I would like to start this post by giving you some details about the book and its author. It was originally published in 1996 and in Polish, which is not surprising since its author, Andrzej Sapkowski is Polish. You can read more about the author in Wikipedia, especially about his issues with the games that made his books (more) famous. I read this book in English, but the literary level seems very good to me. If someone read or is reading the book in the original language, Polish, or in another language, please do share your opinions below, I’d be very happy to discuss that. Maybe in Polish it is better? Who knows!
In one sentence, and without spoilers, this book tells how Geralt continues to look for Ciri, while in the background a war develops. Without spoilers, this is what the story is about. New characters appear in the story, which are very interesting, and above all the end of the book was something that made me smile. It is worth reading the entire book just for that last page. And something that makes me very happy, that I insist, is not a spoiler, is Yeneffer’s return to the story (a sorceress that could be said is Geralt’s partner, if you read anything about The Witcher, or played any of the Witcher games, or recently watched the series The Withcer from Netflix, you’ll know what I am talking about), who is an incredible character, in my opinion, since her personality is described exceptionally. I guess Andrzej Sapkowki must have relied on a real person to create his characters, but I haven’t checked if that is true or not. If so, it would be great to meet the real person Yennefer.
This is not a self-conclusive book. Before reading this book, as I said above, you have to read Time of Contempt, and once finished, you must continue reading The Swallow’s Tower because the plot is not resolved in this volume. There are advantages and disadvantages in reading book series. On the one hand, we have many adventures of our favourite characters, with great depth of history, and, normally, many details and parallel stories to the central theme. The disadvantage is that you have to read all the books in the series to know how the story ends. Many times this is not a negative thing, it is true, because if you like the story, you just want more and more and more… but look at George RR Martin … more than ten years without publishing a book of The Song of Ice and Fire … and we are STILL WAITING!
Final comment: the book is slow at times, I have to say, but the characters are amazing and you feel it is building up something larger than the book itself. It is worth reading until the end just for that very last page.
Keep on reading,
GG KLIMT 