Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Series: The Witcher
Genre: Fantasy
It would be the first entry from The Witcher saga that I didn’t enjoy much. A lot of it due to the certain choices the author made, and a sudden departure from the narration style he had been following in the previous books.
The book picks up where The Time of Contempt left off. After the bloody coup, Geralt is gravely injured and takes shelter in the Brokilon forest with the dryads. With Dandelion, the bard and Milva, a dryad, he met in the woods, he leaves the forest in search of Ciri. He meets some unlikely allies in his quest. At the same time, the war is raging throughout the continent. The wizard guild is broken after the coup. And the only hope lies with Ciri, who has mysteriously disappeared.
I have to say, the book is one of the most crucial entry in the series, yet it might be the only forgettable book for me in this series. The simple reason behind it is the first two-thirds of the book. It was a slog. It wasn’t a lack of action or consequences that made it made slow. It was because the story didn’t progress at all. We only had a few new characters added to the roster, most of them not bringing much to the table. Milva was the only character with some layers and mystery around her. The ever-reliable Geralt was also reduced to a brooding and grumpy man. But the most annoying aspect was how useless Dandelion was in this book. The lovable bard didn’t induce any love this time. He was annoying and didn’t bring anything to the table. At times I agreed with Geralt about his role in the group.
“What a company I ended up with,’ Geralt continued, shaking his head. ‘Brothers in arms! A team of heroes! What have I done to deserve it? A poetaster with a lute. A wild and lippy half-dryad, half-woman. A vampire, who’s about to notch up his fifth century. And a bloody Nilfgaardian who insists he isn’t a Nilfgaardian.”
Also, one would expect during the quest there will be some world-building or new information that will appear about the world of Witcher. But apart from a Vampire, nothing new and exciting happen in this section.
What makes it more annoying is how much else is going around the continent. The politics, the war, and the struggle to save magic and the mages are far more interesting than anything you get to read with Geralt’s story.
What lifts the book is some revelation that happens in the last one-third of the book. These revelations and the attempt to re-group the mages seem to have far more implications. It adds to the history of the world, along with creates a few more plots to explore in the next installments.
The plot of the book revolved around the quest to find Ciri. One would expect this arc to be closed by the end of the book. But unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. The book does not close a single arc or sub-plot. It feels like the author didn’t want to add more pages in his book, and decided to trim the plot for that.
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