Reviews with content warning for Infertility - Der letzte Wunsch

Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

Der letzte Wunsch by Andrzej Sapkowski

30 reviews

idajoh's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

It's a good fantasy book and it kept me engaged the entire time. However, all the stories were adapted into the TV-show (which is a good thing), but I wish there were some fresh stories for me to enjoy honestly.

The story is mainly told through dialogue which makes it a pretty quick and easy read. The action sequences, although few, are also very good at creating suspense while being believable. I will admig that I was a bit confused throughout most of them, but I just chalked it up to me being tired while I read most of the book.

The major downfall of this book is the extreme misoginy. No women in this book, except maybe Nenneke, is seen as something other than a sex object by all the characters. That includes Geralt. It was extremely off-putting and I'm glad that aspect was toned down in the TV series. At least Yennefer in the TV series had other redeeming qualities except her want of a child.

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epsyphus's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

Fun introduction to the series. I really enjoyed the Netflix tv show so I’m excited to get more into this series.

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indianagranger's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective tense slow-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

5.0

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taylor_annotates's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

I disliked this for the first 100 pages or so for a few reasons. Then the book grew on me a bit. A bit.

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puzzle_ad's review against another edition

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3.0

So I watched the first season of The Witcher show when it came out (almost mostly because of Henry Cavill, that beautiful nerd) but I thought it was kinda weird and didn't like it all that much and then ya know shit happened and the world was on fire and I forgot about it. I have never played the video games. But I thought hmm I might read the books and I never did. And then the second season came out and I wasn't sure I would even watch it. But I got my booster shot and had a headache so I decided to spend the entire day watching the Witcher while my body did its thing and created all the antibodies. And I really enjoyed it. Listen Jaskier and Yennefer were the best part. I am not surprised they are my favourites. I am a theatre kid first, human second. The funny guy that sings will always own my heart.

So I decided to try the books. I was mostly hesitant because it's a fantasy written by an old Polish man the year I was born which doesn't bode well for many reasons. It very much does read like a fantasy written by an old Polish man the year I was born. Very very sexist and misogynistic. Very much a teenage boy's wish fulfilment fantasy of a strong man fighting monsters and having women constantly throwing themselves at him to sleep with him. But honestly, I expected it to be worse. Thankfully it wasn't as graphic as I thought it would be. Every single story featured rape, every single woman was sexually assaulted in some way. I hate this the most and it is why I hate medieval fantasy. The women were very very male-gazy written. Like, listen there is an entire fucking chapter of the woman that Geralt slept with that has very conveniently taken a vow of silence so she doesn't speak and she is just there for him to monologue at about his manpain^tm. If this isn't the most fucking sexist male fantasy of having a woman there just to fuck and her being literally unable to talk. Renfri's entire story was fucking disturbing as hell. And yes I do realise that he is pulling from Slavic mythology and fairy tales and her story was basically Snow White and his take of fairy tales is very close to the original Grimm tales it still left a bad taste in my mouth. And it reminded me how much I liked Renfri in the first episode and how mad I was at what happened with her so fast.

This is another point, I have seen so many people bitch about how the show is basically fanfiction and has nothing to do with the books so I expected to be you know surprised when reading the book. But the first season followed this book so so closely that I really don't know why people are bitching so much about it. This had the side effect of me being bored because I know what happens next. There just wasn't much Yennefer and it had very little of Jaskier/Dandelion ( I firmly believe fantasy names should not be translated literally in fantasy and it means Buttercup flower too) which was a bummer. They are mostly the reason I wanted to read the books.

The main problem I had with the show was the randomness of the timelines and how it took me until episode 7 to realise there are in fact different timelines, I think I was also not alone in this. The book's short stories since it is in fact a collection of short stories and in a different order than the show's stories but also not in chronological order. Now in retrospect, I do like how they did the first season with the timelines and it is a good adaptation but I didn't enjoy it at first. I think it is a nice storytelling element.

Despite all the problems I had with this I am already halfway through the second one. What I do enjoy is the worldbuilding and mythology. I am Eastern-European and so I do appreciate it a lot. It is much more authentic than when an American author tries to use Slavic mythology. (*cough* Leigh Bardugo *cough*) I wanted to read it translated into my language from Polish (it's probably way more accurate) but there are no audiobooks and I just don't have the time and don't want to sacrifice my vision for this honestly. The audiobooks are fine enough but the narrator singing for Jaskier/Dandelion has honestly scarred me. I feel like his humour is much better in the show but that might just be my bias. I also enjoyed the writing style, though I don't know how much of that is from the translator.

Overall it was fine if you go into it expecting the problems and prepare for reading them.

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anni_swanilda's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

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graceless_grace's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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ailsaod's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.0

I am a bit conflicted about this book as while I think the way it is set out with non-linear storytelling that tells the reader exactly what they need to know exactly when it becomes relevant is very impressive I did not enjoy some of the actual content that much.

I watched the first season of the witcher a while ago and it was interesting seeing the differences - in particular the fairy-tale influences the show omitted. Reading a revenge story featuring aspects of both Rapunzel and Snow White was certainly an experience! I also thought Sapkowski incorporated such topics as colonialism in an interesting way but it was a bit too dark for me and everyone seemed to constantly be thinking about sex which is not something I prefer in books (although I should have seen it coming so that is definitely on me!).

I can see why people like this and it is well constructed but not to my tastes.

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tilo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Bisher kannte ich die Welt nur durch die Videospiele und durch die Netflixserie. Letztere hatte mich dann überzeugt, die Buchreihe zu lesen und der erste Band ist sehr vielversprechend. Ich habe genau das bekommen, was ich erwartet habe: Interessantes Fantasysetting, mehr Hintergründe zur Welt und den Charakteren, vor allem aber sehr gut geschriebene Abenteuergeschichten. Am meisten beeindruckt war ich von den wahnsinnig gut geschriebenen Kampfszenen, die mich sehr inspiriert haben, da mir solche beim Schreiben meiner Geschichten schwer fallen und ich hier hilfreiche Strukturen erkennen konnte.
Wenn die weiblichen Charaktere in den Geschichten nicht stark dargestellt wären und vor allem keine eigene Ambitionen hätten, die nicht zwingend auf Männern gebaut wären, hätte mich der doch sehr präsente Sexismus der männlichen Charaktere gestört. Letztendlich wirkt es aber für mich eher so, als ob die Gesellschaft in dieser Saga eher auf Frauen herabschaut, auch wenn der Autor diese Ansichten nicht in seinen weiblichen Charakteren in die Tat umsetzt.

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myladyreads's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I loved this! I read this because of the TV show, but I had no problem separating the TV show from the books. I was picturing the TV characters as the characters in the books.

I really enjoyed how some of the stories in this book were clearly based on classic fairytales. The stories did a good job of alluding to the stories without being direct retellings

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