"The Last Wish" by Andrzej Sapkowski on Audiobook - My Review

[Trafalgar]

During my commute back and forth to work, I listen to audiobooks and I managed to get a copy of "The Last Wish". I haven't played any of "The Witcher" games or watched the Netflix series. I chose the Witcher series on recommendation who described it as dark, adult fantasy.

"The Last Wish" is the first book chronologically on the in universe timeline. It is really a prequel to the main series and consists of 4 or 5 short stories linked together and follows the adventures of Geralt, a Witcher who travels the world looking for monsters to defeat. Kind of like a traveling pest exterminator but much cooler. After listening to it, I wouldn't describe it as dark fantasy. I would describing it as High Fantasy with some adult themes. I have been told that the main series is darker, though.

The Good

Production: This audiobook is published by Hatchette Audio and narrated by Peter Kenny. This is a good production of the book with no weird CD pauses or skips or background crackles. The only background music is at beginning title and the end during the credits. This is a good thing as I personally hate background music in audio books. I had to stop Moorecock's "Elric of Melnibone" half way through because of the bad synth heavy music in the background.

Peter Kenny does an excellent job narrating and is able to adopt a different tone and accent for each character, making the story easier to follow when driving in heavy traffic. He also does a good job with female characters. Some male narrators/ voice actors have a hard time doing a feminine voice.

World building: I really like the author's description of how Geralt became a Witcher and Yennifer became a Sorcerer. It makes this world feel a little more unique and balances their power with their personal sacrifice. The monsters, even when based on "traditional ones" are very interesting with the authors unique take on it. Each town/village/location feels distinct from the others with different politics, cultures, styles of government.

Writing: Pretty solid overall overall with interesting and easy to follow descriptions of the action.

I felt that "The Lesser Evil" was the strongest story.

The Bad

I really like how the world felt different from typical fantasy and I rolled my eyes when elves and a dwarf showed up in the story. Both the elves and the dwarf felt like they were taken straight out of a Forgotten Realms campaign run by a boring dungeon master.

I might get some hate for this but the author describes women and relationships like an adolescent boy who has never been on a date. Because of this, "The Last Wish" is my least favorite story.

Spoiler: Geralt's Inconsistant Morality

Show

I liked "The Lesser Evil" because it gets into how Geralt views morality. He knows he can easily kill Renfri and her henchmen but he doesn't want to do so. He only fights Renfri when he knows she will massacre the town. In "The Voice of Reason", Geralt doesn't kill the knights and and the soldiers even though he is heavily provoked.

But in the opening of the first story "The Witcher", Geralt kills three peasants trying to start a bar fight with him. The peasants didn't stand a chance and there are obviously any number of ways Geralt could have dealt with the situation without bloodshed. It is even insinuated that Geralt killed them just to get the attention of the Castellan. This is a big character inconsistency for me and is not explained in this book at all.

Overall, the audiobook is worth listening too and I plan to check out the main series.

[Keltest]

Being the first one written (and translated), The Last Wish in general is still finding its footing a little bit in terms of setting and character. Keep in mind that this book more than any other needs to establish what a Witcher is, and who Geralt of Rivia is.

As far as the series' take on women being juvenile, yeah, it kind of is, but the more you explore the series, the more that becomes kind of intentional. Geralt has some serious chips on his shoulder about both women in general and sorceresses in particular, for various reasons. The dude is kind of damaged in that way. Course, it might also just be the author being sexist or juvenile. Ive heard enough things about him that i will not begrudge anybody that judgement if they feel it warranted.

In terms of Chronology, i believe Season of Storms is next (a full book), followed by Sword of Destiny (more short stories), then Blood of Elves (another full book, the first of the major story arc).

[Trafalgar]

Being the first one written (and translated), The Last Wish in general is still finding its footing a little bit in terms of setting and character. Keep in mind that this book more than any other needs to establish what a Witcher is, and who Geralt of Rivia is.

As far as the series' take on women being juvenile, yeah, it kind of is, but the more you explore the series, the more that becomes kind of intentional. Geralt has some serious chips on his shoulder about both women in general and sorceresses in particular, for various reasons. The dude is kind of damaged in that way. Course, it might also just be the author being sexist or juvenile. Ive heard enough things about him that i will not begrudge anybody that judgement if they feel it warranted.

In terms of Chronology, i believe Season of Storms is next (a full book), followed by Sword of Destiny (more short stories), then Blood of Elves (another full book, the first of the major story arc).

Do you know site with an accurate chronology? Wikipedia shows one thing and a fan wiki I looked at shows another. I think there is some confusion on when each book was originally published in Poland. Thanks for letting me know Season of Storms is next, I thought Sword of Destiny was.

As far as women in the series go, I am really talking about how the author has written them. Maybe its because I am listening to someone read the book instead of reading the book myself but the portrayal of women comes across as the kind of thing you hear in a middle or high school boys locker room. At least twice in this book, Geralt meets a beautiful woman who then immediately takes a bath in front of him or hikes up her skirt.

[Keltest]

It gets muddled with the short stories a bit because there are big time gaps between them, but one short story in Sword of Destiny mentions events that happen in Season of Storms, briefly.

[Eldan]

Yeah. The short stories aren't especially linear in time, I think, there can be stories in the same collection that happen before and after various books.

[Morty]

The first story was written by Sapkowski for fun, with no intention of starting a whole fictional franchise. As such, Geralt does act very different there than later. Far more like a generic stoic fantasy anti-hero. His sense of morality becomes crystallized in The Lesser Evil and is mostly consistent going forward. The cold, uncaring professional becomes a mask he puts on.

As for the treatment of women... yeah, well. Sapkowski is imitating, consciously or otherwise, fantasy literature that he grew up with. And we know how women are portrayed in those books, don't we? It becomes somewhat better later, in that the women who appear in the story are at least powerful, independent and have a lot of agency, but this undercurrent of sexualized fanservice never does really go away. That Geralt is immature and never had a chance to develop his sexuality in a healthy way is obvious, but it's questionable how intentional it is.

[asda fasda]

"The Last Wish" and "Sword of Destiny" are both the collection of short stories about Geralt that were first published separately in Polish fantasy magazine "Fantastyka", i think in the 80ties. Based on success of this stories later Andrzej Sapkowski has written the proper "books" (6 toms starting with Blood of Elves, I loved about them that each has different narrative style).
"Season of the storms" was written much later, after games have gain traction (I think after publication of Witcher II or just before Witcher III, not sure), it's one I haven't read.

As for the world-building the main point to remember here is that Sapkowski has converged in his world western fantasy and Slavic one, so Elves and dwarfs are "classic" because that was the point - to show clash of this two "worlds". I think in later books those races are somewhat less D&D (his reference to Elf King by Goethe is just amazing, at least for someone whos not that into literature : ).

[Clertar]

(his reference to Elf King by Goethe is just amazing, at least for someone whos not that into literature : )

I didn't know that it was translated this way in English. I would have thought it'd be the Alder King.
Amazing poem, in any case :)

[Trafalgar]

So, the audiobooks of "Sword of Destiny" and "Season of Storms" were not available at my library so I skipped to "Blood of Elves". Same production company and voice talent. So far, I like it better though I find Dandelion's character a little annoying. I will write a full review when I am done.