Scan barcode
mwplante's review
2.0
Well, I made the mistake of starting the Witcher series with a fan translation of a short story that was never released in English, I guess because I hate myself? Really, I just have an odd compulsion to read fantasy series chronologically unless I am strongly and specifically advised not to, and this appeared to be the earliest story in the canon.
Honestly, I cannot yet pass judgement on the quality of the translation, as I have no experience with Sapkowski's writing as translated by the official translators. But maybe this review can serve as a premonition for those considering going this same route through the series.
I found this story to be rather pointless and lacking in the kind of clever character work that I have come to expect from the Witcher game and Netflix series, (my only exposure to the property up to this point). The author's way of writing dialogue was intriguing, however, and I can't say it was a bad story, just an underwhelming one. On to The Last Wish!
Honestly, I cannot yet pass judgement on the quality of the translation, as I have no experience with Sapkowski's writing as translated by the official translators. But maybe this review can serve as a premonition for those considering going this same route through the series.
I found this story to be rather pointless and lacking in the kind of clever character work that I have come to expect from the Witcher game and Netflix series, (my only exposure to the property up to this point). The author's way of writing dialogue was intriguing, however, and I can't say it was a bad story, just an underwhelming one. On to The Last Wish!
vanya's review
4.0
Really short accompanying story to the Witcher series (no spoilers for the Witcher series itself). I really liked it!
toruxis's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
witchycinnamon's review
5.0
A beautiful story detailing the start of Geralt’s mum and dads relationship. I love anything to do with the Witcher world.
magda_m's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
fandom4ever's review
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
‘The Road with No Return’ is a short story first published in the magazine, Fantastyka, in 1988 and then included in the anthology collection ‘Something Ends, Something Begins’, which is not Witcher related. Originally written in Polish, it was fan-translated to German, and then from German to English.
The translation is good, I never really felt that I was missing something because of the twice translation. The problems lie in the story itself. Something felt really off while reading this, like yes there’s some magic, a monster (why are intelligent creatures taking orders from it like it’s a bandit leader?) and they mention places that exist in the Witcher world but it never really felt a part of it. At first I thought it was just because it would be over a hundred years, if not more, before Geralt’s story, so of course the world would be different. But when discussing a monster there’s no talk of calling in a Witcher either.
Then I looked into the history of this story and Sapkowski had originally been writing a completely new novel that involved these intelligent lizard creatures, vrans, when his short story ‘The Witcher’ became really popular. (The vrans really threw me.) The magazine publisher wanted more from that world so Sapkowski cut what he had so far of the novel into pieces and changed around some things, mostly location names by the look of it, and gave it to them. I mean Visenna in this story has strawberry blonde hair while in ‘Something More’ she is a red head! It said Sapkowski just decided to say her character was Geralt’s mother because he didn’t wish to lose ‘such a pretty name’. Well didn’t he? It’s not like we ever saw her in the Witcher series past the one short story.
After reading all that, everything made a lot more sense. I looked back through the story in that light and felt a bit more favorable towards it. In the end though, while I commend the fan translators for allowing more of us to read this story, it’s not at all necessary. I didn’t really get anything from it because knowing its true history stops me from trying to piece how it fits into the Witcher universe. It’s plain and simple, it doesn’t.
eliakine's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
My rating is almost definitely impacted by the fact that the version of this story that I read was a fan translation where the story went from Polish to German to English, and that I'm not a huge fan of fantasy usually. I will say that the plot was intriguing, it's a nice little prequel to the main story of Geralt that I'm looking forward to :]
thoresu's review
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5