Andrzej Sapkowski

[Larry.]

Although I've been told by a few Polish readers that Sapkowski's 2009 novel, Viper, is subpar, I am curious enough that I will order the Spanish translation when it is released in Spain on November 29th. This will leave only the other stories published with "Maladie" and the upcoming Witcher book as the only ones I've yet to read in some translation or another.

[Jussi]

Novel greatly expands our knowledge about Witcherland. There are many new details about sorcerers, cities (like Novigrad), magic (new witcher sign), monsters, kingdoms and lands, companies, witcher school of Cat. There are also many interesting characters. I don't want to spoil anything else. I wonder if TW3 will contain references to SS. I hope that game dialogues or at least glossary entries will be updated. It would be a very nice touch.

Book is selling great. Two days after release bookstores are almost done. Reprint is underway just as we speak. Andrzej Sapkowski should be very pleased. Good sales = high chance for sequel/prequel. There are many empty places in Witcherland chronology that are begging for filling. Storm season has interesting threads that could be foundation of the new novel.

http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/37143-storm-season-new-book-by-andrzej-sapkowski/page__st__100__p__1075750#entry1075750

[3CityApache]

My review of Storm Season from goodreads, if anyone's interested:

Well, well, well. Who'd think few years ago that I'd be holding a new Witcher book in my hands? It was simply unthinkable back then. But perhaps it would be also much more eagerly anticipated? After 2009 Viper my expectations for Andrzej Sapkowski's prose diminished to the level of almost non-existence. But still, on the other hand - a new Witcher book?

Storm Season is a classical prequel and stand alone novel, no matter how hard the publisher tries to convince people otherwise. It starts probably just weeks before the story of The Witcher, the first short story from The Last Wish takes place (except for the epilogue, but that is another pair of shoes).

And it starts slowly. Sapkowski's prose at the beginning seems to be less smooth, more disorderly comparing to the original saga. Annoying recurrences, deliberate use of words definitely from our world, not witcher's (which was the case also in the original saga, but performed with more grace and taste). It felt like Sapkowski was tired of his character, and of this world, but tried to remember the feeling he was experiencing years ago, while writing the first Witcher short stories, and failed. At the beginning, at least. Or like he had to force himself to write, never a good sign.

But surprisingly enough, after about one fourth of the book the action accelerates and even the unpleasant impression that it is rather the merger of a few ideas for different short stories than a consistent, coherent story, that I couldn't get rid of from the back of my head, stopped bothering me so much.

Sapkowski still knows perfectly how to create a repulsive villain, how to build a tension, or how to smartly insert a character we already know and love into a new story here and there.

But is it enough reason to create completely new book with the same characters but not very much new to tell about? I've got my doubts.

It was nice to immerse into this world again, just to meet some old friends (not seen for almost fifteen years), but if I had to evaluate this book, Storm Season would still be the least enjoyable from the eight Witcher books by far.

But, on the other hand, after Viper I wasn't hoping I would ever include the new one into the witcher canon at all. So, all in all, it was worth reading. 6/10

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Just read Sword of Destiny (found a fan english translation). Holy shit was that good! I liked the first story about dragons, the next couple dragged just a bit, but once I got to the mermaid story my heart was broken! And then the Sword of Destiny itself, what a great story. And man, no wonder Blood of Elves was so hard to get into (I remember not liking it much when it first came out), SO MUCH ties into the Blood of Elves storyline that we English readers never understood. It's crap. It seriously degrades the quality of the Blood of Elves not being able to read it first--I figured the short stories in SOD wouldn't contribute much, but the last two stories in it completely set up the novel.

Anyway, I'm loving the Blood of Elves now that I've actually gotten the set up. I just bought the new one (Times of Contempt?) and am so anxious to start it.

That second short story compilation is seriously good--it needs an English translation asap.

[Larry.]

I second that, as The Sword of Destiny is my favorite Geralt book/collection. "Something More" in particular is a great story, although I liked several others almost as much. As for Storm Season, apparently it will be available in Spanish translation in the next 2-3 years (saw where Víbora has been postponed until January), so I guess I'll be awaiting for that to come out (unless a German translation comes out first, but my Spanish is stronger than my German).

[Bolivar]

I'm glad Storm Season isn't as overall terrible as people were fearing at first

[Wicked Woodpecker of West]

Great that someone made English fan translation. I always thought that was extremely stupid of english publishers to move into BoE without TSoD.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Great that someone made English fan translation. I always thought that was extremely stupid of english publishers to move into BoE without TSoD.

