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jenbosen's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.75
Points off for too many names, and for making the political and religious history too convoluted. Solid story, it just kept getting bogged down in minutiae that made it hard to keep track of what was important.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
2treads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Sapkowski uses the 15th century historical landscape of Poland, using the religious sphere, language, and writs to anchor his story. What I enjoy about his writing is that he doesn't shy away from domestic drama, humour, family feuds, dark creatures, and other machinations that always make his books a good read.
He captures the spreading influence of the Holy See and their attempts to stamp out anything they consider heresy, as well as the prejudices held of Jews and natural 'magic', all while telling an entertaining story of misplaced love, male "honour", and revenge.
I enjoyed the jaunts of our main character as he tries to keep one step ahead of his pursuers, receives advice, meets witches, and garners a protector as he is positively hapless when it comes to defending against physical attacks.
My only grievance with this book is that certain parts seem bloated and this story would have been just as engaging with 100 or so less pages.
He captures the spreading influence of the Holy See and their attempts to stamp out anything they consider heresy, as well as the prejudices held of Jews and natural 'magic', all while telling an entertaining story of misplaced love, male "honour", and revenge.
I enjoyed the jaunts of our main character as he tries to keep one step ahead of his pursuers, receives advice, meets witches, and garners a protector as he is positively hapless when it comes to defending against physical attacks.
My only grievance with this book is that certain parts seem bloated and this story would have been just as engaging with 100 or so less pages.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Blood and Antisemitism
jaskovivich's review against another edition
5.0
Reinmar of Bielawa, a young physician from Silesia gets caught bedding the wife of a powerful knight, who is now set on killing him, and disciplining his wife, Reinmar (Called Reynevan by his friends) starts a quest to find the lovely Adele of Stercza and, in his mind, save her from a dire fate, being confronted with numerous twists, and constantly being called a stupid fool by everyone he meets, and discovering his Brother Peterlin was murdered for possible Hussite Sympathies. Reinmar's quest ends in a way he didn't expect, on his way to Prague, to join the Hussites
The Tower of Fools hit right where all of my interests intersect, Eastern and Central European history, This was an Excellent start to a trilogy, and a great addition to the bibliography of Sapkowski. Much like The Witcher this series takes place in an Eastern European setting (being set in the Historical period of the Hussite wars, where the Catholic church conducted Crusades against Czech follower of Jan Huss and John Wycliffe) this book immediately cemented the series into my all-time favorite series, The historical mixed with fantasy hit a sweet-spot for me. If you like the Witcher, this is definitely worth a read, it is an interesting change of pace but keeps with Sapkowski’s style of writing.
The Tower of Fools hit right where all of my interests intersect, Eastern and Central European history, This was an Excellent start to a trilogy, and a great addition to the bibliography of Sapkowski. Much like The Witcher this series takes place in an Eastern European setting (being set in the Historical period of the Hussite wars, where the Catholic church conducted Crusades against Czech follower of Jan Huss and John Wycliffe) this book immediately cemented the series into my all-time favorite series, The historical mixed with fantasy hit a sweet-spot for me. If you like the Witcher, this is definitely worth a read, it is an interesting change of pace but keeps with Sapkowski’s style of writing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Drug use, Sexual assault, Torture, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and War
nakutski's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.5/5 for the novel itself but a 4/5 for the audiobook, which was narrated very well and was highly enjoyable. The tale itself reminded me of a traditional saga, long, winding, looping and at times overcomplicated with long family names, associations and place names. I find the 15th century setting intriguing, as well as the religious, historic, political and pagan elements of the story. There is A LOT going on in this book in the foreground and in the background and the sheer amount of information that is spilled into the reader is very dense, which contributes to the slowing down of the pace. It turns out that in the print version of the book the Latin and Italian sayings and phrases (of which there are very many) were not translated, which I am glad of, because in the audio version this was translated to the listener and came across as very... patronising? Arguably few readers will be knowledgeable in Latin or speakers of Italian and romance languages, so it is a highly personal take on my behalf. The supernatural encounters were my favourite by far and I found the secondary characters to be the most interesting of the lot. The main character didn't really inspire me at all. The way women are written in this book leaves *much* to be desired, but at the same time my expectations for this particular writer were not set high. All in all, it was an interesting experience but the plot is overly complicated and dense for my liking, I'm finding myself, sadly, not particularly thrilled or curious about what happens next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Murder