Reviews tagging 'War'

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

10 reviews

sunn_bleach's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

"The Last Wish" is a compilation of short stories with a small framing device of Geralt recovering from the trauma of a hunt that almost went wrong. I read this because I needed something light after "Book of the New Sun", and I've wanted to see where it all began regarding the video games.

It's easy to see how this adapted perfectly to games, as each short story acts as a standalone quest much like what's in a standard epic fantasy game. But otherwise, I find this very difficult to go back to, and I would only recommend it for someone like me who's interested in the background of The Witcher series rather than these actually being good. The games sanded off much of the roughness of the 90s, fixed the writing issues, adapted the best ideas, and forewent much of the poorly-aged aspect, like how every woman is either stupid or must be assaulted, like the insipid "realism" people point to in defense of Game of Thrones. It's not "real", it's just crass, and you should read an actual history book.

Overall a meh experience. The translator problems are real; Geralt pirouettes more than a Bolshoi Ballet prima, and everyone is always locking eyes with each other while sneering. The fractured fairytales approach is so ingrained in modern pop culture (and wasn't new back then) that I find it difficult to care or find subversive.

There's a small part of me that would read "Sword of Destiny" as the next short story compilation, but I could also be fine with leaving my book experience of The Witcher here and sticking to the games, which are simply better in every respect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

Minor: Vomit and War

bfreeman0's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

The first book of the Witcher. Introduces you to multiple mini adventures that Geralt is involved in. Providing an overview of the world and how it functions. It's a great prologue to the main series and introduces you not only to Geralt but a few other main characters that will become important throughout the series. 

It is a real page turner once you get going and couldn't put it down. (Having the OST of the Netflix series helps). And builds up my excitement to read the next in the series as well as the games and TV series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and War

peggy_racham's review against another edition

4.5

Odličan početak sage i jedna od boljih fantazija napisana u zadnjih nekoliko godina

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

hbrugoto's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-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

4.75

I found reading this book more fun than the tv show. I feel it helps me understand the main character more

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Sexual content, and War

ohthatsgrayt's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jewelkr's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

My adult kid gave me this book as a birthday present because we enjoyed watching the Netflix series together.  This is one of the cases when the moving image production is better than the book.  I'd like to say it's because the stories were written in the previous century by a boomer male and obviously men's opinions of women/people have changed so much since then but regrettably  I can't - women's lives are still a full of  inequity and fear.  I will say that the people who produced the series addressed a lot of the absolutely disgusting misogyny in the book, as well as restringing the story in a cohesive manner and giving Geralt a personality.  Reading one account after another of what a woman (always referred to as a "girl" by the author) looks like, whether she passes the male-imposed standard for attractiveness, the incredible, cliche'ed detail of their breast-enhancing, thigh-revealing, hip thrusting outifts (compared to the male characters of whom very little is said about what they wear), the sexualization of the fight scenes between the Witcher and his female foes (always thighs and breasts exposed during a viscous fight to the death), the opening scene of an actual girl sexually attacking the Witcher in his sleep as part of her priestess training - it was all so gross that I had a hard time processing the stories behind these disturbing revelations of what men think when they see women.  The stories were interesting, although I was hoping for more of Geralt's back story, and you have to keep in mind that these stories preceded the Game of Thrones celebrity not to find them kind of hackneyed.  Sadly, no matter what male writers imagine, women are always relegated to one of three roles - virgin or girl I'd like to have sex with, whore or in this case demon, and female bringing beverages to men.  If we are imagining a different world, couldn't we fantasize something different for the women for change?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

belladonnashrike's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

4.25

“yennefer…yen.”
“yen,” she repeated, giving in to him completely. “nobody’s ever called me that. say it again.”
“yen.”
“geralt.”

GOD.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Blood

Minor: Incest, Infertility, Rape, Vomit, and War

burnt_milk's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

Fun and interesting in places. However. I got up to Renfri and I adore her but I'm so sick of how they write female characters. In-between complex discussions of monsterhood it rly has the gall to say 'Renfri was silent for some time, fiddling with a string of pearls wound three times around her shapely neck before falling teasingly between her breasts, their curves just visible through the slit of her jacket.' like what the hell? it takes me out every time and is more often than not entirely unnecessary. Apart from that some cool folklore concepts explored and I love the base concept of witchers and their roles in society, just hard to stomach the misogyny. 

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Content Warnings

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

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• 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

I will be completely honest and say I didn’t follow the plot of the short stories that closely because I listened to the audiobook while playing video games, but from what I heard I really enjoyed it. The pacing did not feel too slow as it can in fantasy adventuring stories, and the action never felt disjointed or separated from the plot. And I liked the whole the-princesses-are-the-monsters twist on fairy tale plots, it was a nice nod to the fact that every fairy tale and legend has a bigger story behind it. 

My only gripe: the love interests are not interesting or lovely, mostly just annoying. 

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Content Warnings

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

graceless_grace's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual content

Minor: Incest, Infertility, Rape, Vomit, and War