Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - The Last Wish

This book was a complicated one to review because I love TW3 and I've really enjoyed the Witcher on Netflix, despite its flaws. So many people have told me to check out the books, but I've always hesitated because I've also heard that the depictions of women in the books.... aren't great.

So I went in knowing what to expect. And I've got to admit, it was mostly a fun read! I liked getting more insights into Geralt and the other characters, and reading the original source material was really entertaining. But, unfortunately, the other side of it was also true. The female characters were not very well handled, which hampered my enjoyment as a female reader. I can see why guys (and plenty of girls) can read this series without any issue, but it took me aback after reading a lot of female-written fantasy novels over the past few years. There are sections of this book that are serious contenders for "she breasted boobily down the stairs" awards, not to mention the amount of unnecessary violence against women. Rape is mentioned in nearly every single one of the short stories, and that takes its toll on me mentally.

I have a lot more to say about each of the stories individually, but I think I'll leave it at this for now.

Content Warnings

lucecanon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

1.5

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ohthatsgrayt's review against another edition

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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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jewelkr's review

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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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kevin_the_intern's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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knerys's review

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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salma__m's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No

3.0

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arachan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense 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

4.0

Honestly not sure what to make of this book.

It's grimdark fantasy which is not my preferred genre. If I was asked to describe it, I would say noir fantasy with all that implies. There's a lot of "The world is horrible and shitty and the main character sees all the horrible underside of people but he's repulsed so he's the good guy!" which reminded me (unpleasantly) of GRR Martin. It also falls into the Slavic tradition of "the world is shit but what can you do?" which is hard to read in pandemic times.

All that being said, I was genuinely surprised. There were some genuinely human moments. The writing treats women as dangerous and unpredictable but does also treat that dangerous unpredictablity as a natural response to a world that's just flat out shitty to them. I did like Geralt.

There are some interesting parallels to the Netflix series but the book's characters are different in interesting ways.
Geralt is the obvious one; Netflix!Geralt is a brooding loner who still keenly feels the injustice of his treatment, he's like a younger Sam Vimes who still believes there is an objective justice out there and holds the world to it. Book!Geralt is older and both more and less cynical. He understands human foibles and mostly just tries to live with them.

Yennefer is less fleshed out (I presume her backstory happens in the other books) but the core of the character and her attitude that the world fucked her over so she's going to fuck it back twice as hard is intact.

Dandilion/Jaskier is a very different character. Again, the Netflix version is younger, rawer and more eager to prove himself. Dandilion is comfortable in his role and his life. The biggest difference here is that while Netflix!Geralt spends most of the show being an asshole to Jaskier, Book!Geralt not only cares for his Dandilion's well-being, he actually likes him. There's a comparable amount of insults but in the book, it's clearly a reflection of a very long and close friendship. Netflix!Geralt just comes across as an asshole.

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