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Title: Time of Contempt (The Witcher Book 4)
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Translator: David French
Published: London: Orbit, 2013 (1995)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 330
Total Page Count: 205,160
Text Number: 607
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Picking up where the previous book left off, the Northern Kingdoms plot their war against Nilfgaard while Yennefer attempts to send Ciri off to school. This is a disjointed book, due mostly to the politics. They clog the middle third with the a litany of names and double-crosses, seen moment to moment from characters's PoVs instead of summarized from the narrator's perspective—a worthy device but not a particularly successful one. But the first third is about the family dynamics between Ciri and Yen, between Yen and Geralt, in turns comic and heartfelt; the first hovers claustrophobically over Ciri on her harrowing solo journey. There are takeaway bits I love (Yen and Geralt's reunion, especially), but this isn't nearly as successful a book as Blood of Elves: the tone is inconsistent, the plot lacks structure, and sexism-as-worldbuilding returns in force when the scale of the narrative increases. Still, I'll continue the series.
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Title: Baptism of Fire (The Witcher Book 5)
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Translator: David French
Published: London: Orbit, 2014 (1996)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 350
Total Page Count: 205,510
Text Number: 608
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Geralt sets off across the war-torn countryside in search of Ciri, collecting a group of misfits along the way. This the view of war that Time of Contempt failed to successfully realize, seen through hapless individuals on the ground rather than an omniscient narrator. It makes for a slow plot and rambling journey, without dignity but chock full of the domestic details of survival. Geralt's ability to attract devoted followers—despite his copious personality flaws—is at its most endearing in this book. Baptism of Fire offers everything I love best of the series, and what the games most omit: Geralt's weaknesses; the grim reality of the worldbuilding set against the intimacy and loyalty that both Geralt and Ciri inspire. It's a lovely installment in the series.
Title: The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There (Fairyland Book 2)
Author: Catherynne M. Valente
Illustrator: Ana Juan
Published: New York: Feiwel & Friends, 2012
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 260
Total Page Count: 205,770
Text Number: 609
Read Because: continuing the series, hardback from my personal collection
Review: September returns to Fairyland to find it once again endangered, this time by her own shadow-self, stealing shadows down to Fairyland-Below. This is, fittingly, a darker book. September grows up, grows a heart; her journey is bittersweet and her relationships more complicated—and the trinity of September, Halloween, and Maud is particularly subtle and compelling. But the travelogue-esque Questing is less successful here than in the first book: each chapter is creative, whimsical, and disconnected, especially in the middle third where the plot seems to lag. But it's a small flaw. I've been hesitant to continue this series simply because I love the first book too much, but this is what I wanted: a story equally magical, but of a different tone, gently building its own complexity.
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Translator: David French
Published: London: Orbit, 2013 (1995)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 330
Total Page Count: 205,160
Text Number: 607
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Picking up where the previous book left off, the Northern Kingdoms plot their war against Nilfgaard while Yennefer attempts to send Ciri off to school. This is a disjointed book, due mostly to the politics. They clog the middle third with the a litany of names and double-crosses, seen moment to moment from characters's PoVs instead of summarized from the narrator's perspective—a worthy device but not a particularly successful one. But the first third is about the family dynamics between Ciri and Yen, between Yen and Geralt, in turns comic and heartfelt; the first hovers claustrophobically over Ciri on her harrowing solo journey. There are takeaway bits I love (Yen and Geralt's reunion, especially), but this isn't nearly as successful a book as Blood of Elves: the tone is inconsistent, the plot lacks structure, and sexism-as-worldbuilding returns in force when the scale of the narrative increases. Still, I'll continue the series.
To say I knew her would be an exaggeration. I think that, apart from the Witcher and the enchantress, no one really knew her. When I saw her for the first time she did not make a great impression on me at all, even in spite of the quite extraordinary accompanying circumstances. I have known people who said that, right away, from the very first encounter, they sensed the foretaste of death striding behind the girl. To me she seemed utterly ordinary, though I knew that ordinary she was not; for which reason I tried to discern, discover—sense—the singularity in her. But I noticed nothing and sensed nothing. Nothing that could have been a signal, a presentiment or a harbinger of those subsequent, tragic events. Events caused by her very existence. And those caused by her actions.
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Title: Baptism of Fire (The Witcher Book 5)
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Translator: David French
Published: London: Orbit, 2014 (1996)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 350
Total Page Count: 205,510
Text Number: 608
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Geralt sets off across the war-torn countryside in search of Ciri, collecting a group of misfits along the way. This the view of war that Time of Contempt failed to successfully realize, seen through hapless individuals on the ground rather than an omniscient narrator. It makes for a slow plot and rambling journey, without dignity but chock full of the domestic details of survival. Geralt's ability to attract devoted followers—despite his copious personality flaws—is at its most endearing in this book. Baptism of Fire offers everything I love best of the series, and what the games most omit: Geralt's weaknesses; the grim reality of the worldbuilding set against the intimacy and loyalty that both Geralt and Ciri inspire. It's a lovely installment in the series.
Title: The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There (Fairyland Book 2)
Author: Catherynne M. Valente
Illustrator: Ana Juan
Published: New York: Feiwel & Friends, 2012
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 260
Total Page Count: 205,770
Text Number: 609
Read Because: continuing the series, hardback from my personal collection
Review: September returns to Fairyland to find it once again endangered, this time by her own shadow-self, stealing shadows down to Fairyland-Below. This is, fittingly, a darker book. September grows up, grows a heart; her journey is bittersweet and her relationships more complicated—and the trinity of September, Halloween, and Maud is particularly subtle and compelling. But the travelogue-esque Questing is less successful here than in the first book: each chapter is creative, whimsical, and disconnected, especially in the middle third where the plot seems to lag. But it's a small flaw. I've been hesitant to continue this series simply because I love the first book too much, but this is what I wanted: a story equally magical, but of a different tone, gently building its own complexity.
