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Цири
Крещение огнем
Башня ласточки
Владычица озера
Рассказы
Bestiariĭ
Башня ласточки
Владычица озера
Рассказы
Bestiariĭ
- GenresFantasy
1213 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
6 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 28, 2022
This took a long time to finish and honestly the three books contained within should really be reviewed separately, but it is what it is.
First thing to mention is that I have read The Witcher series that lead up to this more than ten years ago and at the time enjoyed them. However, coming back to the world of the witcher's was a little painful. As this is a Russian translation I am not able to truly say whether this was due to the quality of translation or the quality of the original writing but let us take it one step at a time.
The first and second books were more or less entertaining throughout with an occasional "Hey did you know this world is grimdark? Let me show it down your throat. Oh you think its not dark enough? Let me show it down every other orifice in your body also to make sure you get how dark and grim things are." On a number of occasions things got quite gratuitous, and it felt to me that the author was playing out some of his darker, semi-sexual power fantasies. Especially where it came to the gentleman by the name of Bonart.
The prose throughout the first two books is solid and I have not had any major complaints with it. I would've given the first two books 4 stars as overall both had good pacing and plot moved between characters like Gerralt, Yennefer and Ciri smoothly and well.
The above cannot be said about the last book where: "SPOILERS"
We start many years in the future with characters who are not only new and turn out to mostly be irrelevant, but also boring.
"Spoilers end"
The storytelling jumps between times and characters in what I can only describe as the most annoying and pretentious storytelling fashion. Some chapters almost entirely devoted to these new characters you do not care about, also introducing some inconsistencies in the timeline as I understood it (the plague for one). It is explained off in the fiction as the "dreams" are not hundred percent what has actually happened but coloured by the dreamers knowledge and interpretation. This might have been fine, but the whole third book just felt like worldbuilding and exposition to make the series appear to have a deeper world.
I found it a slog to get through and overall the weakest book of the Ciri trilogy, my score would have been higher if not for this last book.
In saying the above the ending was well envisioned and written, so much so that it made me teary-eyed.
There were also two short stories included at the end under a heading of "The World of Witcher" The first one just set in the world with, as far as I remember, new character that never appeared in any other books, it was well written and fun. The second story was the "happily ever after" story that, while endearing (yep awful world of witcher became endearing in this short story), was not canon as I understood the ending of the main books.
Finally there was bestiary included at the very end. If I understood the explanation correctly while Sapkowski was advising, he was not the one writing it. Full disclosure I have glanced through it, but have not read it. It is not useful in a sense that you can refer to it while reading the main book, as there are no references to it in the main text. Neither is there an index correlation the bestiary to the main text and so is a missed opportunity that could have enriched the tome as a whole. I would have preferred a bunch of maps detailing the world in its stead.
I am glad to have finished reading this tome and while I have enjoyed my time with the world of the Witcher in general (books 1-7), I do not think I would be revisiting this world any time in the future in written form. I am enjoying Netflix series and am yet to play the games, which I am tentatively planning on doing.
First thing to mention is that I have read The Witcher series that lead up to this more than ten years ago and at the time enjoyed them. However, coming back to the world of the witcher's was a little painful. As this is a Russian translation I am not able to truly say whether this was due to the quality of translation or the quality of the original writing but let us take it one step at a time.
The first and second books were more or less entertaining throughout with an occasional "Hey did you know this world is grimdark? Let me show it down your throat. Oh you think its not dark enough? Let me show it down every other orifice in your body also to make sure you get how dark and grim things are." On a number of occasions things got quite gratuitous, and it felt to me that the author was playing out some of his darker, semi-sexual power fantasies. Especially where it came to the gentleman by the name of Bonart.
The prose throughout the first two books is solid and I have not had any major complaints with it. I would've given the first two books 4 stars as overall both had good pacing and plot moved between characters like Gerralt, Yennefer and Ciri smoothly and well.
The above cannot be said about the last book where: "SPOILERS"
We start many years in the future with characters who are not only new and turn out to mostly be irrelevant, but also boring.
"Spoilers end"
The storytelling jumps between times and characters in what I can only describe as the most annoying and pretentious storytelling fashion. Some chapters almost entirely devoted to these new characters you do not care about, also introducing some inconsistencies in the timeline as I understood it (the plague for one). It is explained off in the fiction as the "dreams" are not hundred percent what has actually happened but coloured by the dreamers knowledge and interpretation. This might have been fine, but the whole third book just felt like worldbuilding and exposition to make the series appear to have a deeper world.
I found it a slog to get through and overall the weakest book of the Ciri trilogy, my score would have been higher if not for this last book.
In saying the above the ending was well envisioned and written, so much so that it made me teary-eyed.
There were also two short stories included at the end under a heading of "The World of Witcher" The first one just set in the world with, as far as I remember, new character that never appeared in any other books, it was well written and fun. The second story was the "happily ever after" story that, while endearing (yep awful world of witcher became endearing in this short story), was not canon as I understood the ending of the main books.
Finally there was bestiary included at the very end. If I understood the explanation correctly while Sapkowski was advising, he was not the one writing it. Full disclosure I have glanced through it, but have not read it. It is not useful in a sense that you can refer to it while reading the main book, as there are no references to it in the main text. Neither is there an index correlation the bestiary to the main text and so is a missed opportunity that could have enriched the tome as a whole. I would have preferred a bunch of maps detailing the world in its stead.
I am glad to have finished reading this tome and while I have enjoyed my time with the world of the Witcher in general (books 1-7), I do not think I would be revisiting this world any time in the future in written form. I am enjoying Netflix series and am yet to play the games, which I am tentatively planning on doing.
Displaying 1 of 1 review