Andrzej Sapkowski II

[Myrddin]

On 7/21/2018 at 4:43 PM, 3CityApache said:

I'd say Time of Contempt and Baptism of Fire are slightly better paced than Blood of Elves, but you really, REALLY need to do yourself a favour and read a slim, 200 pages long short stories collection first. Why are you so reluctant to do it anyway?

Because I've already read two unsatisfying books? Usually, I don't read the second book in a series if I don't like the first. In this case, I've now read 2 books (and the beginning of one of them twice) and if it wasn't for the large following, I wouldn't bother continuing. I guess I'd rather move forward then jump backwards. All the characters, their relationships and past are clear through the context of BoE. Now, if I do fall in love with the series, then I would absolutely go back and read SoD. 

16 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

Blood of Elves is easily the worst of the series. The only parts worth anything are the wizard revolt and the attack on the Dwarvish caravaner where it's discovered no matter how nice he is to humans and how much he wants peace, bigots gonna be bigots.

Time of Contempt is GRIMDARK and benefits from its horrific depiction of war. It has Geralt wandering through the horrific ruins of the Nilfgaard invasion and witnessing the casual atrocities on both sides. It also has poor Ciri going through her own mental breakdown.

Fun times!

Good to know. Thanks.

[3CityApache]

Yes, but you have read books #1 and #3. And final stories of book #2 have some strongest and most emotional moments in all The Witcher saga. If you don't like it, then you definitely won't love the rest, if I'm any judge.

I have never read it in English, so I don't know if the translation of the first few volumes is so bad it could discourage to continue reading, but I remember having to wait for the next installments of the series and it was a desperate one, I don't remember any issues with pacing or style of writing whatsoever. But there you go again, it's always individual, isn't it?

[Myrddin]

Ok, you've convinced me to go backwards and read book 2. 

It is individual, no doubt. Also, you have the benefit of reading in the original language, so you're getting the author's vision, not a translated version of it.  

[Derfel Cadarn]

Def worth going back. I read witcher and BoE before the rest were translated, and was very unimpressed.  Then read SoD and the next two after BoE and got into it more, even reading fanslations until the last two books came out.

[SeanF]

17 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

Blood of Elves is easily the worst of the series. The only parts worth anything are the wizard revolt and the attack on the Dwarvish caravaner where it's discovered no matter how nice he is to humans and how much he wants peace, bigots gonna be bigots.

Time of Contempt is GRIMDARK and benefits from its horrific depiction of war. It has Geralt wandering through the horrific ruins of the Nilfgaard invasion and witnessing the casual atrocities on both sides. It also has poor Ciri going through her own mental breakdown.

Fun times!

I enjoyed Blood of Elves, particularly Geralt's adventures on the river barge.

It gets even worse for Ciri, in Tower of the Swallow.

[C.T. Phipps]

SWORD OF DESTINY has some incredibly evocative writing.

"Not this war, Geralt. After this war, no-one returns. There will be nothing to return to. Nilfgaard leaves behind it only rubble; its armies advance like lava from which no-one escapes. The roads are strewn, for miles, with gallows and pyres; the sky is cut with columns of smoke as long as the horizon. Since the beginning of the world, in fact, nothing of this sort has happened before. Since the world is our world... You must understand that the Nilfgaardians have descended from their mountains to destroy this world."

"That makes no sense. Who would want to destroy the world? Wars aren’t waged to destroy. Wars are waged for two reasons. One is power and the other is money."

"Don’t philosophise, Geralt! You won’t change what’s happening with philosophy! Why won’t you listen? Why won’t you see? Why don’t you want to understand? Believe me, the Yaruga won’t stop the Nilfgaardians. In the winter, when the river freezes over, they’ll march on. I tell you, we must flee, flee to the North; they may not get that far. But even if they don’t, our world will never be what it was. Geralt, don’t leave me here! I’ll never survive by myself! Don’t leave me!"

[3CityApache]

@Myrddin Please come back here and share your thoughts after you read SoD, and the whole series too, for that matter. I wonder if what I remember is still true.

[Myrddin]

Book should be arriving today. I tend to read in spurts, so I may be done this weekend or not for three months.  But I'll come back.

[SeanF]

On ‎7‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 9:09 PM, C.T. Phipps said:

SWORD OF DESTINY has some incredibly evocative writing.

"Not this war, Geralt. After this war, no-one returns. There will be nothing to return to. Nilfgaard leaves behind it only rubble; its armies advance like lava from which no-one escapes. The roads are strewn, for miles, with gallows and pyres; the sky is cut with columns of smoke as long as the horizon. Since the beginning of the world, in fact, nothing of this sort has happened before. Since the world is our world... You must understand that the Nilfgaardians have descended from their mountains to destroy this world."

"That makes no sense. Who would want to destroy the world? Wars aren’t waged to destroy. Wars are waged for two reasons. One is power and the other is money."

"Don’t philosophise, Geralt! You won’t change what’s happening with philosophy! Why won’t you listen? Why won’t you see? Why don’t you want to understand? Believe me, the Yaruga won’t stop the Nilfgaardians. In the winter, when the river freezes over, they’ll march on. I tell you, we must flee, flee to the North; they may not get that far. But even if they don’t, our world will never be what it was. Geralt, don’t leave me here! I’ll never survive by myself! Don’t leave me!"

