The Lady of the Lake - Andrzej Sapkowski

Orbit, 2017, 531 pages

ISBN: 978-0-316-27383-1

Read: October 2021, age 43

 

The Witcher, novel #5

 

A fitting end to the series.  Odd, a bit unclear, but reasonably satisfying.

 

Rating: 3+

The Tower of Swallows - Andrzeg Sapkowski

Orbit, 2016, 436 pages

Original copyright 1997

ISBN: 978-0-316-27371-8

Read: September 2021, age 43

 

The Witcher - Novel #4 of 5

I'm still liking this series, but I probably liked this one the least of the bunch to date.  There have been lots of complaints about the non-linear storytelling, and I didn't mind that at all.  What I minded was the framing stories that killed all the tension.  Still good, but not so immersive.

Rating: 3

Baptism of Fire - Andrzej Sapkowski

Orbit, 2014, 343 pages

Original copyright 1996

ISBN: 978-0-316-21918-1

Read: August 2021, age 43

 

The Witcher, novel 3 of 5  

This is a fun series.  I'm getting a little tired of Geralt chasing Ciri, though.  It seems like that's pretty much all that ever happens.  The series is wandering in the weeds a bit.  

I quite like the books, but I don't feel any need to revisit the series at all immediately.  3-4 books later seems about right.  It's strange - usually I only skip one to keep the setting a bit fresh, and the recap less annoying.

Rating: 4

The Time of Contempt - Andrzej Sapkowski

Orbit, 2013, 331 pages

Original copyright 1995

Read: July 2021, age 43

The Witcher - novel #2

This series continues to be good, but this book really felt like a lot of setup.  There's a bit of oddness in that very important bits seem to go by very quickly, and non-important bits seem to get a lot of screen time.  Still, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. 

 

Rating: 4

 

Blood of Elves - Andrzej Sapkowski

Orbit, 2017, 398 pages

Original copyright 1994 

ISBN: 978-0-316-43898-8

Read: June 2021, age 43

 

The Witcher novel 1 of 5 

I really enjoyed this book, even though there's a fair bit of lack of communication pushing the plot along.  The world is fun, and I don't mind the characters, despite (because of?) very significant failings in all of them.

Rating: 4

Sword of Destiny - Andrzej Sapkowski

Orbit, 2015, 374 pages

Original copyright 1993

ISBN: 978-0-316-38970-9

Read: March 2021, age 42

Book 2 of The Witcher

 

Very much the second part of the Netflix show.  I'm really curious as to where we're going from here.  I can't even predict what shape the story might take, but I'm interested to see where it goes.  It does seem that the Netflix Yennifer scenes were made from whole cloth, which was somewhat disappointing - I liked them, and the books focus much more on Geralt.  

Rating 4

 

The Last Wish - Andrzej Sapkowski

Orbit, 2019, 320 pages

Original copyright 1993

ISBN: 978-0-316-49754-1

Read March 2021, age 42

 

The Witcher, book 1 

This was an interesting reading experience, as the miniseries covers the stories in this book.  My mental image was very nearly exactly the same as the show throughout.  Netflix did a good job with the adaptation.   

There are some translation artifacts that caught my eye - curse words translated directly across that wouldn't be used similarly in English, names translated when they really didn't need to be, things like that.  Nothing bad, just a thing.

I'm curious to see how things go when I get to new material.  This was good, but felt a bit like a re-read, rather than original work.

Rating: 3