marinaxanna's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Love to hate it, hate to love it—thank god its over, because this is where the honeymoon phase with the series finally ended for me. It’s like Sapkowski just gave up and I, too, stopped believing in this story.
Three books of build up, interesting characters, interesting cultures and worlds—only to have it end like this, with the lackluster that is the Tower of the Swallow and the Lady of the lake.
Reducing strong, intelligent women who had compelling narratives into mindless Geralt simps while throwing around misogynistic takes.
Spoiler
Oh and not to mention more vile, completely unnecessary SA scenes/tropes for Ciri. Seriously what the fuck was up with that Gramps BS?And all that for an anti climactic, cliché as fuck ending that leaves more questions than answers. It felt incredibly unsatisfactory.
Spoiler
Mila, Regis and Cahir deserved better. And I mean that as in, their deaths were incredibly underwhelming, with happening in the same 4/5 pages apart and with the bare minimum of impact. I didn’t even take it seriously. They went from all OP/skilled to dropping like flies in the last book.Geralt and Yennefers characters were just butchered. Both of them felt 2D as hell by the end of the book and it seemed like the author just wanted to be done with the series.
Well, so did I—Almost dnf. Reading this was just not enjoyable for me at all. I forced myself to finish it since its the last part. Skipped the entirety of chapter 7 when it was clear it was another senseless subplot with Men Being Men TM with a bunch of characters i would never read about again. Seriously, who needs so many detours and timejumps to shape a plot????
Well, so did I—Almost dnf. Reading this was just not enjoyable for me at all. I forced myself to finish it since its the last part. Skipped the entirety of chapter 7 when it was clear it was another senseless subplot with Men Being Men TM with a bunch of characters i would never read about again. Seriously, who needs so many detours and timejumps to shape a plot????
Anyway. Goodbye to this series. This book has killed any love I had for these characters. I’m done.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Rape, Sexual assault, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Incest
starsfall's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Alcohol, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Torture, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexism, Self harm, Racism, Murder, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death of parent, and Colonisation
Moderate: Pedophilia
Okay wow this book was a lot. There were many plottwist that left me quite confused. I really loved how there were so mant different povs, so many characters. Although sometimes I was a bit lost with so many names and places.Spoiler
So that's that, the end of the witcher series, in hindsight I should have read season of storms after this one but i'll just reread the epilogue now. The ending kinda broke me, I feel like it was incredibly sad and depressing. And I know that the whole mood of the series should have indicated that there wasn't gonna be a perfect happily ever but still, I was a bit dissapointed. So many characters died.camoo3032's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, Xenophobia, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Confinement, Murder, Death, Sexual assault, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Abortion, Drug use, Incest, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Vomit, Animal death, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Alcohol, Classism, Misogyny, and Sexual content
Minor: Alcoholism, Infertility, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Cursing, Slavery, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Excrement, and Bullying
halynahalkina's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
geordirr's review
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, War, Sexual violence, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Incest and Antisemitism
Spoiler
if you haven’t figured it out by now the entire plot of the series revolves around the attempted forced impregnation of a teenage girl by multiple parties. It’s particularly bad in this book as we get to read graphic descriptions of people attempting violent physical rape, coercive rape and medical rape on Ciri. Oh and one of the last things yennifer does before dying is to call Triss a slut for sleeping with Geralt back in book 3efsimpkin's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Wow. What a finale to the Witcher series. This took a long time for me to read, mostly because the start of the book is very, very slow. I can’t really remember the significance of Geralt’s arc in Toussaint necessarily or the start of Ciri’s travels post-Tower and at the end of the day it didn’t really end up mattering that much.
I do need to say though that as a Merlin fan I really enjoyed all the Camelot references, lol.
In the middle of the book is where the plot starts to pick up and Sapkowski’s writing shines once more. There’s a chapter that uses multiple POVs to describe a battle scene and it’s masterful. Throughout, we get thrown between times and places with only scraps of information to tell us where we are but it is perfectly executed. The use of a recurring motif (I won’t spoil what it is) hit me like a tonne of bricks when I worked out what it was doing. The use of sometimes very simple dialogue or clever word games is brilliant and even more brilliant when you consider that it survived translation, so well done to French as well for his work there.
This is by far the darkest and saddest book in the series, I feel, and I think that’s what makes it beautiful in its own way. I spent the whole book wondering how it would align with the characters I know from TW3, and I only got that answer right at the end, which was excellent. I had been lightly spoiled for the ending previously which is a shame but I still deeply enjoyed the book.
I’m going to wait a good long while, until I’m feeling nostalgic, to read Season of Storms.
I do need to say though that as a Merlin fan I really enjoyed all the Camelot references, lol.
In the middle of the book is where the plot starts to pick up and Sapkowski’s writing shines once more. There’s a chapter that uses multiple POVs to describe a battle scene and it’s masterful. Throughout, we get thrown between times and places with only scraps of information to tell us where we are but it is perfectly executed. The use of a recurring motif (I won’t spoil what it is) hit me like a tonne of bricks when I worked out what it was doing. The use of sometimes very simple dialogue or clever word games is brilliant and even more brilliant when you consider that it survived translation, so well done to French as well for his work there.
This is by far the darkest and saddest book in the series, I feel, and I think that’s what makes it beautiful in its own way. I spent the whole book wondering how it would align with the characters I know from TW3, and I only got that answer right at the end, which was excellent. I had been lightly spoiled for the ending previously which is a shame but I still deeply enjoyed the book.
I’m going to wait a good long while, until I’m feeling nostalgic, to read Season of Storms.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, War, and Death
Moderate: Incest
Minor: Pregnancy
knkoch's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
This was a fitting end to the main series and the linear part of Geralt and Ciri’s story. It’s by far the longest, but it felt well-organized and thematically clear. I felt less confused or out on a limb than I have throughout some of the other books.
The changing storyteller aspect (telling parts of the story from later points in time, looking back, and/or from a distant storyteller) was occasionally irritating, as it felt like a way to slow down the most compelling parts of the narrative. But overall, it finally felt more appropriate to have so many narratives to jump between, as the many characters were better established by this point. By the final half, this reminded me strongly of The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the way several disparate groups or characters are working in different parts of the world during an enormous war. A nice fellowship developed here, too.
I’ve still got Season of Storms left, and then I’ll be all through with Witcher books! For awhile, at least. But I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them and will be sad to turn that final page.
The changing storyteller aspect (telling parts of the story from later points in time, looking back, and/or from a distant storyteller) was occasionally irritating, as it felt like a way to slow down the most compelling parts of the narrative. But overall, it finally felt more appropriate to have so many narratives to jump between, as the many characters were better established by this point. By the final half, this reminded me strongly of The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the way several disparate groups or characters are working in different parts of the world during an enormous war. A nice fellowship developed here, too.
I’ve still got Season of Storms left, and then I’ll be all through with Witcher books! For awhile, at least. But I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them and will be sad to turn that final page.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War and Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault and Xenophobia
jessthanthree's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Death, and War
reiki's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Death, War, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexism
Moderate: Child death and Racism
alicewell's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault