Book Review: The Last Wish (The Witcher #0.5) by Andrzej Sapkowski

Rating: ☆☆☆
Audience: Fantasy [Short-stories]
Length: 359 pages
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski [Translator: Danusia Stok]
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: January 31st, 1993 (This edition: May 1st, 2008)
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Geralt of Rivia is a witcher. A cunning sorcerer. A merciless assassin. And a cold-blooded killer. His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good… and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

THE LAST WISH
The International hit that inspired the video game THE WITCHER.

NOT A GREAT START.

Ooomph. Not at all.

I’ve been really excited to try out this series and see what all the hoopla is about it. There’s a lot of people talking about these books! After figuring out this was the book I should start with I snatched it at the library and dove in.

And was blindsided. Nothing was quite as I expected. First of all, I was completely thrown into the trenches without any explanations to where I was and who was what. I kept reading hoping things were going to make more sense, but they never did. I got about 150 pages in and turned on the TV show to see if that would help. And honestly, it did. I felt I had a better frame of mind as to who was who and the scattered timelines throughout the book. So, if things are confusing, try that!

While all of that was helpful, I still didn’t get the point of telling short stories to introduce The Witcher. Some parts of stories were interesting and held my attention, but otherwise, this was a book I mostly skimmed. I still want to read the official first book to see if a real story changes my mind about the series.

I enjoyed Geralt as a character and liked his wit and humor. The messes he and Dandelion would get caught up in were fun. Some of the monsters were interesting and gruesome. I can totally see how this would function as a video game.

Overall audience notes: