Werthead Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 The Witcher #6: The Tower of the Swallow by Andrzej Sapkowski The Empire of Nilfgaard continues its invasion of the Northern Kingdoms, unaware that several of its most wanted targets are now far behind its lines. Ciri, the missing Princess of Cintra, has joined forces with a band of outlaws plaguing the northern provinces of the empire, whilst the witcher, Geralt, and his band of mismatched companions are now heading into occupied territory in search of the missing princess. But events take an unexpected turn when Ciri is captured by a brutal sellsword and discovers previously unknown powers. The Tower of the Swallow is the sixth Witcher book and, chronologically, the penultimate. It continues the narrative from Baptism of Fire with Geralt and his party trying to track down Ciri, but it is grander in scale and fortunately not as inert in terms of plot progression. The Tower of the Swallow feels like the broadest-scoped novel in the series to date, with two major stories occurring in tandem and a host of subplots. We get Ciri on the run, being captured and finally realising her true destiny. There's some excellent characterisation in this section, especially of the ruthless sellsword Bonhart and Ciri herself, who is finally realising her own ability to determine her path instead of being passed around between those who would abuse her name or her power. With Ciri largely absent from Baptism of Fire, it's good to get back to her story. We also get more development of Geralt's party. After their snail's pace journey through a forested warzone in the previous book, they break out of that rut in this volume and make much better progress. There's a bit of a Dungeons and Dragons feeling to Geralt's adventures as he gets a party together and they try to follow the important main plot only to get constantly sidetrack by apparently more urgent side-quests. This is all fun stuff, although again the feeling is that the main storyline is really not progressing very far or very fast at this point. We also get cutaways to political intrigue in the Nilfgaardian capital, various military manoeuvres as the Northern Kingdoms try to regain the initiative against an overextended Nilfgaard and some interesting scenes as we visit new locations, such as two subplots, set in the northern kingdom of Kovir and on the Skellige Isles respectively, which are both told with economy and skill. Sapkowski's way with witty dialogue and musings on human nature (especially in terms of desperation and warfare) remain intact and it feels like he's here handling a disparate narrative consisting of widely-scattered characters and storylines with a great deal more confidence than in previous novels in the series, even if there is a feeling that this book and the two previous ones could have been telescoped into one, stronger volume with a bit more discipline. Still, The Tower of the Swallow (****) continues the story of the Witcher with aplomb and is more enjoyable than the previous book in the series. It is available now in the UK and USA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigei Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 I wonder if there has been an uptick in book sales because of the Netflix series? Do we know how much the author was paid for the TV rights? I'm just curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanF Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 On 5/1/2020 at 5:26 PM, Werthead said: The Witcher #6: The Tower of the Swallow by Andrzej Sapkowski The Tower of the Swallow is probably my favourite in the series, especially, the fight on the frozen lake. Ciri getting revenge on the soldiers in the village is great too, very much like Arya killing The Tickler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 22 hours ago, Gigei said: I wonder if there has been an uptick in book sales because of the Netflix series? Do we know how much the author was paid for the TV rights? I'm just curious. A hell of a lot more than for the game rights, that's for certain. And yes, the combination of the TV show and the video games has resulted in a big sales boost for the books. We saw the same thing for ASoIaF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigei Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 48 minutes ago, Werthead said: A hell of a lot more than for the game rights, that's for certain. And yes, the combination of the TV show and the video games has resulted in a big sales boost for the books. We saw the same thing for ASoIaF. Good for him. I mean, the series is like ... what? 30 years old? It must be nice. I remember back in the day on this forum when the Polish sf fans were talking about the Witcher when there was no official English translation. I actually read the fan translations back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.T. Phipps Posted July 7, 2020 Share Posted July 7, 2020 To be fair, CD_Project Red actually renegotiated with Sapkowski and paid him a much-much larger sum of money than original in order to secure the rights to the Witcher for future video game projects. They were made of mega-fans and also apparently competent enough businessmen to know that they didn't want to be the people known for screwing the author of their billion-dollar franchise. So, Sapkowski has sold them the rights to the Witcher games in perpetuity. I suspect he's probably getting a chunk of them from now in addition to his lump sum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 11 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said: To be fair, CD_Project Red actually renegotiated with Sapkowski and paid him a much-much larger sum of money than original in order to secure the rights to the Witcher for future video game projects. They were made of mega-fans and also apparently competent enough businessmen to know that they didn't want to be the people known for screwing the author of their billion-dollar franchise. So, Sapkowski has sold them the rights to the Witcher games in perpetuity. I suspect he's probably getting a chunk of them from now in addition to his lump sum. I believe he sold them the rights in perpetuity in the first place, he just didn't care particularly much until sales of The Witcher 3 went through the roof. Sapkowski actually sued them, because under Polish law the original rights-holder can legally renegotiate a contract if the original understanding of the deal changes (i.e. the games sold several thousand times more copies than CDPR suggested was likely in the original deal in 2005). CDPR only renegotiated when it became clear that they would lose that case. CDPR are definitely one of the better games companies around (pushing back CP77 twice to minimise crunch rather than that they couldn't hit the dates, apparently) but they did have to be strongarmed into giving Sapkowski a better cut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 I would argue just a bit. The so called bestseller clause that Sapkowski's lawyers used i not very common here and wasn't a sure bet. They could win it in court, but they could also as easily loose. If CDP wouldn't propose a settlement, they could still win and save the money. It's hard to say to what extent their lawyers advised them not to go to court, and to what extent they genuinely thought Sapkowski deserved to be paid more, no matter the original deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targknight Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 The Witcher pastiches ideals from Michael Moorcock’s Elric. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targknight Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 On 7/7/2020 at 7:13 PM, C.T. Phipps said: To be fair, CD_Project Red actually renegotiated with Sapkowski and paid him a much-much larger sum of money than original in order to secure the rights to the Witcher for future video game projects. They were made of mega-fans and also apparently competent enough businessmen to know that they didn't want to be the people known for screwing the author of their billion-dollar franchise. So, Sapkowski has sold them the rights to the Witcher games in perpetuity. I suspect he's probably getting a chunk of them from now in addition to his lump sum. CD Project Red helped Sapkowski. The problem is that he is more greedy than Smaug. Sapkowski is being ungrateful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 46 minutes ago, BloodyJollyRoger said: CD Project Red helped Sapkowski. The problem is that he is more greedy than Smaug. Sapkowski is being ungrateful. Well, the original fee Sapkowski demanded up front from CDPR when he believed the game would be a failure, was reportedly PLN 35,000, which is less than $10,000. It was really stupid and shortsighted on his part, but the sum really is a joke given the success of Witcher 3. And it's reasonable to say they helped each other, there wouldn't be The Witcher games in the first place if not for Sapkowski after all. And Netflix show increased sales of his books, especially outside Poland, to much bigger extent than games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targknight Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 1 hour ago, 3CityApache said: Well, the original fee Sapkowski demanded up front from CDPR when he believed the game would be a failure, was reportedly PLN 35,000, which is less than $10,000. It was really stupid and shortsighted on his part, but the sum really is a joke given the success of Witcher 3. And it's reasonable to say they helped each other, there wouldn't be The Witcher games in the first place if not for Sapkowski after all. And Netflix show increased sales of his books, especially outside Poland, to much bigger extent than games. Sapkowski knew he was a bad writer, and produced a generic fantasy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 8 minutes ago, BloodyJollyRoger said: Sapkowski knew he was a bad writer, and produced a generic fantasy. That's just simply not true. Everyone can have his or her own opinion about his writing (I for one find him at least very good), but what matters here is that he himself finds him a great writer. Modesty is most definitely not one of his traits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targknight Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 8 minutes ago, 3CityApache said: That's just simply not true. Everyone can have his or her own opinion about his writing (I for one find him at least very good), but what matters here is that he himself finds him a great writer. Modesty is most definitely not one of his traits. He isn’t some great guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 He's not a very pleasant person. He's arrogant, malignant at times and generally thinks he's smarter than his interlocutor, which, by the way, in many cases turns out to be true, but nobody likes a smart-ass. And yet he's also a very good writer (or at least was - the last two of his novels are mediocre at best). Of course, like I said, everyone's welcome to her/his own opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targknight Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 28 minutes ago, 3CityApache said: He's not a very pleasant person. He's arrogant, malignant at times and generally thinks he's smarter than his interlocutor, which, by the way, in many cases turns out to be true, but nobody likes a smart-ass. And yet he's also a very good writer (or at least was - the last two of his novels are mediocre at best). Of course, like I said, everyone's welcome to her/his own opinion. His best ideals are from Elric and Solomon Kane. He is a bad writer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targknight Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 1 hour ago, 3CityApache said: He's not a very pleasant person. He's arrogant, malignant at times and generally thinks he's smarter than his interlocutor, which, by the way, in many cases turns out to be true, but nobody likes a smart-ass. And yet he's also a very good writer (or at least was - the last two of his novels are mediocre at best). Of course, like I said, everyone's welcome to her/his own opinion. Andre Plagiarized Elric Of Melnibone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Ok. Sorry it took me so long to realise you were just trolling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targknight Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 36 minutes ago, 3CityApache said: Ok. Sorry it took me so long to realise you were just trolling. Andre actually did. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_UOzgxUcFzE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 8 hours ago, BloodyJollyRoger said: Andre Plagiarized Elric Of Melnibone. The iconography - a character with white hair and the nickname of the White Wolf - sure. The actual character, their storyline, their world, their magical accoutrements, fellow characters and other elements, not so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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