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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
I really like this book. And I guess that's a problem.
The Tower of the Swallow is a book that isn't particularly concerned in taking the reader forward. It's questionable whether it stands on its own or as part of the wider series*. Imagine a collection of slice of life stories if the proverbial loaf was shuffled, squashed, and thrown to the ducks for nibble. There's call backs, call forwards, irrelevant asides**, narrative dead ends, meanderings, and unrhythmic repetitions***. There's ostensibly a framing device of Ciri retelling events to a hermit but it clashes constantly with other retellings within the same chapter, as though the author expects a reader to race from campfire to tribunal hearing to grandfather's bedside, travelling through space and time while searching for a coherent narrative.
But... maybe... there is a hint (just a hint) of reality here. There are many wheels turning, driven by individuals with their own goals that are often unrelated to the main problem at hand. Promising leads go stale. Side tracks abound, forced by the need to render aid, comply with obligations, or avoid/confront enemies. There's a freshness and variety in events. You might be slugged by an oar while caught in a fishing net, or watch your lover bleed out in the mud of some forsaken village. While it would be too generous to say the threads knit together at the end, the conclusion is relatively satisfying.
I really like this book.
There are two primary POV characters (Geralt and Ciri) with roughly half a dozen minor POV characters interacting with the stories of the former two. The book has a smattering of individuals that were previously relevant but parked by the author for this book. They chime in occasionally to remind us of the awkwardness of their semi-existence here. Finally, there are the stock characters: some nonetheless richly drawn; some dry enough to be kindling; and one shouting "Pon my Lord" every line. The male gaze lingers on a number of the female characters, the location of Ciri's rose tattoo being particularly cringeworthy.
But there is at least female lead in Ciri. She's somewhat underwritten, yet she is there, fighting her own battles, working within the constraints of her circumstances, and holder of an interesting backstory that is expanded upon in this book. Geralt, the titular Witcher, swings between wearied and wide-eyed, peaceable and berserk, coolheaded and overwrought, reasoned and unreasonable. And I believe that it works. Perhaps it jars at times, but his personality changes according to the situation gives him a multidimensionality that a more consistently written character might lack. The bickerings, frustrations and little battles between all the characters also give them greater life than as mere dispensers of exposition. The author will often pause to describe even a minor character's history and current situation in a way that's reasonably organic.
I really like this book.
The fantasy setting in the Witcher series involves elves, dwarves, magic and various monsters interwoven with appropriations from a number of different mythologies, primarily European. None of it is particularly original, though the Central European myths are relatively unknown in the Anglo world. The humans do come off as very white. While there is a grab-bag of non-human races, the book's hints at parallels between their sufferings and exclusions with non-white people in our present world is, in its way, the very definition of dehumanising the latter.
Yet what I like about this series is that it is earthy. In both senses of the word. You smell the soil. You smell the shit. This isn’t about gleaming armour and ethereal elf-maidens. You linger on the details while ignoring the wider plot holes. The setting is on the grim side, but there are enough friendly moments that make it interesting enough to want to experience it.
I really like this book.
I can't argue with any negative reviews of this book. Not only are they valid from the reviewer's personal experience, there are clear issues from a relatively objective standpoint. But I really like this book. It's my problem.
*Being an impulse borrower, I saw this and got it out having not read the previous book in the series. From the recap, I probably didn’t miss anything critical.
**I'll claim my "super-level genius" badge for getting the Schliemann reference in one of them.
***no one is watching them in the swamp. No one is Watching Them in the Swamp. No One Is Watching Them In The Swamp. NO ONE IS WATCHING THEM IN THE SWAMP.
The Tower of the Swallow is a book that isn't particularly concerned in taking the reader forward. It's questionable whether it stands on its own or as part of the wider series*. Imagine a collection of slice of life stories if the proverbial loaf was shuffled, squashed, and thrown to the ducks for nibble. There's call backs, call forwards, irrelevant asides**, narrative dead ends, meanderings, and unrhythmic repetitions***. There's ostensibly a framing device of Ciri retelling events to a hermit but it clashes constantly with other retellings within the same chapter, as though the author expects a reader to race from campfire to tribunal hearing to grandfather's bedside, travelling through space and time while searching for a coherent narrative.
