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A review by mediaevalmuse
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
2.0
I went into this novel not expecting much, but even so, the first 100 pages confirmed the worst of my fantasy-genre fears and I spent the rest of the novel being annoyed. It wasn’t all bad - there were some great uses of obscure fairy tale/fable monsters, and I liked the main character the longer the book went on. However, as a whole, the novel suffered from an incredible lack of clarity when it came to worldbuilding. I feel as though the video game took care of a lot of holes in the book, and I’m convinced that all the glowing reviews are mainly people projecting their love for the video game onto the novel.
Things I Liked
1. Monsters: I rather liked that we didn’t get run-of-the mill fantasy creatures like dragons and whatnot, but instead, we got striga and bruxa and a lot of weird creatures. It was fun to have something that was somewhat familiar yet different at the same time.
2. General Premise: We learn somewhat late in the book that Geralt is a member of a dying profession, which itself is an interesting spot to put a character in. I liked that there were discussions about what is essentially the beginnings of “modernity” in Geralt’s world and how those beginnings are rendering his services obsolete.
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Telling Not Showing: Because of the way this novel is set up, there is a lot of telling rather than showing. Characters have to tell readers about the history of a place or how a town/court is set up in order to understand the significance of what’s about to happen, and I’m generally not a fan of that.
2. Lack of Coherent Plot: This novel read like a series of short stories as opposed to a book, which was a shame since there was so much room in which to expand things that the author just blew through too fast. Also, because each section had to wrap up the adventure, I felt that much of the resolutions to conflicts were just a little too neatly tied up or ended a little too conveniently.
3. Lack of Context: I still can’t tell you the significance of any of the cities, much less how the fantasy universe is established and how it operates in the novel. There are fantasy staples, such as wizards and taverns and priestesses, but other than their obvious function, I never understood how they all fit in the same world and what everything’s relationship was to each other.
4. Women: I can deal with characters who are womanizers. I can deal with fantasy universes that are patriarchal (sometimes). But when all of your female characters are monsters or sexualized objects, you’ve got to wonder whether or not the author values women at all.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in The Witcher video games, folklore, and fantasy.
Things I Liked
1. Monsters: I rather liked that we didn’t get run-of-the mill fantasy creatures like dragons and whatnot, but instead, we got striga and bruxa and a lot of weird creatures. It was fun to have something that was somewhat familiar yet different at the same time.
2. General Premise: We learn somewhat late in the book that Geralt is a member of a dying profession, which itself is an interesting spot to put a character in. I liked that there were discussions about what is essentially the beginnings of “modernity” in Geralt’s world and how those beginnings are rendering his services obsolete.
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Telling Not Showing: Because of the way this novel is set up, there is a lot of telling rather than showing. Characters have to tell readers about the history of a place or how a town/court is set up in order to understand the significance of what’s about to happen, and I’m generally not a fan of that.
2. Lack of Coherent Plot: This novel read like a series of short stories as opposed to a book, which was a shame since there was so much room in which to expand things that the author just blew through too fast. Also, because each section had to wrap up the adventure, I felt that much of the resolutions to conflicts were just a little too neatly tied up or ended a little too conveniently.
3. Lack of Context: I still can’t tell you the significance of any of the cities, much less how the fantasy universe is established and how it operates in the novel. There are fantasy staples, such as wizards and taverns and priestesses, but other than their obvious function, I never understood how they all fit in the same world and what everything’s relationship was to each other.
4. Women: I can deal with characters who are womanizers. I can deal with fantasy universes that are patriarchal (sometimes). But when all of your female characters are monsters or sexualized objects, you’ve got to wonder whether or not the author values women at all.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in The Witcher video games, folklore, and fantasy.