Andrzej Sapkowski

[Jussi]

Orbit US is planning March 2014 publication for Baptism of Fire:

PUBLICATION SCHEDULE.

The Last Wish (MM; 05/08 )

#1: The Blood of Elves (MM; 05/09 )

#2: THE TIME OF CONTEMPT (TP; 07/13)

#3: Baptism of Fire (TP; 03/14)

http://edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com/ProductDetailPage.aspx?sequence=21&group=catalog&mailingID=0&mailingGroupID=0&catalogID=68734&org=&sku=0316219134

[3CityApache]

And Sapkowski has just once again officially announced in the latest interview, that The Witcher games are not a canon whatsoever, it's not "what happens next" nor even an alternate universe, it's just a product loosely based on a character made by him.

And he confirmed again he is actually working on a book set in the same world as the witcher. As a matter of fact he even said it would be about Geralt himself, which confused me a lot, as he always insisted the witcher story is over and there is no way he could return to it. Money problems, perhaps?

[GoodGuyA]

And Sapkowski has just once again officially announced in the latest interview, that The Witcher games are not a canon whatsoever, it's not "what happens next" nor even an alternate universe, it's just a product loosely based on a characters made by him.

And he confirmed again he is actually working on a book set in the same world as the witcher. As a matter of fact he even said that it would be about Geralt himself, which confused me a lot, as he always insisted the witcher story is over and there is no way he could return to it. Money problems, perhaps?

I mean he really lambasted the games, having never played them, and game storytelling as a whole. To me it's just old person talk, but I can see how others might take it as a dissuasion from even getting at the games if they are deemed unfit. However, I think he grossly overestimates his own clout as an international writer, claiming that his books made the games more popular than vice versa. I certainly never heard of the Witcher stories before the games came out. He was big in Poland, that much I know, but never have I seen (before or since) the books ranked in the same real high praise of the games as it comes to the English language.

So yeah, he's an ignorant old fart :P I assume he's caving to fan pressure and might go all Sherlock Holmes on his creation soon enough.

[Jussi]

He was big in Poland, that much I know,

Also in other European countries, including my homeland Finland. The Wheel of Time was dropped by local publisher after Knife of Dreams (due poor sales of later volumes), but we are getting new Sapkowski translation every year.

[3CityApache]

Also in other European countries, including my homeland Finland.

Oh? I had no idea. I knew he was very popular East and South of Poland as well, mainly Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Slovakia, but was never aware it was a case of Finland too.

And yes, Sapkowski is definitely self-centered, he is considered arrogant, or even mean, as a person. Though his opinion that his books made the games more popular than vice versa is correct I think, if we are considering markets where he was already popular (mentioned above). It simply can't be correct in English speaking world, as most of his books were never published there so far.

[Larry.]

Finally got around to writing a brief review of God's Warriors (I know the translation is rough; if it were one I was readying for publication, it would go through multiple drafts, but this is the first, quick one). Left a few things unsaid on purpose, in case I feel up to reviewing the German translation (I'm much weaker in German than in Spanish, so it's iffy that I review it) of Lux Perpetua. This was one of, if not the most, favorite novels of Sapkowski's that I've read.

[Talleyrand]

I'm on the Tower of the Swallow but I'm just not feeling it anymore. I enjoyed the short story ones of Geralt going around witchering (?) but I'm just lacking the will to go on any further now. Maybe something gets lost in the translation but to be honest if it wasn't for the fact that I liked the games so much I don't think I would have made it past Blood of Elves

[Toby Frost]

I'm coming somewhat late to this, but of the two Witcher books I've read, I enjoyed The Last Wish quite a lot and thought Blood of Elves was much weaker. The short-story structure of The Last Wish, and its references to fairy tales, reminds me of The Bloody Chamber, although it's more fun than that. It's got flaws, but I'd like to read more fantasy like it.

Out of interest I wrote a short review of it, here: http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/531239-the-last-wish-by-andrzej-sapkowski.html

Blood of Elves seemed much less good to me. It felt like a lot of preliminary throat-clearing before starting the typical multi-book quest story. However I'd probably read further Witcher books, as I liked the way Sapkowski fitted ideas into his stories.

[Jussi]

Time of Contempt is coming out soon (for real).

https://pbs.twimg.co...EiEKp.jpg:large

[Jussi]

Baptism of Fire will be published in March 2014. Here is the plot synopsis:

The Wizards Guild has been shattered by a coup and, in the uproar, Geralt was seriously injured. The Witcher is supposed to be a guardian of the innocent, a protector of those in need, a defender against powerful and dangerous monsters that prey on men in dark times.

But now that dark times have fallen upon the world, Geralt is helpless until he has recovered from his injuries.

While war rages across all of the lands, the future of magic is under threat and those sorcerers who survive are determined to protect it. It's an impossible situation in which to find one girl - Ciri, the heiress to the throne of Cintra, has vanished - until a rumour places her in the Niflgaard court, preparing to marry the Emperor.

