REVIEW: THE LAST WISH by Andrzej Sapkowski

Title: The Last Wish
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Series: Witcher #1
Genres: Fantasy, Short stories
Publisher: Orbit
Release: 2008
Source: Audiobook
Pages: 388

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BLURB:
Geralt de Rivia is a witcher. A cunning sorcerer. A merciless assassin. And a cold-blooded killer. His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good... and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth. The international hit that inspired the video game: The Witcher.

Hannah's Review

EXPECTATIONS: I might be over optimistic but I think whoever has played a computer game in their life is aware of the Witcher. It might be older versions of most current Witcher 3 but the story is legendary. Just like Assassin's blade I was interested in reading the Witcher books too. Plus the tv show is coming soon too! 

THE WORLD: This book is really just a collection of short stories so we do not have one straight plot line but the idea is pretty simple, it is a time way before modern age kicked in. Most villagers don't understand things as for that they hate them. That's why the Witcher is hated too, even tho if the problem arrises it is him who people seek. Anyways, when it comes to the world I think easiest would be to just type witcher in youtube and you could explore it as much as you want. But to just summarize it short, you have all these lords and different areas that they rule, you also have bunch of supernatural creatures and of course a witcher who is able to fight them. You see Witcher is not just a nice way to call somebody, the person who is a witcher also has these abilities to fight the evil. 

CHARACTERS: So the famous witcher is called Geralt and he is traveling basically around in these short stories and faces some evil. I personally like Geralt, but given I love the game so of course I would like him. We also meet famous Yennefer as well as Dandelion. If you played any of the games you might know them too, finding Yennefer and Dandelion is actually part of the mission. I like them both tho in the game Yennefer is my absolute favorite, I just adore her. What we do not have in these stories is Ciri for which I am really grateful as I don't really like her. Given that the whole Witcher 3 main mission is to find Ciri well...let's just say I heard her name way too many times...

ROMANCE: There is no central romance really as this book is about adventure and about mysteries but on the side we do have a thing going on between Geralt and Yennefer which makes my heart of course skip a beat. I ship them so so much. 

GOOD: So it was interesting and all but let me just tell you guys, reading this book made me ache for the game. I have no time to play currently but damn oh damn I want to. I love Witcher 3, I actually get very distracted by just wondering around and all the little missions there...It's one of my fav games for sure! 

BAD: There are a lot of names and I was told by Quinn that I should try to remember them all. Given that usually I can barely remember main names...yeah I suck at this. I remember none of the names. 

OVERALL: I think it was a really good book considering it was just a collection of short stories. I was also told it will get much better so I am definitely continuing with the series. Tbh even if I wasn't told it gets better I would have continued...

 
Martyna's Review 

EXPECTATIONS: My colleague here in the blog, Quinn suggested this book, when we were speaking about this game. I was not aware of the games, so this was whole new world for me. Then I read the blurb and I remembered a friend of mine, told me once about these Polish fantasy books, so I just put the two dots together.

THE WORLD: You can refer to Hannah's review for this one, but just to put my own few words: the world is very interesting. You can find literally any creature in this world plus a couple of new ones you haven't read of before! The plot is set up in a fantasy world built from various kingdoms, with different kings and queens and all that jazz.

CHARACTERS: Just as in any fantasy books, there are multiple characters, but I will discuss only those whom I found most fascinating. Lets start with Gerard of Rivia. He is a Witcher and in this book goes through various adventures/tasks. Gerard is strong and is able to kill monsters. He is of not much words, he likes to keep to himself. He actually reminded me a lot of Aragorn, this good guy, who does not necesarily want to be involved in these various tasks and such, but due to circumstances ends up being involved. 

Another character I really liked was Dandelion - the troubadour and Gerard's friend. He is very different then Gerard, he sees the good, he likes to sing and keep the mood light and he helps Gerard to sometimes see more than it appears. 

This book consists of several short stories, and I enjoyed The Witcher, A Question of Price and The Last Wish the most. In these stories we met very strong women such as Queen Calanthe - a badass Queen who ruled her kingdom with grace and hard fist. Princess Pavetta, this princess that has a special gift and of course Yennefer! 

Yennifer is the most badass sorceress ever! She really gave Gerard a piece of her mind, she didn't follow the norm of damzel in distress and did what she wanted! She's just great! 

ROMANCE: It's stated in the book that Gerard has encounters with multiple females, but it's clear that his heart belongs only to Yennefer!

GOOD: I really enjoyed the different adventures that Gerard had to go through. This book was truly great. It had everything a good fantasy book has and I really want to know what else awaits Gerard!

BAD: Sometimes, I wanted more action and less talking, or I found myself a little confused at times to what certain things meant and such, but it didn't affect my overall understanding of the plot.

OVERALL: Go and read this book, this is fantastic!

What do you think about THE LAST WISH?