Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

Sword of Destiny - Andrzej Sapkowski

January 20, 2020.
Requested by Kathrine.

I recently finished the book so I'll try to follow along with the discussion. :)

I'm in

Thanks Jenna! :D

I started this yesterday and finished the first two short stories "The Bounds of Reason" and "A Shard of Ice".

(view spoiler)[Man, the relationship between Geralt and Yennefer so far is not what I expected... There's a lot more anger and resentment than I would have thought and it seems that neither of them really treats the other well. It does make for some witty banter some times but it's definitely not what I had expected.

Dandelion is also a bit more... eugh... than his show-counterpart and I'm glad they toned down the less honorable parts of his personality for the show because I really don't think some of the stuff he says or does would work well in a TV show in 2020: like when he keep staring at Yen's body after that dude ripped her clothes in "The Bounds of Reason" made me a biiit uncomfortable haha

I do really like the constant questioning of what is evil and what makes a monster, and also Geralt questioning himself and what the mutations have made of him and his ability to feel. It adds a lot of depth to what would otherwise be a pretty straight-forward story about a monster-hunter. (hide spoiler)]

I'm gonna start this one today with my ebook, because amazon is being slow XP

Katie wrote: "I'm gonna start this one today with my ebook, because amazon is being slow XP"

Are you reading this before the Last Wish?

Timelord Iain wrote: "Katie wrote: "I'm gonna start this one today with my ebook, because amazon is being slow XP"

Are you reading this before the Last Wish?"

I am I am. I just don't have access to The Last Wish yet...and I do for this one. So yupp! And the order doesn't bother me too much :D

Bounds of Reason~
Loved loved loved this one! Especially since it reminded me of one of my favorite episodes from the tv show. (view spoiler)[So I couldn't help but make comparisons here. lol. I wanna say they followed similar casting for the groups and the like. I don't know if the magician was in the show though? And how everything unfolded was a bit different. In the book I found it harder to catch on that the man with the woman warriors was the dragon. Didn't he charge the dragon at some point?

The telling was done extremely well. I loved all of the dialogue and the unique casting. And I love witchers for holding dragons in that higher sort of light. Not all monsters are evil <3 (hide spoiler)]

About the relationships Kathrine~ (view spoiler)[I kinda don't like Geralt and Yen together because of that. They do fight a whole lot. And I don't know if she has gripes at him for using that wish or what...but like man. Not good grounds for a relationship ^^; I like Triss better in the games...so we'll see how the books fair (I know they're very different in some ways)

The bardic banter was a little brash at times, yes. I'm glad they did change Dandelion in the show. Otherwise blah. lol (hide spoiler)]

Katie wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "Katie wrote: "I'm gonna start this one today with my ebook, because amazon is being slow XP"

Are you reading this before the Last Wish?"

I am I am. I just don't have access ..."

Yea... they're both anthologies, anyway, and this one was published first, apparently...

I'm almost done with my re-read...it's definitely better at 2.5x speed vs 3x speed...

The author has a lot to say about society, I think... and through Witcher... but he doesn't seem to have written much of anything outside of the Witcher world... and a lot of his anthologies have just been re-releases, with occasional extra short stories...

Some authors seem to have one story/world to tell, and others are bursting at the seams with stories/worlds... (even if those worlds tend to have similar themes...)

Katie wrote: "Bounds of Reason~
Loved loved loved this one! Especially since it reminded me of one of my favorite episodes from the tv show...."

Started late last night, so only read a couple of the mini chapters of this. Loving it so far....

Interestingly, in my ebook copy this story is called "Limits of the Possible". I guess it's just a different translation of the same thing.

I really liked A Shard of Ice as well~ Sure it didn't serve as an action oriented short, but this one delved deeper into the complex relationships the witcher has.

(view spoiler)[Sorcerors and Witchers are both mutants in a way. I'm sure that's not really correct in the lore...but in truth they were both created to be different, to be powerful. Gerlat has supposedly lost his emotions in order to become the monster hunter he is. And both of them are unable to bear children due to their transformations....

Speaking of emotions...is it a fact that witchers have none? Or is it just a lie to make things easier in society? In this short we find that Geralt might have more feelings than he lets on... especially with Yen

I still don't like Yen very much after this chapter XD (hide spoiler)]

I just read that Netflix is going to put out an animated movie for The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.

