A review by ronweston
The World of the Witcher by Marcin Batylda

5.0

A good overview of the Witcher world, literary and gaming (I think, since I haven't played the games, only seen the cinematics of them). Coming to this book only after seeing the TV series and in the midst of reading the two books of short stories, I really liked its structure: a volume created by Dandelion, with aspects of the world presented by participants, interspersed with bits of folklore, history, scholarly snippets and quotes of individuals. The five chapters all exhibit the viewpoints and personalities of the "writers": Borch Three Jackdaws (The World and Its Inhabitants), Vesemir (The Witchers), Yennefer (The Magic and Religions of the Continent), Geralt (The Beasts of the Northern Kingdoms) and Dandelion (The Story of Geralt of Rivia). A word of caution to those who haven't read the novels: perhaps you should stop reading the chapter on Geralt about 2/3rds of the way through the section "Playing with Fate" unless you don't mind knowing the events of "the rest of the story[ies]. Most of the artwork is extraordinary, some of it quite striking. A little of it misses the mark but is still worth looking at. This volume is well-worth owning as a bound book. The Kindle version is fine as long as one doesn't mind expanding sections of text and pictures.