Andrzej Sapkowski

Well, that was disappointing.

After two great short story collections, effectively introducing everyone's favorite witcher Geralt, his womanizing buddy Dandelion and his troubling love interest Yennefer, we arrive at the first novel in the series, written before the collections bust set after them. I was lucky enough to begin my journey through Sapkowksi's fascinating fantasy landscaped with the two collections since this book would have made me hesitate about continuing with the following books.

Everything movies at a slow pace; the story and the characters are confined into just a few boring settings, and most of the story is spent on having characters talk with each other about politics, war, women, magic and loads and loads of unrelated subjects. Gone are the monster-hunting escapades, the surprising twists and the clever dialogue. Everything is replaced by mundane chitchat and a story that barely moves forward. Sapkowksi introduces the basic plotline in the first few chapters but then doesn't do anything to move that said plot forward during the rest of the book. The ending feels anti-climactic, like Blood of Elves was intended as one, overly long introduction to the actual adventure.

The saving grace of the novel is Sapkowki's sharp humor, his distinct characters, and his lively fantasy world. He also has a nick of writing compelling female characters, Yennefer and Triss in particular, even if I was more annoyed than fascinated by Ciri in this novel. Dandelion was a whole lot more enjoyable here than in the short stories. Geralt, however, feels like a supporting character in his own story.

Not the greatest beginning of the main Witcher storyline, bu interesting enough for me to want to read the next entry at some point.… (mer)