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Andrzej Sapkowski II


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1 hour ago, Darth Richard II said:

Well I was reading in another site about how much of a rip off Moorcock thinks The Witcher is so it wa son my mind. I do hate the man though, yes.

Also these days the author I like to shit on the most for no reason is probably Jim Butcher. :P

Michael Moorcock: "The character is clearly a rip off of mine, being a white haired mutant with special swords called the White Wolf!"

Sapkowski: *during an interview* I was inspired a lot by Michael Moorcock's writing along with Ursula Le Guin.

Like...well, so many millions of other fantasy writers.

Really, though, Geralt and Elric have almost NOTHING in common. Elric is more like Wolverine and that's a pretty far pedigree to fall.

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10 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

I think Triss' whole storyline is her association with Geralt made her a better person.

But she did some pretty unforgivable stuff.

 

It could be. In the games, she is quite selfless and the only 'bad' thing she did was not telling Geralt earlier about Yen. In the books, she practically schemed with the lodge against Yen and Ciri.

My interpretation is that she was quite young and naive in the books, and essentially did what Philippa said to him to do. Philippa controlled the Lodge (only Yen and Francesca were independent, with Margharita essentially not caring for anything bar her school) and Triss being the second youngest member, just obeyed her. In the games, she is a bit older and mature and so more independent.

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23 minutes ago, TheRevanchist said:

It could be. In the games, she is quite selfless and the only 'bad' thing she did was not telling Geralt earlier about Yen. In the books, she practically schemed with the lodge against Yen and Ciri.

My interpretation is that she was quite young and naive in the books, and essentially did what Philippa said to him to do. Philippa controlled the Lodge (only Yen and Francesca were independent, with Margharita essentially not caring for anything bar her school) and Triss being the second youngest member, just obeyed her. In the games, she is a bit older and mature and so more independent.

I think she's actually a character who has a bit of an arc in the game. In the first game, she is basically scheming and manipulative with the desire to turn Geralt into her brainwashed slave. At the very least, she doesn't mention Yennifer even exists while taking advantage of his amnesiac state which--not cool. Then she tries to get him involved in court and working with the establishment like she is (which can backfire and send him to join the Scoia'tael). In the second game, she's a lot more nervous and troubled about the romance because she says it's going to end the moment he finds out the truth--which is what happens. By the third game, she's helping the mages of Novigrad flee their pogrom and gained a lot of maturity.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I read an couple different translations of the same interview of Sapkowski, and each one painted him in a completely different light. One made him sound like a pompous douche, the other made him sound just annoyed - not at the games, per se, but at the fact that all of the English translations had videogame concept art on the covers. This is completely understandable as far as I'm concerned. He spent 12 years developing this world and these characters and these stories, and now they are marketed almost as if they are just another shitty game-based book series, the covers not even so much as depicting anything that happened in the novels, just random pieces of art about the videogames. I mean, we all on some level understand that the vast, vast majority of books based on games are garbage. I'd be pissed if I spent over a decade working on something for it to only be presented as some derivative nonsense.

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I think the truth is a bit in the middle. Sapkowski doesn't know anything ABOUT the games from everything I've seen. He licensed the fiction and it has about as much to do with his work as Tolkien had to do with Shadows of Mordor.

So people keep asking him about it when he's like, "I just took the check."

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1 minute ago, C.T. Phipps said:

I think the truth is a bit in the middle. Sapkowski doesn't know anything ABOUT the games from everything I've seen. He licensed the fiction and it has about as much to do with his work as Tolkien had to do with Shadows of Mordor.

So people keep asking him about it when he's like, "I just took the check."

Exactly. Videogame players seem to forget he is also an elderly man. He probably played pong and tetris, and that's about it.

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I saw two of the books in my local bookstore and snapped up The Last Wish and Blood of Elves. Alas, I had no idea there was a book in the middle of those two that I missed. I had already read some fan translated English work around ten or so years ago.

The Last Wish was what I had read before and it's pretty interesting. The Blood of Elves was super confusing since it started in the middle for me (since I accidentally skipped a book, lol) and it's the first time I read about Triss. I was like "um Triss what? Isn't the witch Yennefer?" at first but gradually I realized that I had missed a chunk of the story... I loved the parts where they went back to the Witcher's stronghold/home. This was the first time I had read about a witcher who isn't Geralt.

So Triss said that Geralt seemed aged? I always thought of him as pretty young-looking (what with him sleeping with 17-year-olds). How strange to think he might look like an old man now with facial wrinkles and all.

BTW I have not played the video games. I also have not read the entire thread this time since I am afraid of spoilers. Just wanted to put my two cents in. I'll be back once I've finished the series.

