Me @ Cahir & Milva: I love you, bitch. I'm never gonna stop loving you. Biiiiiiitch.

Fair warning that this review will likely contain spoilers for the previous books in this series.

I am now firmly sold on Sapkowski being an incredibly skilful storyteller, this is such a great series and this particular instalment is no exception. After reading this, I genuinely feel that the tiny amount of ‘plot progression’ we’ve learned since the end of the previous book could be summed up in as little as 1-2 sentences - but the journey getting there is just so immersive and engaging, I have no complaints!

You need to have read the previous two books in the series (and possibly at least two of the three prequels which provide valuable context) before this one. And if, like me, you’re reading them back-to-back, you may find this third instalment different from the last two. There is still a small amount of (well-handled) exposition detailing how the war is developing, but this time, our much greater focus is on the ways in which real people - the common people - are impacted by & surviving the war that surrounds them. That has always been Sapkowski’s strength as a writer, in his choices to tell the story through normal people not just their leaders.

As a LOTR fan, I personally found the switch from ‘Time of Contempt’ to ‘Baptism of Fire’ similar to switching POVs from Book 3 to Book 4 in LOTR (i.e. in Two Towers, switching to spend some time following Frodo & Sam, having just focused more directly on the war efforts against Saruman in the previous book). It felt like a welcome interlude & change of pace, as well as a nice return to Geralt’s POV (though I did miss getting more time with Ciri).

Some pretty dark elements, as in the last two books, which are well balanced with some extremely funny moments (the meta commentary of Stribog in Chapter 7 made me laugh out loud). And the new characters are all phenomenal, no weak links; shout out to Regis, who is just a ridiculous character concept in this context, and yet one of my absolute favourites.

Speaking of the darker themes, though, I am including a list of Content Warnings for anyone who finds them useful - so STOP READING HERE TO AVOID MINOR SPOILERS:

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Content Warnings:

Spoiler

- alcohol use - also features an allegory for alcohol/drug addiction & recovery
- animal death
- bigotry - ableism; misogyny; biphobia/panphobia, homophobia/lesbophobia (including threat of ‘corrective’ rape); racism & colonisation
- child abuse (physical)
- chronic pain condition
- pregnancy, including detailed discussion of potential termination/abortion, and miscarriage
- sexual content
- sexual harassment & rape (described in some detail), including an allusion to the creation of a fantasy equivalent of date-rape drugs
- suicide - one previous instance mentioned briefly (not described in detail), potential suicide methods described in detail another time
- violence, blood & murder, including detailed descriptions of skinning an animal and of mutilated corpses
- war & refugees, including detailed descriptions of battles & massacre of unarmed civilians

Oh I don't know... The short stories were so good. Despite quite a few fight scenes, they dropped great hints at something bigger, building tension and the characters. There are a couple of similar scenes here, but otherwise, like the previous one, this is mostly dull travelogue where little plot or character growth happens. Ah well.