Reviews

I was somewhat afraid when I started reading “Light Perpetual”.

Not because this meant the Hussite saga would end and, just like it happened when I finished the Witcher saga, I would likely end up harbouring some sort of emptiness. And not because the book would be badly written (I doubt Sapkowski would allow himself publishing bad writing). I was afraid that there would be something different about this book and that I would not like it.

To be honest, I had some reservations even when reading the earlier books of the saga. To begin with, no matter how infatuated with Sapkowski’s works I am, these books are exceptionally grim.

Yes, there is beauty in these books. Some playfulness and humour – too. However, these are somewhat overshadowed by the historical context. There was a point when I paused reading “Warriors of God” for a few evenings or so. One of the scenes shook me so, I nearly cried. It was a bit difficult to pick up the book afterwards. Fair enough – all that grime and darkness of Medieval ages, religious fanatics, psycopaths and sociopaths flourishing amidst war and torture, rivers of blood, shattered bones and brain spraying all over.

God, how lucky us millennials are to be born when we were.

The idea that the world is unfair and that one can only deal with that is probably one of the leitmotifs in the trilogy. Which, I think, is a bit difficult to accept for us millennials – we were simply born in a very different – and privileged – world. And Reynevan, is, in a sense, one of us – a Gen Z fellow. But it does not make it easier to accept the alternative reality of his world.

But it was not only this that I was somewhat wary of. When reviewing “Warriors of God”, I admitted that Hussite trilogy was, in a way, more difficult. Not only because of lists of dates, names and surnames, villages, no matter how important they are to portray the period in as realistic way as possible, were difficult to keep track of. Yes, I did it again – picked up the book without having glanced at the previous books of the trilogy, so impatient I was. But there was more to it. The story itself is more difficult to deal with.

To start with, Sapkowski digs deep and he crumbles the intrigues (other than the evident ones) distributing them piece by piece contextually, in the background. For one, he’s an absolute troll and does not bother with holding the reader by a hand: if you wish, you may pick those bits up and make out the bigger picture. Or you may not. Nolens volens, etc.

The old devil, he is.

To keep the reader interested, he plays around with the obvious ones. E.g. will Reynevan and co. find his beloved and pay his enemies what they are due when there are so many of them? The reader may suspect that yes, he will. But, since this is Sapkowski, one should be careful.

To be fair, already when reading the earlier books, I had begun to be somewhat tired of that constant run and chase motif. Silesia, Bohemia, Poland, Moravia. And now – the German lands. On one hand, that’s interesting. I have recently heard another fan of Sapkowski suggesting that the geography of Hussite trilogy can be wonderfully exploited for one’s holiday in a very beautiful and yet relatively undiscovered part of Europe. Which is a wonderful idea. Sapkowski’s descriptions are detailed and a lot of towns or villages described in the book still remain, including their churches and castles. But what was tiring – the constant chase. You barely have the characters’ arses out of the bushes and there is already someone capturing them or there’s a battle. Followed by an algorithm of some rescuing party or some rabble worse than the one they are having troubles with or some deus ex machina magically mysteriously appearing. Followed by “Assassin’s Creed” like chase by some faction, depending on whose territory the characters crossed. In a computer game, you can kind of tolerate that but in a book, a third book in a series at that, you start to get bored.

Although. If not for rivers of blood and authorship/profit sharing issues, I totally see the Hussite trilogy as a PC game.

Getting back to irks – somebody in the past criticised Sapkowski for abusing destiny as a plot device. I fervently disagreed then. But now I have to admit that he does that somewhat. Although, in our part of the continent coincidences kind of make sense. Everyone knows one another. Reliance on networking is key. And here the story is set in Medieval Ages when the population is minute and, considering the setting, one is often at quite a risk of being burnt at a stake. Which kind of explains the obsession with heraldry in this series.

And then, Sapkowski still does that: he drops an intriguing concept or a detail and then, he just drops it off for the annoyance of the reader. In this case, I was a bit disappointed with the scene involving Grellenort’s headquarters. On one hand, it follows the best of traditions of mafia/police movies with concussioney flashbacks and does it so well. On the other, I was expecting so much more from it!

