Reviewed by thepunktheory on
The Last Wish is less of a novel with one ongoing story but more of a collection of short stories. Therefore, it really is the perfect entry-point to check out whether the books are for you or not.
Well, I feel a little ambivalent about the whole thing but who am I kidding? I will most definitely read all the other books as well.
If you are into fantasy, this is the book for you. It ticks off all the boxes: monsters, magic, medieval times. The concept of the Witcher is rather interesting otherwise the world-building so far doesn't feel too different from your other epic fantasy stuff.
You will, however, soon see that many aspects of the story (and monsters) were inspired by fairy-tales and myths. It's cool to see what Sapkowski did with that!
Furthermore, I was surprised how funny this book was! I laughed out loud several times and found it to be far more humorous than your other regular fantasy book. Honestly, it's worth reading for that alone, Geralt actually is hilarious.
However, the one thing that irritated me is the treatment of women in this book. Many somewhat misogynistic things are said and I know many people like to chalk that off to authentically representing the dark ages but it did annoy me a bit. But whenever I got too bothered by that, a super badass and a kick-ass woman would come along and I was happy again. The depiction is, therefore, kind of ambivalent and I am not yet sure how to feel about that.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 17 January, 2020: Finished reading
- 17 January, 2020: Reviewed