Sections
“At that moment sounded the howl of the fell beann’shie, the harbinger of imminent and violent death, and across the black sky galloped the Wild Hunt – a procession of fiery-eyed phantoms on skeleton horses, their tattered cloaks and standards fluttering behind them.”
The sixth book of The Witcher series, written by Andrzej Sapkowski and translated to English by David A. French, illustrates how the series has changed with each passing book: if at first, we had a collection of short stories that sarcastically played with fairy tales to discuss the importance of taking a stand in political matters, now we have a novel about violence and death that treats these subjects with [...]
Baptism of Fire is the worst so far in The Witcher series. It fails to advance the main plot in any way, shape, or form, forgets to develop most of its characters, and still presents a problematic structure.
The events of the novel take place shortly after those of The Time of Contempt, with Geralt seeking refuge in Brokilon while Ciri tries to survive as an outlaw, attacking small settlements. The famous witcher comes back to be the protagonist of the story, which accompanies his tireless search for the missing girl.
Geralt’s narrative arc is quite different from previous volumes. Here, the character’s political impartiality is no longer important since the [...]
The Time of Contempt, the fourth volume of The Witcher saga, shows the best and worst of its author, Andrzej Sapkowski: on the one hand, there is a story full of intriguing characters and complex social relations; on the other, there is the usual repetition of ideas and severe problems in the structure of the book.
The story begins shortly after the events of Blood of Elves, with Princess Cirilla being taken by Yennefer to a witchcraft school while Geralt tries to discover the identity and intentions of the girl’s pursuers.
Ciri remains the protagonist, and her future is the big question in the story: will her good intentions prevail in the end or will the curse [...]
Blood of Elves, written by Andrzej Sapkowski, is the third book in The Witcher saga, but the first novel since the previous two volumes, The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, are structured like a collection of short stories. This transition proves to be problematic, however: Sapkowski still offers an ironic and melancholic story, but now without a solid structure holding it together, being marred by chapters that are loosely connected with each other and a conclusion that is deeply anticlimactic.
The novel’s opening follows the events that closed Sword of Destiny. The witcher Geralt of Rivia, having found his pre-destined child, decides to adopt her and teach her the arts of [...]
Sword of Destiny is the second volume of The Witcher saga, which began with The Last Wish. Here, Andrzej Sapkowski maintains the structure and style of the previous book, presenting episodic tales packed with irony and social criticism while developing the protagonist around the story’s main theme.
This theme, as the title suggests, is the fight against everything that is predetermined: Geralt wants to prove that the responsibility for building his own future lies only on his shoulders and is not set in stone. The narrative frames this conflict around Geralt’s personal and professional life, focusing on his impossible relationship with the sorceress Yennefer and on the [...]
The Last Wish marks the first big appearance of the most famous character of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski: the witcher Geralt of Rivia. Geralt’s subsequent adventures became so famous internationally that even a video game series called The Witcher was created to further develop them. But unlike the videogame – which has an intricate web of political plot lines – the book adopts a much less pretentious narrative strategy, being built around short stories that gradually develop its protagonist.
Geralt of Rivia is a mercenary specialized in killing monsters and supernatural creatures. Because he has undergone special training, which has modified some of his genetic [...]