Questions to those who have read the witcher books.

[iCake]

Questions to those who have read the witcher books.

Hello everyone,

I, as well as many others I'm sure, just completely fell in love with the witcher universe by just playing the 2nd and 3rd installation of the game. So it was a no-brainer for me to sit down and read the books.

I've read and absolutely loved the first 6 books now and I'm in what I'd call a post-beggining of "the Lady of the Lake" now. The thing is I feel like this is the only book I don't really enjoy. It is told from the standpoint of two sorceres that as I understand live long past the events of the previous books and try to uncover the mystery behind the legend of Cirilla, Geralt and Yennifer.

The problem is I don't care for those two girls, I just want to know what happened to the real main characters of the saga. Moreover, experiencing the story through the eyes of Nimue and the other girl the name of who I can't really remember now gives me this feeling that the story the book tells isn't really to be trusted. I'm still going to finish the book, because I want to know how it all turned out.

Anyway, all of the above brings me to the 2 questions I wanted to ask:

1) Is the standalone story told in the 8th book "Season of Storms" more like the Lady of the Lake or the previous 6 books, because if it's similar to the former I don't think I can read it through.

2) Are the "Season of Storms, "Something ends, something begins" and "the Polish books of Monsters" that critical to better understand the stories told in the game series.

Thank you ahead of time.

 

[GuyNwah]

Nimue and Condwiramurs are reliable narrators; you can trust them, and they will get back to the main characters' story soon enough.

Season of Storms is not necessary to a full understanding; and Something Ends, Something Begins is entertaining but not canon. Polish Book of Monsters is nothing to do with the series, except for one story that is also in The Last Wish. Hope this helps.

 

[iCake]

@GuyNwah

Thanks a lot! I really appreciate your timely response. There is one point that is still unclear to me.

Is Season of Storms more like "the Lady of Lake" narrative wise, or is it closer to the other 6 books that make up the saga?

 

[eineingarp]

It's a separate story, like the short stories

 

[iCake]

It's a separate story, like the short stories

Yeah, I get it. The thing I wanted to know if it's like "the Lady of the Lake" narrative wise, not if the events of the books are connected. I'll try to elaborate a bit more as I feel like I wasn't explicit enough.

The first six books give you the impression that you're experiencing the events through the eyes of the characters, in other words you're a spectator. I like this style of narrative as you really feel like your in the middle of the action, as if you're a real part of it.

The Lady of the Lake, on the contrary, is already told from the standpoint of two spectators that are Nimue and Condwiramurs respectively. So you look at the story through the eyes of the spectators, you're like a spectator in a spectator. This disconnects you (or at least me) from the story, it's like you're all of a sudden not a real part of the action, you're now just being told the story. You're not seeing it with your own eyes now, so this makes me suspicious about the validity of the narrative. What is real, what is added to make the story look more colorful, captivating etc.

So the question is does the "Season of Storms" resemble the first 6 books or is it closer to the Lady of the Lake.

 

[Majestic81x]

Dude! Be patient, its one of the best books in the saga. It gets better after that chapter. The one book i felt was a bit bland was The Tower of Swallow, except near the end. But Lady of the Lake is great. Keep reading! Only the first parts are told from the standpoint of those two.

Season of Storms is separate, and its set before the saga but after some events of The Last Wish.

Basically, Lady of the Lake is written no different than the rest of the books. the thing thats bugging you is only in the beginning.

 

[Rawls]

Yeah, I also thought it was strange that he told the first part of the story through the eyes of some new character. But it makes some sense as a storytelling device when you get further into it ... I won't spoil how. I actually really liked "Lady of the Lake." I think "Blood of Elves" is probably my least favorite of the series ... and I like it a lot.

 

[Majestic81x]

Blood of the Elves was good, but its in the same league as The Tower of Swallow for me. the former did not have much going on in it that grabbed me or felt interesting, (guess because it was just starting things and setting them in motion) and the latter was going pretty slow with the events.

My top favorites are Times of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, Lady of the Lake, and the two short stories. Season of Storms from what i read so far is pretty swell too.

 

[eineingarp]

Yeah, I get it. The thing I wanted to know if it's like "the Lady of the Lake" narrative wise, not if the events of the books are connected. I'll try to elaborate a bit more as I feel like I wasn't explicit enough.

I meant like the short stories narrative wise, since the saga gets different narrators from time to time

 

[GuyNwah]

Yeah, I also thought it was strange that he told the first part of the story through the eyes of some new character. But it makes some sense as a storytelling device when you get further into it ... I won't spoil how. I actually really liked "Lady of the Lake." I think "Blood of Elves" is probably my least favorite of the series ... and I like it a lot.

