Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Vremea disprețului by Andrzej Sapkowski

19 reviews

tilo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

Wie immer: Unglaublich gute Fantasy und die Story ist fesselnd.
Besonders spannend finde ich nach wie vor wie facettenreich die Charaktere sind, denn hier kommen so viele verschiedene Motive aufeinander, Gruppierungen mit unterschiedlichsten Interessen und trotzdem hat jeder mit jedem irgendwie zu tun, wodurch ein faszinierendes Netz gespannt wurde.

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gameoftomes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.25

3.25 / 5 stars
Very harsh, a lot of players in the game without the needed characterizations or backstories. But I’m a lover of YA fantasy, which is frequently character-driven. 

I understand that in Ciri’s precarious position late in the book that there is a realistic threat of rape. But having Mistle save Ciri from being assaulted only to then have it be very unclear as to Ciri’s consent is too much for me. The text disgusts me: “a warm and wet well of resignation and helpless submissiveness. A disgusting and humiliatingly pleasant submissiveness.” I’m not sure if things were lost in translation, or if that is what the writer considers female consent is. It’s especially disturbing because Ciri is 14 and frequently described as being not far from childhood. I know she’s dealt with a lot in terms of survival and war. I know she’s been trained in violence and combat by witchers. But the unclear consent and circumstances surrounding it just doesn’t feel right. There’s no romance, no lust. Ciri’s not an adult, not in a position of power, barely in a position of safety, and the text quickly moves on from it, showing Ciri being tender with Mistle and being a full member of the gang.


There are a lot of great plot twists and switching allegiances before that. Unfortunately I feel like there isn’t as much of a story payoff as there could be, considering the reader gets very little detail and characterization of the key players beforehand. I think the Netflix adaptation of these storylines could greatly improve upon this narrative and give the viewer a satisfying, thrilling, and enthralling watching experience. Fingers crossed.

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bookaholic_in_wonderland's review against another edition

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

3.0


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andromeda_1998's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

The time of contempt is the third installment of the Witcher series. My opinion of this series has been divided  from the start. There are some element to the books that I love but the writer is one of the most toxic writers out there. 

These books are filled with toxic masculinity and sexism. I decided to tap all toxic sentences that I could find. I ended up with 23 taps. It would have been more if I had included repeated remarks. Here are some of the sentences: 
  • “On the chair sat a MIDGET with a huge head, set directly on disproportionately narrow shoulders”
  • “Not really” said the CRIPPLE, smiling. 
  • “And if you rape any woman, do it on the quiet. Out of sight.” 

The writer always finds a way to talk about breasts, nipples, whores, rape and it doesn’t even matter if the individual he describes is a child. He romanticized rape, makes a lot of fatphobic comments and he is insensitive towards handicapped people. These books are problematic and if you didn’t already make the mistake to buy them please refrain from doing so. The story isn’t good enough to make up for it.  
 

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catriona99674's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is definitely my least favourite of the Witcher books so far. It felt like mostly exposition. The random POVs made the pacing odd and it ended in a very strange place. 

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goizi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

3.0


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spacerkip's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0


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sauvageloup's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

mixed feelings on this!

pros:
- it really picked up sort of 2/3rds of the way through. Like, it focused on Ciri (and Geralt a bit) and there was tension and an obvious goal and a coherent narrative and it was great! why was it not like that the whole way through??
- occasionally it was funny, but a lot of the "joke" went over my head
- even though i respect that there were powerful female characters, there still felt like there was misogyny here, which i've seen in his other books too.
a lot of the female characters have backstories that involve rape or are threatened with rape. we get it, its a dark story! but quit with the troubled past = rape for women. there's also a lot of sexualising women. One aspect i did appreciate was when Ciri was assaulted, she couldn't protest and her attacker says 'she's not struggling is she?' to defend himself, but we're in her POV and *know* she doesn't want it. I appreciated the acknowledgement that whilst a person may not verbally speak it doesn't mean you have consent


cons:
- it was just really confusing. esp. the middle with all the politics going on. I had no damn clue who was who or why shit was going down or what was happening for a good 50 pages. it was clearly meant to be a bit unclear but i was just plain lost. it was also just not gripping at all for the first 2/3rds and i also DNF it. it just wandered about the place, with Geralt having long conversations that didn't seem to mean much. I can't even remember the first half.
- just too much random worldbuilding that added to nothing and was confusing

so i was prepared to give it 2/5 stars at best and to quit the series but the end got suddenly good and now I'm tempted to read the next one >.<

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rachaelbunny's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • 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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