side activity? They talk to random prostitutes, mess up (or get messed up by) some hobos in the alleys... and this happens A LOT. One could argue, well, that is a true low-level D&D experience. But it's not a D&D game, and it's not a videogame either. A living person wrote this book, and they coul've made some adjustments - after all, the book doesn't have to reflect every single thing that happens in the book.
Some obscure minor spoilers. Approximately at 66% of the book the plot finally progresses and the protagonist finally meets the man he was supposed to find to recover his memories, perhaps at the beginning, and picks up a quest from him. But at this point I have already lost my faith in this book, and I've lost any hope that something of any significance is ever gonna happen in this story. It is a shame, the book gives an impression that it is professionaly written, the language used by an author is quite rich and it very much succeds to evoke certain atmosphere for a reader - the author just had to include all the useless parts of the game in the book. Perhaps I will eventually truly finish reading it - time will tell.
July 8, 2023
A fan-made novelization of Planescape: Torment, the best novel I ever played. The main question of the story is "What can change the nature of a man?" as it follows an amnesiac immortal. This adaptation is best for fans of the game because I imagine it would be difficult to dive into this if you haven't played it. The game itself is also showing its age and I'd rather relive the story this way.
Scenes are linked together with a few threads of plotting and with the trope of a group of storytellers gathering at a bar to retell it. The beginning is interesting, and the final third is strong once the plot starts to go towards the conclusion, but the content between is a slog that needs some editing. Part of the problem is that a lot of the game is wandering around a fantastic inter dimensional city talking with people. There's not a ton of direction.
The interludes with the storytellers were also too long with too many characters I didn't care about as the author is trying to show off the weirdness of planescape. Since this is an adaptation of a roleplaying game, the unreliable story tellers could have been used to explore some of the branching paths of the game, but unfortunately this only happens once (though to good affect).
Scenes are linked together with a few threads of plotting and with the trope of a group of storytellers gathering at a bar to retell it. The beginning is interesting, and the final third is strong once the plot starts to go towards the conclusion, but the content between is a slog that needs some editing. Part of the problem is that a lot of the game is wandering around a fantastic inter dimensional city talking with people. There's not a ton of direction.
The interludes with the storytellers were also too long with too many characters I didn't care about as the author is trying to show off the weirdness of planescape. Since this is an adaptation of a roleplaying game, the unreliable story tellers could have been used to explore some of the branching paths of the game, but unfortunately this only happens once (though to good affect).
July 30, 2020
Wow, this book was really a surprise. It is re-edit of the dialog, story and side quests ripped from the RPG Planescape: Torment. It is still a really solid novel, and what is even more surprising is that it really has some interesting philosophical ideas regarding the self, death, immorality, morality a bonus. For those, who think video games are not an art form, this novel would beg to differ.
Does that make it perfect, no. I think parts of the books could be be reworked to make it a little more focused, but the resulting work is pretty darn impressive.
Does that make it perfect, no. I think parts of the books could be be reworked to make it a little more focused, but the resulting work is pretty darn impressive.
April 20, 2013
I got about ten percent through this, and then decided to switch to the Rhys Hess version.
This version has too much pointless prose added, and whatever spark the original story had is lost.
So far, the Hess version is much more evocative. A perfect example of how less is more. Too see how I eventually feel about that version, check my review of it.
This version has too much pointless prose added, and whatever spark the original story had is lost.
So far, the Hess version is much more evocative. A perfect example of how less is more. Too see how I eventually feel about that version, check my review of it.
November 2, 2015
новеллизация известной философской РПГ, несколько затянута, но довольно качественная философская история по сути: ты просыпаешься в морге и не помнишь, кто ты, откуда и почему; с каждой смертью ты снова просыпаешься, но теряешь часть себя. Ключ - оставленные самим собой прошлые дневники. см. жж: http://alpas.livejournal.com/263499.html
August 12, 2019
Best game to book conversion ever - especially since it shows how much content I had missed when I played the game.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews