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Andrzej Sapkowski II


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On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 6:25 AM, MorgulisMaximus said:

I just started reading the Witcher books recently. Absolutely amazing! The characters are more entertaining than GRRM's characters. Overall the books are more upbeat than ASOIAF... even though they never shy away from showing the brutal atrocities of war.

Dandelion is so much more entertaining than Samwell.
Ciri even beats Arya in my opinion.
No character in ASOIAF comes close to Geralt.

I'd say there's more humour than in ASOIAF, which is strange for a series which depicts genocide, racial hatred, torture, rape, and child abuse.  Nor is it just black humour, although there is quite a lot of that, but real comedy.

I think Ciri is a great character.  

I think my favourite moment in her story is when she disposes of Rience.

 

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5 hours ago, SeanF said:

I'd say there's more humour than in ASOIAF, which is strange for a series which depicts genocide, racial hatred, torture, rape, and child abuse.  Nor is it just black humour, although there is quite a lot of that, but real comedy.

Very much in tune with history of Eastern Europe over the past few cenutries. Conflicts, wars, racial hatreds....

I find it amazing that the humor translates so well to English. In fact just about everything in the books translate so well that I would have never guessed it was originally written in Polish.

The humor is spot on. I think GRRM's humor often misses the mark... 

The interaction between characters arealso extremely entertaining. For example the interactions between Geralt and Yennefer. Much more interesting than the interactions between Jon and Ygritte... or Dany and Drogo.

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I hold the possibly unpopular opinion that the Witcher stories were at their peak in the two short story collections. They were beautiful and thought-provoking. Then the series went downhill with the novels. I got the distinct impression that the author was either not familiar with the standard novel structure or was working towards a totally different one. Several books did not have proper endings. The titular Witcher did not really get a starring role. And the last book was particularly bad. 

Spoiler

She spent half the book flitting from place to place through time. It felt like a particularly bad joke. And then after 5 books of character development, she made the most idiotic choice possible by surrendering. What she hoped to achieve through this is utterly inexplicable.

 

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On 10/12/2017 at 5:48 AM, SeanF said:

I'd say there's more humour than in ASOIAF, which is strange for a series which depicts genocide, racial hatred, torture, rape, and child abuse.  Nor is it just black humour, although there is quite a lot of that, but real comedy.

 

 

Thanks--I think the Witcher has my favorite set of fantasy characters, and Ciri and Geralt and Yen at the center of it all--their relationships feel just too real. Love it.

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28 minutes ago, Simon Steele said:

I like her too--but I wonder if we should spoiler tag that last bit given the uneven publishing releases for the English books. I feel like I only just read that part this summer, and I would have been a bit bummed to accidentally stumble across it. Just a friendly suggestion.

Ok.

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Geralt is always referred to as a monster hunter. But I think it's more accurate to refer to him as monster detective/hunter.

The structure of the first two books reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes short stories (and I've read ALL of the Sherlock stories). Sherlock also hunted "monsters" in several of his stories. Sherlock was also a very capable fighter (and he used these skills on several occasions), albeit not on Geralts level.

Dandelion chronicles and popularizes Geralt's deeds much like Dr. Watson for Sherlock. Incidently, Dandelion is also a well-educated scholar (Oxenfurt).

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16 hours ago, Filippa Eilhart said:

Yeah, he's not "titular" (seriously, check the tiles :p). the novels aren't about him.

He is titular if you consider the series title. And yes the series mainly became about the misadventures of Siri and the politics of the various kingdoms, but having started the series with the short stories I was greatly disappointed with the sidelining of Geralt. 

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The series title was given by the Polish publisher, not Sapkowski himself, who was planning to name the series Blood of Elves. But it stuck. Nevertheless Sapkowski has always been insisting, that his series is NOT about Geralt, and the real protagonist is Ciri.

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it was perhaps more clear for the Polish readers who read the books as they came out, because there were no witcher games and, as Apache said, it was made quite clear that Sapkowski was writing a series with a little girl as a protagonist, but you can't really blame the books for not being what they weren't supposed to be.

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9 hours ago, 3CityApache said:

The series title was given by the Polish publisher, not Sapkowski himself, who was planning to name the series Blood of Elves. But it stuck. Nevertheless Sapkowski has always been insisting, that his series is NOT about Geralt, and the real protagonist is Ciri.

 

5 hours ago, Filippa Eilhart said:

it was perhaps more clear for the Polish readers who read the books as they came out, because there were no witcher games and, as Apache said, it was made quite clear that Sapkowski was writing a series with a little girl as a protagonist, but you can't really blame the books for not being what they weren't supposed to be.

Oh I didn't know about the publisher's decision. I haven't really played the games, I just started off with The Sword of Truth Destiny which has a very very cool opening story.

I understand what the author wanted and I totally respect that. I just hope that maybe oneday he will publish some stuff like those stories. 

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On 10/18/2017 at 3:22 AM, 3CityApache said:

The series title was given by the Polish publisher, not Sapkowski himself, who was planning to name the series Blood of Elves. But it stuck. Nevertheless Sapkowski has always been insisting, that his series is NOT about Geralt, and the real protagonist is Ciri.

Well, that's blindingly obvious to anyone who reads the books given Ciri is the Maguffin and has the longest character arc.

Geralt is the star of the anthologies and a prequel, not the main books.

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On 10/18/2017 at 3:22 PM, 3CityApache said:

The series title was given by the Polish publisher, not Sapkowski himself, who was planning to name the series Blood of Elves. But it stuck. Nevertheless Sapkowski has always been insisting, that his series is NOT about Geralt, and the real protagonist is Ciri.

Really? Ciri is the protagonist? Hmmm I read The Last Wish and Blood of Elves but she hasn't done anything so that seems strange to me.

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10 hours ago, Gigei said:

Really? Ciri is the protagonist? Hmmm I read The Last Wish and Blood of Elves but she hasn't done anything so that seems strange to me.

Well, Ciri is the protagonist and Maguffin by Blood of Elves but the short stories are where most characters begin.

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On ‎10‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 4:31 AM, Andorion said:

I hold the possibly unpopular opinion that the Witcher stories were at their peak in the two short story collections. They were beautiful and thought-provoking. Then the series went downhill with the novels. I got the distinct impression that the author was either not familiar with the standard novel structure or was working towards a totally different one. Several books did not have proper endings. The titular Witcher did not really get a starring role. And the last book was particularly bad. 

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She spent half the book flitting from place to place through time. It felt like a particularly bad joke. And then after 5 books of character development, she made the most idiotic choice possible by surrendering. What she hoped to achieve through this is utterly inexplicable.

 

[/Spoiler] She was trying to save Yennefer's life by surrendering.  Not that it was a wise decision.

 

 

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