REVIEW: The Last Wish (Elisabeth)

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

[review by James's assistant Elisabeth]

The Last Wish was a fun read. I came into the book fairly blind having not played the games or watched the Netflix series but I definitely enjoyed myself. It’s told through a series of short stories each preceded by a framing narrative, ‘The Voice of Reason’, which provides some context and overarching narrative. Being someone that enjoys reading and writing short stories I really liked this structure. Because each story is self-contained it made it easy to jump in and follow what was happening. There aren’t any big political plots or world altering events to keep track of, all you need to know is Geralt is a Witcher, a hunter of strange creatures and monsters. A lot of fantasy relies on big worlds, lots if characters, and interweaving plots, so this was a bit different—but in a good way.

The stories themselves are reimaginings of classic fairy tales and folk tales. But even though they’re familiar—with classics like Beauty and the Beast, The Arabian Nights, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and (my personal favourite) Hans My Hedgehog—they don’t read like simple retellings. The original stories are pulled apart and altered, introduced to a darker world where things aren’t always as they appear. New creatures and characters are incorporated and the plots are twisted into something new.

The world of the Witcher is quite dark and disturbed, but the language and writing doesn’t always hold that same tone. The writing came across as somewhat light and humorous to me. There are purposeful jokes and some great banter between characters, but I felt sometimes the writing was funny without meaning to be as well—likely because English is not the original language of the book. There were times where the sentence structure or word choice seemed odd, which if you’re reading hoping for a dark gritty fantasy could be a little off-putting, but I felt it added to the charm of the book. I can’t help but think it would be quite a different experience reading it in the original Polish though.

The Last Wish is an easy enjoyable read and I’m keen to follow it up with The Sword of Destiny, Andrzej Sapkowski's second collection of Witcher short stories.

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