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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The Last Wish: 4/5
As a stitch-up of short stories, the framing narrative was really fun and the stories were great. Geralt is an icon.
Sword of Destiny: 4/5
Missing the framing of The Last Wish, but still highly entertaining.
Blood of Elves: 4/5
The Time of Contempt: 4/5
Baptism of Fire: 4/5
The Tower of Swallows: 4/5
The Lady of the Lake: 4/5
The novels themselves are hard to review because none of them feel distinct. They feel like one large story chopped up at convenient points to make reasonable sized books. Nothing wrong with this. Call it cohesion. It worked. Might irk people who don't read series all at once. The characters are lots of fun and the world is really fun to learn about. You couldn't call is whimsical, but the whimsy was one of my favorite parts regardless.
As a stitch-up of short stories, the framing narrative was really fun and the stories were great. Geralt is an icon.
Sword of Destiny: 4/5
Missing the framing of The Last Wish, but still highly entertaining.
Blood of Elves: 4/5
The Time of Contempt: 4/5
Baptism of Fire: 4/5
The Tower of Swallows: 4/5
The Lady of the Lake: 4/5
The novels themselves are hard to review because none of them feel distinct. They feel like one large story chopped up at convenient points to make reasonable sized books. Nothing wrong with this. Call it cohesion. It worked. Might irk people who don't read series all at once. The characters are lots of fun and the world is really fun to learn about. You couldn't call is whimsical, but the whimsy was one of my favorite parts regardless.
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have to start by saying that Peter Kenny is one of the greatest audiobook narrators of all time. He can do every single one of the hundred accents native to the British Isles, plus most of the ones from the rest of Europe, too. He gives each character in this character-stuffed epic their own personality through his vocal magic. I’m going to look for other audiobooks he narrates just to keep hearing his amazing work.
The writing and translating of this series continues to be good, although the storytelling continues to be kind of hard to follow. This book is mostly told in various conversations between characters, relating incidents out of order to the reader. The more of the series I read, the more I think that the TV adaptation is much more clever than I realized. I think they started with the whole series in mind and switched up the chronology a bit to make it easier on the viewer. Reading this book makes me want to both continue with the series, and then rewatch the TV show.
Content warning for rape and threats of rape and bragging by rapists. There is entirely too much rape in this whole series!
The writing and translating of this series continues to be good, although the storytelling continues to be kind of hard to follow. This book is mostly told in various conversations between characters, relating incidents out of order to the reader. The more of the series I read, the more I think that the TV adaptation is much more clever than I realized. I think they started with the whole series in mind and switched up the chronology a bit to make it easier on the viewer. Reading this book makes me want to both continue with the series, and then rewatch the TV show.
Content warning for rape and threats of rape and bragging by rapists. There is entirely too much rape in this whole series!
Could the Witcher truly be celibate? Has he finally abandoned his quest to fuck every woman in the series to focus on his much less pressing mission to literally save Ciri’s life?
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
In the second-to-last book in Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series, except for the prequel, Ciri's journey takes a wild turn as she continues wrestling with her destiny. The setting is all about war and political drama, and Ciri faces some seriously dangerous enemies while finding some surprising allies.
This book really puts Ciri in the spotlight, which is a nice change from the last one where she was kind of sidelined. The first half of the book is pretty gripping with some intriguing plot twists, but unfortunately, the narrative sort of drags in the second half.
Honestly, Dijkstra’s political scheming felt like a slog. His parts just didn't add much excitement and made those sections kind of tedious.
On the flip side, the dynamic between Ciri and Vilgefortz was fantastic. Vilgefortz is such a fascinating character—charming and layered, which really makes for some engaging reading.
However, a major downside was the frequent sexism and female-unfriendly remarks scattered throughout the text. These elements were not only irritating but detracted from the enjoyment of the story. The frequent eye-rolling and sighs these remarks stirred up became too frequent. It’s a testament to the beloved characters that I persevered through the book, but these issues are becoming harder to ignore.
This book really puts Ciri in the spotlight, which is a nice change from the last one where she was kind of sidelined. The first half of the book is pretty gripping with some intriguing plot twists, but unfortunately, the narrative sort of drags in the second half.
Honestly, Dijkstra’s political scheming felt like a slog. His parts just didn't add much excitement and made those sections kind of tedious.
On the flip side, the dynamic between Ciri and Vilgefortz was fantastic. Vilgefortz is such a fascinating character—charming and layered, which really makes for some engaging reading.
However, a major downside was the frequent sexism and female-unfriendly remarks scattered throughout the text. These elements were not only irritating but detracted from the enjoyment of the story. The frequent eye-rolling and sighs these remarks stirred up became too frequent. It’s a testament to the beloved characters that I persevered through the book, but these issues are becoming harder to ignore.