The Last Wish (GollanczF.) (urspr publ 1993; utgåvan 2007)

2 Short Story collections, 5 Novels

The Last Wish Short Story collection
Sword of Destiny Short Story Collection
Blood of elves
Time of Contempt
Baptism of Fire
The Tower of Swallows
Lady of the Lake
Season of Storms

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This story is one somewhat fractured narrative framing a set of flashbacky other stories. It's not badly done, but the interweaving could have been a little better, with a little more of a feeling of relevance.

It started out well, and I thought it would be at least a solid three stars ("liked it" according to Goodreads ratings at this time). It got a bit slapdash and unserious feeling in the middle, and I started thinking it might sink down to two stars ("it was ok"). It started getting a bit better with the last bits, just in time to save it from dipping below three stars.

I did enjoy the off-hand manner of borrowing from well-known fairytales, but the very different feeling about the personalities of major characters, and the feeling of unreality to the way people interacted, didn't thrill me at all. At times, the way people made decisions during those middle parts just felt like someone wanted the story to go that way, and ignored stuff like there being meaningful motivation for the characters to pursue their chosen courses. Even toward the end, when the story started to get better again, there were a couple moments where I just didn't entirely buy the (evidently non-existent) character motivations.

The flaws of this book were reminiscent of the flaws in the five-book Fritz Leiber series I read about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

I doubt I'll bother reading the next book, unless I hear great things about it. I have no particular motivation to go searching for excuses to read any more stories by this author. ( )

After watching the ever popular Witcher on Netflix, I had to find the original book. Normally I prefer to read the book before watching any film adaptation but when I started watching the Witcher I didn't realize right away it was based off of a book. I think watching the series helped me understand what was going on in the book better. The book is made up for several short stories.

Geralt is a Witcher, he was changed in a camp as a young boy, experimented upon and given elixirs to change him into what he is today. He is paid to kill monsters but he is not a killer for hire.

The book is written in a snapshot form, weaving several short stories from the past into what is happening today, with various monsters and the supposed cursed ladies born under an eclipse, and a lot of references to various fairy tales.

The transitions are not smooth and it sometimes takes a few minutes to realize you've jumped again so the reading can feel very disjointed. I'm not sure if I would have liked it as much if I'd read it before seeing the Netflix show, but it was still an interesting read and I'm looking forward to the next book.

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This book is a couple of novelettes that are more or less fantasy by number. Lots of references to fairy tales with dark turns.

The women are the most interesting characters and skate the fine balance between being strong within their traditional roles as women and trying to push forward despite their physical limitations. Men also fight against the same traditional roles and make many emotional mistakes because of their limitations.

I was surprised to read so much straight outta Dungeons & Dragons stuff going on. That's always lots of fun. Unfortunately, the battles aren't particularly spellbinding. They're sort of boring, in fact. Maybe it's the translation, but I honestly don't care where he places his foot and the fencing moves are tedious.

Sapkowski doesn't make the stories romantic or high adventure, which is fine by me. I'm more interested in the characters and the world.

I enjoyed the first book very much, so I'm definitely going to pick up the tv series in December and give it a try. It looks like good fun.

I wish I was a better gamer. I'd love to play Witcher. I watched some of the game play on YouTube and it looks like a fascinating game! ( )

3.5 stars ( )