Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 400
My Rating: ★★★☆☆
Darkness Rating: 🖤🖤🖤
Violence, blood and gore, death, murder, monsters and supernatural creatures, references to sexual assault, incest themes, and disturbing subject matter.
The Last Wish introduces Geralt of Rivia, a witcher who travels from place to place taking on dangerous jobs involving monsters, curses, and other supernatural threats. Told through a collection of connected stories, the book follows Geralt through different encounters while slowly introducing the world, its characters, and the complicated line between good and evil. Rather than following one straightforward storyline, the book jumps between different moments in Geralt’s adventures.
Even though I struggled with parts of the book, I really enjoyed getting a deeper look at the world of The Witcher. I had already watched some of the TV series before reading it, so it was interesting seeing characters and pieces of the story in their original form.
I also liked Geralt as a character and enjoyed the different monsters and situations he found himself dealing with. There is definitely enough about the world and characters that caught my attention and made me want to continue with the series.
My biggest struggle was the writing style. The language felt older and more formal than what I normally read, which made certain parts harder for me to follow. I sometimes had to slow down or reread sections to understand exactly what was happening.
I also struggled with how much the story jumps around. Since it isn't told as one continuous storyline, there were several times when I wasn't completely sure where I was in the timeline or how a particular section connected to everything else. Between that and the writing style, the book took more effort to get through than I expected.
Overall, The Last Wish was alright. I didn't dislike it, but I also wasn't completely pulled into it. The writing style and jumping timeline made it harder for me to enjoy than I wanted, especially since I already knew I liked the world from watching some of the TV series.
That being said, I'm still excited to continue the series. Now that I have a better idea of how the books are written and structured, I'm curious to see if they become easier for me to follow as I get further into Geralt's story.