But... maybe... there is a hint (just a hint) of reality here. There are many wheels turning, driven by individuals with their own goals that are often unrelated to the main problem at hand. Promising leads go stale. Side tracks abound, forced by the need to render aid, comply with obligations, or avoid/confront enemies. There's a freshness and variety in events. You might be slugged by an oar while caught in a fishing net, or watch your lover bleed out in the mud of some forsaken village. While it would be too generous to say the threads knit together at the end, the conclusion is relatively satisfying.
I really like this book.
There are two primary POV characters (Geralt and Ciri) with roughly half a dozen minor POV characters interacting with the stories of the former two. The book has a smattering of individuals that were previously relevant but parked by the author for this book. They chime in occasionally to remind us of the awkwardness of their semi-existence here. Finally, there are the stock characters: some nonetheless richly drawn; some dry enough to be kindling; and one shouting "Pon my Lord" every line. The male gaze lingers on a number of the female characters, the location of Ciri's rose tattoo being particularly cringeworthy.
But there is at least female lead in Ciri. She's somewhat underwritten, yet she is there, fighting her own battles, working within the constraints of her circumstances, and holder of an interesting backstory that is expanded upon in this book. Geralt, the titular Witcher, swings between wearied and wide-eyed, peaceable and berserk, coolheaded and overwrought, reasoned and unreasonable. And I believe that it works. Perhaps it jars at times, but his personality changes according to the situation gives him a multidimensionality that a more consistently written character might lack. The bickerings, frustrations and little battles between all the characters also give them greater life than as mere dispensers of exposition. The author will often pause to describe even a minor character's history and current situation in a way that's reasonably organic.
I really like this book.
The fantasy setting in the Witcher series involves elves, dwarves, magic and various monsters interwoven with appropriations from a number of different mythologies, primarily European. None of it is particularly original, though the Central European myths are relatively unknown in the Anglo world. The humans do come off as very white. While there is a grab-bag of non-human races, the book's hints at parallels between their sufferings and exclusions with non-white people in our present world is, in its way, the very definition of dehumanising the latter.
Yet what I like about this series is that it is earthy. In both senses of the word. You smell the soil. You smell the shit. This isn’t about gleaming armour and ethereal elf-maidens. You linger on the details while ignoring the wider plot holes. The setting is on the grim side, but there are enough friendly moments that make it interesting enough to want to experience it.
I really like this book.
I can't argue with any negative reviews of this book. Not only are they valid from the reviewer's personal experience, there are clear issues from a relatively objective standpoint. But I really like this book. It's my problem.
*Being an impulse borrower, I saw this and got it out having not read the previous book in the series. From the recap, I probably didn’t miss anything critical.
**I'll claim my "super-level genius" badge for getting the Schliemann reference in one of them.
***no one is watching them in the swamp. No one is Watching Them in the Swamp. No One Is Watching Them In The Swamp. NO ONE IS WATCHING THEM IN THE SWAMP.
Wishing I'd put the last book on hold already is perhaps the best review I can give for this book... More story telling and less war/politics (although there is plenty.) than the book before this one.
Another fantastic Witcher adventure!
I love the Witcher stories - beautifully imagined, delightfully written (or at least delightfully translated into English), labyrinthine in its plotting (how often what seems like an irrelevant detail of tangential plotline comes back to become part of the real storyline). I'm intensely looking forward to the next book! This one dealt with the ongoing fallout from the conclave at Thanedd and the search for Ciri (again!) by Geralt of Rivia - the Witcher! It has some great adventures and adventuring parties, including some unusual characters (like a vampire?!?). Fun!
I love the Witcher stories - beautifully imagined, delightfully written (or at least delightfully translated into English), labyrinthine in its plotting (how often what seems like an irrelevant detail of tangential plotline comes back to become part of the real storyline). I'm intensely looking forward to the next book! This one dealt with the ongoing fallout from the conclave at Thanedd and the search for Ciri (again!) by Geralt of Rivia - the Witcher! It has some great adventures and adventuring parties, including some unusual characters (like a vampire?!?). Fun!
