The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

The Last Wish (The Witcher, #0.5)

by Andrzej Sapkowski

Geralt is a witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. He roams the country seeking assignments, but gradually comes to realise that while some of his quarry are unremittingly vile, vicious grotesques, others are the victims of sin, evil or simple naivety. One reviewer said: 'This book is a sheer delight. It is beautifully written, full of vitality and endlessly inventive: its format, with half a dozen episodes and intervening rest periods for both the hero and the reader, allows for a huge range of characters, scenarios and action. It's thought-provoking without being in the least dogmatic, witty without descending to farce and packed with swordfights without being derivative. The dialogue sparkles; characters morph almost imperceptibly from semi-cliche to completely original; nothing is as it first seems.Sapkowski succeeds in seamlessly welding familiar ideas, unique settings and delicious twists of originality: his Beauty wants to rip the throat out of a sensitive Beast; his Snow White seeks vengeance on all and sundry, his elves are embittered and vindictive.
It's easily one of the best things I've read in ages.'

Reviewed by thepunktheory on

4 of 5 stars

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Full review on my blog coming soon!

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.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 17 January, 2020: Finished reading
  • 17 January, 2020: Reviewed