The sixth book in the Geralt saga (or fourth, if you count only the novels), this book continues where "Baptism of Fire" left. Some English editions have the plural "Swallows" in the title, but that's wrong, as the original Polish title is to be translated in singular in English.
Ciri is found by the hermit/professor/exile/philosopher Visygota and nursed back to health while she tells him her story of her band, the Rats, frolicking around doing banditry stuff, until getting murdered by the bounty hunter Leo Bonhart who was introduced by the end of the previous volume. He is so meticulous that he saws off the heads of all the Rats after murdering them, slowly and neatly. He captures Ciri and beats her viciously, leading her around on a rope around her neck and eventually forcing her to fight in an arena in Claremont for his and others amusement.
Geralt and his gang continues to search for Ciri. They find Ciri's double Angulleme, who also joins them, and have a skirmish at some mines, where they barely escape with their lives, but continue to look for the Druids. Geralt becomes much nicer to Cahir, who is scheduled to die in the next (last) book, together with most others, anyway.
Eventually they find the druids, but all is not peaches, as the druid(esse)s control walking, semi-sentient trees (Ents???) who capture all kinds of brigands but also Geralt and his gang, to be burned alive in a Wicker Man, a respected, age-old Druid tradition. Luckily Regis has some pull with the druidesses and persuades them to free their friends. The gang then continues to Touissant, where the next book will take place. Mostly. If you don't count a parallel universe where Elves exterminated humans.
Ciri gets better with Visygota's care and sets of on a quest to revenge herself and her friends, despite Visygota's strong protests. Eventually she finds Leo Bonehead, Stefan Skellen, Rience and the rest of the merry company who enjoy torturing people with white-hot iron and dismembering them while still alive. Ciri leads the hunting posse on a chase towards a frozen lake, beyond which the Tower of the Swallow lies with its thousand portals to time and space inside. On the lake Ciri kills much of the group, minus Bonhart and Skellen, including cutting off the fingers of Rience while he clings to the edge of the ice with her ice skates. Then she disappears in the Tower and teleports to the world of Elves (not intentionally).
Friday, October 26, 2018
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
"The Monkey's Paw" by William Wymark Jacobs
Jacobs died in 1943, just as his most famous story was included in yet another anthology which he didn't live to see published. It is a bit ironic that in the eight decades of his life, Jacobs produced many novels and short story collections, but only one story, from a relatively early collection (just about when he was getting married), outlived all his other works and became the token for his creative output and his life of creative endeavors.
Jacobs mostly wrote lighthearted prose about the Sea and Seamen, and the supernatural stories he wrote were never his priority or preoccupation. And yet "The Monkey's Paw" has come out to be one of the most imitated, replicated, anthologized, remade in various media and resurrected over and over work in literature in general. Even well into the 21st century the story is still being remade in film, video and online media.
It is a short story, but impactful. Future versions and remakes have added that the mummified monkey's paw would contract one finger each time a wish is made, and at the count of three wishes, it would extend all fingers again, ready for the next unfortunate person to be punished for wanting to change destiny in such a trivial way. In the original story the paw merely moves and vibrates each time a wish is granted.
And who can forget the terror of the last page when the knocking on the door becomes louder, while the tearful mother is fumbling with the lock, the father exasperatedly pronouncing the last wish for the "thing" outside to be no more. And only the night and the wind await the mother when she finally manages to unlock the door. For the best.
Jacobs mostly wrote lighthearted prose about the Sea and Seamen, and the supernatural stories he wrote were never his priority or preoccupation. And yet "The Monkey's Paw" has come out to be one of the most imitated, replicated, anthologized, remade in various media and resurrected over and over work in literature in general. Even well into the 21st century the story is still being remade in film, video and online media.
It is a short story, but impactful. Future versions and remakes have added that the mummified monkey's paw would contract one finger each time a wish is made, and at the count of three wishes, it would extend all fingers again, ready for the next unfortunate person to be punished for wanting to change destiny in such a trivial way. In the original story the paw merely moves and vibrates each time a wish is granted.