This was probably my least favorite of the series so far. There are too many overlapping and confusing plotlines (and I like reading multiple POV books) that drag the story down. There are strange flashbacks and flashforwards, and I was never quite sure who was telling a particular bit of history at the moment. This is also basically the other half of the third book. I was hoping to move past this particular quest before now, but I guess it will occupy the whole series.
If anyone had found the cottage, they would have seen Ciri telling her story to Vysogota, day after day, but they did not. He listens as she tells him what we are all wondering: hoe did he come to find her in the shape she was in?
Geralt does everything he can to find Ciri, to save her, even putting himself in danger, while Yennefer does the same, but what if they're trying to save her from the wrong thing? After all, Ciri is what they can never be.
Sapkowski has made an entire world of extraordinary people. This is one of those things where I love reading about it, but I would avoid going there myself... unless my wife asked. Where she goes, so do I.
Geralt does everything he can to find Ciri, to save her, even putting himself in danger, while Yennefer does the same, but what if they're trying to save her from the wrong thing? After all, Ciri is what they can never be.
Sapkowski has made an entire world of extraordinary people. This is one of those things where I love reading about it, but I would avoid going there myself... unless my wife asked. Where she goes, so do I.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I just want to start by saying this was my least favorite book in the series so far. It is not because the book goes nowhere because it does. It moves the story along just fine. It is because there is a fine line between giving your hero challenges and just being a dick and this book has crossed that line for me. This book reminds me so much of Harry Potter the 5th book with Umbridge. You take everything away from Harry, nothing goes right and he just keeps getting beat down and there is no end in sight. That is what this book is with Geralt.
This has been going on for three books now. First Geralt almost diees, his witcher sword destroyed. Then the dryads heal him with magic but is he not fully healed, he has knee issues, on top of that he no longer has his witcher armor, or potions. If that isn't enough now in this book he loses his wolf head pendant and can no longer cast magic, and claims he is a witcher no more! WTF!!!
Meanwhile things are not much better for Ciri, Bonehart caught her and the gang she was with. She had to watch her friends be beheaded right in front of her and became a slave to this sadistic bounty hunter who forces her to fight to the death in arenas and beats her constantly.
Yennefer is also captured and possibly killed.
The main focus of this book was answering a lot of questions the reader has had. A majority of this book is Ciri telling her story to this old hermit who finds her in this swampy marsh type area that he lives and we repeatedly are told no one ventures into this area and Ciri is safe. When he finds her she is almost dead and he nurses her back to health and she spends over 30 days telling him her story. We also learn about Geralt and his friends who are still trying to find Ciri.
We also get a few time jumps in this story again and it makes me wonder why they are in the story. Every time jump is hundreds of years later and people tell stories like this is all legend. The second half of this book is really setting up the next book The Lady of the Lake.
Ciri is also starting to understand who she is and the power she wields. She thinks finding The Tower of Swallows with open another portal and she will be able to get back to her friends.
This book is very well written and moves the story forward but I just can't take anymore of the heroes being beat down. I hope things change in The Lady of the Lake and we get some payback for the crap that has happened but right no wit just seems hopeless from Geralt, Ciri, and their friends. With only two books left I still don't know how this is going to end but I am getting anxious to find out. The Lady of the Lake is the thickest book of the series so it may take a few weeks to finish with finals being this week. I should have my YouTube video up tomorrow, check it out! Link in the bio.
This has been going on for three books now. First Geralt almost diees, his witcher sword destroyed. Then the dryads heal him with magic but is he not fully healed, he has knee issues, on top of that he no longer has his witcher armor, or potions. If that isn't enough now in this book he loses his wolf head pendant and can no longer cast magic, and claims he is a witcher no more! WTF!!!
Meanwhile things are not much better for Ciri, Bonehart caught her and the gang she was with. She had to watch her friends be beheaded right in front of her and became a slave to this sadistic bounty hunter who forces her to fight to the death in arenas and beats her constantly.
