„Wiedźmin”, czyli pierwsze opowiadania o Geralcie, od którego to wszystko się zaczęło. Jest to świetna okazja do zapoznania się z twórczością Andrzeja Sapkowskiego i lepszego zrozumienia świata gry.
Andrzej Sapkowski, born June 21, 1948 in Łódź, is a Polish fantasy and science fiction writer. Sapkowski studied economics, and before turning to writing, he had worked as a senior sales representative for a foreign trade company. His first short story, The Witcher (Wiedźmin), was published in Fantastyka, Poland's leading fantasy literary magazine, in 1986 and was enormously successful both with readers and critics. Sapkowski has created a cycle of tales based on the world of The Witcher, comprising three collections of short stories and five novels. This cycle and his many other works have made him one of the best-known fantasy authors in Poland in the 1990s.
The main character of The Witcher (alternative translation: The Hexer) is Geralt, a mutant assassin who has been trained since childhood to hunt down and destroy monsters. Geralt exists in an ambiguous moral universe, yet manages to maintain his own coherent code of ethics. At the same time cynical and noble, Geralt has been compared to Raymond Chandler's signature character Philip Marlowe. The world in which these adventures take place is heavily influenced by Slavic mythology.
Sapkowski has won five Zajdel Awards, including three for short stories "Mniejsze zło" (Lesser Evil) (1990), "Miecz przeznaczenia" (Sword of Destiny) (1992) and "W leju po bombie" (In a Bomb Crater) (1993), and two for the novels "Krew elfów" (Blood of Elves) (1994) and "Narrenturm" (2002). He also won the Spanish Ignotus Award, best anthology, for The Last Wish in 2003, and for "Muzykanci" (The Musicians), best foreign short story, same year.
In 1997, Sapkowski won the prestigious Polityka's Passport award, which is awarded annually to artists who have strong prospects for international success.
In 2001, a Television Series based on the Witcher cycle was released in Poland and internationally, entitled Wiedźmin (The Hexer). A film by the same title was compiled from excerpts of the television series but both have been critical and box office failures.
Sapkowski's books have been translated into Czech, Russian, Lithuanian, German, Spanish, French, Ukrainian, and Portuguese. An English translation of The Last Wish short story collection was published by Gollancz in 2007.
The Polish game publisher, CD Projekt, created a role-playing PC game based on this universe, called The Witcher, which was released in October 2007. There is also a mobile version of the game which has been created by Breakpoint Games and is being published by Hands-On Mobile in Western Europe,Latin America and Asia Pacific.
The English translation of Sapkowski's novel Blood of Elves won the David Gemmell Legends Award in 2009.
My sister bought this book (translated in Bulgarian by the title ''Вещерът'') a few years ago as a present for her boyfriend. I had no intention of reading it. I just wanted to have a sneak peek but ended up going through the entire book. I never expected it to be that good but... Wow! This story captured me. A true adventure! I enjoyed every word of this intriguing, hilarious but also terrifying fairy-tale, the strange characters and even the creepy creatures. I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes unusual alternative-medieval stories :)
To 4 książka z fantastyki jaką przeczytałam w życiu. Pierwszymi oczywiście był Tolkien. Sapkowski wyciął mi prawie 2 miesiące z życia. Trzeba się cieszyć jaką furorę robi gra komputerowa. Szkoda tylko, że film w wydaniu polskim okazał się takim bublem. Mam nadzieję, że jak gra zarobi dużo to i znajdą się producenci, którzy zrobią z Wiedźmina drugiego Avatara.
Fantazy literatúra podĺa môjho gusta. Séria príbehov, ktoré sú štýlovo spojené a ktoré využívajú staré dobré motívy (kráska a zviera, snehulienka, čert...). Výborné dielo, už sa teším na pokračovania..
Cinco relatos muy buenos que narran las andanzas del brujo Geralt, en el antiguo arte de "cazar monstruos."
Un mundo medieval, decadente, oscuro, donde incluso los personajes más virtuosos de la fantasía, los elfos, son retratados como seres tan corruptibles como los humanos. esta obra se sale de la fantasía épica tradicional, borrando la siempre bien definida línea entre el bien y el mal que caracteriza a las obras de este género; manejando el mundo en escala de grises
I read just because a friend totally fascinated said I absolutely must read it. Yeah, well, a good read if you like these kind of fiction, but for me it was much too dark and because of that somehow unpleasant to read. On the other side there are many similar books and I don't get why this one is so extremely popular. Well anyway, not my style, not bad, not the best one either.
I picked up this book, because it was highly recomendet to me. I like how the author uses fairy tailes and incorporates them into the story. In many aspects it felt like traditional RPG game, but I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would.
Przesłuchałam w audiobooku, a dokładniej w formie słuchowiska. Pierwszy raz się z taką wersją spotkałam, ale muszę przyznać, że bardzo przyjemnie się słuchało.
Stwierdziłam, że spróbuję z Wiedźminem, bo czemu nie. Subskrypcja na Storytelu już mi się kończy, więc chciałam jeszcze skorzystać, a to opowiadanie trwało tylko godzinę dwadzieścia minut.
Na ten moment nie za bardzo mam czas żeby kontynuować całą pierwszą część, a co dopiero serię. No ale sprawdziłam czy mi się spodoba i było świetne, więc przynajmniej jestem w stanie stwierdzić, że tak, będę Wiedźmina czytać ❤️
One of the best and most unique things I've ever read! Everything in this book is so different.. there is absolutely nothing out there that you can compare it to. The synical world, the real characters, the songs, the battles, the stories... a true fantasy masterpiece!
This was my first Witcher literature and I greatly enjoyed it. I had seen gameplay and the first season of the show before and was interested in the writing so this short story, taken from the larger 'The Last Wish' collection did a wonderful job of showcasing Sapkowski's writing, the quality of the translation and the general tone of the world.
In many ways it reminded me of a Warhammer story, but way more grounded and seeped in real-world folklore and fairy tales. Like, Warhammer, it is a grimdark setting with mostly morally gray characters (the theme of 'what makes a monsters' is prevalent), gritty, visceral combat and a grim world. I had read that Sapkowski made use of over-flowery prose but I generally am a fan of detailed, descriptive writing so for me it was a very welcome way of visualizing the world and characters.
The story is dramatic and well balanced. It serves well as an introduction to Gerald and the definition of a Witcher. There is amble of dialogue and thickening of the plot with a few key moments of intense action. With this introduction done I am looking forward to diving deeper into the Witcher universe and am thinking of getting the boxset.
I think this was the one I read, based on picture, number of pages and publisher. Finiched it in about 30 minutes to an hour, and it is good. Made me curious for the rest of the series, which I hope to be able to read soon. Very dark and gritty. Difficult to say much more, as there is less than 50 pages of story. But I must say, those pages were quite a journey.
На маю думку, кніга пераацэненая. Фармат даволі коміксны, дзе пераважаюць дыялогі, не хапае апісання свету, наваколля і персанажаў. Адносна шмат сэксуалізацыі жаночых герояў, што выглядае як нязграбны прыём прыцягнуць больш чытачоў. Самі ж гісторыі даволі цікавыя і чытаюцца лёгка. Разумею, чаму кніга такая папулярная. І я сам працягваю чытаць.
Начал читать с интересом, под конец надоело. Для галочки прочитать можно, но читать другие книги серии не хочу, лучше прочитать что-нибудь более полезное