The Last Wish: Introducing The Witcher

I played the Witcher 3 video game and loved the world so have started the books. I have read the first in the series and now this, which is set before the main series. The last wish is an episodic story telling the tale of geralt and dandelion and they're first meeting with yennifer. I thoroughly enjoyed it, meeting new characters and monsters and seeing that geralt is more than just a cold blooded killer looking to get paid but thinks and plans for the best outcome for all; a great antihero. I loved his meeting with yennifer and dandelions sarcastic nature. If you like the game or enjoyed geralt other adventures this is worth your time. If you like fantasy and adventure in an adults world then this is for you. The author has created a wonderfully visceral world with consequences and nuance. I applaud his efforts and can't wait to read book 2

I still prefer the book in Polish, and I saw one particular sentence (the anti-djinn exorcism) translated with more panache, but this is quite close to how reading the original felt like, so I can definitely recommend it. 'The Last Wish' is a good introduction into the world of the Witcher, whether you come at it as the fan of the games or general sci-fi aficionado. And even if you are neither there is something uniquely true about the human nature, the ever changing world and life in general that can be gleaned from it. I read it originally as a teenager and in Polish, but years have passed, translations have occurred and the book is still very good.

This book is essentially a collection of short stories about Geralt of Rivia, who is better known as The Witcher. The stories relate the exploits of Geralt in which he has to demonstrate all the skills (including magic, fighting, sowrdsmanship, diplomacy, cunning, flattery, etc.) that he has developed during his training to become a Witcher. All the stories are real page-turners and different enough in their plots to easily maintain the readers interest. The narrative flows easily, the plots are exciting and the translation from the author's native Polish is excellent. There were however a few instances in which I had to read the odd paragraph again where the sentences were rather awkward, but this in no way distracted from the story. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this introduction to The Witcher, and will definitely be reading more of the books in the series by this very talented, imaginative author.

There are so many good reviews of this book, so I strongly recommend potential readers to download a chapter and try it out before purchasing. If I had done that, I would not have bought this book. I have read 40% of it with effort and will add it to the very short list of books I have dropped half way. I agree with others that call the writing 'disjointed'. It stutters, short sentences that are good for fights but just don't fit with a relaxed dialog. I can't find a rythm in the writing, like those books that just take your breath out and force you to turn pages one after the other. The fights are quite good, but then there other things like rough and heartless sex scenes that make little sense (they would if the rest of the book was different, but as they are they add little). The reason for me to drop it is that the characters are all soulless. The witcher cannot talk straight, and if you take the character names out of the dialogs you don't really know who is talking. It feels like there are just a few characters that just change name and face and appear in different stories... I don't know, I cannot feel anything for them, just not my type of book. On top of it the stories don't seem to have much depth and add little to the witcher character. Perhaps the other 60% of the book is awesome, but after what I have read, I rather invest my time in something else. In summary, hope you really like it (most reviewers loved it), but just in case take a peek at a chapter before buying it.

I wanted to like this more. My friend highly recommended it as a great dark fantasy story with swords and sorcery, dungeons and dragons. It has those things, but it doesn't come off as very exciting or enchanting. Rather, we see the world through a tired grey lens, where humans are often worse than monsters, and the monsters are rarely evil incarnate. Rather they're more just hungry like animals. And Geralt seems sick and tired of hunting them. More broadly, the tales in this first anthology are a mix of twists on the old fairy tales, maybe mixed up with Eastern European folklore I'm less familiar with. The twists are mostly deconstructive, yet often end up less dark and gritty than the originals from the Grimms or from Hans Christian Anderson. They're not uproariously funny enough to be parodies, either, though a few elements were worth a chuckle. So, what does the author do well here? The way he weaves in and out from an overarching story down to the short stories he wants to tell is clever and interesting. The dialogues back and forth between Geralt and the other characters in the world are full of double entendre and puns (albeit some is lost in translation), but really help to build the world and the stories in a far more entertaining way than any of the actions and events that take place within the story itself. So if your favorite part of fantasy or D&D is the part where you banter with the NPCs about quests and listen to spoony bards weave ballads out of half-truths and grog in the tavern, this series is definitely for you.