Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

15 reviews

writersrelief's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

5.0

 

The third entry in Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher Fantasy saga, THE LAST WISH is canonically the first book in the 9-novel series. Published in 1993 and translated into English in 2007, THE LAST WISH is a collection of short stories recounted as the Witcher Geralt of Rivia recovers from a nearly fatal injury. Each story serves to enumerate Geralt’s work, ethical code, and personality while introducing the reader to a medieval world gone wrong. 

 

Witchers are alchemically-engineered fiend exterminators for hire. The process renders Witchers both emotionally empty and physically enhanced. Geralt, the White Wolf of Rivia, is one such being. The first flashback of the novel centers around an age-old trope: the king of Temeria wishes his daughter saved from great peril. The peril in question? The princess herself, having been cursed from birth. The power structure outside of King Foltest’s court introduces another key part of the Witcher universe: monstrous humanity and political intrigue. Advisors and businessmen want Geralt to kill the princess. Will Geralt succumb to the temptation of earning coin, or will his determination and personal code hold fast? 

 

Sapkowski’s THE LAST WISH is rife with layered meaning and the exploration of human nature. The common philosophical themes Geralt wrestles with are summed up in two questions: what does it mean to be human, and what good can exist if one must always choose the lesser evil? 

 

THE LAST WISH immerses the reader in a darkened Eastern European world tinged and tormented by regional folklore. This seven story collection serves as a wonderful introduction to many of the recurring characters in the series, setting both stage and tone for many friendships, rivalries, conflicts, and confluences that extend into future novels set in The Witcher universe. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Violence, Sexual content, and Ableism

thunderstrikes's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Violence, Infertility, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Incest, Body horror, Confinement, Child abuse, Sexual content, and Rape

Minor: Gore, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Ableism, Genocide, Medical trauma, Murder, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Infertility, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Racism

aloy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Incest, Violence, and Sexual violence

brittni_in_ink's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.25

I enjoyed this more than I expected! The episodic format and time jumps were interesting, and I liked getting to know Geralt and his main circle through the short stories that make up the book. The "monsters" had nuance to them, and the action sequences were very well written. Having fairy tale references throughout was also interesting! Also props to the translation team - the quality of the writing really shone through.

I'd played a little of the Witcher 3 before reading this, so I was familiar with the characters and the kinds of stories I'd encounter. But I didn't expect the book to be so funny. There were some legit laugh out loud moments. Geralt does say "hmmm" a lot.

Overall, the lore and the characters were compelling, and I'll definitely continue reading through the series.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Medical content, Misogyny, Blood, Infertility, Sexism, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Body horror, Gore, and Murder

jasminawithab's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

starting my very slow read through of the whole series since i don't like the show, but i love the video games and the fanfics. 

the writing feels a bit disjointed at times but from what ive seen, thats because of the translator. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Child death, Incest, Infertility, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

Minor: Abandonment, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Ableism

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

bookishchef's review against another edition

funny mysterious medium-paced

2.0

So, I just finished the Dutch version of The Last Wish audiobook: the first book in the Witcher series. 

Was it badly written?
Yeah. It mostly consists of dialogue. And pretty weird, clunky dialogue at that.

Was the romance incredibly rushed?
Yeah. Kind of suddenly happened.

One moment they're fighting, next moment they're fucking.

Was it incredibly sexist? 
YEAH

I read that infamous 'her nipples touched his eyelids' scene a few years ago, and Oh My God that set the bar so incredibly low. And yeah it's bad. It's a terribly written scene, and most women (although not all), including the main love interest Yennefer, were just there to be a pair of tits. A feisty pair of tits sometimes, but a pair of tits nonetheless. This single book has more descriptions of breasts than the entirety of A Song Of Ice And Fire.

Yet it still wasn't as bad as I expected. And I guess that's something. I definitely enjoyed some scenes and some of the jokes. 

The Dutch audiobook did change some names and words into Dutch 'equivalents' that aren't really equivalent at all. This made the book feel even clunkier than usual, I think. Using 'neuk' instead of every 'fuck' doesn't really work in the Dutch language anymore, even if that is the literal translation. 

For some reason they changed Dandelion's name into 'Ranonkel', which means Persian Buttercup, not Dandelion. Ranonkel is a godawful name. Why oh why did the translator do this?
Later translators hated their colleague's decision too apparently, because later in the series his name gets changed into 'Ridderspoor', which means Larkspur and is a little better (still a shit name though).

Jelle Amersfoort acted as the VA for the Dutch version of the audiobook. He read every male character with the same intonation though, and he would often cut off his sentences in weird places, as if he ran out of breath. This sometimes made it hard to distinguish between characters. I wouldn't realize Geralt had said something, instead of some other character, until a sentence ended with 'Geralt said'. Still, this was the first Dutch audiobook I ever read to the end. Usually, the VA is incredibly cringe (which might just be due the Dutch language itself), but I actually managed to listen to Jelle. So kudos to him. 

2/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Ableism, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Misogyny, Alcohol, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, and Fire/Fire injury

burnt_milk's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

Fun and interesting in places. However. I got up to Renfri and I adore her but I'm so sick of how they write female characters. In-between complex discussions of monsterhood it rly has the gall to say 'Renfri was silent for some time, fiddling with a string of pearls wound three times around her shapely neck before falling teasingly between her breasts, their curves just visible through the slit of her jacket.' like what the hell? it takes me out every time and is more often than not entirely unnecessary. Apart from that some cool folklore concepts explored and I love the base concept of witchers and their roles in society, just hard to stomach the misogyny. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Classism, Racism, Rape, War, and Xenophobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Incest

katmahalia's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

I will be completely honest and say I didn’t follow the plot of the short stories that closely because I listened to the audiobook while playing video games, but from what I heard I really enjoyed it. The pacing did not feel too slow as it can in fantasy adventuring stories, and the action never felt disjointed or separated from the plot. And I liked the whole the-princesses-are-the-monsters twist on fairy tale plots, it was a nice nod to the fact that every fairy tale and legend has a bigger story behind it. 

My only gripe: the love interests are not interesting or lovely, mostly just annoying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Medical trauma, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Trafficking, Xenophobia, and Ableism

Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and War

booksthatburn's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

THE LAST WISH is a prequel to the Witcher main series, a collection of stories from Geralt’s life before the events of THE BLOOD OF ELVES. Each story is based or at least inspired by a fairy tale or bit of folklore.

I didn’t get much of a sense of Geralt from these stories alone, but having read the first book of the main series his characterization here seemed consistent with that. The titular story, “The Last Wish” had really strong characterization with an early meeting of Yennifer. She’s really well-written here, and that story alone is enough for me to recommend this to anyone interested in the broader series.

As a collection of fairytale retellings, I enjoyed this. It approaches most of them from strange angles which meant they felt great and fresh as stories. My favorite is the one which is clearly inspired by Beauty and the Beast. Given the blend of magic and corrupted desires already present in the series, the fairy tales fit right into the world of the Witcher.

Because this a collection of short stories from Geralt’s life before the main series of books, it doesn’t quite work to analyze the ending or an overall plot. I suspect a re-read might make it clearer, but the framing between stories was confusing to me and it wasn’t until several stories in that I figured out that the start of each chapter strung together to create an narrative distinct from the individual stories. 

This is good for anyone looking for additional Witcher content, but I don’t work it works well on its own or as a first introduction to the character and the world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexism, Ableism, Confinement, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Body horror, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Rape, Animal death, and Child death

Minor: Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, Incest, Torture, Suicide, and Animal cruelty