The Last Wish

The Last Wish has been on my to read list for several years, I finally sought it out after seeing a coworker reading a book in the series. My coworker preceded to tell me all about Sapkowski and his Polish ancestry. Since I am half Polish I was a bit more intrigued. I did start The Last Wish having played a couple hours of one of the games so I knew a bit about what a Witcher is.

Geralt is an interesting character with many levels to him. I am intrigued if his emotions are that reserved due to being a Witcher and his training or if it is just his personality. Without a doubt he has a strong sense of justice and clearly wants to do what is right all the time. That heroic rush into battle to save anyone is something I admire and I found it made the story interesting in a lot of ways. What threw me was the way the chapters changed, I could not keep up with what was going on or when it was going on. My favorite part was Sapkowski and the way he retold some famous fairy tales to have them fit into a dark world full of monsters.

I am not sure I will continue the series despite loving the writing. Without a doubt Sapkowski is one of the most elegant storytellers I have ever read. What deters me is trying to figure out what is going on, I am not sure if the time line is jumping around, I am confused on who side characters are, and just when I got interested into the story it would move on to something else. In some ways it felt like a lot of short stories combined into one big book.