And who can forget the terror of the last page when the knocking on the door becomes louder, while the tearful mother is fumbling with the lock, the father exasperatedly pronouncing the last wish for the "thing" outside to be no more. And only the night and the wind await the mother when she finally manages to unlock the door. For the best.
Thursday, October 11, 2018
"The Screaming Skull" by Francis Marion Crawford
This story is intriguing because it is written as a monologue in a play, both the past-narrative part, and the happening-right-now part. It ends with a purported clip from a newspaper about the death of the Captain from human-teeth biting wounds on his neck. The style and voice of the story separate it from the ocean of mediocre ghost stories from the Victorian period, which all seem to follow the same pattern and style.
The old English legend of a Screaming Scull is the topic of the story, and there's a footnote at the end that it is based on real events. How real, we can only imagine, in that age of superstition and primitive beliefs, although less than century-and-a-half distant from present time. Pretty much even the most refined Victorian gentleman would be considered superstition-obsessed, women-oppressing, racist, chauvinist, patriarchal bigot by today's standards.
The story also uses as a literary device killing people by pouring molten led in their ears. This was a common torture used by states and churches around Europe, and even native american Indians, up to the end of the 1890s. The Captain tells a story of a woman who killed three husbands by pouring just a drop of lead in their ears while drugged and sleeping in a stupor. The led could not be traced as a murder weapon because of the small amount, but the bead would travel to the brain and kill the person instantaneously. The only way the woman was caught was by exhuming the bodies of her three late husbands and finding a bead of led rattling in each skull.
When the Doctor hears the Captain's story, his hated wife mysteriously dies a short while after. The Doctor however acquires a strange, polished white skull at the same time, which drives all the servants out of the house with it's incessant shrieking at night. The Doctor dies in the same way as the Captain, and the story hints throughout that the Captain might not have been just an innocent observer in the whole matter.
A great example of a somewhat-different Victorian Ghost Story. Francis Marion Crawford was an interesting person himself. American by citizenship, but born in Italy and spent most of his life outside the US. Initially he was going to be an opera singer, but the Boston Opera principal told him he will never be able to follow a tune. Since his father was a sculptor and his aunt a well-known poet, he made contacts with publishers in New York who were more than glad to publish his novels set in India and Italy, which were considered exotic locales at the time. A self-called Romantic-Realist, Crawford rejected all suggestions that novels, and fiction in general, should teach something and be didactic, but saw them mostly as amusement, but intellectual and elevated amusement.
The old English legend of a Screaming Scull is the topic of the story, and there's a footnote at the end that it is based on real events. How real, we can only imagine, in that age of superstition and primitive beliefs, although less than century-and-a-half distant from present time. Pretty much even the most refined Victorian gentleman would be considered superstition-obsessed, women-oppressing, racist, chauvinist, patriarchal bigot by today's standards.
The story also uses as a literary device killing people by pouring molten led in their ears. This was a common torture used by states and churches around Europe, and even native american Indians, up to the end of the 1890s. The Captain tells a story of a woman who killed three husbands by pouring just a drop of lead in their ears while drugged and sleeping in a stupor. The led could not be traced as a murder weapon because of the small amount, but the bead would travel to the brain and kill the person instantaneously. The only way the woman was caught was by exhuming the bodies of her three late husbands and finding a bead of led rattling in each skull.
When the Doctor hears the Captain's story, his hated wife mysteriously dies a short while after. The Doctor however acquires a strange, polished white skull at the same time, which drives all the servants out of the house with it's incessant shrieking at night. The Doctor dies in the same way as the Captain, and the story hints throughout that the Captain might not have been just an innocent observer in the whole matter.
