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risaleel's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Blood, and Alcohol
Moderate: Gore, Incest, and Murder
cosmicbeige44's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Sexism and Violence
Moderate: Alcohol
poisonenvy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The Last Wish is a book consisting of seven short stories that follow the witcher, Geralt. One of the stories, "The Voice of Reason" is used as a framing device for the other six stories. So, there's no overarching plot in this book in particular, just a few episodes to give us an idea of Geralt's life as a witcher and to set up some other plot threads further down the line.
So, let's start:
The Prose: The prose in this novel is... not great. I don't know if it's the fault of the translator or not. I suspect it's a mix of both, but a lot of the awkwardness of the prose does seem to be in line with the stilted nature that some translations end up taking on.
Luckily, I read the majority of this book on audio, and Peter Kenny does an excellent job at narrating it. With his narration, a lot of the awkwardness of the text on paper seems to disappear (even if he pronounces Dandelion in... a way that I absolutely would not).
The Storytelling: While some of the later stories in the book are better for this, the first like, three, are pretty much exclusively told through dialogue? A lot of telling, very little showing, and it makes for some kind of frustratingly boring stories.
The Sexism: It's not much more egregious than a lot of 90s fantasy, but I just don't have the patience for that sort of thing anymore. Behind, the sympathetic rapist! Marvel at the pregnant 14 year old (but it's okay, because she's totally in love with the man who's likely in his mid-30s at the youngest who knocked her up). Look in awe as literally every single woman in this book wants to sleep with our macho protagonist whether it makes sense or not (though, lbr, if he looks like Henry Cavill maybe it does make sense no matter what the greater context of the story is. Even if he does act like a prepubescent boy any time a woman is naked around him, even if she is invisible).
The Plot: Like I said, there isn't much plot in this novel. It's very episodic in nature. BUT! I'm intrigued by the plot that it's setting up.
The Pacing: This is hard to place, really. Again, most of the early stories are told through dialogue, which makes them feel unbelievably slow.
The References: I enjoyed the occasional sprinkling of classic fairy tales in here. Seriously, it made me smile every time I noticed one.
I did very much enjoy The Last Wish, however. There were parts that were funny enough that I smiled at them. I'm not sure if <i>all</i> the funny parts were actually meant to be funny -- it's kind of a tonal shift from a lot of the rest of the book? -- but I'm going to give Sapkowski the benefit of the doubt in this.
Anyway, I enjoyed this book enough that I'm going to continue the series. I've got several of the books signed out from the library. I haven't decided yet if I like the series enough to actually purchase the rest of the books in it, nor am I sure if I'll see it through to the end of book eight. But I'm having fun with it.
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, and Sexism
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Infertility, and Alcohol
Minor: Incest
brittni_in_ink's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.25
I'd played a little of the Witcher 3 before reading this, so I was familiar with the characters and the kinds of stories I'd encounter. But I didn't expect the book to be so funny. There were some legit laugh out loud moments. Geralt does say "hmmm" a lot.
Overall, the lore and the characters were compelling, and I'll definitely continue reading through the series.
Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Gore, Infertility, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
pickledlettuce's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Alcohol
Minor: Cursing and Violence
The book definitely has a male gaze thing going on. To a somewhat weird degree.bookishchef's review against another edition
2.0
Was it badly written?
Yeah. It mostly consists of dialogue. And pretty weird, clunky dialogue at that.
Was the romance incredibly rushed?
Yeah. Kind of suddenly happened.
Was it incredibly sexist?
YEAH
I read that infamous 'her nipples touched his eyelids' scene a few years ago, and Oh My God that set the bar so incredibly low. And yeah it's bad. It's a terribly written scene, and most women (although not all), including the main love interest Yennefer, were just there to be a pair of tits. A feisty pair of tits sometimes, but a pair of tits nonetheless. This single book has more descriptions of breasts than the entirety of A Song Of Ice And Fire.
Yet it still wasn't as bad as I expected. And I guess that's something. I definitely enjoyed some scenes and some of the jokes.
The Dutch audiobook did change some names and words into Dutch 'equivalents' that aren't really equivalent at all. This made the book feel even clunkier than usual, I think. Using 'neuk' instead of every 'fuck' doesn't really work in the Dutch language anymore, even if that is the literal translation.
For some reason they changed Dandelion's name into 'Ranonkel', which means Persian Buttercup, not Dandelion. Ranonkel is a godawful name. Why oh why did the translator do this?
Later translators hated their colleague's decision too apparently, because later in the series his name gets changed into 'Ridderspoor', which means Larkspur and is a little better (still a shit name though).
Jelle Amersfoort acted as the VA for the Dutch version of the audiobook. He read every male character with the same intonation though, and he would often cut off his sentences in weird places, as if he ran out of breath. This sometimes made it hard to distinguish between characters. I wouldn't realize Geralt had said something, instead of some other character, until a sentence ended with 'Geralt said'. Still, this was the first Dutch audiobook I ever read to the end. Usually, the VA is incredibly cringe (which might just be due the Dutch language itself), but I actually managed to listen to Jelle. So kudos to him.
2/5
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Cursing, Incest, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
aominechichi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Minor: Incest, Rape, Sexual content, and Alcohol
draakedan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Gore and Blood
Moderate: Alcoholism, Vomit, and Alcohol
Minor: Body horror, Cursing, and Sexual content
burnt_milk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.75
Graphic: Gore, Sexism, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Racism, Rape, Xenophobia, War, and Classism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, and Alcohol
katmahalia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
My only gripe: the love interests are not interesting or lovely, mostly just annoying.
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Excrement, Medical content, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and War