Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Kohtalon miekka by Andrzej Sapkowski

7 reviews

thenoboshow's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Genocide, Grief, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Infidelity, War, Racism, Murder, Blood, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Infertility, Medical content, Misogyny, and Violence

shiveryteacup's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Violence

belladonnashrike's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

loved this. enjoyed it more than the first collection of short stories, but there’s clearly bias there because this book finally introduced ciri & yennefer was much more prevalent in these stories than in the other ones. also….mermaids!

there’s more weird fantasy misogyny in this one though. I just sigh and ignore it at this point, you really can’t escape it in this genre at all 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Blood, Misogyny, and War

Minor: Grief, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Rape, and Vomit

mattiedancer's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Writing: 4.25⭐️/5 

Much of this novel is beautifully written. I think I saved maybe 10-20 quotes throughout the book and that was without looking too hard for gorgeous passages. I do, however, draw an issue with some of the more misogynistic passages. I understand this is a part of the worldbuilding and is often used to demonstrate the bleakness of the world in which the characters live. However, these passages are often used in lieu of more interesting worldbuilding. I don’t really see the point of passively mentioning how a maid is getting SA’d and Geralt is annoyed by it. It just felt kind of lazy, but a laziness that was pretending to be clever. 

Characters: 4.5⭐️/5

As far as well-written, thought-out, and developed characters go, it doesn’t get a lot of complaints from me. I would argue that several of the female characters relied heavily on tropes/stereotypes, which was a bit tiring at times as a reader given the depth of other characters. That being said, all the main characters were extremely well-fleshed out, which I really enjoyed reading.

Plot: 4.5⭐️/5 

The short story format fit the material well. I found most of the plots just stunningly engaging and honestly really enjoyable. It was intriguing the way Sapkowski played off fairy tales in an entirely dark way. I really enjoyed it. This is what made it so confusing when he seemed to go out of his way to include a misogynistic side plot. 

Post-Reading Rating:  4.5⭐️/5

Thoroughly enjoyable. 

Who Should Read This? 

• Fans of Game of Thrones
• Fans of bleak fantasy worlds
• Fans of the Witcher show/game

CW: Sexual abuse, mentions of rape, sexual assault, murder, death

Final Rating: 4.75⭐️/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug use, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and War

bronbaewr's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

one of the most philosophical of the witcher books, it can be a bit easy to get lost in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Suicide

frankynstein's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

This installment has a much more sombre tone than The Last Wish. Many of the short stories were utterly heart-wrenching, especially the ending of "A Little Sacrifice" and the final story, "Something More". The latter is also the one I found the netflix series was most true to (it's corresponding episode is the season 1 finale "Much More").

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Xenophobia

Minor: Death, Sexual content, Gore, Grief, and Misogyny

chronographia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Blood, Gore, Sexual content, Sexism, Grief, Death, and Misogyny

Minor: Death of parent, Infertility, and Xenophobia

Similar impressions as to The Last Wish: the medieval fantasyland hangs together as a whole, in terms of worldbuilding, and the adventures follow in a compelling pace with twists and quirks. But really did we have to have this level of misogyny? Even if it is a counterpoint to Geralt’s outlook? Hmm.