Blood of Elves (The Witcher, #1)

by Andrzej Sapkowski

For more than a hundred years humans, dwarves, gnomes and elves lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over and now the races once again fight each other - and themselves: dwarves are killing their kinsmen, and elves are murdering humans and elves, at least those elves who are friendly to humans ...Into this tumultuous time is born a child for whom the witchers of the world have been waiting. Ciri, the granddaughter of Queen Calanthe, the Lioness of Cintra, has strange powers and a stranger destiny, for prophecy names her the Flame, one with the power to change the world - for good, or for evil ...Geralt, the witcher of Rivia, has taken Ciri to the relative safety of the Witchers' Settlement, but it soon becomes clear that Ciri isn't like the other witchers. As the political situation grows ever dimmer and the threat of war hangs almost palpably over the land, Geralt searches for someone to train Ciri's unique powers. But someone else has an eye on the young girl, someone who understand exactly what the prophecy means - and exactly what Ciri's power can do. This time Geralt may have met his match.

• ISBN10: 0575083182
• ISBN13: 9780575083189
• Publish Date: 16 October 2008
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 12 October 2009
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gollancz
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog coming soon!

After the first two Witcher-books (which were both essentially short story collections), I took a little break before reading this one.
As you might know from my previous review, there were some parts I quite enjoyed about the books but also many parts I wasn't too smitten with. So let's see whether this one got me back on the bandwagon.

I really tried to love this book, but again, I'm having some ambivalent feelings.
First of all, while Blood of Elves is closer to being a real novel, the chapters still weren't as fluently connect as you might expect. The book kicks off, for example, with a chapter on Dandelion, then goes to Geralt and Ciri at Kaer Mohen. There's usually a bit of a time gap between the chapters so it sometimes will take you a moment to situate yourself. The stories are, however, related and come together for a bigger picture.
Said bigger picture, still has to reveal itself, though. Honestly, this entire book was just setting the stage for what is to come, essentially serving as an overlong prologue. For the most part, I felt like you could cut it down substantially and just add it to the next book (although I haven't read that one yet).
One of my main highlights in the previous books was that we get to see a rather funny and sarcastic side of Geralt. That's something I missed in this one. So far, we only knew Ciri as a certified brat but she's getting a bit better in this book. I still don't love her, but I'm starting to warm towards her.
It is, however, pretty cool to get an insight into the Witcher training and fighting techniques.
We also get to see more of Triss Merigold in Blood of Elves and her character annoyed me tremendously. She basically spends all her time pining after Geralt and throwing herself at him - however, gentleman (or gentlewitcher?) that he is, he refuses her advances. *insert eye-rolling here*
I don't mean to sound too negative here. Blood of Elves is a decent book but for me, it's more of an average read. Or so it was for the most part. The final chapter features Ciri and Yennefer and that managed to get my interest. Those two are far more interesting than anything Geralt or Dandelion did in this book. So, I do have hope for the next installment in the series.

[kimbacaffeinate]

Having listened to the short stories first, I can see now why it is recommended that you begin with them. For me, it increased my enjoyment of Blood of Elves. While this lacked some of the fast-paced excitement of the short stories and monster battles provided, it expands the world and gave depth to characters I’ve already developed a kinship with.

Geralt of Rivia seeking to protect Ciri, takes her to the Witcher halls of Kaer Morten. Here he and other Witchers train her in combat, but also seek help from Triss and Yennefer. I found the keep, the relationships and Ciri’s abilities fascinating. A large portion of the audio surrounds Ciri and her training and powers. This keeps action low, but the world building is spectacular from legends to politics and the danger is ever present.

The story offers a nice mix of humor, magic, snark and history of a world filled with kingdoms, fae, elves, monsters, sorcerers, witches and things of lore.

Don’t fret though, we do get some battle as someone is hunting Geralt in search of the girl. The tale is told in multiple POVs but Peter Kenny made their delivery smooth. We only had one chapter from Geralt and while I missed his perspective the others gave us great insight. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer