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peggy_racham's review against another edition
4.5
Moderate: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Medical content, Blood, Body horror, Death, Stalking, and Murder
petty_anthropology's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Xenophobia, Rape, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Incest
grayreadsmanga's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Sexism, Death, Confinement, Alcohol, Murder, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Torture, Misogyny, and Blood
Moderate: Medical content, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Rape, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Incest
Minor: Body horror and Vomit
fantasy discriminationthunderstrikes's review against another edition
- 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
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
ori0nn's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gore, and Torture
Minor: Alcohol
passchendaele's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
What to even say. I hate reviewing books. AAAAHHHH
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Sexual content and Gore
Minor: Rape, Infertility, Alcohol, and Sexual assault
rsouders's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcohol and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Infertility
risaleel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Violence, and Alcohol
Moderate: Incest, Gore, and Murder
cosmicbeige44's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Violence and Sexism
Moderate: Alcohol
poisonenvy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The Last Wish is a book consisting of seven short stories that follow the witcher, Geralt. One of the stories, "The Voice of Reason" is used as a framing device for the other six stories. So, there's no overarching plot in this book in particular, just a few episodes to give us an idea of Geralt's life as a witcher and to set up some other plot threads further down the line.
So, let's start:
The Prose: The prose in this novel is... not great. I don't know if it's the fault of the translator or not. I suspect it's a mix of both, but a lot of the awkwardness of the prose does seem to be in line with the stilted nature that some translations end up taking on.
Luckily, I read the majority of this book on audio, and Peter Kenny does an excellent job at narrating it. With his narration, a lot of the awkwardness of the text on paper seems to disappear (even if he pronounces Dandelion in... a way that I absolutely would not).
The Storytelling: While some of the later stories in the book are better for this, the first like, three, are pretty much exclusively told through dialogue? A lot of telling, very little showing, and it makes for some kind of frustratingly boring stories.
The Sexism: It's not much more egregious than a lot of 90s fantasy, but I just don't have the patience for that sort of thing anymore. Behind, the sympathetic rapist! Marvel at the pregnant 14 year old (but it's okay, because she's totally in love with the man who's likely in his mid-30s at the youngest who knocked her up). Look in awe as literally every single woman in this book wants to sleep with our macho protagonist whether it makes sense or not (though, lbr, if he looks like Henry Cavill maybe it does make sense no matter what the greater context of the story is. Even if he does act like a prepubescent boy any time a woman is naked around him, even if she is invisible).
The Plot: Like I said, there isn't much plot in this novel. It's very episodic in nature. BUT! I'm intrigued by the plot that it's setting up.
The Pacing: This is hard to place, really. Again, most of the early stories are told through dialogue, which makes them feel unbelievably slow.
The References: I enjoyed the occasional sprinkling of classic fairy tales in here. Seriously, it made me smile every time I noticed one.
I did very much enjoy The Last Wish, however. There were parts that were funny enough that I smiled at them. I'm not sure if <i>all</i> the funny parts were actually meant to be funny -- it's kind of a tonal shift from a lot of the rest of the book? -- but I'm going to give Sapkowski the benefit of the doubt in this.
Anyway, I enjoyed this book enough that I'm going to continue the series. I've got several of the books signed out from the library. I haven't decided yet if I like the series enough to actually purchase the rest of the books in it, nor am I sure if I'll see it through to the end of book eight. But I'm having fun with it.
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, and Sexism
Moderate: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, and Infertility
Minor: Incest