[Trim] The Last Wish by Andrej Sapkowski - 5 Stars

[Heather Reads Books]

I'm a huge fan of the video game Witcher 3 (haven't get gotten around to playing the other two). It's one of my favorite games of all time. However, I bounced right off the Netflix show, so when it came to this series and its various adaptations, I was worried my experience might be hit or miss. Also, despite being hugely into fantasy RPG settings (both video game and table top), I'm kind of picky when it comes to the fantasy genre of books. To date I'm only really passionate of A Song of Ice and Fire, having found other popular authors like Brandon Sanderson and N.K. Jemisin lacking. Even Lord of the Rings is kind of "meh" for me. So I approached the origin of the Witcher series with caution, wondering if I would bounce off Andrej Sapkowski's creation, too.

I needn't have worried. I loved The Last Wish. This volume, which is a series of short stories with a linked narrative segment running through it in every other chapter, is a perfect introduction to Geralt of Rivia and the world he lives in. I was delighted to see that the video game series is extremely faithful to this book, down to various combat movements with his sword that Geralt can do, and which herbs can be harvested in the wild to make potions. Like, damn. (Where was this in the Netflix show?) Geralt's character is exactly the protagonist I fell in love with in the game: smart, witty, a bit gruff, and forever long-suffering in a profession that is chronically undervalued. As a witcher, he has sacrificed certain aspects of his own humanity to be able to fight supernatural monsters. I find the institution of the Witchers absolutely fascinating and a bit of a departure from the standard fare in fantasy settings. (I suppose the Night's Watch in ASOIAF and the Grey Wardens in the Dragon Age games are comparable, but they have less of a "wandering the world doing work that needs to be done" vibe that I find so compelling in the witchers. Plus, the Witcher series actually predates both those series, so one can't argue it's derivative.)

The same moral quandaries abound in this book as Witcher 3, as well. The stories feel a lot like Sherlock Holmes adventures, with a mystery for Geralt and friends to solve, but pack a lot of moral punch. The solutions to the mysteries are never straightforward and Geralt usually has to pick between two or more difficult options, where nothing is ever quite "happily ever after." Yet the stories maintain a fairytale feel. I was totally here for the references to Slavic folklore, but there were some nods to tales more accessible to the English-speaking world as well (for example, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Beauty and the Beast, even Cinderella got a shoutout). Even though these are largely disconnected stories of unrelated adventures, the central narrative still hints quite provocatively of things to come for the witcher in the future, which makes me eager to pick up the next installment.

I wondered how I would feel about reading this in translation, but I found it to be rather well-done, with only a few odd turns of phrase here and there (there is a section where Geralt calls an old woman in a village "Grandma," which I suspect is a lot more respectful in Polish than it sounds to me in English!). Also, this might be a weird compliment, but I liked that the book was short and gave us a full, living world without delving into the intricate political dramas between kingdoms. Geralt is almost pathologically uninterested in local politics, and that gives us a good in to the world without having to keep straight who is at war with who and how that all matters on the macro scale. This makes the series more accessible than something like A Song of Ice and Fire. (Which I love, don't get me wrong, but it's a series that requires a lot of close reading to fully appreciate.) I suspect the political dramas will solidify more as the series goes on (they sure did in Witcher 3), but it was nice to just enjoy the ride without having to check the appendix every chapter to remind myself which knight was in service to which family and so on. I do kinda wish this book provided a map, though, because I am a sucker for a good fantasy map.

If I have any misgivings with this book, it probably has to do with Yennefer. I'm not really a fan of her in Witcher 3 because I found her to be largely unhelpful (plus I was shipping Geralt with Triss pretty hard), and I feel sort of similar to her here. She does seem smarter and less wantonly cruel in "The Last Wish," and I get she's kind of the Irene Adler to Geralt's Sherlock Holmes. At least now I understand the origin story of her and Geralt, but I am a bit on the fence about the implications about what exactly binds them together (view spoiler)[though I do think the narrative itself leaves it ambiguous whether they're tied together by the force of the djinn, or they're finally just getting over their individual hubrises and admitting they have feelings for each other (hide spoiler)]. Eh, Yennefer. I think I'm supposed to be ambivalent about her, so it doesn't detract from my rating, but I can understand if others find her in particular difficult to take.

Bottom line: great introduction to a dynamic, interesting fantasy series. Definitely recommend if you'd like to read something different but accessible in the genre that doesn't require you to commit to a thousand-page tome. I can't wait to read the next one.