The Last Wish (The Witcher, #1) in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Feb 17, 2016 Dan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery, dark-fantasy, fantasy

The Last Wish is a compilation of short stories about Geralt, The Witcher. A Witcher is a mercenary like profession, but the person is chosen and trained for the job at a very young age. The other difference is that Witchers don’t hunt humans, they hunt supernatural entities and monsters.

The stories themselves have a distinct traditional Sword & Sorcery type feel. Dark, violent and introspective, with a fair share of drinking and innuendo for good measure. Yet these stories still have a modern f The Last Wish is a compilation of short stories about Geralt, The Witcher. A Witcher is a mercenary like profession, but the person is chosen and trained for the job at a very young age. The other difference is that Witchers don’t hunt humans, they hunt supernatural entities and monsters.

The stories themselves have a distinct traditional Sword & Sorcery type feel. Dark, violent and introspective, with a fair share of drinking and innuendo for good measure. Yet these stories still have a modern feel to them. Partially due to the prose, which tends to be less florid and imagery filled as works by say Robert E. Howard or Michael Moorcock, but also due to a unique gothic tinge to the works.

The setting of The Last Wish stands unique among modern fantasy. Despite being in a fantastic imagined world, it has a more Eastern European feel to the work than the English fantasy most Westerners are used too. Which tends to have roots in either Celtic and British backgrounds or Norse mythology, or often enough both. Even works taking from Greco-Roman influence are more prevalent in English language fantasy. Also something that helped separate The Last Wish from other Sword & Sorcery works was the way real-world fairy tales were worked into the plot. Sometimes just alluded to, or mentioned in passing, like Rapunzel or Baba Yaga, other times as focal points of a story, like Snow White and The Beauty and the Beast.

I will say that at times, more so in the beginning/middle, I could grow tired of some of the dialogue (mostly from Geralt who is somewhat predictable) or even the stories themselves. That said, some of the dialogue, normally from Geralt’s verbal sparring partners, could be quite humorous and insightful. Besides, by the time I started to grow weary of any one of the stories it was done and I was on to the next one. And, too, it should be noted that as the book continued I found the stories generally just got better. More consistency in style, and more continuity in plot. I also liked the wrap-around story, which I think tied the shorts together in an imaginative and comprehensive, if non-linear, fashion, and by the end leaves you wanting more.

Overall this was a quick and surprisingly addictive read. And for those looking for the new Sword & Sorcery, and pining for days of old, this is where to turn. Despite the fact that it was actually written over 20 years ago (but only translated within the last 10). And the fact that I have never played the Witcher games that are based on these stories made no impact on my enjoyment of this book, which was a lot. 3.75/5
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Mar 29, 2016 Daniel Millard rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-read, low-fantasy

After getting hooked on The Witcher 3 (video game), I decided I enjoyed it enough that I wanted to absorb some of the greater universe. I started that trip with a read of The Last Wish, since I heard that it helped flesh out the background behind a number of characters and scenarios from the games.

In this respect, The Last Wish is moderately helpful. It offers a detailed short story that covers the 7 minute cinematic introduction to the first Witcher video game, introduces Dandelion, Yennefer, a After getting hooked on The Witcher 3 (video game), I decided I enjoyed it enough that I wanted to absorb some of the greater universe. I started that trip with a read of The Last Wish, since I heard that it helped flesh out the background behind a number of characters and scenarios from the games.

In this respect, The Last Wish is moderately helpful. It offers a detailed short story that covers the 7 minute cinematic introduction to the first Witcher video game, introduces Dandelion, Yennefer, and offers a couple of other unrelated but interesting tales. Actually, it was a couple of the unrelated (or at least tenuously related) stories that were my favorite of those featured in the book. Frankly, I found Dandelion a very annoying character on paper, without any of the redeeming qualities he's seen with in the video game series.

That's not the only frustration I had with the book. Frankly, the titular story, in which Geralt meets Yennefer and their fates are intertwined (directly referenced in the third video game) is really not all that interesting, and Geralt's final wish is both poorly explained and not terribly in keeping with the character that's been formed for him. Combine this with Sapkowski's sparse and often sloppy writing style, and it becomes difficult to tell why things are happening, and sometimes even what character is speaking what piece of dialog.

I don't know how much of this crudeness is due to a translation from Polish, but it drags down my appreciation and enjoyment of the stories considerably at times. Geralt is as boring and hackneyed a protagonist as he is in the video games, but the people and situations that he runs into are still interesting enough to buoy the stories as a whole.

I can really only recommend this book if one sets out with an appreciation for the story and characters from the game series. Woven together, they form a reasonably coherent, moderately enjoyable story. On its own, however, the frustrating writing style and lack of context would make this a passable experience. I'm just encouraged enough by this read to try Blood of Elves at some point. ...more

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May 28, 2015 Caleb rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought. Like a good majority of people that have read this I came to the book because of the Witcher video game. This is a short story collection set around the main character Geralt resting in a temple over a couple days. He relates some of his adventures to people there and these form the stories in the book. It was great seeing some characters from the game in the book and having the voice from the game helped bring more life to the characters. Just to n ...more

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