A great example of a somewhat-different Victorian Ghost Story. Francis Marion Crawford was an interesting person himself. American by citizenship, but born in Italy and spent most of his life outside the US. Initially he was going to be an opera singer, but the Boston Opera principal told him he will never be able to follow a tune. Since his father was a sculptor and his aunt a well-known poet, he made contacts with publishers in New York who were more than glad to publish his novels set in India and Italy, which were considered exotic locales at the time. A self-called Romantic-Realist, Crawford rejected all suggestions that novels, and fiction in general, should teach something and be didactic, but saw them mostly as amusement, but intellectual and elevated amusement.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
"Green Tea" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
This is a well known story by a well known Irish writer. Or he was well known until a few decades ago. You've probably heard of Sheridan Le Fanu if you're over 40. Probably not, if you're a millennial.
Neveryoumind, Le Fanu was an Irish writer in the mid-1800s and his specialty was ghost stories. Not anything like the deeply disturbing, mind-shriveling, insomnia-inducing, psychological assassination material that nowadays passes for horror, but good, old, cozy ghost stories intertwined with 19th century metaphysics (which was still a science then), some theosophy, mesmerism and misunderstood Hinduism thrown in.
Le Fanu created a hero, the German doctor Martin Hesselius, who is more into metaphysics and the bad theories of Paracelzus (the good one are actually valid until today, like vaccination) and cures people with cooled cologne and positive affirmations. One of his theories is that drinking large quantities of Green Tea creates neural fluids that allow the drinker to see the spiritual world around us, that is usually invisible (and inaudible). The catch is that this invisible world is inherently malicious and evil and tries hard to drive every person who can perceive it into a gruesome suicide.
In this case the possessed is Reverend Jennings - priest who owns surprisingly large amounts of real estate in and around London, and the demon is a a pitch-black spectral monkey with glowing red eyes and a diabolical grin. Even though Hesselius claims to have cured 57 (exactly) other people with a similar affliction, Jennings, after long suffering, cuts his own throat with an old fashioned straight razor. This kind of result is why Gillette made a fortune when inventing the safety razor. You definitely can't cut your throat from side to side with that one.
Hesselius chugs his failure to cure Jennings to his hereditary suicidal mania, since such theories were still a thing in the 1850s. And recommends against drinking green tea. (But the antioxidants!!)
Neveryoumind, Le Fanu was an Irish writer in the mid-1800s and his specialty was ghost stories. Not anything like the deeply disturbing, mind-shriveling, insomnia-inducing, psychological assassination material that nowadays passes for horror, but good, old, cozy ghost stories intertwined with 19th century metaphysics (which was still a science then), some theosophy, mesmerism and misunderstood Hinduism thrown in.
Le Fanu created a hero, the German doctor Martin Hesselius, who is more into metaphysics and the bad theories of Paracelzus (the good one are actually valid until today, like vaccination) and cures people with cooled cologne and positive affirmations. One of his theories is that drinking large quantities of Green Tea creates neural fluids that allow the drinker to see the spiritual world around us, that is usually invisible (and inaudible). The catch is that this invisible world is inherently malicious and evil and tries hard to drive every person who can perceive it into a gruesome suicide.
In this case the possessed is Reverend Jennings - priest who owns surprisingly large amounts of real estate in and around London, and the demon is a a pitch-black spectral monkey with glowing red eyes and a diabolical grin. Even though Hesselius claims to have cured 57 (exactly) other people with a similar affliction, Jennings, after long suffering, cuts his own throat with an old fashioned straight razor. This kind of result is why Gillette made a fortune when inventing the safety razor. You definitely can't cut your throat from side to side with that one.
Hesselius chugs his failure to cure Jennings to his hereditary suicidal mania, since such theories were still a thing in the 1850s. And recommends against drinking green tea. (But the antioxidants!!)
Friday, September 21, 2018
"The House and the Brain" by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton is a well known author of supernatural horror, but also was a politician and active socialite during his life in the mid-XIX century. HP Lovecraft mentions him in his essay on Supernatural Horror in Literature and admires his sense for the supernatural, but criticizes his obsession with spiritualism and the occult. This story is different as it deals with a haunted house, but not from cheap-thrills point of view, but from a scientific (for 1850s) stance and with underlying attempt to explain and understand the phenomenon, instead of just reveling in screams and shivers. I saw several reviews online complaining about the author using "Old English" words and writing in an "old style"??? Duh! It is written in the mid-1800s! Does anyone even research authors they read anymore??
