Witcher - the cool polish fantasy by A.Sapkowski

[K. A. Pital]

I know it's very popular all over the slavic territories, massively popular in Poland, Czech, Russia...

Andrzej Sapkowski created the saga about a Witcher (Wiedźmin) named Geralt, which is perhaps one of the few fantasy sagas that is on par with Tolkien, and a one which also has pretty definite beginning and end (unlike so many fantasy soap operas like Jordan, etc. which, despite the good quality of writing, become intolerable after the first few books).

The story follows a rather peculiar character, a professional slayer of monsters (Witcher), who has been trained to kill them with rather... hmm... brutal methods, and later expands into a greater fantasy saga about destiny.
It has pretty uncanny "heroes" with their own sense of justice - which isn't that easy for a fantasy - as well as no precise "good vs evil" boundaries, and explores many socio-political problems of the modern world, like racism, enviromentalism, war and it's ugly politics, sexual tension, etc.

Strangely enough, this quality work has not yet been translated into English.

I know there's some members from Poland and Czech at SDN. Does someone enjoy this fantasy as much as I do?

[Kristoff]

Actually, there's one short story translated - "Lesser Evil".

[fgalkin]

Bleh, Witcher. Massively overrated, that. When you can summarize the entire series (5 books!) in a sentence (everyone is looking for Zir), you have a problem.

Seriously, though, the series is a collection of missed opportunities. Its somewhat hard for me to come up with concrete examples, since it's been a while since I read the books, and I don't have them anymore to refresh my memory, but I do remember having the impression of thinking that there was a much better way of doing things at the time. It could have been improved by the ending (you know, Geralt and Jennifer killing themselves you know when), but even that was in the end, a missed opportunity. And don't even remind me of the wedding. That was plain horrible.

3-/5.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[K. A. Pital]

When you can summarize the entire series (5 books!) in a sentence (everyone is looking for Zir), you have a problem.

Oh for Christ's sake. You could summarize Lord of the Rings in a sentence, too.

And don't even remind me of the wedding.

What wedding? It was a humorous fanservice ending, not a part of the series.

It could have been improved by the ending (you know, Geralt and Jennifer killing themselves you know when)

Geralt being killed in a heroic manner would be a cliche. Dying stupidly enough in the end seemed fitting for someone whom no one could best in a swordfight. I also thought she's [Y]ennifer...

Seriously, though, the series is a collection of missed opportunities.

Why? The first four or so books are excellent and I don't see a single missed opportunity there - you have Witcher doing cool stuff and killing monsters, then you have wizards doing cool stuff, and you have a look at how Witchers are made in their citadel - IMHO a perfect composition, and generally the story remains unpredictable enough (unlike even Gr-daddy Tolkien where you already know that they will throw the ring somewhere by second book). The rest are a bit weaker, but also good. As a series, it's very solid.

[Kristoff]

I do remember having the impression of thinking that there was a much better way of doing things at the time

I had this feeling only while reading last book but I realized that my way (or any other "alternate stories", "alternate endings" or "fanfics") were just sliding down to just another cliche.

I also thought she's [Y]ennifer...

Actually she's Yennefer.

[Jason von Evil]

This?

[PeZook]

I know there's some members from Poland and Czech at SDN. Does someone enjoy this fantasy as much as I do?

Oh, hell yeah. My mother enjoyed it immensely, too.

It had one of the best "grand battles" I ever read in it. With no Deus Ex machina victory, no real "good guys" side. Completely different from the usual.

"What you see before you, scum, are the elite of Nilfgaard cavalry! They are battle hardened, motivated killers! They cannot be defeated, they cannot be beaten back, they have to be slaughtered to a man! Fortunately for you, the new modified pike is 21 feet long while a Nilfgaard sword is just 3 feet long! Can you do the math? Of course you can - and they can, too! And they are hoping that you bastards and sheepfuckers will break, throw your sticks to the ground and run away like pitiful cowards, that they will be able to hack you down easily and comfortably. And know, that while fear can grant someone incredible speed, you will not outrun a horseman!"

[PeZook]

Oh...crap. Sorry for the necroing, I didn't check the date of last post.
Lock it, please.