Geralt is a witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. He roams the country seeking assignments, but gradually comes to realise that while some of his quarry … are unremittingly vile, vicious grotesques, others are the victims of sin, evil or simple naïvety.
One reviewer said: ‘This book is a sheer delight. It is beautifully written, full of vitality and endlessly inventive: its format, with half a dozen episodes and intervening rest periods for both the hero and the reader, allows for a huge range of characters, scenarios and action. It’s thought-provoking without being in the least dogmatic, witty without descending to farce and packed with swordfights without being derivative. The dialogue sparkles; characters morph almost imperceptibly from semi-cliché to completely original; nothing is as it first seems. Sapkowski succeeds in seamlessly welding familiar ideas, unique settings and delicious twists of originality: his Beauty wants to rip the throat out of a sensitive Beast; his Snow White seeks vengeance on all and sundry, his elves are embittered and vindictive. It’s easily one of the best things I’ve read in ages.’
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I got this Audio book from the library. Fantastic audio book so much better than the Netflix series.
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski introduces readers to Geralt of Rivia, a man people know as a witcher. This collection of short stories follows the Witcher on his adventures, where he meets exciting characters and fights monsters, both human and inhuman.
Okay, I admit it, I watched the Netflix show first. However, in my defense, I owned his …
I haven’t had a chance to watch the Witcher on Netflix all the way through for a few reasons I won’t get into, but I really liked the idea and wanted to read the books before preparing myself to watch the show. I decided to read them in the order given by Orbit instead of the publishing order.
The first book in the series is definitely top notch …
After watching the Netflix series, I wanted to read the books and of course, the book is much better.
4.5/5 Stars
This book really surprised me in such a positive way. I honestly didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did. I was a little leery to start this book at first because I didn’t know how well the translation from its original Polish would fare. It turns out that my apprehensions were unfounded because I absolutely fell right into …
Book source ~ Home library
This anthology introduces the Witcher named Geralt of Rivia. I think I figured out that the passages titled The Voice of Reason are when Geralt is healing at the temple after dealing with a striga and the other chapters are short stories involving his monster hunting. It’s all a bit confusing. I’m not sure if it’s the …
Big fan of the book way before the video games and Netflix series. But those are now great supplements to the excellent novels.
As with everyone else, I’ve finally started reading these books along with playing the games and watching the show. I liked the progression of stories, though some were more forgettable than others. I really enjoyed that several played on classic fairy tales but inverted them in clever ways. Gerald is a much more interesting character than I’ve …
Having been a huge fan of the Witcher Series (played the games, before picking this up) I went full throttle and ordered all the books available. This was the beginning, the introduction of the story of Geralt of Rivia. Witcher, and monster.
It took me some time to get hooked, granted, this was a collection of shorts that discussed a bigger …
Because of the Witcher trailer that came out recently, I started to read this book. It’s a prologue to the Blood of the Elves (that I still have to read) and exists out of a couple of stories about Gertalts life. It’s easy to follow. For me, it feels like I am reading a chronological book and not some “short stories”, because of how the stories …
The Witcher is my favourite fantasy world. Akin to Tolkien, only with more ambiguous characters and nuance.
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski is a great introduction to a great series. I would suggest reading this one first, then Sword of Destiny and Blood of Elves. The short stories introduce a lot of recurring characters in the series. The stories are quick and enjoyable reads, with lots of humor. As soon as the book ended, I was ready to pick up the …
This was a very fun and entertaining collection of short stories about Geralt as he come across many creatures and characters. I really enjoyed a lot of the stories and got to know a lot about Geralt.
I’m a huge fan of the games created around the world of Geralt of Rivia. Going back and reading the books and learning more about this world and the characters in it allowed me to immerse myself in the world. While this book isn’t truly considered the first in the novel series it is a great start to learning about the characters, the world and the …
Being a collection of short stories, it’s probably not the best introduction for readers who are new to the universe of The Witcher, but that doesn’t stop this book from being a thoroughly enjoyable read, especially for fans of low fantasy that likes to show the dirt (and often worse) under its characters’ fingernails.
The description bills the …
Fantastic book. Really sets the world up. If you play the game, this book is perfect.
I found this book, the prequel to the Witcher series, to be a little difficult to get into, mostly because the time-line kept switching. It’s well worth the effort to read this and the rest of the series if you want to play the games. And the games are GREAT.