Sword of Destiny

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Geralt can be funny on his own, but it’s a different kind of humor. More of a dry humor that comes from people underestimating him or acting like they’re better than him. I enjoy it, but not as much as when Dandelion is around. A good translation for these Andrzej Sapkowski novels Geralt doesn’t try to attract women, he’s still too caught up on Yennifer, but they all throw themselves at him anyway. Something about his quiet power and complete confidence draws them in and convinces them that he’s worth chasing. I think that they secretly think that they’ll be the ones to finally capture his heart. So when it turns out that he will return their physical advances but never the emotional ones, they always break. Geralt leaves a string of broken hearts behind him without even trying. It’s sad. Both for the women and for him. After all, Geralt is always alone and sad because of how Yennifer toys with him, but he can’t change how he feels for her, and so he can’t try with anyone new. Joey Batey as Jaskier (aka Dandelion) in The Witcher season 2 (Netflix) How Sword of Destiny ties to The Last Wish I adored The Bounds of Reason, A Little Sacrifice and Sword of Destiny. Eternal Flame and A Share of Ice were very average. The final story Something More I really struggled with initially. It follows two timelines as Geralt in a fevered state and I sometimes got confused where and when we were. If it was a full-length story I wouldn't have finished it but I did and I'm glad I fought through as the ending is highly satisfying with setting up what can possible happen in the next outings. However, it does confuse me how Geralt is sometimes completely calm and executes plans perfectly, but becomes somewhat of a bumbling man in other stories, particularly around Yennefer.

In contrast, we see truly how volatile Yennefer is in this book; she’s manipulative, impulsive, and quite sexually liberated. I liked this about her, she’s a character who is strong, and unpredictable, which made her scenes all the more fun and intriguing. She reminded me of the character Lanfear from the Wheel of Time series; she was also a character I both loved and hated. Yennefer’s ambitions and goals always governed over any feelings she had towards Geralt, and therefore their encounters were always laced with tension. I really felt for Geralt, I wanted him to have love and companionship and although he seemed to be a bit of a magnet for women, I wanted him to be with Yennefer and no one else. I’ve been told by a few friends who play The Witcher game that there will be another love interest when the character Triss is introduced, so I’m eager to meet her and possibly change my mind! Like I said, I got far too caught up in the drama!As always, I love Yennefer and Geralt. I love the complexity to their relationship, often with years in between their meetings, yet the undeniable love they share for each other. Destiny and more bind them together, and their exchanges are always a delight to read.

The ballad told of a certain witcher and a certain poet. About how the witcher and the poet met on the seashore, among the crying of seagulls, and how they fell in love at first sight. About how beautiful and powerful was their love. About how nothing - not even death - was able to destroy that love and part them. Dandelion knew that few would believe the story told by the ballad, but he was not concerned. He knew ballads were not written to be believed, but to move their audience.

Great Offscreen War: The first Northern War. We're offered a brief glimpse, from fleeing civilians' perspective, to how it begins in Something More, and then the story jumps forward a year and we're treated to the aftermath. Yet it's a major world-altering event and many characters who witnessed it firsthand reference it throughout the rest of the saga. Atop a hill there is a menhir, an obelisk, which was placed there with magic. Engraved upon it are the names of the fourteen who feel in the defence of Sodden. Geralt decides to climb the hill and once he reaches the stone he begins to read their names. The Witcher was familiar with many of them, including Triss, Lawdbor of Murivel, Lytta Neyd, and Old Gorazd. A young woman emanating a cold chill approaches and kneels before the stone, hiding the fourteenth name from Geralt before he can read it. He knows who she is, a woman who takes those by the hand at their time of passing; the lady of death. Geralt admits she is all he feared in life, she was always on his footsteps but never quite at him. He lost everything he loves in his opinion and wishes her to take him, as he believe the final name on the stone is Yennifer of Vengerberg. Next thing Yurga calls him, and Geralt admits he had fallen asleep in the heat and was within another dream. The Witcher questions the merchant on who the fourteenth name is, and to his relief it is someone unknown to Geralt, a sorcerer by the name of Yoel Grethen of Carreras. Just as the river Yaruga comes into view, Geralt slips into one final dream about the same crossing. In the dream, the witcher sees what looks like pandemonium on the banks. The crossing is the scene of quite a commotion as soldiers retreating from the Nilfgaardian assault are preventing peasants who are also trying to flee from crossing the river. The soldiers are intent on getting themselves across and then preventing the Nilfgaardians from following. They tell the peasants to get out their axes and build a raft if they want to cross, the ferry is the army's. I find the stories well written, suspenseful and engaging. The characters are diverse, colorful and relatable. One of the treasures of Sapkowski's style is how much of the plot is revealed through character interactions. Conversations flow naturally yet give all the necessary exposition and world building. The characters are interesting, believable and three dimensional no matter how small their role. The stories are at times bleak and grim, and yet there is an odd sense of whimsy like you might find in a classic Grimm's fairy tale. They can be comical or tragic but never contrived. I don't know about Polish, I read the English translation because the French one is crap (real real crap) and with now 3 different translations tested, I am pretty confident that the source material is far from great literature. The best I could get from this book was the Audible version. Peter Kenny did an amazing job with it, but even with David French's translation (which is the best I encountered so far), some bits were truly painful. It had some good chapters in the beginning, but this flirting with long-term plot got boring real fast. The long thoughts and dialogs during The Brokilon part were particularly clumsy, and The Beltane chapter with Yennefer might be one of the worst pieces of writing I have ever encountered in a success Fantasy novel, so bad you would think Terry Goodkind wrote it.

I do think that “The Last Wish” is better structure wise from Sword of Destiny but I still enjoyed this one very lot. The main reason was that I watched the first season of the Witcher and as a visual person, it made my life much easier when I read this book. I already know the characters and their motives and how they look and some of the stories were adapted already so I flew through them.

Tropes found in the book:

Guile Hero: Dudu. By assuming the right identities, hearing the latest news, and making the most lucrative trades, he's able to turn himself into one of the richest people in Novigrad in record time. Most impressively, he's even able to convince Geralt into leaving him alone. Cat Like Dragons: Villentretenmerth is described as having something graceful and feline in the way he sits.