Let’s see if I can keep this spoiler-free.
Book: The Last Wish
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Publication: January 31st, 1993
Rating: 4 stars
Synopsis
The Last Wish is a collection of short stories centering around the life of Geralt of Rivia. Geralt is a witcher who uses brute force, skill and magical powers to kill monsters for money. There are six stories that are heavily inspired by European and Slavic folklore. They depict Geralt’s interactions with various creatures and monsters but his missions are usually not as simple as just killing the monsters outright. In between each story there are interludes (The Voice of Reason 1-7) that are a continuation from the first story. My thoughts
Apart from the interludes, the book doesn’t really follow a chronological order. Without seeing the TV adaptation, I’m sure I would’ve been quite lost after the first three stories, but I knew to expect the weird timeline so it wasn’t a problem for me.
Like I said, I’ve seen the Netflix-show that’s based on this book series and thorougly enjoyed it. There was only one story in this book that wasn’t adapted into the show but while the stories were familiar, the book still gave the reader way more background information and some characters and story arcs that were omitted from the show. The additional information is usually the main reason why I love books more than their adaptations, but in this case I feel like the show definitely had something to bring to the table as well. It was much easier for me to picture the monsters and the sometimes sinister atmosphere after watching the show. And for completely superficial reasons the whole reading process was made much more enjoyable when I could picture Henry Cavill as Geralt.
”We don’t need people like you in Wyzim.”
From the very beginning we get to see what Geralt’s reception in a lot of places are. There’s a lot of hatered for witchers but also a lot of respect since their skills are valuable to some. I think Geralt himself said it best when he told Iola ”I’d ride up to village enclosures or town pickets and wait. I they spat, cursed and threw stones I rode away. If someone came out to give me a commission, I’d carry it out.” It really must take a toll to never be sure of others’ reactions just for him being himself. I find it truly amazing how he has been able to keep his compassion and sense of honor in that world.
After the first two stories I felt that Geralt as a character was left kinda flat. We barely had any backstory and didn’t know much about his relationships. This however changes drastically after the third story. The interlude gives us a lot of Geralt’s early history and his motivation for doing what he’s doing. The fourth story as well tells us so much about destiny, how witchers are made, the Law of Surprise and why Geralt makes some certain decisions in that chapter.
I enjoyed Dandilion’s smart mouth and Yennefer’s fierceness immensly. Some of the other side characters I also found rather interesting while some seemed to blend together quite a bit. The often dry humor and banter was also right up my alley and the writing was easy to understand and get into. Having never been the biggest fan of translated works, I wonder how and if this differs from the original text in tone. I have read that there is a switch in translators at some point and due to this there will be some name changes. Well, at least I’m forewarned about this.
Anyway, to make long story short, I really enjoyed this book and will definitely keep reading this series. My favorite short stories here were The Lesser Evil, A Question of Price and The Last Wish. These are all in the TV series as well and are probably the most important ones when it comes to Geralt’s personal development.
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