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On ‎5‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 6:28 PM, Maelys I Blackfyre said:

I read an couple different translations of the same interview of Sapkowski, and each one painted him in a completely different light. One made him sound like a pompous douche, the other made him sound just annoyed - not at the games, per se, but at the fact that all of the English translations had videogame concept art on the covers. This is completely understandable as far as I'm concerned. He spent 12 years developing this world and these characters and these stories, and now they are marketed almost as if they are just another shitty game-based book series, the covers not even so much as depicting anything that happened in the novels, just random pieces of art about the videogames. I mean, we all on some level understand that the vast, vast majority of books based on games are garbage. I'd be pissed if I spent over a decade working on something for it to only be presented as some derivative nonsense.

Dandelion looks like a complete twit on the English paperback cover of Blood of Elves. And Milva is a portrayed as a Dryad on the cover of Baptism of Fire.

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2 minutes ago, SeanF said:

Dandelion looks like a complete twit on the English paperback cover of Blood of Elves. And Milva is a portrayed as a Dryad on the cover of Baptism of Fire.

English as in UK?

This is what we have here in North America... Pretty bad...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kHAI3kSeA2g/T37WZgx7lmI/AAAAAAAAFEU/K0EzME1t0qA/s1600/The+Witcher+USA.jpg

Admittedly, though, I do really like cover of Lady of the Lake. It is different from the others however in its use of Witcher 3 art, and not concept are but just a promotional photo from the game. What's nice about it is that it depicts both of the major characters, not in some cartoonish version of them, without some ridiculous event going on in the background.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514QhvVjtnL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

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19 minutes ago, Maelys I Blackfyre said:

English as in UK?

This is what we have here in North America... Pretty bad...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kHAI3kSeA2g/T37WZgx7lmI/AAAAAAAAFEU/K0EzME1t0qA/s1600/The+Witcher+USA.jpg

Admittedly, though, I do really like cover of Lady of the Lake. It is different from the others however in its use of Witcher 3 art, and not concept are but just a promotional photo from the game. What's nice about it is that it depicts both of the major characters, not in some cartoonish version of them, without some ridiculous event going on in the background.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514QhvVjtnL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

English as in UK.  This is the cover of Blood of Elves

https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://t3.gstatic.com/images%3Fq%3Dtbn:ANd9GcQtBRIStzZBQbilEDZaTM9Jgu2Msa11hRXp92m73ewzhKW_txxP&imgrefurl=https://books.google.com/books/about/Blood_of_Elves.html%3Fid%3DikeKlorsBCYC%26source%3Dkp_cover&h=1080&w=705&tbnid=-7oClfr7mkGYlM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=104&usg=__NlvKilagrX84nqX28jTr-GZemJw=&vet=10ahUKEwir0ZOGr-XTAhVJBcAKHYCyBpIQ_B0IiAEwCg..i&docid=lYKYyDQ85FncLM&itg=1&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwir0ZOGr-XTAhVJBcAKHYCyBpIQ_B0IiAEwCg#spf=1

Not for the first time, the cover art bears no relation to the Books.  There are no dragons in either The Last Wish or Time of Contempt.

The UK copy of the Lady of the Lake does have a good picture of Cirri.  I think the US version shows her as being too well-built.  I always imagine her as being extremely slim.

 

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1 minute ago, SeanF said:

English as in UK.

Not for the first time, the cover art bears no relation to the Books.  There are no dragons in either The Last Wish or Time of Contempt.

The UK copy of the Lady of the Lake does have a good picture of Cirri.  I think the US version shows her as being too well-built.  I always imagine her as being extremely slim.

 

Didn't Ciri shave her head, or something like that, during her time with the Rats? I always had pictured game-Ciri in my mind, but I want to say in the books her appearance is quite different... Not sure if I'm confusing some details or what.

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What's more interesting about those covers is that the Orbit US editions are taken from the recent French editions and the Gollancz ones were originally used in reissues from the Spanish edition (those covers have been used also in Portuguese and I think Romanian editions).  Have any of you seen the Italian covers?  Here's the one for Time of Contempt.

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16 hours ago, Filippa Eilhart said:

NETFLIX IS DOING THE WITCHER TV SERIES OMG 111111ONEONEONE

 

I'm not shouting, you're shouting.

Nice!  Also seems that Sapkowski is at least open to writing at least one more Witcher novel.

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Been spending the day explaining to people this isn't going to be based on the games, and you know, judging from the reactions I've been getting I can see why he's pissy when people bring the games up. A LOT of people think the books are just cheap game tie in fiction.

I never read past the first because they skipped the second here in america (also the translation for the last wish was...poor). I should grab the second now that it's out.

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