Customer Reviews

Abyssal Warriors (Planescape: Blood Wars Trilogy #2)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The "Blood Wars" books were my first exposure to the Planescape scenario, which I think rocks. Too bad "Blood Hostages", the first book of the trilogy, didn't get close to the potential of the scenario at all.

This second one, however, is captivating. It has been the first book in a while that I read in one sitting, dropping into bed at half past two. The story is compelling, and the characters are drawn much better than in "Blood Hostages". I agree with the other reviewers that it's especially the mad Nina, a powerful female character like you don't encounter in the Fantasy literature very often, that makes the book stand out. Finally, without giving anything away, the end of the book is brilliant and really evil, and I can't wait to read the final book so the characters can finally get out of this ugly situation. (I hope they will, at any rate.)

The reason why I'm not giving the book five stars is that it lets opportunities pass. After a third of the book, we are told about a special and unique power of the two main characters; but while one might think it should be, this power is never a driving force behind the storyline, it just comes in handy in some situations.

About the first book: I'd recommend to buy and read it before reading "Abyssal Warriors", even if it's substandard. You'll be much more able to appreciate this one afterwards (and not just because of the contrast in quality).

There is an interesting twist in this, the second book of the trilogy. The heroine of the first book has gone mad. Because she has not changed that much, I found myself still rooting for her, although she is now the "bad guy". Another aspect of the book I liked was the character Phaeton, who is basically an angel. Through Phaeton, we see how sometimes beings of "pure good" can sometimes do evil, and how "right" can sometimes be wrong. Overall, this book was a welcome and refreshing change from the formulaic "action movie" first book.

I have to say that i was surprised with this book, the first of the trilogy (Blood Hostages) was for me a real let down, i was expecting something more from planscape, which i recieved a hundred fold from Abyssal Warriors. Nina's descent into madness is the most exciting aspect of this book supported by Aereas' quest to find Nina and eventually stop her from (i dont want to spoil it). I guess to better understand this book it is nessesary to read Blood Hostages, it gives you the background info that is not a necessity but is helpful. A climaxic ending that just knaws at you to read the final novel (which i had to wait 2 years to read because of the Wizards of the Coast buying TSR thing).

The reviews thus far gave this book uniformly outstanding reviews. Me, I just don't get it--I'm a fan of the Planescape setting, but maybe I just don't read enough fantasy novels and my standards haven't been lowered by a bookshelf of mediocre fiction. This book was an absolute LABOR to get through--much of it doesn't make sense, parts that do make sense are genuinely stupid, and precious little seems to have anything to do with the Blood War--and sometimes not even the Planescape setting itself.

The plot (and I'm not giving much away here) has to do with a demon army attacking Sigil--which, last I checked, doesn't have anything to do with the Blood War. In fact, for a trilogy that's supposed to be about the unending war between demons and devils (the Abyss and Hell), there isn't a single appearance by a single devil anywhere in the story. (The devils make a cameo appearance in the first book, in a contrived scene that reads like the book editor told the author he had to have a couple of demons fight a couple of devils for a page or two.)

I virtually smacked my head in disbelief when one of the characters shouts, "The Blood War has come to Sigil!" That's like Iraqis shouting at British soldiers, "The Falklands War has come to Baghdad!"

The characters themselves are painfully, excruciatingly undeveloped, the kind that could be described by a movie studio executive who only speaks in two-word adjective-noun combinations (Boffo--"curmudgeonly gnome"; Jandau--"untrustworthy tiefling"; and so on.)

Other plot points are so bad as to be very nearly laughable: at one point, the characters climb into giant flying seeds and then have an aerial battle like X-wing fighters over the surface of the Death Star (no, I'm not kidding here); at another point several dozen demons get burned to death by hitting them with lamppost lanterns (still not kidding); and at another point an army of crazed demons invade another plane by shriking down to the size of 72,000 ants (kidding! Ok, no, I'm not).

And then there's the part where the tide of a key battle is turned by a set of musical instruments that suddenly have special properties never mentioned before, like how a bucket of water can suddenly melt the wicked witch...

The writing...well, this is always a matter of taste, but I thought the author was just an acolyte of clumsy writing and overwrought metaphors; goofy plot points can often be excused (or at least overlooked) if they're told with strong writing, but here, it's as if the author had a tin ear that he had convinced himself was made of gold.

All in all, a catastrophe, and one utterly unbefitting the trilogy that was supposed to launch a setting as excellent as Planescape.

--KRad

Definitely a great fantasy epic and one of my personal favorites, The Blood Wars Trilogy-Blood Hostages, Abyssal Warriors, and Planar Powers, brings to life the story of Aereas and Nina, two cousins, and their adventures in the "multiverse" that is the World of Planescape. The books are so incredibly well written that the reader feels that they have been transported to another universe and are actually present among the characters, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel, sensing what they sense.
The author has done a FANTASTIC job of both acquiring vast knowledge relevant to the Planes as well as presenting this material efficiently and successfully! His solid grasp of factual detail makes him very capable of providing the necessary background needed to carry out the very difficult task of writing Planescape novels, which is something often missing from the work of many Fantasy authors.
JR King has truly outdone himself and has presented us with a masterpiece of literature the likes of which we have seen only in JRR Tolkien's work and in authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends trilogies as well as RA Salvatore's Icewind Dale and Dark Elf Trilogies. Love, fiends, bravery, magic, swordfights and battles of epic proportion are all about. A great trilogy indeed and a "must read" along with Pages of Pain, sadly, the only other novel written in the Planescape setting.

This book rules. It is the second of a 3 book
trilogy, however, it isn't as weak in content
as most middle books in a series. King did an
awsome job with catching readers up on what
happened in the first book without giving too
much away or spending too much time dwelling
on it for those of us who did read it. And the
content of the book itself is a work of art.
It had me on the edge frequently when things
began heating up toward the climax. I felt I
was with Areas and Nina for their entire lives.
-Chris Shannon

This book rules. It is the second of a 3 book
trilogy, however, it isn't as weak in content
as most middle books in a series. King did an
awsome job with catching readers up on what
happened in the first book without giving too
much away or spending too much time dwelling
on it for those of us who did read it. And the
content of the book itself is a work of art.
It had me on the edge frequently when things
began heating up toward the climax. I felt I
was with Areas and Nina for their entire lives.

I'm not sure what he did, but JR king accomplishes in a couple hundred pages what the War of Souls trilogy couldn't do in around a thousand.

These books are like poetry in a strange way, even though they are product line fantasy novels. The author has a way of making you care about the characters even in the little time you spend with them.

The memory flashbacks play an important part, and were an ingenious device, just as they were in the last one. In this book, we are treated to the madness of two lands: The Abyss, where chaos and evil join, and the Beastlands, where Heaven is a place where wild things can grow without attacks from civilization.

Though he alters the basics of the Planescape setting, he does so in a way that truly invigorates it with a new flavor and new ideas. Even with all the strange reality levels of giant flies and crystal fruit-bearing plants, the book stays grounded in the story of love and betrayal. It may be a retelling of old stories, but it does so in a backdrop of worms that are homes, a universe of dead gods, and much more insanity.

As I've mentioned in my review of the first book, if you have kids who are hyperactive readers of fantasy, this is a wonderful book to open their minds to depths and beauty of imagination.