Chris wrote: "I just read that Netflix is going to put out an animated movie for The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf."

No way! That's gonna be great!!! At least I hope! I really enjoyed the Castlevania one they released :D

Katie wrote: "Speaking of emotions...is it a fact that witchers have none? Or is it just a lie to make things easier in society? In this short we find that Geralt might have more feelings than he lets on... especially with Yen"

Apologies for butting in here, I've read the series and just like following these from afar. To answer though, I believe they're trained to be able to put aside emotion strictly to make their job as a witcher easier.

They aren't officially lacking emotion as far as I know, but that's basically pretty close to how it's supposed to be.

Chris wrote: "Katie wrote: "Speaking of emotions...is it a fact that witchers have none? Or is it just a lie to make things easier in society? In this short we find that Geralt might have more feelings than he l..."

Thanks for the clarification Chris! I was just asking someone else about that the other day and they pretty much gave the same response. So it just seems like people are kinda believing this lie of "no emotions" in witchers? But in actuality they've been trained that way in order to handle what they do in their line of work? Makes sense. That's gotta be super stressful though >_<

Finished! 4 stars

Agree with you Katie re: Yen: (view spoiler)[I reaaaally don't like her but to be fair we haven't seen much of her yet and I get the feeling that we haven't gotten their entire story yet, and we only have Geralt's POV so far.... (hide spoiler)]

The last half of the book was to me much stronger than the first half with the introduction of (view spoiler)[Ciri. Her and Geralt's relationship is adorable and wholesome, and after the Brokilon story I'm actually kinda disappointed in the Netflix show in retrospection. Their meeting after the Fall of Cintra at that farm is so much more powerful when they've met in Brokilon first. (hide spoiler)]

Katie wrote: "So it just seems like people are kinda believing this lie of "no emotions" in witchers? But in actuality they've been trained that way in order to handle what they do in their line of work? Makes sense. That's gotta be super stressful though >_< "

Yep, you got it! Gotta be able to make tough decisions without emotions interfering, I believe that's the idea anyway. Witchers seem to have done really well at spreading that reputation too.

Kathrine wrote: "The last half of the book was to me much stronger than the first half with the introduction of (view spoiler)"

I felt the same way about (view spoiler)[their meeting in the show compared to the book. In general, Brokilon was a lot different in the show than the book, but amen about Ciri/Geralt meeting. SO much better after meeting in Brokilon. (hide spoiler)]

Chris wrote: "I felt the same way about (view spoiler)"

(view spoiler)[It's funny, because I saw so many fans of the books being disappointed in that scene in the show and I was like "It surely can't be that bad, that scene was really good and heart-warming!" but OH BOY was I wrong haha (hide spoiler)]

Also, I "accidentally" started reading Blood of Elves, first book of the main saga – and by accident I mean that I was so hyped after the ending of Sword of Destiny that I was like "just one chapter from Blood of Elves" and now I'm over a 100 pages in.... whoops xD

But I'll wait for you guys if you're up for continuing?

I'll continue, but don't let me hold you up. I'm moving pretty slowly as I over committed myself to buddy reads to start off 2020 and have requests for the review blogs to finish up.

tl;dr - I'm slow

Kathrine wrote: "Chris wrote: "I felt the same way about (view spoiler)"

[spoilers removed]"

Yeah it's tough looking at it from that lens! I tried to not be overly critical of the Netflix series regarding comparisons to the novels, but that's definitely a big one that made me wonder why they changed it.

Anyways, I see you moved to the next book. Hope you (and the others) like it! I'll continue to creep. :)

Kathrine wrote: "Thanks Jenna! :D ..."

Finally started, and I agree... something about these stories also feel different than the first anthology... like there's more depth/character, now that we've built up a decent amount of characters to play with... the first anthology felt more straightforward, and I think the stories were shorter...

(view spoiler)[the questions of morality and savagery are definitely my favorite aspects of the series, so far...

Doesn't seem like Geralt & Yennefer are ever really going to have a stable relationship... (hide spoiler)]

I'm on the Sacrifice story, right now...

