This book continues the story from "Blood of Elves" and is thankfully better written, though no gem of literary value in any case.
Yennefer and Ciri go to "Wizard School" to enroll Ciri, but she escapes to Geralt, who eventually brings her back and rekindles his lifelong romance with Yenn in the process. Yenn has Geralt as her formal date for the BiGWiZaRdReCePtIoN which is mostly gossip, banter, vanity, poison and nastiness. However, further nastiness ensues when a coup is staged at the Wizard School after the reception, Nilfgardian camp agains Northern Kingdoms camp and in the process a bunch of people are killed, dismembered, tortured, broken, and similar fun stuff.
Ciri escapes, while Geralt is playing the buffer against the main Nilfgardian-allied wizard, who pretty much mops the floor with him and leaves him with every bone in his body broken, but still alive, just for fun. Meanwhile the Nilfgardian Emperor Emhyr receives a fake Ciri (lookalike) whom he wants to marry, and who is also his only daughter since Emhyr is the Hedgehog-man who marries Pavetta of Cintra. He doesn't mind incest, it seems, as long as it gets him Cintra under his belt. But he knows his Ciri is fake so sends people to find the real one.
Ciri is teleported to the "Frying Pan" desert of Korath where she survives only thanking to her magical powers and a Unicorn (I'm not kidding). But she gets captured by bounty hunters, who want to rape her, and brag about gang raping someones wife all night long so she couldn't move her arms and legs in the morning. Tells you about the time and customs in which this Saga is happening.
The bounty hunters/gang-bangers get slaughtered and cut into pieces by a band of merry thieves and brigands called "The Rats" who eventually allow Ciri to join them under the name Falka (a grand-grand mother of Ciri, but no one knows that - yet). The book ends with Nilfgard hiring a top bounty hunter to kill all the "Rats" including Ciri.
To be continued.
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
"Sword of Destiny" by Andrzej Sapkowski
The "Sword of Destiny" is the second book in the Witcher Saga by its internal chronology, although most of the stories have been written before the ones in "The Last Wish". These stories are longer, more convoluted and less exciting than the ones in the previous collection.
"The Bounds of Reason" is about a dragon-hunter dragon who is also a human and a couple of sexy female bodyguards who seem to have been lifted straight out of a Conan story.
"A Shard of Ice" is about Yennefer's and Geralt's relationship and the promiscuous life Yenn used to lead, and still leads to some extent. After all, a couple of hundred years in a young, enhanced female body coupled with magical powers is probably a strong motivator for any female to play the field as much as physically possible.
"A Little Sacrifice" is about a mermaid being in love with a human (a local nobleman asshole, go figure), and starving Geralt working for free because he has to much principle and dignity to slaughter every self-indulgent prick who insults him (as he justly should). He is also too principled to take a woman's heart (and body) while knowing he cannot reciprocate long-term, even though the woman is also a smart and talented bard (Little Eye) who would want nothing more in the world. Dandelion is pretty cool here too.
"The Sword of Destiny" is starting the Ciri Saga which will be the main theme for the rest of the 6 volumes. She is 14-15 here and abducted (kind of) by the Forest Dryads who are getting ready to make her one of their own (as they steal human children and mutate them through poisons and potions to increase their ranks). Eventually Geralt gets her out and their lifelong adventures begin. Their banter is priceless.
"Something More" concludes the collection and it is about Ciri becoming entangled with Geralt forever. A theme before was that "Destiny is not Enough", but here Ciri says to Geralt "I am your Destiny" and Geralt replies "You are Something More". Pretty cool.
Overall this collection is weaker and worse written than "The Last Wish" but definitely better than "Blood of Elves" as nothing can be as bad as that one. I read a bunch of reviews moaning how sexist the book is - newsflash - the entire saga happens in 12th century Poland when women were treated as something marginally better than furniture or livestock. Imposing 2018 standards on the past is moronic. The past is what it was and it should be fully described as such, not embellished or "updated".
"The Bounds of Reason" is about a dragon-hunter dragon who is also a human and a couple of sexy female bodyguards who seem to have been lifted straight out of a Conan story.
"A Shard of Ice" is about Yennefer's and Geralt's relationship and the promiscuous life Yenn used to lead, and still leads to some extent. After all, a couple of hundred years in a young, enhanced female body coupled with magical powers is probably a strong motivator for any female to play the field as much as physically possible.
"A Little Sacrifice" is about a mermaid being in love with a human (a local nobleman asshole, go figure), and starving Geralt working for free because he has to much principle and dignity to slaughter every self-indulgent prick who insults him (as he justly should). He is also too principled to take a woman's heart (and body) while knowing he cannot reciprocate long-term, even though the woman is also a smart and talented bard (Little Eye) who would want nothing more in the world. Dandelion is pretty cool here too.
"The Sword of Destiny" is starting the Ciri Saga which will be the main theme for the rest of the 6 volumes. She is 14-15 here and abducted (kind of) by the Forest Dryads who are getting ready to make her one of their own (as they steal human children and mutate them through poisons and potions to increase their ranks). Eventually Geralt gets her out and their lifelong adventures begin. Their banter is priceless.
"Something More" concludes the collection and it is about Ciri becoming entangled with Geralt forever. A theme before was that "Destiny is not Enough", but here Ciri says to Geralt "I am your Destiny" and Geralt replies "You are Something More". Pretty cool.
Overall this collection is weaker and worse written than "The Last Wish" but definitely better than "Blood of Elves" as nothing can be as bad as that one. I read a bunch of reviews moaning how sexist the book is - newsflash - the entire saga happens in 12th century Poland when women were treated as something marginally better than furniture or livestock. Imposing 2018 standards on the past is moronic. The past is what it was and it should be fully described as such, not embellished or "updated".
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