Books in english

[bigboss9191]

Books in english

I bought the books : " Last wish " "Time of contempt" and "Blood of Elves" in which order I should read em? Somewhere I read that the first book was the sword of destiny but didn't get a translate in English, will I miss anything w/o reading that book?

 

[EliHarel]

The Last Wish
The Sword of Destiny
Blood of Elves
Time of Contempt
Baptism of Fire
The Tower of the Swallow
The Lady of the Lake


Taken from this thread:
http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/16494-Our-Community-Fan-Translations/page79


Beyond The Last Wish being actually first on the list, and thus there being no problem with you reading it before The Sword of Destiny, here's a quote from Reptile in answer to my own question about it (though I asked about reading TSoD before TLW)

It should be fine. 'The Last Wish' and 'Sword of Destiny' are compilations of short stories so reading them in order doesn't matter too much. The only thing is that some of the main characters are introduced in 'The Last Wish' so that might be a bit weird.

Edit 2: Also, The Sword of Destiny, as well as several other books, are found in that thread, courtesy of fan translations. Anyway, that thread will answer most of your questions.

 

[bigboss9191]

does not reading the sword of destiny** affect the others?

 

[EliHarel]

@BigBoss
I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand. Are you asking if The Last Wish's multiple plots don't directly affect the rest of the saga? If that's the question, then from my understanding (haven't read beyond TSoD yet), it doesn't, not in a direct way. Just a compilation of various and different short stories, that give you the basic and initial acquaintance with the world and the main characters, and then later books (starting from Blood of Elves) begin a cohesive storyline.

 

[vivaxardas2015]

Actually, it does, especially TSoD. The story of Ciri begins in TSoD, and a story of her parents in TLW. Also a meeting with Yen, and a hunt for the golden dragon are in TLW. It will be rather hard to get into characters and events of Blood of Elves without reading at least TSoD first. I think it is one of the reasons people posted a lot of rather unpleasant reviews for Blood of Elves. They sure should have officially translated TSoD first.

 

[Jobbert.907]

I read Blood of Elves without reading TSoD first, and I could follow the plot pretty well. It isn't unreadable. But it is recommended to read TSoD before BoE, if you are able to.

 

[bigboss9191]

Well I do not really get why they don't publish an English version of the sword of destiny and they skipped it...

 

[Gr3aves]

I agree they should have officially translated the Sword of Destiny. I purchased the 3 officially translated books, and i found Blood of Elves rather hard to get into, after enjoying the Last Wish a lot.

Spoiler

Although that's mostly because Triss is pissing me the hell off, as usual. I really don't like her.

 

[GuyNwah]

I think it's part of the low value the English-language publishers have put on the series. Before the games, the stories had little or no following among English-speaking readers. As an editor, when your employer is a very small part of a very large conglomerate (Gollancz/Orion is owned by Hachette Livre), you need not only a willingness to put your standing on the line for books you believe in, you also need a managing editor who will stand behind you. The lack of a proven market inspires a reluctance to do anything of the kind.

Good sales of the recently translated volumes (Time of Contempt, last year; Baptism of Fire, this year) would help to correct that. Poor sales might mean no more translations.

 

[bigboss9191]

Well I really admit that before playing TW1 I didn't even know that the witcher books existed. And most outside Poland I guess. The game worked as a great marketing for the books and actually after playing TW2 and after the wait for the TW3 I finally wanted to learn everything about geralt's past so I got convinced to buy them, and as I read the Last Wish it's feeling nice reading about familiar faces like Velerad etc...

I really hope they translate TSoD too :/

 

[jerf.674]

Well I really admit that before playing TW1 I didn't even know that the witcher books existed. And most outside Poland I guess. The game worked as a great marketing for the books and actually after playing TW2 and after the wait for the TW3 I finally wanted to learn everything about geralt's past so I got convinced to buy them, and as I read the Last Wish it's feeling nice reading about familiar faces like Velerad etc...

I really hope they translate TSoD too :/

You can read the fan translation of TSoD, it's quite decent, as translations go. You can find it here: http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/16494-Our-Community-Fan-Translations (it was already mentioned above).

 

[bigboss9191]

You can read the fan translation of TSoD, it's quite decent, as translations go. You can find it here: http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/16494-Our-Community-Fan-Translations (it was already mentioned above).

Yea I saw but you know reading from pc not quite easy especially when reading a book xD. Maybe I print it dunno or hope they release book.

 

[jerf.674]

Yea I saw but you know reading from pc not quite easy especially when reading a book xD. Maybe I print it dunno or hope they release book.

Or you can buy an e-ink reader, alternatively. Reading books on e-ink readers feels as good as reading paper books, it's even a bit more convenient. Decent e-ink reader costs less than $100, which is, imo, quite affordable.

 

[Gr3aves]

Or you can buy an e-ink reader, alternatively. Reading books on e-ink readers feels as good as reading paper books, it's even a bit more convenient. Decent e-ink reader costs less than $100, which is, imo, quite affordable.

Nothing like the real deal, in my opinion. I'm willing to go as far as audiobooks, but if i'm going to read myself, it has to be a normal book.

So i'm simply going to wait until they officially translate it.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

There are services which can print you a file and bind it nicely. Shouldn't be too expensive.

 

[Gr3aves]

I'll resort to that once it's certain the book won't be officially translated anymore.

 

[bigboss9191]

I'll resort to that once it's certain the book won't be officially translated anymore.

Well the books are selling more and more especially if you check amazon.co.uk and the reviews are very possitive, I really think they will translate it, the witcher game was the best advertisement for the books for us outside Poland. And I really like reading at the moment the "Last Wish" and happily I notice that the devs made Geralt really close to how his char is in the book.

 

[tommy5761]

It`s my understanding that the reason The Sword of Destiny wasn`t or isn`t translated is that the publisher is under the assumption that "short stories" don`t sell too well . I`m really hoping that will change .

 

[Luxorek]

It`s my understanding that the reason The Sword of Destiny wasn`t or isn`t translated is that the publisher is under the assumption that "short stories" don`t sell too well . I`m really hoping that will change .

For the sake of English speakers I hope so too. It's kinda strange considering that The Sword of Destiny (344 pages) is actually longer than The Last Wish (288 pages), so it's not like there is not enough "meat" to warrant a translation.

Shame too, because most of the stories center on Geralt's reliatioship with either Yennefer or Ciri. Characters that I'm sure will play a big role in TW3.

 

[GuyNwah]

The real concern with commissioning and publishing a translation is not "meat" as in page count but "meat" as in profit. Somebody with decision-making power in the enormous conglomerate that is Hachette Livre has to be convinced that doing so is not only a money-making proposition but even a better one than other uses of the same capital.

The problem with collections of short stories is that the traditional markets for these have indeed dried up. Long ago (long enough ago that I remember it, and it makes me feel old), the traditional market for short stories was magazines. Remember magazines? There are hardly any compared to what there were even when Sapkowski first published Witcher stories in Fantastyka.

There are too many collections of short stories, and book publishers don't take chances on them unless they have an established following or a significant tie-in. For these stories, the only tie-in in the English-speaking markets is the games, and the only following is game players who buy the books.

I don't know sales figures for the English-language editions of the previous Witcher books. It seems they were good enough to warrant translating Time of Contempt and Baptism of Fire. I think that if these sell well, they will support the effort to translate and publish the remaining books.