The Tower of the Swallow (The Witcher, #4)

by Andrzej Sapkowski

David French (Translator)

The world has fallen into war. Ciri, the child of prophecy, has vanished. Hunted by friends and foes alike, she has taken on the guise of a petty bandit and lives free for the first time in her life.
But the net around her is closing. Geralt, the Witcher, has assembled a group of allies determined to rescue her. Both sides of the war have sent brutal mercenaries to hunt her down. Her crimes have made her famous.

There is only one place left to run. The tower of the swallow is waiting...

• ISBN10: 1473211565
• ISBN13: 9781473211568
• Publish Date: 19 May 2016 (first published 17 May 2016)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 2 February 2017
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gollancz
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[kimbacaffeinate]

When our story opens a hermit called Vysogota finds a badly injured boy in the forest and takes him to his home… only the boy is Ciri. The hermits home is well-hidden and we discover he is both a scholar and medical practitioner.

Ciri awakens and wants to leave because Bonhart, a bounty hunter, is tracking her. Assured that she is safe, the two sit around the fire and chat and thus our story begins.

While we listen the story also takes us to other parts of this world. We drop in on Geralt and his motley crew of misfits. (the vampire, archer, poet and swordsman) They are looking for druids who may know where Ceri is. We also get perspectives with Jennifer. I will be interested to hear how your opinions of Geralt differ from the first book to this one. Ciri shows tremendous growth as this audio ends.

Politics and events occurring in the world are like pieces on a chessboard. While I loved the monster-slaying and destiny angles of this series, it is the dialogue between the characters and Sapkowski’s ability to weave a fascinating world that makes this series enjoyable for me. I loved the conversations between the characters. Dandelion and Geralt are among my favorites.

While I miss the action I’ve come to care for these characters, even if they sometimes whine and get frustrated. The depth brought to each and the growth and perspective make them feel real.

Peter Kenny’s narration is stellar. He pulls you in with his tone and gives each character’s their own voice. His voice is in a word; magical. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog coming soon!


YES! Sapkowski did it. This novel is wonderfully exciting and finally stuff is happening.
First of all, I like how he presents the story to us. Ciri is talking to an old hermit recounting what happened to her. So, we get bits of her (kind of) being stuck with him interspersed with her story. It's nice!
There is a huge amount of fucked up shit going on, but by now I was aware that Sapkowski wouldn't get past that. That aside, the story really was thrilling.
Basically, here we get everything the previous book lacked. It's fast-paced, exciting, there's development and the story is finally going somewhere.
Yennefer is also back in the game. She's a great character and I love that we get to read more about her! Of all the Yennefers we've had so far, this one is probably my favorite.
Speaking of different versions of characters. Ciri really developed through these novels and this is the first time I actually like her. Before she annoyed me a great deal as she kept acting like a total brat, but now I'm feeling her. Let's hope Sapkowski keeps this up because right now he's going strong!

[HekArtemis]

I was just kind of bored with this one to be honest, and the changing format wasn't really enjoyable either. I am going to continue on with Lady of the Lake, I don't expect too much though. I just hope Season of Storms is more like the original short stories books.