Torment - the book and the game

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
Orderite
Yes, for those of you who don't know, the Interplay game was quickly followed by a book: Planescape Torment; Based on the best-selling computer game from Interplay

I love that term..."best-selling"

So yeah, seeing as I loved Torment and Ray Vallese was one of the main guys on the whole Planescape setting in the first place, I of course picked it up. Should've smelled a fish on the "this is their first novel"-note.

Ooooh, bad mistake, bad bad mistake. They took the story of the game which, as someone aptly put it, would need 30000 pages to do it any justice and they crammed it all into roughly 200 pages of action-filled romantic ghoul-slashing.

On the positive sides; it gives a bit of a deeper insight into the Planescape world and adds some interesting faces as such.

Also, it gives an explanation for one of the things the game left open; what was different about this reincarnation? Why did it not lose its memory? Unless I am mistaken, I don't remember the game giving an answer to this. It also gives a different and quite interesting plot surrounding the Nameless One's (who they namely name "Thane") first life.

I won't go into what this book does wrong and in what ways it sucks unless someone else read it or someone is interested in it and doesn't mind spoilers. So...?
 
I got this book free with my copy of the game. Interesting alternate plot, but i just couldn't get past the abysmal quality of the writing style. Annah's dialogue just sounded like a piss take of a pisshead from Glasgow.
 
Why did it not lose its memory?
Click to expand...

I think it's because each subsequent reincarnation lost more and more, hence the notes and the journal, etc to jog the new reincarnation's memory or at least place it within some position of advantage.
 
FreshOil said:
I think it's because each subsequent reincarnation lost more and more, hence the notes and the journal, etc to jog the new reincarnation's memory or at least place it within some position of advantage.
Click to expand...

No, you misunderstood. The reincarnation you start with in the game has no memories, but it no longer loses them when he dies. This reincarnation can die as many times as he wants, but he always keeps his memory. This is not true of older reincarnations
 
I just remember it being explained in detail in his conversation with Ravel. I think that's where the answer is in the game at least.
 
Kharn said:
Ooooh, bad mistake, bad bad mistake
Click to expand...

:D

Kharn said:
Based on the best-selling computer game from Interplay
Click to expand...

That really should have tipped you off. I don't think there's ever been an even halfway decent novel based on a computer game, much less a crpg.
 
Flop said:
That really should have tipped you off. I don't think there's ever been an even halfway decent novel based on a computer game, much less a crpg.
Click to expand...

'cept that it's Torment. You could pretty much extract all the conversations from that game and you'd have a book, if you fill in some filler locations and descriptions. The thing writes itself, man, they did a unique job fucking it up
 
Kharn said:
Flop said:
That really should have tipped you off. I don't think there's ever been an even halfway decent novel based on a computer game, much less a crpg.
Click to expand...

'cept that it's Torment. You could pretty much extract all the conversations from that game and you'd have a book, if you fill in some filler locations and descriptions. The thing writes itself, man, they did a unique job fucking it up
Click to expand...

You gotta take into account how poorly written these trash fantasy novels usually are. Even with the best of plots (which they rarely have, but ought to have when it's based on Torment), they almost always end up with a piece up shit. Even more so when it's based on a game.
 
My friend lent me the Baldur's Gate book, which he got as a gift from well-meaning relatives. Now, I knew that book was going to be bad, but I had no idea how utterly abysmal it turned out to be. It made R.A. Salvatore look, in comparison, like a literary genius.

Kharn, I don't mind if you spoil it, and I am interested to a degree.
 
Kharn said:
'cept that it's Torment. You could pretty much extract all the conversations from that game and you'd have a book, if you fill in some filler locations and descriptions. The thing writes itself, man, they did a unique job fucking it up
Click to expand...
You mean like this?
Yes, someone actually did that. For free. Without asking any money for it.

Also, care to explain why this incarnation doesn't lose its memories? I don't plan on reading the book, not after this review at least, so spoilers....spoil away.
 
Sander said:
You mean like this?
Yes, someone actually did that. For free. Without asking any money for it.

Also, care to explain why this incarnation doesn't lose its memories? I don't plan on reading the book, not after this review at least, so spoilers....spoil away.
Click to expand...

That is truly awesome... I just might download it and print it (once I get the ink and paper of course :)).
 
Sander said:
Also, care to explain why this incarnation doesn't lose its memories? I don't plan on reading the book, not after this review at least, so spoilers....spoil away.
Click to expand...

Ok major spoiler alert...

In this version of the story it turns out Fhjull Forked-tongue is behind everything. The Nameless One once signed a contract to serve in the Blood War to save his village, which is why the Nameless One (called "Thane" in the book) wanted to become immortal.

Fhjull, of course, kept waiting for him to regain his mortality and kept helping him along the way. In the end he gets tired of waiting and smears some kind of salve from the river Styx on the Chosen One when he is regenerating at the Dustie's crib. This means the Chosen One no longer loses his memories. Tadaaa.
 
Actually, from what I remember of the game all of your previous incarnations did reincarnate with their own memories just like you. You were just the latest one. The reason that you lost your memories and "self" between some reincarnations which led you to become a blank slate again was that you lost your personality if you were killed by your "soul" or whatever at the end. At least that is what I understood from the story. Each time your previous selves discovered enough about who they were to track down your "mortality", they turned out not to be powerful enough to defeat it and therefore were stripped of their personalities and thrown back to square one. It has been a long time since I played the game but I remember the final boss, which was your "mortal soul", saying something along the lines of that he was tired of having to kill you and he was going to finish you for good this time. That was also the reason that he finally went and killed the hag in the labyrinth, because he was tired of her meddling and helping to develop each new persona. That wasn't the first time you went to see her there, your other personalities also found her, and before she died she said that she thought that this persona was stronger than the others and would defeat... well.... himself, err.... you, I mean..... your own soul. :wtf: :?
 
Interplay had a sleugh of horrible books based on their games. I think in the novelization of Baldur's Gate 2, Imoen was a lesbian who had sex with Phaere, Irenicus was a warrior, and such and such.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top