Injured or not, Geralt has a rescue mission on his hands.

http://www.amazon.co...73993768&sr=1-1

[Werthead]

Saw Time of Contempt on the bookshelves today, so it's finally happened. The balloon has gone up. Etc.

[john]

A bit of an upset over the quality of the translation for Time of Contempt. They've switched the anglicized versions of polish names/words back to polish, which is surely a good thing, but otherwise pretty much every review I've read notes its discontent with the quality of the translation.

eta - also, about zero publicity, so it looks like Gollanz has given up on this series.

[3CityApache]

The new book from The Witcher world officially confirmed. Publication date (in Poland): November 6th 2013. The title: The Witcher. Storm Season. But the first chapter available online is definitely not optimistic. Looks like author's short of money or something. As far as I can tell it is set few years before The Sword of Destiny (second short stories collection). But the writing is very far from his best form.

[Azzanadra]

I have enjoyed the PC games so I am interested in getting into the books as well. Although I have heard some bad things about the English translations....

How do the Witcher books compare to ASOIAF?

[Larry.]

I'm almost done reading the various translations of Time of Contempt (Spanish, Italian, French, English, German). The English translation seems a bit better than the previous two (more wit), but there's a conscious choice to use more modernized terms than to employ elaborate wordplay using quasi-antiquated speech. The Spanish and Italian translations are a bit more literal (although the Italian, like the English, chooses to translate Jaskier's name into flowery-appropriate names, while the Spanish - and French - use Jaskier throughout) and both (especially the Spanish) use alternate address forms much more frequently than does the English translation. So far, I would probably say that I still prefer the Spanish translation, although none of the ones I've read at least 50% through (all but the German, which I've yet to begin) are poor. Rather, each translator has made his/her decisions on how to render words in a way that suits their intended audiences. While I didn't agree with some of David French's choices, I do have to say that his translation is much easier to follow than were Danusia Stok's.

Hopefully, the upcoming book will be available in one of the languages listed above in the next 1-2 years. Polish orthography defeats me much more than does its grammar :(

[3CityApache]

Larry, so you've tried to start learning Polish? Respect, man. Although it is possible to read without a proper knowledge of orthography, is it not?

As for the book, I will buy it and read it of course, out of sheer curiosity, if not sentiment. But it seems it's much closer to his last infamous Viper than to the original saga in terms of quality. I'll let you know here if my suspicions were right.

[Filippa Eilhart]

I'll wait for your review before I buy it ;)

[3CityApache]

Little anectode. On the official Sapkowski Board (which, by the way, ceased to put him on pedestal years ago), most people were still thinking it's some kind of fake or joke (after reading the first chapter excerpt), even though the official premiere date was already announced. It reads like Sapkowski fanfic, and not even the best, I'm afraid.

[Larry.]

Larry, so you've tried to start learning Polish? Respect, man. Although it is possible to read without a proper knowledge of orthography, is it not?

As for the book, I will buy it and read it of course, out of sheer curiosity, if not sentiment. But it seems it's much closer to his last infamous Viper than to the original saga in terms of quality. I'll let you know here if my suspicions were right.

Well, when I have the time, I try to, but it's down the list. The problem I have is that I've yet to figure out how to sound out the sounds, as the orthography in Polish is very, very foreign. As a point of comparison, I recently read the Czech translation of The Little Prince and I found that through my (limited) knowledge of Serbian that I could puzzle out around a quarter of the text before needing to compare it to the French original. I also bought the Polish translation (I collect translations of Saint-Exupéry) and I barely could puzzle out anything because the spelling was so foreign to me that I couldn't easily see cognates like I could even with Russian.

So it'll take a lot of work, time I don't have at the moment, to learn how the consonant clusters sound and then be able to compare them to the other Slavic languages I'm slowly self-studying before I can make much progress. But I still might order the new book in the near future, just to have it on hand for whenever a translation comes out in a language that I do read/understand well.

[Jussi]

Finished the book.

It's a basically a standalone novel not related to the overarching plot of the cycle, set before the wars with Nilfgaard To be more specific, it begins some time after Geralt and Yennefer's breakup, and ends shortly before the events of The Witcher (the short story).

There are several intewoven plotlines, in fact at times it feels as if Sapkowski started writing another short story collection, but then decided to fashion them into a novel - honestly, the book can feel somewhat disjointed at times.

Overall though, I enjoyed it a lot. It's a Witcher book through and through. Memorable characters old and new, intrigue, twisted fairytales, dark atmosphere mixed with bouts of humour and witty dialogue :) I hope it gets translated soon, the fact that it's practically a standalone story makes for a great opportunity.

In relation to the games, you'll probably be happy to hear it doesn't directly contradict anything in them. In fact, some of the elements mesh pretty well with certain ideas from the games. There are also some new elements - a previously unmentioned sign, new details about one of the other witcher schools, new monsters, new magic stuff and history/world information.

http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/37143-storm-season-new-book-by-andrzej-sapkowski/page__st__60__p__1072365#entry1072365