As it happens, Nilfgaard did have clear war aims, beyond destruction for its own sake.

However, , their armies (and their Elven allies) were bestial.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 4/19/2017 at 5:11 PM, C.T. Phipps said:

https://www.vg247.com/2017/04/19/the-witcher-author-thinks-the-games-have-lost-him-book-sales-metro-2033-author-says-this-is-totally-wrong/

This is a disappointing article.

Sapkowski really is unhappy with the games.

Metro's author is really upset about his reaction.

Hey, I missed this when you originally posted it years ago! I'm reading Metro right now. Have you read it? It's really good. I'd put it up there with Sapkowski's writing. 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Was perusing the Gollancz titles on Amazon and came across this

The Tower of Fools by Andrzej Sapkowski – 14 May 2020
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tower-Fools-Andrzej-Sapkowski/dp/1473226120/
 

Quote

 

A BRAND NEW TRILOGY from the author of the legendary WITCHER series, set during the vibrantly depicted Hussite wars.

Reinmar of Bielau, called Reynevan, flees after being caught in an affair with a knight's wife.

With strange, mystical forces gathering in the shadows and pursued not only by the Stercza brothers bent on vengeance, but also by the Holy Inquisition, Reynevan finds himself in the Narrenturm, the Tower of Fools, a medieval asylum for the mad, or for those who dare to think differently and challenge the prevailing order.

The 'patients' of this institution form an incomparable gallery of colourful types: including, among others, the young Copernicus, proclaiming the truth of the heliocentric solar system.

This is the first in an epic new series from the phenomenon, ANDRZEJ SAPKOWSKI, author of the WITCHER books

 

 

[baxus]

The Tower of Fools (translated as Kula ludaka) was published in Serbian recently and I bought it, but just can't get the time to read it.  

Hopefully, my schedule clears up a bit soon and I hit that pile of unread books that's getting bigger and bigger on my shelves.

[Werthead]

7 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Was perusing the Gollancz titles on Amazon and came across this

The Tower of Fools by Andrzej Sapkowski – 14 May 2020
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tower-Fools-Andrzej-Sapkowski/dp/1473226120/
 

This trilogy was originally published in 2002-04, so it's stretching the definition of "new" a bit. Newly-translated, certainly.

[Derfel Cadarn]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

This trilogy was originally published in 2002-04, so it's stretching the definition of "new" a bit. Newly-translated, certainly.

I'll wait for the video games :p

[C.T. Phipps]

One difference between the games and the books is the handling of the Scoiatael.

In the games, they're an oppressed minority fighting back.

In the books, they're a bunch of guys interested in ethnic cleansing and a homeland free of X Minority (humans in this case).

In the games, humans are just awful bigots.

In the books, humans were kind of snooty to elves but the Scoiatael radicalized them on a nonhuman killing spree.

[Jo498]

I read the Tower of Fools (in German transl. a few years ago) and was not sufficiently enticed to get the sequels. Although be warned, despite being a fat volume it seems quite expository and it might feel very unsatisfactory on its own because the "deeper" plot hardly seems to have started.

[SeanF]

9 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

One difference between the games and the books is the handling of the Scoiatael.

In the games, they're an oppressed minority fighting back.

In the books, they're a bunch of guys interested in ethnic cleansing and a homeland free of X Minority (humans in this case).

In the games, humans are just awful bigots.

In the books, humans were kind of snooty to elves but the Scoiatael radicalized them on a nonhuman killing spree.

There are times that I feel sympathetic to the elves in the books, before you encounter what they've done to a random bunch of human peasants who have had the misfortune to fall into their hands. 

The elves have genuine grievances against humans, but in turn, they view them as cattle, and treat them as such when they can (eg in the world that Ciri is teleported to from the Tower of the Swallow).

[C.T. Phipps]

18 hours ago, SeanF said:

There are times that I feel sympathetic to the elves in the books, before you encounter what they've done to a random bunch of human peasants who have had the misfortune to fall into their hands. 

The elves have genuine grievances against humans, but in turn, they view them as cattle, and treat them as such when they can (eg in the world that Ciri is teleported to from the Tower of the Swallow).

Reminds me of a quote I put in my books, "Being oppressed doesn't make you a better person. It just means you're oppressed."

[SeanF]

On 8/18/2018 at 11:12 AM, C.T. Phipps said:

Reminds me of a quote I put in my books, "Being oppressed doesn't make you a better person. It just means you're oppressed."

A point that is so often forgotten in real life.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Official announcement from Orbit:

https://www.orbitbooks.net/2018/10/11/a-brand-new-fantasy-trilogy-by-andrzej-sapkowski-new-york-times-bestselling-author-of-the-witcher-novels/

Quote

The trilogy will be published by Orbit in the US

Andrzej Sapkowski said: ‘The Hussite trilogy is my tour de force. I consider it to be my best work to date. I can’t wait for readers to meet my new hero, Reinmar of Bielau, aka Reynevan, whose adventures take him through a land torn by religious wars. I am thrilled to be working with David French and the energetic Gollancz and Orbit teams again!’