Trust me, you only need the first two novels (Spoilers)
Disclaimer: This is not flamebait, even if some arguments I present might come across as provocative for provocation's sake. This is my honest opinion. I'm not debating Sapkowski's literary merit or claming that he writes bad books, only stating what I think and feel he did wrong with the Geralt saga, and how CDP did so much better than him. Feel free to disagree or to rectify wrong assumptions I may very well have made, or things I might have remembered wrong, but kindly refrain from flaming. Also, spoilers up ahead for those who haven't read the novels. Oh, and apologies in advance for the ranty stream of consciousness.
Here's what happened to me: I read The 'Last Wish' (sole edition available in my country at the time), liked it but filed it as 'nice short story collection with no follow-up', played the Witcher 1 a few years later, bought the other books (in German) and finally played the Witcher 2.
So why do I believe you don't need the novels? Simply put, because in my opinion, what CDP have done with Geralt and his world has easily surpassed what Sapkowski accomplished in his novels, even if they are the source material on which the games were based. More, the two games completely left the books eating their dust. The quality, coherence and character development took Sapkowski to school. I'm dead serious, and I never thought I'd say something like this when juxtaposing a book with a game. Here's why.
'The Last Wish' is a great book of intertwined short stories. Really, really good. Gives you bite-sized chunks of goodness and leaves you wanting more when you finish. An intriguing new world with elements that are familiar and foreign at the same time, a sympathetic badass main character, snappy dialogue and nice doses of action. Were it not for the end, it'd easily be an excellent standalone novel in its own right. Enter 'The Sword of Destiny'. More of the same, to a point. I didn't feel it had the same impact and pizzazz of its predecessor, but still a good follow-up, and the end had just the right mix of closure and open-endedness.
I felt things starting to go south on 'Blood of the Elves'. For some strange reason, the vibe I got was that Sapkowski was no longer that into Geralt, or hellbent on proving he could create better characters, and thus began our favorite witcher's exodus into the role of part-timer in the books that readers expected to be about him. So the reader has to put up with his understudy, Ciri, which I simply don't feel to be a compelling or sympathetic character, or rather not compelling enough to carry the better half of a series. Sapkowski created a fascinating mythos about the witchers, but after two books he presents them to us as a dying breed that no longer has any real relevance, and the focus shifts into political intrigue. No imbibing of potions, no usage of signs, and other than the one or two monsters to slay in rather throwaway fashion, there's no witchering to be done until very, very late in the series, and even then it almost feels like fanservice rather than an organic part of the story.
'That's what happens in the games as well', you might say, and you'd be right. The focus of both games' stories is not monster-hunting. However, you get the feeling that being a witcher is still a relevant part of who Geralt is, with contracts aplenty, danger lurking around every corner and monsters trying to fit in a changing world. What Sapkowski did was create an intriguing setting only to use it for two books, and then discard it, rinse it and present you with a rather generic alternative. Like coming up with a unique selling point and discarding it in favor of something that has been done many times before and by better scribes to boot.
Now, does this mean that witchering is all Geralt should do? Absolutely not. But it's what he *does*. You don't put a special ops agent in, say, a romantic comedy unless you mean to poke fun at him, and oddly enough, that's exactly what happens to Geralt for the better part of the saga. He gets regularly trounced and mocked and becomes a shadow of his former self right up to the penultimate volume, but by then it's already too little, too late. I'm serious. He seldom gets the verbal upper hand, is a bully to humans and gets his pale behind handed to him whenever confronted with more powerful opposition. Not only that, but at a certain point in the story, he gets his hands full while fighting a human knight he insulted and - get this - both are subsequently belt-whipped by another companion, who only stops whipping Geralt when he screams for her to stop, leaving him covered in welts and with a cauliflower ear. I kid you not.
Even near the end, when he finally vanquishes his nemesis, he gets told that he was lucky. Lucky that his nemesis had previously been partially blinded. And this from the mouth of someone he's just saved. "Oh, that guy was going to kill us all. Nice job, Geralt. Good thing he was handicapped from the start, or else you'd never have made it. Yay you for skewering a myopic opponent". It just felt so forced and unnecessary, stealing your main character's thunder in his one moment of glory, when he spent half the story wallowing in the mud. Just boggles the mind.