Yeah, it's a device. Third-person limited narrator, it's called. Important because it lets Sapkowski write about the experinces of Nimue and Condwiramurs finding out about the history of Ciri. Probably had to be too often abandoned, because it would have drawn the story out beyond what is already a really long book.

 

[iCake]

I myself can't really tell which of the six books that I've already read I liked more as the impressions they left on me are quite fresh. But I can tell I liked how the things started to get uglier and uglier after Ciri had gone through that portal in Tor Lara. That's probably why I liked "the Tower of Swallow" immensly. Damn, that trap she laid for her persuers by luring them to the middle of the lake on foot and putting skates on to get all the advantage she could.. That was spectacular. When she sliced Rience, I felt a kind of satisfaction I was really afraid of.

I just wish the Wild Hunt could have told the Ciri story better, if I had known who she really was and what she had to go through and what she endured when I played the Wild Hunt I would have definitely had an even more memorable experience with the game.

As for the Lady of the Lake I made it to the part where it tells what Geralt did while he was in Tussent. Now I see that the narrative has returned to what it was like through the first 6 books and I'm getting to like it very much, just as I did the previous books.

 

[Rawls]

Yes Lady of the Lake continues to get better as it goes along (with the exception of Chapter 7, which I was not a huge fan of). "Time of Contempt" through "Lady of the Lake" are all excellent books in my opinion. RE - Ciri's story ... there are a bunch of places where I have said that a linear mission that retells part of Ciri's story from the lady of the lake where she encounters the Anne Elle would have done wonders fro developing Ciri, Eredin and Avallch as characters. This is my unfortunately long post about it - http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/47769-Stories-and-Adventures-Thread/page4 WARNING SPOILERS IN LINK. Don't read until after you read chapter 5 of Lady of the Lake.

 

[Scholdarr.452]

Hello everyone,

I, as well as many others I'm sure, just completely fell in love with the witcher universe by just playing the 2nd and 3rd installation of the game. So it was a no-brainer for me to sit down and read the books.

I've read and absolutely loved the first 6 books now and I'm in what I'd call a post-beggining of "the Lady of the Lake" now. The thing is I feel like this is the only book I don't really enjoy. It is told from the standpoint of two sorceres that as I understand live long past the events of the previous books and try to uncover the mystery behind the legend of Cirilla, Geralt and Yennifer.

The problem is I don't care for those two girls, I just want to know what happened to the real main characters of the saga. Moreover, experiencing the story through the eyes of Nimue and the other girl the name of who I can't really remember now gives me this feeling that the story the book tells isn't really to be trusted. I'm still going to finish the book, because I want to know how it all turned out.

Anyway, all of the above brings me to the 2 questions I wanted to ask:

1) Is the standalone story told in the 8th book "Season of Storms" more like the Lady of the Lake or the previous 6 books, because if it's similar to the former I don't think I can read it through.

2) Are the "Season of Storms, "Something ends, something begins" and "the Polish books of Monsters" that critical to better understand the stories told in the game series.

Thank you ahead of time.

TLotL has MANY different narrators (like Ciri, Nimue, Dandelion, the "anonymous observer"). In many cases it's not even fully known/obvious who narrates each part.

So the comment that the whole book is narrated by Condawimurs and Nimue is totally NOT true for once. Personally, I love TLotL to death. I think it's Sapkowski's best book of the pentalogy (although I prefer to see them as "one" big book anyway). The complexity and density of symoblisms in this books is just awesome. This book has so many layers and so many points of view and different elements, it's incredible. I can understand that some are disappointed or bored by the few short passages that who real side characters (like Iola, Jarre, the soldiers and so on) but that's easily outweighted by the rest of the content. And then again it makes the story and lore only richer and adds a lot to the deeper meaning. Of course you will never be able to fully understand (and enjoy) TLotL if you stay on the most obvious layer, ignoring all the content between the lines and all the symbolisms. Of all books Sapkowski wrote TLotL is the one that is closest to the classical mythological tale and it's the one that causes you to think for yourself the most - of coruse only if you try to penetrate it to the full extend and go beyond the "story"...

To say it with Ciri in TLotL: "Everything is a symbol."

 

[Zyvik]

I'm probably one of the very few people who never gets bored while reading the Lady of the Lake.Loved all of it,including the stories of the side characters(Battle of Brenna is actually one of my favorite chapters in the saga).Actually the only chapters in the saga which i find boring are Ciri''s chapters with the Rats.

 

[Scholdarr.452]

I'm probably one of the very few people who never gets bored while reading the Lady of the Lake.Loved all of it,including the stories of the side characters(Battle of Brenna is actually one of my favorite chapters in the saga).Actually the only chapters in the saga which i find boring are Ciri''s chapters with the Rats.

I think I've read TLotL more often than any other Witcher book. Like I've said, it's my personal favorite.