Lovecraft's essay is a wonderful source of books to put on one's reading list if one is interested in how the contemporary horror genre came to be. Many of the books would be disappointing from today's point of view, used to visual media, quick development, twists and turns - some of the older books from the 1700s and 1800s could seem outright boring, but that's only for the unsophisticated and untrained reader. Even Lovecraft's books are slow, tedious and even boring by today's standards, but if we take in account the time and mores when they were written (no TV, no Internet, no Instant-Gratification-Culture) - they are straightforward revolutionary. The author of this blog has read a large percentage of the books mentioned in Lovecraft's essay, including the (possibly) non-fiction Francis Barrett volume.
Lytton's story intimates of a (very) haunted house in central London, where people who stay either run away or die in strange circumstances. The hero of the story is a researcher in occult matters and stays a night at the house during which frightening visions and apparitions occur, causing the death of his dog and permanent flight of his faithful servant, but he stays and survives the night only by the strength of his will and his knowledge of the occult theories.
He is persuaded that houses don't just get haunted of themselves, but there is a malicious human brain behind it which causes the frights and the misfortunes. He persuades the owner to completely destroy and dig out a part of the house where he finds strange occult apparatus and a miniature portrait of a person who apparently has lived for several centuries. Eventually the hero meets this person who is back to England from decades-long interval spent in the Middle East, and accuses him of putting the curse on the house and its inhabitants (including killing a small boy by starvation and abuse) almost a century ago and being the cause of all evil happenings in the house.
The strange man confirms the hero's suspicions but proves too strong and puts the hero in a hypnotic trance and uses him as a medium to see his own future and afterwards puts a spell on him not to be able to communicate about anything that happened for three months. Within those three months the malicious occultist disappears from England and the hero is afterwards released from the numbing spell and writes this story.
Lovecraft's essay is a wonderful source of books to put on one's reading list if one is interested in how the contemporary horror genre came to be. Many of the books would be disappointing from today's point of view, used to visual media, quick development, twists and turns - some of the older books from the 1700s and 1800s could seem outright boring, but that's only for the unsophisticated and untrained reader. Even Lovecraft's books are slow, tedious and even boring by today's standards, but if we take in account the time and mores when they were written (no TV, no Internet, no Instant-Gratification-Culture) - they are straightforward revolutionary. The author of this blog has read a large percentage of the books mentioned in Lovecraft's essay, including the (possibly) non-fiction Francis Barrett volume.
Lytton's story intimates of a (very) haunted house in central London, where people who stay either run away or die in strange circumstances. The hero of the story is a researcher in occult matters and stays a night at the house during which frightening visions and apparitions occur, causing the death of his dog and permanent flight of his faithful servant, but he stays and survives the night only by the strength of his will and his knowledge of the occult theories.
He is persuaded that houses don't just get haunted of themselves, but there is a malicious human brain behind it which causes the frights and the misfortunes. He persuades the owner to completely destroy and dig out a part of the house where he finds strange occult apparatus and a miniature portrait of a person who apparently has lived for several centuries. Eventually the hero meets this person who is back to England from decades-long interval spent in the Middle East, and accuses him of putting the curse on the house and its inhabitants (including killing a small boy by starvation and abuse) almost a century ago and being the cause of all evil happenings in the house.
The strange man confirms the hero's suspicions but proves too strong and puts the hero in a hypnotic trance and uses him as a medium to see his own future and afterwards puts a spell on him not to be able to communicate about anything that happened for three months. Within those three months the malicious occultist disappears from England and the hero is afterwards released from the numbing spell and writes this story.
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
"Time of Contempt" by Andrzej Sapkowski
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.
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.
"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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