And just when you’re about to get properly irritated, Sapkowski suddenly changes his modus operandi and starts pulling bunnies from his magic hat. Suddenly, there is an almost forgotten but interesting character who turns out to be more important than one thinks. Or a new character and good luck figuring out what their role is despite knowing they are important to the story. Complaints on the Wallcreeper being nerfed just because he was shown somewhat too human in the second book? There you go – have some extra background and some hiccups along with that. You thought the tax collector arc is over? Think over. The story going too dark? There you go, humour and irony. As the story was written having Eastern European audience in mind, there, have some authentic regional political intrigues of that era. Turns out, my Lithuanian ancestors were some good nasties too and contributed to disturbances in the region just like everyone else. And, importantly, the question of the Vytautas’s crown! Want to know why we ended up not having a second king? And what it has to do with the Hussites or the Pope?

There! Now you will know – at least one of the possibilities of what may have happened. Of course, in Sapkowski’s all-mocking light.

„Now aged a little over thirty, the Lithuanian, raised among Poles at the Wawel, embodied the worst features of both nations: benightedness, narrowmindedness, duplicity, pathological ambition, hubris, savagery, unbridled lust for power and an absolute lack of self-criticism.“ p230.

And that‘s how Sapkowski got me so bad, I couldn‘t put the book down. I read the book when on a train, when munching pizza in my bed, reading throughout the night with a light in my bed just like a teenager. Overslept and got late for work? Never mind! You can read more on the train. And then at work. Because what can you do when you wait?

Ah, so bad.

And yet, I will absolve Sapkowski from any sins, if only for the red-haired vejdalotas of god Perkūnas - Budrys - and his prophecies! This scene made me roar with laughter on a train, earning some funny looks from fellow passengers.

The holy river in Jordan, my ass :D

Won‘t share more details. Want more – read the book (thanks to Gollancz, it's now available in English!).

One last thing.

THE question.

The Witcher saga or the Hussite Trilogy?

Well... My heart is with Geralt. It was, it is and it will be. The Witcher saga is lighter, more playful and it does not leave so much grime in one‘s heart after reading the book. Despite the Styga castle. Despite Rivia. Massacres of non-humans. The pitchfork. Because the witcher, despite having renounced all, finds the inner strength to do the right thing – to protect something that is dear to him. Even knowing the end point. Yennefer, Ciri, Tris – they do the same. Giving the hope to the reader – things can be different. That things are not over yet.

That works for me because I want to believe in fairy tales.

The Hussite trilogy, instead, takes this and wipes arse with such wishes, then throws them on the ground, tramples them over and spits on them. And you pick them up, rub them off – because what can you do? And carry on. If you are lucky, there will be someone to touch your arm in support. There is some hope – you know that God exists in this world, so, in theory, there is also some hope of retribution. Maybe.

I think Hussite trilogy does the final developments better. While the story itself is a bit dragged out at times and Sapkowski drops off a couple of characters I thought were important without revealing what happened to them (or maybe I missed it while nodding off reading late into the night), there is an overall sense of finality. You do get a sense of where the story is going. Not because of predictability but because you are gradually moving towards something that just has to happen. And the way the story ends is realistic and logical (even considering the fantasy elements). It‘s just more organic. You don‘t have the Styga chapter that suddenly crushes your hopes and feelings. You‘ve had that constantly happening throughout the story and when the inevitable happens, you just take it stoically because you had to take in all that grime and darkness earlier. And I have a feeling that was an intentional effect.

There is more – that bird‘s eye view. The complex political picture of Europe at the time. And that picture is believable.

The Hussite trilogy has more character development, although that mostly regards Reynevan.

The Witcher saga is more playful in terms of fantasy but that is predefined by the story itself. When you finish the Hussite trilogy, you understand how much of a fairy tale the Witcher saga was after all. Yes, it is based on the condition of fairy tales being inhabited by real people but the world is fairy tale, though. And the world in Hussite saga is brutal, based on reality. At the same time it is constructed so richly that I will need to read it a few more times to obtain the full experience. Consider history, geography, philosophies of Medieval world, medieval cuisine, fashions, magic (the magic in this book is based on actual beliefs). Consider references to historical figures, literature and Easter eggs involving direct nods to Lovecraft, for instance. And the level of that richness is such that, as I said before, CDPR took some worldbuilding elements from The Hussite trilogy rather than the Witcher saga for their great fanfiction (e.g. lamias, magic mirrors for communication, the war landscapes, battlefields, visual NPC design).

Whichever you prefer, both series reflect different sides of the same coin – Sapkowski‘s powerful imagination.