Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Series: The Witcher (Book #0.7 of 5)
Genre: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy
Pages: 384 pages (Kindle Edition)
Published: 19th May 2015 by Orbit Books
Sword of Destiny is a huge step down from The Last Wish. …
Review copy was provided by Gollancz in exchange for an honest review.
Cover art illustrated by Tommy Arnold
Cover designed by Lauren Panepinto
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Series: The Witcher (Book #0.5 of 5)
Genre: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy
Pages: 352 pages (Illustrated edition)
Published: 7th December 2021 by Orbit (US) and Gollancz (UK)
The Last Wish made me feel like I was reading Geralt doing his side quests in the game.
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Destiny has many faces. Mine is beautiful on the outside and hideous on the inside. She has stretched her bloody talons toward me—”
You can probably guess why I finally picked this book up. I’m stupid excited for the Netflix series of The Witcher. And since I’m a good student, I wanted to at least have read the first book of the series before watching the show. I’m very glad I did. The Last Wish is a wonderful introduction to Geralt of Rivia, the eponymous Witcher of the series. Set up as short stories with a framework, we get to see some of Geralt’s greatest hits of his career, as well as gaining a bit of insight into his character.
“People,” Geralt turned his head, “like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves. When they get blind-drunk, cheat, steal, beat their wives, starve an old woman, when they kill a trapped fox with an axe or riddle the last existing unicorn with arrows, they like to think that the Bane entering cottages at daybreak is more monstrous than they are. They feel better then. They find it easier to live.”
Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars.
Series: The Witcher (Book 3 of 7)
Genre: Fantasy, high fantasy
First English translation published: Oct 2008 (Gollancz), May 2009 (Orbit)
Blood of Elves expands beyond the introduction of Geralt of Rivia and brings forth a different level of worldbuilding into the story in a character-driven narrative.
While this book is technically the start of the main series, I wholeheartedly recommend reading the prequel short stories in The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny first. A lot of references to past events in Blood of Elves were covered in those two books – important past events. I even found myself doing a quick read of some of those short stories to jog my memory since I had read them a year ago.
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Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars.
Series: The Witcher (Book 2 of 7)
Genre: Fantasy, high fantasy
First English translation published: May 2015 (Gollancz), Dec 2015 (Orbit)
The compelling characterisation of Geralt and imaginative world of Slavic lore and fairy-tale retellings continue in Sword of Destiny, the second collection of prequel short stories in The Witcher series.
Sword of Destiny was published after the first three full-length novels of The Witcher series. As a new reader to the series, however, I was able to read the books in chronological order which is quite essential as this instalment served as the bridge between The Last Wish and Blood of Elves.
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The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars.
Series: The Witcher (Book 1 of 7)
Genre: Fantasy, high fantasy
First English translation published: 2007 (Gollancz), 2008 (Orbit)
The Last Wish was more than up to task in satisfying my burning curiosity about The Witcher with its compelling eponymous protagonist, Geralt of Rivia.
I abandoned my gaming self a long time ago and as such, have not heard about The Witcher until someone mentioned that the Anomander Rake reminded her of Geralt of Rivia from the video game. That piqued my interest immediately, for Anomander Rake from the Malazan Book of the Fallen series is one of my favourite grimdark characters of all time. And thus, I promptly checked out the cinematic game trailers – the ones for The Witcher III were exceptionally good. I subsequently found out that the game was adapted from a book series by a Polish author and that The Witcher is also soon to be a new series on Netflix. Ah, this is indeed a marvellous time to be a fan of the fantasy genre.
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