Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

La Tour de l'hirondelle by Andrzej Sapkowski

7 reviews

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I preferred this one I think but my goodness. There's such a men writing women thing. And I don't think this is a spoiler, its a long term gripe with the series and i m referencing things from earlier books and expressing my frustration at the lack of shifting from this dynamic. 

 I think the author perhaps doesng understand how abhorrent it is to see folks lusting over a literal child. 

There's moments we're supposed to be disgusted but also moments where we're clearly not. I get that  narratively, ciris age is difficult. Its hard to have her be a child and a woman at the same time.

Its not that bad for something written in the 90's though, I suppose. But the authors definition of consent doesnt seem to include enthusiasm. And like, Ciri has literally had advice from Yen on how to choose a lover, its weird that she hasn't made any reference to the quality of any of her beds. 

There's also so much reference to the rape or potential rape of random women. I know its war, I know women are raped in war. But this is fiction written by a man from the 21st century. He could also have included as many consensual scenes as he wanted. 

And I do like the books. They make me laugh, the story is compelling and the characters endearing.

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adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes

This book was a great read! It would be even better without the pedophilia. I mean, I get the author trying to portray Ciri as a growing girl but the grown men, trying to mess with a child is very uncomfortable and unnecessary. Glad that guy got what he deserved. Death. We also got Kelpie from him! The author gave the rats a brutal death with Bonhart! For the best. Bonhart is insane and sick! He’s one of my favorites. I wanna see him face off against Ciri! Ciri has been through hell in this book! The arena section was great…Well, if you cut out the pedophilic woman drooling over Ciri. Anytime Ciri gets to display her skills is always a fun read! Another thing that upset me was making an actual likeable character into a pedophile! Why do that to Cahir? His whole reason for being here is because he’s in love with Ciri? Really? We’re introduced to a new Character Avallac’h. I know him from the games so I feel he’s going to be an interesting character. Geralt is still so far from Ciri but hopefully they reunite soon. I didn’t like the idea of Yennefer being dead but luckily they cleared that up. I wonder who’s going to save Yennefer? Ciri seems more likely. We also find out the Vigelfortz was behind Ciris parents death! He’s had his eye on her for a long while. I grew to like Vysgota, if we ignore the beginning and whatnot. Why give him a sudden death? Unless I missed something? Ciri goes insane in the end, taking out those men who were after her! She’s so cool! Rience finally got what he deserved! Unfortunately she let Skellen go. The Wild Hunt stopping Bonhart was out of nowhere but understandable seeing as they want her too. Then we find out shes the master of all worlds?! Who’s the elf at the end? This book was definitely action packed and fun not counting the pedophilia. I will definitely be reading the next!

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Such a confusion of plotlines that it's basically fantasy Pulp Fiction but if you can get past that it's an extremely well written dark fantasy (read the first books first, though, or you'll be confused). Also,
Leo Bonhart is one of the most compelling evil bastards in literature.

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adventurous dark slow-paced
Strong character development: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

I love how this was written, how all of the storylines bleed into each other in the form of recollections or stories. It was probably one of my favorite things about this book, actually. The amount of times I physically reacted to what I was reading was insane, and I was on the edge of my seat from page one. Despite this being a lot slower paced than the others in the series, I can see this being my favorite out of the other books. There wasn't a moment of peace on the pages, so there wasn't a moment of peace in my heart.

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adventurous challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Mam wrażenie że Sapkowskiemu, piszącemu książkę w której nic się nie dzieje, a czyny prawie wszystkich bohaterów nie mają wpływu na ostateczną sytuację, udaje się dalej opowiedzieć historię o wielu rzeczach.
Czuję, że im bardziej czytam tym bardziej wiem czemu mi nie leży adaptacja serialowa, wiedźmin to w małym stopniu historia o zabijaczu potworów, bardziej o politycznych intrygach, na szczeblu głów państw, jak i drobnych rzezimieszków. Najgorszymi potworami stałe są ludzie, którzy nie powstrzymują się przed niczym.

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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

You’re going to want a map. Seriously, a map; there’s a lot of traveling from here to there and back again. Put a marker in the book and go google the map.

I find it interesting that the author starts using different cadencing and storytelling frameworks to set the various storylines apart. This is useful up to a point, but you are also likely to want a flowchart of characters and events. It’s repeatedly emphasized that this is all running to a particular schedule, with significant dates to mark the pace. Even though the storylines are broadly independent in their flow, still their actions (and inactions) have effects that ripple throughout. It can be tricky to see how they all sync up together, but the author indicates that this is important, so maybe take some notes.

PS: Cahir is unexpectedly growing on me.

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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