Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski

6 reviews

breamfish1138's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Sapkowski walked so George R.R. Martin could run. If you've not read the previous Witcher books you'll be lost as hell, but if so, you'll likely bloody love it. Closest thing I can describe it as is Apocalypse Now with swords.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Rape, War, Alcohol, Biphobia, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Medical content, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Xenophobia, Vomit, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Pregnancy, and Violence

jellyboi_16's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Andrzej Sapkowski's iconic and sometimes likeable characters struggle through a war-torn land filled with death, peril and political intrigue. The way the characters complement each other in the writing leaves you unable to put the book down, but the complexities of the political side of Sapkowski's world is sure to have you scratching your head from time to time. Sometimes a difficult read for its complexities and slower pace, but I would definitely recommend it.  That being said, Sapkowski's gratuitous fixation on sexual violence feels unneccecary and excessive at times, leaving a somewhat bitter taste in the reader's mouth.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Gore, Xenophobia, War, Rape, Kidnapping, and Violence

kalisaur's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The first half of this was so slow, it felt like basically nothing happened the first 140 pages. There's so much Sapkowski just references during the first two books, it seems weird that this one is almost just a filler to put the players in the right spots for the next part of the story

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, War, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Blood, Cursing, Rape, Miscarriage, and Murder

Minor: Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Abortion, and Slavery

chronographia's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Where the earlier books set the scene, introduced our dramatic personae, and generally got the ball rolling, it is here that it starts to gain momentum. It will be helpful at this point in the story to start making a flowchart of different characters & their storylines. Also—despite Dianna Wynne Jones’ opinion about fantasyland maps—google the Witcher map that Netflix put out, it will be useful as everything starts to go into motion. And be sure to have Tower of Swallows on hand because you’re going to want to go straight on to the fourth book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

rachaelbunny's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Torture, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Suicide, Body shaming, Incest, and Infidelity

spaghettibooplesnoot's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a review of the audiobooks narrated by  Peter Kenny. Kenny has a great voice for this and does a fantastic job of giving everyone's voice a distinct sound making it easier to know who's talking even when a lot of new characters get added at once.  Geralt has a british accent like everyone else and not an american one which is a nice change from the tv series and games. the elves and nilfgaard are the only people without british accent which I found a little uncomftable but don't know the reasons for making this choice.

This book fully embodies and made me realise why I love witcher so much. it's not about kings and queens it's about middle people not quite peasants and not quite nobles which is something pretty special for fantasy like this. it also meanders and doesn't have conventional beginnings, middles and end; it feels more like an epic poem long and meandering where the story teller decides to go off on long tangents for no reason other than them feeling like it. This format really suits an audiobook and Peter Kenny has a great voice for it that's both soothing but not droney, like some fantasy narrators can be. 

This book takes place in the middle of a missive war. it doesn't shy away or glorify the nasty bits of it and i have done my best to add cw for everything. There is a lot of sexual violence towards women but never from any of the main charecturs and is always portraid as wrong and discustring. there are some other cw there weren't tags for so I added them in at the bottom but they do give spoilers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Xenophobia, Torture, Sexual violence, and Gore

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Trafficking, and Slavery

cw for abortion/miscarriage. there was tag for this put it's relitivly graphic and central to the story and gets dwelled on quite a bit