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juushikaTitle: The Last Wish (The Witcher Book 1)
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Translator: Danusia Stok
Published: London, Orbit: 2008 (1990)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 380
Total Page Count: 199,730
Text Number: 589
Read Because: familiar with the video game series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: As Geralt recovers from an injury, six short stories explore his various struggles with morality, the end of the era of Witchers, and Yennefer. The early stories are the more successful; they're more folklore than fantasy, some directly retelling fairy tales, with closely-integrated magic, lush imagery, and a grim, deadly tone. The later stories are less successful, some because they're character-driven and much of the dialog is wooden and some characters are grating, others because the plots are lackluster and the larger worldbuilding is, at this point, underwhelming. But while individual quality differs, this is certainly an apt introduction. It's everything the video games lead me to expect, but somehow condensed and even more emphatic, which includes the dark tone, engaging magic, and the moral quandaries that Geralt is forced into, but also includes the omnipresent sexism (at both a narrative- and worldbuilding-level) which is slightly elevated by some fantastic—if, as always, exploited—female characters. It's a mixed bag, but I will continue the series.
Reading The Witcher is a most bizarre experience because it feels like fanfiction when it's actually the source material. I think this is less because I experienced the games first, and more because The Last Wish at least is a condensed journey through Witcher Aesthetic and Witcher Themes, featuring:
Geralt: I hunt monsters; I am not involved in human politics.
Plot: lol here's some politics
Geralt: I hunt monsters; I do not encounter moral quandaries.
Plot: lollllllll *seventeen intense moral quandaries*
Geralt: When presented with a moral question against my express desires, I will refuse to answer; I am not involved.
Plot: You must choose, this issue directly involves you, inaction is an action, and cry moar.
Sexism, inexplicably naked women, even more inexplicable "mid combat her seam tore and then breast were everywhere," and lots of rape—set, bizarrely, against complicated, powerful, ambiguous female characters who motivate plot and are a dozen times more interesting than Geralt.
Worldbuilding that is more folklore than fantasy; fairy tale retellings and inversions; lush imagery with a persistent, almost indulgent grimness.
So grim tho; but, somehow, it's not grimdark, it differs from default crapsack; the thematic emphasis on gray morality changes things. Geralt isn't attempting to perpetuate suffering—he'd prefer to perpetuate not much at all—but the storytelling refuses him both cathartic cruelty and righteous exemption from evil; he is complicit and involved.
Geralt: Dandelion would you shut up for five minutes, your quips and insults could land us in moral danger.
Geralt: *cannot forbear from sarcasm and insults, even if it puts him in mortal danger*
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Translator: Danusia Stok
Published: London, Orbit: 2008 (1990)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 380
Total Page Count: 199,730
Text Number: 589
Read Because: familiar with the video game series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: As Geralt recovers from an injury, six short stories explore his various struggles with morality, the end of the era of Witchers, and Yennefer. The early stories are the more successful; they're more folklore than fantasy, some directly retelling fairy tales, with closely-integrated magic, lush imagery, and a grim, deadly tone. The later stories are less successful, some because they're character-driven and much of the dialog is wooden and some characters are grating, others because the plots are lackluster and the larger worldbuilding is, at this point, underwhelming. But while individual quality differs, this is certainly an apt introduction. It's everything the video games lead me to expect, but somehow condensed and even more emphatic, which includes the dark tone, engaging magic, and the moral quandaries that Geralt is forced into, but also includes the omnipresent sexism (at both a narrative- and worldbuilding-level) which is slightly elevated by some fantastic—if, as always, exploited—female characters. It's a mixed bag, but I will continue the series.
Reading The Witcher is a most bizarre experience because it feels like fanfiction when it's actually the source material. I think this is less because I experienced the games first, and more because The Last Wish at least is a condensed journey through Witcher Aesthetic and Witcher Themes, featuring:
Geralt: I hunt monsters; I am not involved in human politics.
Plot: lol here's some politics
Geralt: I hunt monsters; I do not encounter moral quandaries.
Plot: lollllllll *seventeen intense moral quandaries*
Geralt: When presented with a moral question against my express desires, I will refuse to answer; I am not involved.
Plot: You must choose, this issue directly involves you, inaction is an action, and cry moar.
Sexism, inexplicably naked women, even more inexplicable "mid combat her seam tore and then breast were everywhere," and lots of rape—set, bizarrely, against complicated, powerful, ambiguous female characters who motivate plot and are a dozen times more interesting than Geralt.
Worldbuilding that is more folklore than fantasy; fairy tale retellings and inversions; lush imagery with a persistent, almost indulgent grimness.
So grim tho; but, somehow, it's not grimdark, it differs from default crapsack; the thematic emphasis on gray morality changes things. Geralt isn't attempting to perpetuate suffering—he'd prefer to perpetuate not much at all—but the storytelling refuses him both cathartic cruelty and righteous exemption from evil; he is complicit and involved.
Geralt: Dandelion would you shut up for five minutes, your quips and insults could land us in moral danger.
Geralt: *cannot forbear from sarcasm and insults, even if it puts him in mortal danger*
