Just out ouf curiousity: I just ordered the books that are available atm and I am just wondering: Sapkowski has not written anything of the world of Geralt, the witcher, since he concluded the story with the five novels, correct? Did he ever mention anything about returning to the world of the witcher? Or was he just dismissing any thought about ever writing anything about it again, since he felt like everything was basically told, what there was left to tell? Thanks for any answers!
Exactly. That is the official statement.As for the Hussite trilogy - I loved it. And if history is too ambitious topic for some people, that is ok, everyone has his/hers opinion, but please don't criticise an author just because you were expecting an easy reading :|
And please don't offend people you don't know just because they didn't like what you did. As a matter of fact I've read many historical books, mosty mediaeval ones. It's not about ambition. Read Umberto Eco to see what's both history and plot. And I didn't criticise the author, I said I didn't like the books... God, first you claim I call him a genius, then that I criticise him... That's so silly I won't even comment it further.Kelenthial said:
Hm? Oh! Sorry, I wasn't talking about you in particular, just to people in general
You know, I DO know many Sapkowski fans in real life, so I know what the general tendencies (some of them - really 'ambitious', as you said, " Geralt was brilliant, ands this sucks, cause no Geralt here!") are. And that is what we are talking about here, right? General tendencies. Because comparing our tastes on the principle of "You don't like what i like, you suck" is hardly interesting for anyone, hm? And, btw,I can't remember EVER commenting under your other post.Cheers.
You know, I DO know many Sapkowski fans in real life, so I know what the general tendencies (some of them - really 'ambitious', as you said, " Geralt was brilliant, ands this sucks, cause no Geralt here!") are. And that is what we are talking about here, right? General tendencies. Because comparing our tastes on the principle of "You don't like what i like, you suck" is hardly interesting for anyone, hm? And, btw,I can't remember EVER commenting under your other post.Cheers.
I think Sapkowski writes superb short stories, but can not fully manage bigger forms. Saga has brilliant background, first book of it - Elven Blood was great, but each following book was getting worse. I have got a feeling that Sapkowski wrote them only for money, under publishers pressure, and lost a pleasure of writing and telling this story. When he finally got bored with all of this, he rushed to close all threads, and didnt want to come back to witcher's world ever.This hurried endings made me sick, as there were lots of great ideas, and they were all trivialized and finished in more or less logical way. So great potential was wasted. It seems to me ...hmm... not professional? And I am telling that as a huge SF and fantasy fan (and in general fan of good literature).Thats why I am saying - dont expect too much. These are good books, which could be brilliant, but never become. I can recommend his books, buy them and read them, I have enjoyed them so I suppose you will as well. But I cannot honestly call Sapkowski's master or classic, or even compare him to JRR Tolkien, Gaiman and others great writers, with such a flaw.He generally deserves more attention abroad, but I think it is better not to raise expectactions that high that cannot be fulfilled.idziak said:
Has anyone mentioned here the short story collection "Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna" (Something ends, something begins)? Yes, this is the one with the so called epilouge to the Witcher series. I personally think it's the best Sapkowski has ever written (unfortunately, I'm among those who don't find the "God's warriors" trilogy that entertaining), and I wish it got a translation into English. Or has it? at least some of the stories? I'd like to know if anyone's heard about it. You see these short stories are something completely different from The Witcher, with some sci-fi elements, magic, and typical for AS sense of humour. The best thing though is the intertextuality, the play with literary allusions, as in "The Golden Afternoon" - my personal favourite about the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carol's Alice in the Wonderland. I bet it would sound brilliantly in English, and perhaps be easier to understand by the readers outside Poland than The Withcer series, which as we all know is full of Polish culture-specific references
The Last Wish:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Wish-Gollancz-S-F/dp/0575077824/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/026-0335994-9638838?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194273649&sr=8-1Only published in UK. Read it, very good. I live in the US so I had to get it through alibris.com from a reseller. Cost me about 22 bucks with shipping.http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Elves-Gollancz-Andrzej-Sapkowski/dp/0575077840/ref=sr_1_1/026-0335994-9638838?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194273683&sr=1-1Due out Sept '08, again as far as I can tell only in the UK.I've tried googling possibilities of the books being published in the US, but didn't find anything. Just check abebooks.com, alibris.com and maybe the amazon marketplace for copies of The Last Wish though.Also, anyone who can read Spanish novels, this site will ship them to you anywhere in the world without shipping charge:http://www.bibliopolis.org/editorial/bibliofan/ultimodeseo.htm
I`d kind of agree that only 2.5 books from the main story are nice (apart from two earlier with shorties, which are very good), in the end of 3, then up to half of 5 it`s kinda different way of telling the story. I didn`t like the focus that was put onto Ciri voyages, although the final fight, and death of Geralt is good stuff. But of course, everything of the witcher theme is worth reading.
The first book - The Last Wish will be published in the US in early 2008. So keep an eye out!MichaelT said:
Does anyone know where I can get the Witcher books and how many are released???
There are 7 books. Only the first book has been released in English so far, and it's been released in UK only - the US release is slated for May 2008. You can get the UK edition from http://www.amazon.co.uk.Also, if you know Polish, Russian, Spanish, French, Czech or German you might want to try getting one of these editions.Anyway, see:http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Witcher_Saga
Thank you, fortunately I can speak Spanish and German!!!Ausir said:
Pretty good. Although whoever translated it did a terrible job. That thing is packed full of punctuation and grammar errors.Cybercrat said:Here is a link to one of Sapkowski's best short stories, 'The Lesser Evil' in pdf. Enjoy the read
Three of the Witcher short stories are available online in English.http://fallout.scifi.pl/The_Witcher.pdf This is an excellent translation by Michael Kandel, the man who translated most of Stanislaw Lem's books to English as well, it was translated for some anthology and later sent out by CD Projekt as promotional material. Unfortunately, Kandel, while otherwise great, took much liberty with proper names - that is, he completely changed most of them, while the translators of the game and the book chose to stick to the original or only change it slightly to make it easier to pronounce. Kandel, for unknown reasons, changed:Foltest to HrobostVizima to KlosthurTemeria to KraVelerad to EthmondMedell to Demellstriga to gombMahakam to ApiphOstrit to OsrughPontar to Fonzorso you need to remember that while reading.http://fallout.scifi.pl/A_Grain_of_Truth.PDF This one is an excerpt from the translated book, and the translation here is more faithful to the original, but the language used is much more bland (it was translated by Danusia Stok, a Pole, not by a native speaker of English). Kandel would be a much better choice, although they probably would have to tell him to be less creative with proper names. http://www.sme.sk/datahry/683/shortstoryLesserEvil.pdfA fan-made translation, which was officially released some time ago by CD Projekt. It's pretty full of errors.For the rest of the stories you'd have to buy the books. The first book has been published in the UK and will be published in the US next year. More books are forthcoming. You can read more here:http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Witcher_series
http://www.sme.sk/datahry/683/shortstoryLesserEvil.pdfA fan-made translation, which was officially released some time ago by CD Projekt. It's pretty full of errors.For the rest of the stories you'd have to buy the books. The first book has been published in the UK and will be published in the US next year. More books are forthcoming. You can read more here:http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Witcher_series