The Witcher books (SPOILERS)

[Raven-beauty]

The witcher Dutch editions of The last wish & Sword of destiny Just came in today The Dutch cover: De laatste wens (The last wish) & Het zwaard der voorzienigheid (sword of destiny). These two books are combined in one in the Dutch edition.

The Last wish is translated in Dutch by: Karol Lesman
The sword of destiny in Dutch is translated by: Corry Bree
The novels in Dutch are all translated by: Theo Veenhof


http://imgur.com/a/QPZGF

 

[triptrap]

Season of Storms

Hi,

no idea if it fits here, but has anyone of you read Season of Storms yet? What do you think?

I'm 2/3 through it at the moment, and, what can i say...

some bits are brilliant and classic sapkowski

some other bits however... A minor gripe with the witcher series for me has always been that Sapkowski sometimes overdoes anachronistic elements (for example the usage of the latin language). And in the season of storms he seems to have pushed up that element a lot, which sometimes bothers the hell out of me.

In this book he sometimes also takes us to really weird places. I mean, that swamp with the "fox" is described with plants that don't even exist in europe, let alone central-eastern europe, and on the other hand he tries to be so damn european that he uses the latin language (which, arguably logically could not have existed in the witcher world, right?)
And then again he pulls some stuff that seems right out of modern times and is completely missplaced in a largely late medieval-ish world such as the witchers... (the whole "science" is just a bit too much in that book)

I dunno, some stuff in there just really breaks my immersion, what about you?

 

[toudis815]

Well in Time of contempt Geralt and Vilgefortz have a conversation about genetics. When Sapkowski was at the beggining of his career publisher tried to encourage him not to use anachronisms but he refused to do so. Some critics been bashing him for creating a medival characters with XX century awareness, but AS is famous for being indefferent to critics, journalists etc.. He said pretty clearly: "Let's make it straight: fantasy about witcher is not a medival". He created his own word and does whatever he wants to with it. For me all kinds of references to our modern world in Sapkowski literaturę are priceless and funny. I'm not biggest fan of Season of storms anyway. The only good thing that came out of it was Coral character and some cool one liners as always (especially the ones about whores and politicians and about historians)

 

[triptrap]

Well in Time of contempt Geralt and Vilgefortz have a conversation about genetics. When Sapkowski was at the beggining of his career publisher tried to encourage him not to use anachronisms but he refused to do so. Some critics been bashing him for creating a medival characters with XX century awareness, but AS is famous for being indefferent to critics, journalists etc.. He said pretty clearly: "Let's make it straight: fantasy about witcher is not a medival". He created his own word and does whatever he wants to with it. For me all kinds of references to our modern world in Sapkowski literaturę are priceless and funny. I'm not biggest fan of Season of storms anyway. The only good thing that came out of it was Coral character and some cool one liners as always (especially the ones about whores and politicians and about historians)

Well i totally get that sliding in anachronisms is just part of his thing. In the other books so far they didn't bother me and i mostly enjoyed them. In Season of Storms however he's sometimes really doing it too much, so much so that (for me at least) it sometimes breaks the immersion with this otherwise wonderfully medieval atmosphere

 

[yayodeanno.831]

I might be missing something but to me the whole part with the fox seemed a bit alien to the book's main theme and the Witcher's universe as we came to know it. Sapkowski must really like Viktor Pelevin's Sacred Book Of The Werewolf, I guess.

 

[Raven-beauty]

New cover of Lady of the lake released! (Dutch edition)
It's set to be released on: 23-09-2016

 

[Paladin-10]

New cover of Lady of the lake released! (Dutch edition)
It's set to be released on: 23-09-2016

QUOTE]

Wow this one looks really good. Probably one of the best versions I've seen.

 

[Majestic81x]

SoS was great. Same dry wit and some good new characters. Geralt and Dandelion's friendship is as interesting and humorous as ever.

And it was nice to learn more about the Cat School.

 

[Kuonirath]

SoS was great. Same dry wit and some good new characters. Geralt and Dandelion's friendship is as interesting and humorous as ever.

And it was nice to learn more about the Cat School.

Glad you like it! We are in minority then, because most people says that Season of Storms is mediocre. Well, it's not as great as the witcher cycle, but it's a good, epic story (with a beautiful ending) which is definitely worth rereading.
We have to remember that Sapkowski is getting older and older, so he might not return to his excellent form from short-stories / saga and (especially) Hussite Trilogy.

 

[Paladin-10]

Glad you like it! We are in minority then, because most people says that Season of Storms is mediocre. Well, it's not as great as the witcher cycle, but it's a good, epic story (with a beautiful ending) which is definitely worth rereading.
We have to remember that Sapkowski is getting older and older, so he might not return to his excellent form from short-stories / saga and (especially) Hussite Trilogy.

Well, when it comes to writing getting older does not necessarily mean not keeping up with your previous standard of work like in for example sports.

I still have not read Season of Storms, so I cannot judge.

 

[Sephira]

So, about Season of Storms, I cannot write an extensive opinion because I read the fan translation, will do after I'll read it again, in italian, at the end of the year. But in short, I consider it a good lore book, developing many aspect and details of the world and also it serves to clear certain aspects even for the previous stories. On the other hand, it's a not-so-good Witcher book itself, I mean the story. Though some story arcs were pleasant, something seemed a bit off.

