Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

66 reviews

literatureleaf's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Age: 15+

Reading time: 2 days
 
Difficulty level: 3/5
 
Overall Rating: 7/10
 
 
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski is the second novel in The Witcher series, but it serves as an excellent starting point into the world of the beloved Geralt of Rivia. Told in short story format, with hints of a longer, overarching plotline in between, this book introduces the reader to who Geralt is, what makes him tick, and the characters who will eventually come to play a much larger role in his story.
 
The bite-sized tales featured in this novel are entertaining, easy to follow, and manage to keep the focus on Geralt while honoring the uniqueness and differentiation of the other characters in the story. Each one feels distinctly separate from the rest but remains in keeping with the overall mood and tone of the book. 
 
Sapkowski excels at taking the short story format and doing something larger than life within it. He maintains a masterful plot, that contains hints of mystery, romance, and an origin story, despite the appearance of a book that, at first glance, seems to be comprised of separate, contained stories that have little to do with one another, aside from the main character.
 
Where The Last Wish struggles is with dialogue. The conversation is often stilted and repetitive, and many of the side characters felt like carbon copies of one another because of this. Much of the dialogue gave off the impression that it was not well thought out, and that it was written because Sapkowski felt like it needed to be there, rather than for an actual literary need for conversation.
 
Repetition in general was an issue throughout this book. Lines of prose were repeated quite often, to the point that it made focusing on the story itself difficult. Many passages felt clunky and, much like with the dialogue, as if they were written simply to fill blank spaces on the page rather than to enhance the story. This book was originally written in Polish, so, admittedly, some of these gripes may result from things that were lost in translation.
 
At its core, The Last Wish is a beloved fantasy novel with cherished characters who have earned well-deserved video game and television adaptations. Packed with action, fight scenes, and fairy tale parallels, it weaves the riveting narrative of a being who is finding his place in a world where he was created to kill. Hidden within the gory battles and captivating fights are bits of perfectly timed sarcasm and dry humor, expertly penned political and class commentary, and not-so-gentle reminders that real evil can be found lurking within humanity, not monsters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Incest, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Murder

Minor: Sexual content

casdelvo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Xenophobia, and Vomit

Minor: Infertility, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

doriandelioncourt's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Infertility, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

jmeyers888's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

stwriter92's review against another edition

adventurous funny

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

5.0

I wanted to watch the series (I'm always late to the party) but I wanted to read a bit about the original lore first. I absolutely loved this book! I feel like it gave me a really good introduction to the characters and world of the Witcher. I'm always a bit apprehensive when starting a new fantasy (especially one that has as much lore as this one). However, the format of this book and the gradual introduction to each part of the worldbuilding and magic system made things a lot less intimidating. I adore Geralt as a character. He is so gruff and puts on this "I'm-only-in-it-for-the-money" persona. However, his actions continuously show that he has a kind and compassionate heart. I also really enjoyed the Slavic influences when it came to the world and the mythology surrounding it. 

I look forward to continuing with the series!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Sexism, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Rape

pvbobrien's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual content

Minor: Incest, Infertility, and Injury/Injury detail

lovefromhannah's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Violence, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gore

ohthatsgrayt's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jewelkr's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

My adult kid gave me this book as a birthday present because we enjoyed watching the Netflix series together.  This is one of the cases when the moving image production is better than the book.  I'd like to say it's because the stories were written in the previous century by a boomer male and obviously men's opinions of women/people have changed so much since then but regrettably  I can't - women's lives are still a full of  inequity and fear.  I will say that the people who produced the series addressed a lot of the absolutely disgusting misogyny in the book, as well as restringing the story in a cohesive manner and giving Geralt a personality.  Reading one account after another of what a woman (always referred to as a "girl" by the author) looks like, whether she passes the male-imposed standard for attractiveness, the incredible, cliche'ed detail of their breast-enhancing, thigh-revealing, hip thrusting outifts (compared to the male characters of whom very little is said about what they wear), the sexualization of the fight scenes between the Witcher and his female foes (always thighs and breasts exposed during a viscous fight to the death), the opening scene of an actual girl sexually attacking the Witcher in his sleep as part of her priestess training - it was all so gross that I had a hard time processing the stories behind these disturbing revelations of what men think when they see women.  The stories were interesting, although I was hoping for more of Geralt's back story, and you have to keep in mind that these stories preceded the Game of Thrones celebrity not to find them kind of hackneyed.  Sadly, no matter what male writers imagine, women are always relegated to one of three roles - virgin or girl I'd like to have sex with, whore or in this case demon, and female bringing beverages to men.  If we are imagining a different world, couldn't we fantasize something different for the women for change?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

belladonnashrike's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

4.25

“yennefer…yen.”
“yen,” she repeated, giving in to him completely. “nobody’s ever called me that. say it again.”
“yen.”
“geralt.”

GOD.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Blood

Minor: Incest, Infertility, Rape, Vomit, and War