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woahno 's review for:
Lady of the Lake
by Andrzej Sapkowski
I made it! I reached the ending of the main story arc. I know there is still another book to read. It still feels like I climbed a mountain. I have made it to the top and feel accomplished. All that time spent with Geralt and Ciri and Yennfer (and I suppose Triss, Dandelion, Cahir, Milva, and Regis deserve shout outs as well) finally coming to a conclusion. I'm sad to see them go yet excited that there is one more book left. It seems like it will help stave off that book depression that happens after completing a long series.
What I liked.
The cast of characters was once again the highlight of the novel for me. I have grown attached to them, especially the big three. Seeing how their arcs came together was delightful and worth the journey by itself. Luckily, there are some other great aspects to Lady of the Lake as well.
I found the entire storming of the castle sequence to be the best moment of the series. That was everything I was hoping it would be. The weight of the character's relationships were at the forefront of all the action and the struggles and stakes seemed to be at their highest because of it. It was cathartic, it was well done, and it was incredibly satisfying.
I also wanted to mention briefly the unicorns. From my experiences, this was a different kind of unicorn. I liked seeing this take on the mythical creatures and thought how they were used in the plot was clever. It reminded me of just how vast the lore and mythos go in this world. The author uses so very many different fairy tales and myths and combines them into a complex, rich world.
What I did not like.
Unfortunately, I still struggle with parts of this series. I am in love with the characters and the world but there continue to be aspects that bother me. Ciri's power, Nimue and Condwiramurs, that whole element of the series was hinted at before but now it was the center of the plot. I'm not sure why it bothered me so much yet it did. I generally like that kind of thing in my fantasy but having it show up prominently in the last book really threw me off. This will be one of those things that I think about a lot. Why do I like it if it is established early on in a story but dislike it if it is revealed late in the story? I wish I could answer that question today. For now, all I have is how I felt during those scenes and it jarred me out of my immersion and frustrated me.
I also don't like the jumping around of time in the series. Sometimes we have a frame story, sometimes we don't. It feels like the author prefers telling the story from the perspective of a character that has already experienced the events they are narrating or at least has the benefit of time to look back on what happened. However, the inconsistency of its use makes it feel more like an afterthought than a running theme or component of the story. It has constantly bugged me in each installment and this one was no different.
Changing gears, I have to rant a little about the casual sexism that is prevalent in The Witcher. There are scenes that I think could be social commentary about society during the medieval era. They can sometimes focus on how terrible the treatment of women was during that time. I have clung to these great female characters with the hope that it would work out in the end. That the mere fact that they exist in this world could somehow point to a bigger reveal later in the series of how they change the world for the better. That doesn't happen. Those scenes that highlight how bad it was for women definitely reminded me of how bad things still are for women today. I suppose in that way they served as social commentary. However, the change I was hoping for didn't come. Now I'm all kinds of conflicted about my opinions on the series. It has wonderful and strong female leads but there are far too many systemic injustices that go unaddressed in the end.
Overall, I have enjoyed my time with The Witcher series. I especially like the character work and the world filled with a plethora of monsters and myths. I think that it has some big problems though. Even if I took out my concerns about how casual the sexism is in the series it still doesn't stand up, in my opinion, to the titans of the genre. I'm glad I dove into the series though. It has given me a lot to think about and has helped me reframe some of my own thoughts on the genre. I initially began reading the series because of the show and I am now hopeful that the show runners can fix a lot of these issues. I'm a staunch “the books are better than the movies/tv shows” believer but I think The Witcher has a good chance to be one of the few that outshines their source materials.
What I liked.
The cast of characters was once again the highlight of the novel for me. I have grown attached to them, especially the big three. Seeing how their arcs came together was delightful and worth the journey by itself. Luckily, there are some other great aspects to Lady of the Lake as well.
I found the entire storming of the castle sequence to be the best moment of the series. That was everything I was hoping it would be. The weight of the character's relationships were at the forefront of all the action and the struggles and stakes seemed to be at their highest because of it. It was cathartic, it was well done, and it was incredibly satisfying.
I also wanted to mention briefly the unicorns. From my experiences, this was a different kind of unicorn. I liked seeing this take on the mythical creatures and thought how they were used in the plot was clever. It reminded me of just how vast the lore and mythos go in this world. The author uses so very many different fairy tales and myths and combines them into a complex, rich world.
What I did not like.
Unfortunately, I still struggle with parts of this series. I am in love with the characters and the world but there continue to be aspects that bother me. Ciri's power, Nimue and Condwiramurs, that whole element of the series was hinted at before but now it was the center of the plot. I'm not sure why it bothered me so much yet it did. I generally like that kind of thing in my fantasy but having it show up prominently in the last book really threw me off. This will be one of those things that I think about a lot. Why do I like it if it is established early on in a story but dislike it if it is revealed late in the story? I wish I could answer that question today. For now, all I have is how I felt during those scenes and it jarred me out of my immersion and frustrated me.
I also don't like the jumping around of time in the series. Sometimes we have a frame story, sometimes we don't. It feels like the author prefers telling the story from the perspective of a character that has already experienced the events they are narrating or at least has the benefit of time to look back on what happened. However, the inconsistency of its use makes it feel more like an afterthought than a running theme or component of the story. It has constantly bugged me in each installment and this one was no different.
Changing gears, I have to rant a little about the casual sexism that is prevalent in The Witcher. There are scenes that I think could be social commentary about society during the medieval era. They can sometimes focus on how terrible the treatment of women was during that time. I have clung to these great female characters with the hope that it would work out in the end. That the mere fact that they exist in this world could somehow point to a bigger reveal later in the series of how they change the world for the better. That doesn't happen. Those scenes that highlight how bad it was for women definitely reminded me of how bad things still are for women today. I suppose in that way they served as social commentary. However, the change I was hoping for didn't come. Now I'm all kinds of conflicted about my opinions on the series. It has wonderful and strong female leads but there are far too many systemic injustices that go unaddressed in the end.
Overall, I have enjoyed my time with The Witcher series. I especially like the character work and the world filled with a plethora of monsters and myths. I think that it has some big problems though. Even if I took out my concerns about how casual the sexism is in the series it still doesn't stand up, in my opinion, to the titans of the genre. I'm glad I dove into the series though. It has given me a lot to think about and has helped me reframe some of my own thoughts on the genre. I initially began reading the series because of the show and I am now hopeful that the show runners can fix a lot of these issues. I'm a staunch “the books are better than the movies/tv shows” believer but I think The Witcher has a good chance to be one of the few that outshines their source materials.