Yennefer is also captured and possibly killed.
The main focus of this book was answering a lot of questions the reader has had. A majority of this book is Ciri telling her story to this old hermit who finds her in this swampy marsh type area that he lives and we repeatedly are told no one ventures into this area and Ciri is safe. When he finds her she is almost dead and he nurses her back to health and she spends over 30 days telling him her story. We also learn about Geralt and his friends who are still trying to find Ciri.
We also get a few time jumps in this story again and it makes me wonder why they are in the story. Every time jump is hundreds of years later and people tell stories like this is all legend. The second half of this book is really setting up the next book The Lady of the Lake.
Ciri is also starting to understand who she is and the power she wields. She thinks finding The Tower of Swallows with open another portal and she will be able to get back to her friends.
This book is very well written and moves the story forward but I just can't take anymore of the heroes being beat down. I hope things change in The Lady of the Lake and we get some payback for the crap that has happened but right no wit just seems hopeless from Geralt, Ciri, and their friends. With only two books left I still don't know how this is going to end but I am getting anxious to find out. The Lady of the Lake is the thickest book of the series so it may take a few weeks to finish with finals being this week. I should have my YouTube video up tomorrow, check it out! Link in the bio.
With plenty of political intrigue, this 6th book (or 4th if you don't count the two short-story volumes) brings Ciri back into focus, and updates Geralt's progress too. One of my favorite things about this series is the character development. There are a lot of characters, many of the wonderfully loathsome, but plenty of them have at least some redeeming qualities and are mostly trying to do the right thing, and there are some I'm just not sure about yet. A great series - I can't wait to see how it turns out.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
3.5 stars
Tower of the Swallow is another good entry into the Witcher series but it suffers a little from Geralt's snail pace arc and some odd time hopping. This is nothing new for the series but it was the first time that it wasn't executed all that well. In the latter half of the book, Sapkowski mentions the date like 1000 times as all 3 arcs are happening at different times. It feels a bit messy.
There is much more of Ciri in this entry which is great because at this point her arc is the only one really pushing forward with purpose. Her storyline is engaging and exciting at all times.
Geralt on the other hand has come soooo far (geographically) yet has gotten nowhere with regard to his objective. That was fine in baptism of fire because there was so much great interaction between him and his companions but that's not so much the case in Tower of the Swallow. His goal truly feels unachievable.
Yennefer's arc is good, not great. Happy to see a little bit more of her after so little in BOF but her mission didn't end as I suspected or would have liked, subjectively.
Lastly, this entry is grim! I mean, NO ONE is having a good time in this book! Sapkowski shows you the characters that you've come to love really go through the wringer here! You also get a little villain perspective in a hunter becomes the hunted type way. You never feel bad for them though, if that was the intention.
Interested to see how this all comes together in Lady of the Lake. I hope the finale befits what a great series this has been!
Tower of the Swallow is another good entry into the Witcher series but it suffers a little from Geralt's snail pace arc and some odd time hopping. This is nothing new for the series but it was the first time that it wasn't executed all that well. In the latter half of the book, Sapkowski mentions the date like 1000 times as all 3 arcs are happening at different times. It feels a bit messy.
There is much more of Ciri in this entry which is great because at this point her arc is the only one really pushing forward with purpose. Her storyline is engaging and exciting at all times.
Geralt on the other hand has come soooo far (geographically) yet has gotten nowhere with regard to his objective. That was fine in baptism of fire because there was so much great interaction between him and his companions but that's not so much the case in Tower of the Swallow. His goal truly feels unachievable.
Yennefer's arc is good, not great. Happy to see a little bit more of her after so little in BOF but her mission didn't end as I suspected or would have liked, subjectively.
Lastly, this entry is grim! I mean, NO ONE is having a good time in this book! Sapkowski shows you the characters that you've come to love really go through the wringer here! You also get a little villain perspective in a hunter becomes the hunted type way. You never feel bad for them though, if that was the intention.
Interested to see how this all comes together in Lady of the Lake. I hope the finale befits what a great series this has been!