Review:
The Witcher! It’s a game! It’s a Netflix show! It’s also a book series! And I’m reading it. I’ve seen online that this book is the best place to start the series, so this is where I started. Even though I haven’t watched the show (hopefully I will get to eventually), I’ve heard and seen so much about it that it was hard to not have a lot of expectations going into the book, but I tried my best to set those aside and not let them influence my experience.
Geralt was a lot more good-natured and sassy than I thought he would be. I imagined him as this gruff, misanthropic, “I’m too tough and miserable for friendship or jokes” monster killer, but I was delighted to be incorrect. He didn’t put up with BS, but he had friends (or at least one friend, whom he cared about deeply) and seemed to enjoy companionship. He also had a lot of wisdom, patience, level-headedness, and, when called for, compassion.
Speaking of his friend, I loved his friendship with Dandelion and how much he cared about him. There were a couple moments that really made me say awwwww. However, I didn’t like Dandelion himself so much. I really wanted to like him, he was a fun character, but he was also kind of a womanizing jerk. Literally one of the wishes he made when he found a djinn who could grant him anything was to have a girl who kept rejecting him finally succumb to his advances. He just rubbed me the wrong way. He did seem to care about Geralt though, at least.
This book in particular was more a collection of stories than a single coherent story. Because I knew this going in, I didn’t mind and just enjoyed the stories for their entertainment value and for the background they gave. I found most of the stories surprisingly chill with small bursts of action in the fight scenes, and even the fighting was relatively low stakes since it was mostly Geralt’s life at stake, and I knew he’d be fine.
I don’t really know how to judge translation (this one was translated from its original Polish by Danusia Stok), but the writing itself was good.
The narrator for the audiobook was great. He did lots of accents, and he always managed to make people sound different. I was surprised by Geralt’s Scottish-sounding accent, but it wasn’t a bad thing. I didn’t love the voice he chose for Dandelion, but that’s really subjective.
The jumping around between stories and also not giving any explanation of time confused me, and that’s my only real complaint for the book. I still don’t really know what order these stories happened in.
Overall though, I really enjoyed this! I liked Geralt’s character, I enjoyed the stories, and I’m looking forward to more.
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes high fantasy, tough but good-natured and sometimes sassy characters, and monster-fighting action.
More Books in the Series:
Book Review: The Last Wish (The Witcher Book 0.5) by Andrzej Sapkowski [Audiobook]
Book Review: Sword of Destiny (The Witcher Book 0.75) by Andrzej Sapkowski [Audiobook]
Book Review: Blood of Elves (The Witcher Book 1) by Andrzej Sapkowski [Audiobook]
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I really need to get on board The Witcher craze. I haven’t seen the show or read the books.
*chanting* Do it! Do it! Do it! 😛
The Witcher IS everywhere! I’m curious about the Netflix show and watched the first few minutes of it but got sidetracked- I’ll probably get back to it at some point. Bummer about Dandelion though, I mean that’s a cool name for a bard, too bad he has to be a jerk…
I’ve heard the show is great! Yeah, the Dandelion thing was disappointing because his character seems so lovable from what I’ve seen and heard of the show. Maybe he’ll redeem himself in the next book lol.
I haven’t seen the Netflix series and just found out it was based on a book series. It’s hard not to have expectations with it being EVERYWHERE lol
Glad you enjoyed it though.
Karen @ For What It’s worth
It is hard. It’s strange how can you can feel like you already know so much about a thing without even having watched or read it lol.
Glad you liked this one!! I’m reading Blood of Elves and loving the series so fat! I also started with The Last Wish 😀 And I totally agree with you about Geralt not being the stiff gruff guy that he is made out to be and I love it! I hope you like the rest of the books if you read them! Great review!
Thanks! I’m glad you’re enjoying it too and that you get what I mean about Geralt 😛 I would’ve continued on right away, but my library only has a few of the audiobooks D-: I’m hoping they’ll get the rest soon.
I did see a lot of readers being surprised it was short stories rather than a singular narrative. Yours is the first review I have seen for someone who hasn’t watched the series first. I haven’t watched it either, but is definitely taking the watching world by storm. I am glad you could be pleasantly surprised by Geralt’s character and enjoy these stories so much!
I’m glad to know I’m not the only person who hasn’t watched the show lol. Thanks, I’m also glad I could at least enjoy the book! Although I’m still waiting to see if my library will get all the books :-/
It sounds fun. I haven’t seen The Witcher on tv or read the books but I might at some point.
It was! I’ve heard such great things about the show but can’t watch it right now, so I thought this would be a good alternative.