Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Die Zeit der Verachtung

This book was giving me nothing but a reading slump.
It dragged on over things that used to come to a clever twist later in the book in the previous parts, but simply usually didn't in this one.
It also had almost no cuktivation of any relationships, you're just fed dry passages instead of actual interactions that would lead up to the situations between the charcter, the most annoying one is Yennefer and Geralt's, but Ciri and Geralts was very weak too this time.
All in all I was just bored for about 90% of the book, the usual was nowhere to be found and the great action scenes and twists and details were more than lacking as well, but weird remarks and small things that almost feel like plot holes were sprinkled throughout.
I would have DNFed it if I didn't already own the next book, absolutely boring and disappointing.

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bongvolio's review against another edition

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1.0

The ending was horrible and bad enough that if I didn’t already have Baptism of Fire in my possession, I wouldn’t have picked it up.

tw sexual assault

Spoiler

Something about Ciri being sexually assaulted by a woman feels insanely malicious and unnecessary. There is an air of Sapkowski waiting for Ciri to be old enough to have her assaulted— It left a bad taste my mouth that reminded me far too much of reading/watching Game of Thrones, and not in a good way. Ciri’s youth and teenagedom is enforced through the entire series by her actions and the care taken towards her, calling her a Lion Cub, etc. It feels as if I’m reading this horrific event happen to a child. After Ciri being saved and saving a unicorn in the previous moments, there is something so sinister about her avoiding being sexually assaulted by men only for it to happen from a woman. It feels a little like Sapkowski is trying to make a “not all men” statement by having Ciri assaulted by a woman.

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thenearestdream's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.5

quick shoutout to my boy dandelion before my rant. love that bitch.
everything having to do with the rats was a slog. i didn’t care and it was boring. my biggest problem, however, was with the awful sexual assault scene.
content warning for details below.
ciri is nearly assaulted by a male member of the gang, who is driven away by a woman… who then sexually assaults ciri in turn. its extremely uncomfortable and almost framed as a positive because hey at least shes not alone anymore!
only paragraphs after the assault scene, we find out that the woman in question was a noblewoman who was kidnapped along with other girls and raped repeatedly. she was the only one that survived this torture. so of course she then goes on to… rape ciri. i know that its possible that mistle’s actions were because of her own trauma, but im being completely honest, i dont trust sapkowski to explore that in a way that is anything but damaging.
i know that mistle is in the show and seems to be a romantic interest for ciri (i havent watched it). i dont know how i feel about that. I dont really trust them to deal with the weight of it. we all saw how GOT handled dany’s stockholm with drogo and i dont really have faith in netflix to do much better. would it be better to cut the scene? i dont know.
i have so many issues with how sapkowski writes women and this is no exception. multiple times throughout the book i was uncomfortable with his descriptions of ciri and the last half of chapter seven was a masterclass in how not to do it. her motivations are inconsistent at all times and she is so hard to read. it feels like he doesnt know what to do with a female character he cant just write off as an evil seductress like all of the mages.
i like the world building and i like the plot and i do plan on continuing, but man. yikes.

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