Katie wrote: "Bounds of Reason~ ..."

Seems to me, like a lot of the rationale/details are left unsaid, and we're expected to infer alot about their relationship dynamic... or maybe I'm just shooting through too fast, on audio...

Kathrine wrote: "Also, I "accidentally" started reading Blood of Elves, first book of the main saga – and by accident I mean that I was so hyped after the ending of Sword of Destiny that I was like "just one chapte..."

I'll be up to continuing soon, if you end up jumping ahead... finishing Sword of Destiny today, then reading a couple other things, then I can do Blood of Elves tomorrow or the day after... and you know my speed :)

Chris wrote: "I'll continue, but don't let me hold you up. I'm moving pretty slowly as I over committed myself to buddy reads to start off 2020 and have requests for the review blogs to finish up.

tl;dr - I'm slow"

Yea... I overbooked myself, too ;)

This is my 34th Buddy Read of the year... got a couple more before the end of the month...

Finished, and I can see why you jumped into the next one... but if it's anything like this one, it probably doesn't pick up immediately after this one...

Kathrine wrote: "Also, I "accidentally" started reading Blood of Elves, first book of the main saga – and by accident I mean that I was so hyped after the ending of Sword of Destiny that I was like "just one chapte..."

haha, no worries Kathrine. Read away! I just got back from Galaxy's Edge over the weekend, so besides travel I haven't had a chance to read much ^^; Plan on finishing this later today, and writing my thoughts~

Also, will did we have a BR forum for the next book somewhere??

Chris wrote: "I'll continue, but don't let me hold you up. I'm moving pretty slowly as I over committed myself to buddy reads to start off 2020 and have requests for the review blogs to finish up.

tl;dr - I'm slow"

No worries! I'll wait a few days before I continue because I've decided to finally make a real effort to finish my leftover reads from 2019 xD I know that feeling about over-committing – I did the same last year and it sucks so take your time!

Chris wrote: "Kathrine wrote: "Chris wrote: "I felt the same way about (view spoiler)"

[spoilers removed]"

Yeah it's tough looking at it from that lens! I tried to not be overly critical of the Netflix series ..."

Me too, the other changes I can kinda understand but this one is super weird to me hahahaha

Thank you! :D

@Iain and Katie, should I request a thread for Blood of Elves for tomorrow or Friday?

Timelord Iain wrote: "Kathrine wrote: "Thanks Jenna! :D ..."

Finally started, and I agree... something about these stories also feel different than the first anthology... like there's more depth/character, now that we'..."

Agree with everything you said – while I think the characterization was pretty consistent, it does help to cement the characters a lot before the main saga especially Geralt and his inner struggles with morality.

Kathrine wrote: "@Iain and Katie, should I request a thread for Blood of Elves for tomorrow or Friday?"

Sounds good...

Timelord Iain wrote: "Finished, and I can see why you jumped into the next one... but if it's anything like this one, it probably doesn't pick up immediately after this one..."

It kinda does and it doesn't; there's a time skip but the plot continues pretty organically

Timelord Iain wrote: "Kathrine wrote: "@Iain and Katie, should I request a thread for Blood of Elves for tomorrow or Friday?"

Sounds good..."

I just realized that today isn't Wednesday and there's a day between "tomorrow" and "Friday", so now I put the request up for Thursday as a compromise xD

Kathrine wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "Kathrine wrote: "@Iain and Katie, should I request a thread for Blood of Elves for tomorrow or Friday?"

Sounds good..."

I just realized that today isn't Wedne..."

Thursday works, lol

Finished this one the other day! Oh my gosh. I loved it so much <3 It had the character building that I was dearly missing in Blood of Elves (I have read this one previously last year, but am still joining you all for the re-read). I just love reading the tales from Geralt's perspective. Seeing the tough choices he has to make. And the vast array of people he meets along the way ~ (view spoiler)[like that little halfling/doppler Dudu, his love Yen, his Destiny that is Ciri, and even an old legend of a dragon. (hide spoiler)] I just felt more attatched to the characters in this novel than I had in other books I've read thus far (which isn't many). So I'm very excited to continue on in the tale.

And I very much agree with you all upon the meeting of Ciri. It's such a shame they changed things in the show >_<