As if that weren't enough, the story takes a turn to the weird as frack, with dimension-hopping that takes the character of Ciri to medieval France(!), a knights of the round table demiplane and other assorted zaniness. Felt like an Eastern bloc weird tales fanzine at times. CDP pulls if off much, much better with Alvin/Grandmaster and the dimension-hopping Wild Hunt, meshing that sort of high concept harmoniously with the rest of the story so as not to have it stick out like a sore thumb from the coherence of the setting. It's like Sapkowski was high on something or trying really hard to make you care about Ciri and her plight. I mean, why read about a measly witcher in decline when you've got a plane-hopping witcherette, right?
And then, of course, there's the little matter of the ending. The big reveal comes when the closest thing to a big baddie turns out to be a secondary character in one of the 'Last Wish' tales, but that's ok, because he's this laid-back guy who says it's all cool and leaves. And then, sometime later, Geralt dies in the arms of his loved one in almost callously offhand fashion, and Ciri teleports both into Deusexmachinaville, where they're kinda sorta alive, and then she hops back on her unicorn to go back for some more knights of the round table goofiness.
What...?
And people here are clamoring for translations? Take my word for it, you're better off having just read 'The Last Wish' and a fan translation of 'Sword of Destiny', and then playing the games. The remaining five books simply aren't worth it and CDP did an amazing job to resurrect the franchise and breathe new life into it. They've taken it on an 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' spin Sapkowski clearly wasn't interested in, and crafted a fantastic tale with all the better elements of the witcher universe, seamlessly blending new ideas into it; ideas that fit organically with what had previously been established. CDP got the formula right. The Witcher is Geralt and Geralt is The Witcher. Take Geralt out of the equation, and all you've got is a run-of-the-mill slavic game of thrones with magic thrown into the mix.
So yeah. Kudos to CDP for expanding on 'The Last Wish' and doing it right. My money is on you delivering an absolutely killer final chapter, gentlemen.
Disclaimer: This is not flamebait, even if some arguments I present might come across as provocative for provocation's sake. This is my honest opinion. I'm not debating Sapkowski's literary merit or claming that he writes bad books, only stating what I think and feel he did wrong with the Geralt saga, and how CDP did so much better than him. Feel free to disagree or to rectify wrong assumptions I may very well have made, or things I might have remembered wrong, but kindly refrain from flaming. Also, spoilers up ahead for those who haven't read the novels. Oh, and apologies in advance for the ranty stream of consciousness.
Here's what happened to me: I read The 'Last Wish' (sole edition available in my country at the time), liked it but filed it as 'nice short story collection with no follow-up', played the Witcher 1 a few years later, bought the other books (in German) and finally played the Witcher 2.
So why do I believe you don't need the novels? Simply put, because in my opinion, what CDP have done with Geralt and his world has easily surpassed what Sapkowski accomplished in his novels, even if they are the source material on which the games were based. More, the two games completely left the books eating their dust. The quality, coherence and character development took Sapkowski to school. I'm dead serious, and I never thought I'd say something like this when juxtaposing a book with a game. Here's why.
'The Last Wish' is a great book of intertwined short stories. Really, really good. Gives you bite-sized chunks of goodness and leaves you wanting more when you finish. An intriguing new world with elements that are familiar and foreign at the same time, a sympathetic badass main character, snappy dialogue and nice doses of action. Were it not for the end, it'd easily be an excellent standalone novel in its own right. Enter 'The Sword of Destiny'. More of the same, to a point. I didn't feel it had the same impact and pizzazz of its predecessor, but still a good follow-up, and the end had just the right mix of closure and open-endedness.
I felt things starting to go south on 'Blood of the Elves'. For some strange reason, the vibe I got was that Sapkowski was no longer that into Geralt, or hellbent on proving he could create better characters, and thus began our favorite witcher's exodus into the role of part-timer in the books that readers expected to be about him. So the reader has to put up with his understudy, Ciri, which I simply don't feel to be a compelling or sympathetic character, or rather not compelling enough to carry the better half of a series. Sapkowski created a fascinating mythos about the witchers, but after two books he presents them to us as a dying breed that no longer has any real relevance, and the focus shifts into political intrigue. No imbibing of potions, no usage of signs, and other than the one or two monsters to slay in rather throwaway fashion, there's no witchering to be done until very, very late in the series, and even then it almost feels like fanservice rather than an organic part of the story.
