Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

9 reviews

mcmeiss's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Sexism, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Toxic friendship

thewillowwood's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Overall I enjoyed this book, enough so that I will be reading the next instalment of the series. Some of the scenes were quite dull, but the more enjoyable ones made up for it. It also suffers a bit from the “men writing women” problem that made me a tad uncomfortable, but it didn’t completely ruin the experience. It’s a decent fantasy read, if you enjoy that then this book will likely be enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

there are brief mentions of Geralt being mistaken as being in a sexual relationship with Ciri (who is 13), but it does not true nor is it endorsed

shiveryteacup's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

khymihr's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Minor: Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

belladonnashrike's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

the translation for this book is honestly so much better than the translated short stories. I enjoyed the stories, but after reading blood of elves I can tell why people critique them so often. this was much more engaging and I was really flying through it. 

I loved that ciri & yen’s relationship was one of the focuses - I love them so much and I am glad to see a better relationship between them than what’s depicted in the show. I also enjoyed the political aspect of this book and it cleared up a lot of the politics that I was not entirely understanding from the netflix series. I do wish there was a map, though. it should be illegal for fantasy novels and series to not include a map!! idk where these places are! 

I am APPALLED that tissaia demanded that all magicians be STERILIZED… when I watched the show I honestly just thought the transformation was so brutal it completely obliterated everyone’s reproductive organs or their hormones… I had no idea it was by design. this was such a small part of the book but I am STILL thinking about it.

what bugs me about the writing though is the emphasis on dialogue and not what is happening to the characters in their environment. oftentimes during a mini-monologue something happens between the speaker and another character or something changes in the environment that is never alluded to outside of the quotes. it’s slightly jarring at times. I have to really think sometimes about what exactly just happened because so many physical aspects and actions are just completely ignored, for whatever reason.  if that weren’t the case I probably would’ve rated this five stars. I love the story & characters so much that my bias is definitellyyyy affecting the rating. but who cares I enjoyed myself

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and War

Moderate: Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

marissab's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Genocide, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

tilo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Der erste Teil der Hauptreihe enttäuscht nicht! Mehrmals war ich emotional etwas aufgewühlt und einige Stellen haben mir das Herz erwärmt. Ich habe das Gefühl, dass Leser:innen, die sich mit der Welt noch nicht so gut auskennen, besonders am Anfang sehr überrumpelt von all den Namen und geschichtlichen Ereignissen fühlen könnten. Ansonsten bietet das Buch alles, was man von der Welt erwartet: Mysteriöse Geschehnisse, Abenteuer und einzigartige Charaktere mit komplexen und faszinierenden Hintergrundgeschichten.
Randnotiz: Positiv aber sehr überraschend fand ich die Art und Weise wie mit

Ciris

Menstruationsbeschwerden und später erste Fragen zum Sexualleben umgegangen wurde. Fand ich gute Aufklärung in einem Buch, von dem man es nicht zwingend erwartet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Drug use, Infertility, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit

jaedia's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Infertility, Rape, Self harm, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

billyjepma's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I'm still hopelessly enamored with the world Sapkowski has created, but as the "official" starting point of his grander storyline, this book was pretty underwhelming and even a bit disappointing. The first two short-story collections—which really should be labeled as books 1 and 2 because they're essential to understanding this one—surprised me with their smart, economic worldbuilding and sharp characterizations. But this one effectively goes in circles for 400 pages, planting seeds that probably won't show any fruit for another book or two or three. There are some high points, though. Everything with Geralt and Ciri in the first act is great, and the subplots with Geralt are also quite fun and parse through some compelling ideas and motivations. But once Geralt takes a step back, the story takes a hit.

Very little actually happens in these pages, which is a problem only exasperated by Sapkowski's inability to write believable women. The interactions that develop Yennefer and Ciri's relationship should be fun and meaningful, considering they make up 2/3s of the series core protagonists at this point. Instead, they often come off as grating, shallow, and full of painfully glaring signs that they're written by a man who doesn't know anything about women. These problems were around in the last two books, too, but now they're actively hurting the story's trajectory and foundation, which sucks. It's cool seeing Ciri go through a series of training montages, but when that's the backbone of your entire story, and you don't know how to write women, you're going to have problems, which is precisely what happens here.

I'm still going to keep going with the series because I am enjoying the worldbuilding, and the many plot threads and tensions teased here have effectively piqued my interest. But I really, really, really need Sapkowski to improve his writing in some pretty crucial areas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, and Xenophobia

Minor: Torture, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and War