The translation seems pretty good too in terms of writing. The community that did it put A LOT of work into not only translating but revising and making a copy that worked well with the kindle. I hardly noticed any typos, mistakes, etc. I read the summaries of the stories after I finished the book to make sure I didn't get fan fictioned, and they were all the right stories.

It really should be translated officially--it's phenomenal and adds so much to everything, not only in Blood of Elves but also in the games too.

I'm hesitant to read the newest book as I love the games and it seems the author wrote a new book to discredit the games. I may be wrong, but that's what it seems like.

[Wicked Woodpecker of West]

Nah, the newest book is a prequel.
It tells the story about Geralt meeting Coral, the sorceress, and I'm quite sure she was mentioned as one of the victims of this famous magical battle where Triss was maimed. It's timeline is somewhere between short stories. So Sapkowski decided not to break new PC canon ;)

Besides English editors have three more novels to translate. I suppose Storm Season will came after them.

[Calibandar]

Just read Sword of Destiny (found a fan english translation). Holy shit was that good! I liked the first story about dragons, the next couple dragged just a bit, but once I got to the mermaid story my heart was broken! And then the Sword of Destiny itself, what a great story. And man, no wonder Blood of Elves was so hard to get into (I remember not liking it much when it first came out), SO MUCH ties into the Blood of Elves storyline that we English readers never understood. It's crap. It seriously degrades the quality of the Blood of Elves not being able to read it first--I figured the short stories in SOD wouldn't contribute much, but the last two stories in it completely set up the novel.

Anyway, I'm loving the Blood of Elves now that I've actually gotten the set up. I just bought the new one (Times of Contempt?) and am so anxious to start it.

That second short story compilation is seriously good--it needs an English translation asap.

I'm pleased, I just saw that there will be a Dutch translation of The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny in one book, coming in March.

If this second collection is as good as you say, that could be quite the read. The book is listed at 800 pages.

[Jussi]

Baptism of Fire is now available:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Baptism-Fire-Witcher-Andrzej-Sapkowski/dp/0575090960/

There isn't a hardcover edition.

[Corvo Attano]

I've played The Witcher games to death, and I'm now interested in reading the books which spawned possibly the best writing in any game ever. Where can I find decent translations of the books?

[3CityApache]

Well, you only need to find a fan translation of The Sword of Destiny, the second short stories collection preceding the novels, that wasn't officially translated and published in English (but - as others pointed out - is essential to understand the first novel). First short stories collection (The Last Wish) and the first three novels (Blood of Elves, Times of Contempt and Baptism of Fire) are officially published and available in English. And the last two novels (The Tower of Swallow and The Lady of the Lake) are not published in English yet, but the publisher intends to publish it sooner rather than later now, after few years of legal disputes.

[Inkdaub7]

I just bought Blood of Elves a few minutes ago. The synopsis looks like something I would like, so here's hoping...

[3CityApache]

I just bought Blood of Elves a few minutes ago. The synopsis looks like something I would like, so here's hoping...

Like it was mentioned several times here, before you start reading Blood of Elves, you should read two short stories collections (The Last Wish and The Sword of Destiny), which are preceding events from the novels and introducing main characters. Without knowing it, two last stories from TSoD in particular, understanding Blood of Elves is... challenging, to say the least.

[baxus]

I'm on Lady of the Lake at the moment and am looking forward to seeing how it all plays out :)

[3CityApache]

Before or after the battle of Brenna? Because it's probably the high point of the book. As for the final resolution, you might find it somewhat disappoining, I'm afraid. Though I know people who were satisfied with the ending (Larry for once, IIRC).

[baxus]

Before or after the battle of Brenna? Because it's probably the high point of the book. As for the final resolution, you might find it somewhat disappoining, I'm afraid. Though I know people who were satisfied with the ending (Larry for once, IIRC).

I was right before the battle of Brenna at the time of my previous post.

As for the final resolution, I must admit I do find it disappointing.

I can see the reasons for ending it the way it ended and all that, but I can't say I love it.

[Talleyrand]

Finally got round to finishing Lady of the Lake - didn't like the ending too much but Brenna was pretty good

[LRvHD]

I was wondering if anyone who has read him in the original language, or one of the translated non-English languages, could tell us a bit about what we can expect from his books, in particular The Last Wish which Gollancz is publishing next month. He seems interesting, but info is scarce sofar.

While the OP is rather dated (;)), I do hope it'll be of help to any souls lost here in search of guidance.

It's been quite a while, but, I read both the two short stories collections, as well as the full 5 novels about Geralt. Not sure if much is lost in the English translations, but they're a great read in the original version :) Haven't gotten my hands on the latest one, so can't really comment.