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 Nessa Luna on

3 of 5 stars

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Lately, there has been a huge hype surrounding the Witcher books. Netflix made a series, there have been games and honestly, everyone’s been raving about the Witcher for the past year or so. I never played the games and I have yet to watch the series, but I did decide to pick up this book when it got the most votes for G’s Patreon book club. I loved the first couple of stories, especially when I realised they were based on fairytales I knew (Beauty and the Beast, Snow White). But halfway through the book, I started to get a little bit bored. I think it was the fourth story that made me kind of reluctant to read on and after that, I kind of just skimmed the rest of the book. I loved Dandilion as a character, but that was kind of the best thing about the latter part of the book. Not sure if I’m going to continue reading the series, but I think I will definitely check out the Netflix show!

CAWPILE: 7 | 6 | 6.5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 (Avg: 6.50)

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 29 February, 2020: Finished reading
  • 29 February, 2020: Reviewed