But... the ending is amazing, beautiful, as well as chapter 20. When I finished reading the book I regretted all the chapters weren't as beautiful as the last and the epilogue.

 

[Majestic81x]

Glad you like it! We are in minority then, because most people says that Season of Storms is mediocre. Well, it's not as great as the witcher cycle, but it's a good, epic story (with a beautiful ending) which is definitely worth rereading.
We have to remember that Sapkowski is getting older and older, so he might not return to his excellent form from short-stories / saga and (especially) Hussite Trilogy.

Well thats the thing. Its just a short story. Of course it wont be as detailed and thorough as the whole saga. I have to read it again since I only read it once. But I didnt have any gripes with it. The part with the ship and the fox creature chasing them seemed a little dragged and not really related to the whole story. But thats about it.. other than that it was good. The rest like

Spoiler

(Geralt's adventures in Kerack, his relationship with Coral, the stolen swords, and the psycho wizard and the castle) were all thrilling and interesting.

I dont think AS planned this book anyway. It could have been because the games went mainstream that he decided to release another final story. Or maybe it had nothing to do with the games and he actually felt like he's not done with the Witcher series, either way I still like that we got another Witcher book.

 

[toudis815]

I dont think AS planned this book anyway. It could have been because the games went mainstream that he decided to release another final story. Or maybe it had nothing to do with the games and he actually felt like he's not done with the Witcher series, either way I still like that we got another Witcher book.

Yeah, he probably decided to write Seasons of Storms because his previous book Żmija (Viper) was his first book that was panned by critics, and while sales weren't that bad, it wasn't a bestseller like Witcher or Hussite Trilogy, so as reasonable economist he decided to cash in the fact that games refreshed the Witcher brand. Still, while Seasons of stroms is worse than any other witcher book and Hussite trilogy also, it was fun to read.

 

[Kuonirath]

I dont think AS planned this book anyway. It could have been because the games went mainstream that he decided to release another final story.

Well, in the preface of Season of Storms (which was an exclusive for e-books) Sapkowski declared that this book was planned since a long time. He never said that he won't continue Geralt's adventures. "Story continues. History never ends."

Or maybe it had nothing to do with the games and he actually felt like he's not done with the Witcher series, either way I still like that we got another Witcher book.

That's the more probable version IMO. But of course the games had the impact on that decision. The proof is the ending of SoS.

 

[Sephira]

I think that both money and will to write another Witcher story seeing all the revamped success played their part when Sapkowski decided to write the book, but that's just me.

Hussite trilogy

Man, I hope I will be able to read it. Still no news from the italian publisher, even if I asked the author himself, during a meeting with the fans, if he knew something about, he only replied he would have been happy if that happened because it's one of his major works, and that he will have a word with the publisher.

I'm still waiting, but probably because (and I sincerely hope that's the reason) the publisher is busy with Season of Storms... fingers crossed.

 

[toudis815]

Man, I hope I will be able to read it. Still no news from the italian publisher, even if I asked the author himself, during a meeting with the fans, if he knew something about, he only replied he would have been happy if that happened because it's one of his major works, and that he will have a word with the publisher.

AS himself asked about his favourite book that he wrote, said that Hussite Trilogy is his Tour de Force. I personally prefer Witcher but Trilogy was also one hell of a fun. According to Italian translation, I think it's simple- depends on how well or bad Witcher books sales results are in Italy. Especially if you consider the fact that Hussite trilogy contains real historical characters, battles, events, so it makes it even harder to promote outside Czech, Poland and Germany (despite that, it was released in Spain (don't know whether they became popular there or not) so maybe there is a chance for Italian version also)

 

[Gilthoniel]

just would like to share with you some scans of Chinese Witcher book editions which were sent to me by an amazing Reddit user from China exclusively for my Witcher book Collection - the covers were illustrated by NAVAR

The Last Wish: http://imgur.com/a/7URSr

every book has included a Witcher World map:

Sword of Destiny: http://imgur.com/a/svda4

at the end of the book there is a nice bestiary with text with small pictures about Witcher world creatures

Blood of Elves signed by Mr. Sapkowski: http://imgur.com/a/ES2Bt

 

[eskiMoe]

So, about Season of Storms, I cannot write an extensive opinion because I read the fan translation, will do after I'll read it again, in italian, at the end of the year. But in short, I consider it a good lore book, developing many aspect and details of the world and also it serves to clear certain aspects even for the previous stories. On the other hand, it's a not-so-good Witcher book itself, I mean the story. Though some story arcs were pleasant, something seemed a bit off.

But... the ending is amazing, beautiful, as well as chapter 20. When I finished reading the book I regretted all the chapters weren't as beautiful as the last and the epilogue.

Just finished reading the fan translation and this pretty much sums up my thoughts about the book as well. I'm not exactly a fan of prequels (or midquels in this case) because of the obvious restrictions it brings to the storytelling and wasn't exactly surprised that the story was a bit lacking.

But overall like you said, it was a good addition to the lore. I liked it and I'm glad Sapkowski wrote it.

Gotta say though. If Sapkowski continues to write more books Geralt will soon have bedded more than half the sorceresses of the known world. lol.

 

[toudis815]

Geralt will soon have bedded more than half the sorceresses of the known world. lol.

haha - Geralt can be like Hank Moody but "at the end of the day it's all about her"

 

[Riven-Twain]

@Gilthoniel , post moved to this thread, since this is where others have been posting the cover arts for the various languages.