'That's what happens in the games as well', you might say, and you'd be right. The focus of both games' stories is not monster-hunting. However, you get the feeling that being a witcher is still a relevant part of who Geralt is, with contracts aplenty, danger lurking around every corner and monsters trying to fit in a changing world. What Sapkowski did was create an intriguing setting only to use it for two books, and then discard it, rinse it and present you with a rather generic alternative. Like coming up with a unique selling point and discarding it in favor of something that has been done many times before and by better scribes to boot.
Now, does this mean that witchering is all Geralt should do? Absolutely not. But it's what he *does*. You don't put a special ops agent in, say, a romantic comedy unless you mean to poke fun at him, and oddly enough, that's exactly what happens to Geralt for the better part of the saga. He gets regularly trounced and mocked and becomes a shadow of his former self right up to the penultimate volume, but by then it's already too little, too late. I'm serious. He seldom gets the verbal upper hand, is a bully to humans and gets his pale behind handed to him whenever confronted with more powerful opposition. Not only that, but at a certain point in the story, he gets his hands full while fighting a human knight he insulted and - get this - both are subsequently belt-whipped by another companion, who only stops whipping Geralt when he screams for her to stop, leaving him covered in welts and with a cauliflower ear. I kid you not.
Even near the end, when he finally vanquishes his nemesis, he gets told that he was lucky. Lucky that his nemesis had previously been partially blinded. And this from the mouth of someone he's just saved. "Oh, that guy was going to kill us all. Nice job, Geralt. Good thing he was handicapped from the start, or else you'd never have made it. Yay you for skewering a myopic opponent". It just felt so forced and unnecessary, stealing your main character's thunder in his one moment of glory, when he spent half the story wallowing in the mud. Just boggles the mind.
As if that weren't enough, the story takes a turn to the weird as frack, with dimension-hopping that takes the character of Ciri to medieval France(!), a knights of the round table demiplane and other assorted zaniness. Felt like an Eastern bloc weird tales fanzine at times. CDP pulls if off much, much better with Alvin/Grandmaster and the dimension-hopping Wild Hunt, meshing that sort of high concept harmoniously with the rest of the story so as not to have it stick out like a sore thumb from the coherence of the setting. It's like Sapkowski was high on something or trying really hard to make you care about Ciri and her plight. I mean, why read about a measly witcher in decline when you've got a plane-hopping witcherette, right?
And then, of course, there's the little matter of the ending. The big reveal comes when the closest thing to a big baddie turns out to be a secondary character in one of the 'Last Wish' tales, but that's ok, because he's this laid-back guy who says it's all cool and leaves. And then, sometime later, Geralt dies in the arms of his loved one in almost callously offhand fashion, and Ciri teleports both into Deusexmachinaville, where they're kinda sorta alive, and then she hops back on her unicorn to go back for some more knights of the round table goofiness.
What...?
And people here are clamoring for translations? Take my word for it, you're better off having just read 'The Last Wish' and a fan translation of 'Sword of Destiny', and then playing the games. The remaining five books simply aren't worth it and CDP did an amazing job to resurrect the franchise and breathe new life into it. They've taken it on an 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' spin Sapkowski clearly wasn't interested in, and crafted a fantastic tale with all the better elements of the witcher universe, seamlessly blending new ideas into it; ideas that fit organically with what had previously been established. CDP got the formula right. The Witcher is Geralt and Geralt is The Witcher. Take Geralt out of the equation, and all you've got is a run-of-the-mill slavic game of thrones with magic thrown into the mix.
So yeah. Kudos to CDP for expanding on 'The Last Wish' and doing it right. My money is on you delivering an absolutely killer final chapter, gentlemen.
although it could be argued it would be a better prelude into the AoK because of the political overtones that seem to be more prevalent.