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The Last Wish: Introducing the Witcher (Mass Market)

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The Last Wish: Introducing the Witcher By Andrzej Sapkowski, Danusia Stok (Translated by) Cover Image
By Andrzej Sapkowski, Danusia Stok (Translated by)
$8.99
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Staff Reviews


Sapkowski, a beloved author in his native land, has been referred to as the Tolkien of Poland. His series of books following the adventures of Geralt the Witcher were the inspiration for the video games of the same name. Sapkowski's hero and his tales are such a cultural badge of honor for Poland that President Obama was gifted a copy of one of the games when he visited Poland in 2011. as a devotee of the games i decided to check out the source material and was very pleased to find Sapkowski's work to be a sincere, highly entertaining deconstruction of world folk and fairy tale tropes. Geralt the Witcher exists in a cynical and brutal alternate version of middle ages Europe that is filled with deadly wonders, pathos, and humor. the first volume of stories, The Last Wish, not only establishes the character and his world, but is a dark and hilarious send-up of such famous stories as Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. having begun this series in the 80's, Sapkowski's work actually precedes the creation of the now popular genre of 'grimdark' that is generally credited to George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, and would easily be part of that canon if it had first appeared in English. however, the Witcher stories' engagement with this kind of bloody cynicism feels far less self conscious to me than the work of his more famous peers. for me, what makes Sapkowski's work so successful, and sometimes heartbreaking, is that rather than purposefully trying to deconstruct the Tolkien tradition, his world building seems to flow very organically from his own Central European point of view; a way of storytelling that inherently filters any sparkly, Disneyfied fairy tale through the lens of real centuries of invasion, occupation, pogroms, and devastation. Both the books and the games are dear to me and highly recommended.

 

— From Charles

Description


Geralt the Witcher—revered and hated—holds the line against the monsters plaguing humanity in this collection of adventures, the first chapter in Andrzej Sapkowski’s groundbreaking epic fantasy series that inspired the hit Netflix show and the blockbuster video games.

Geralt is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless hunter. Yet he is no ordinary killer. His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world.

But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good . . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

Witcher collections
The Last Wish
Sword of Destiny


Witcher novels
Blood of Elves
The Time of Contempt
Baptism of Fire 
The Tower of Swallows
Lady of the Lake
Season of Storms


Hussite Trilogy
The Tower of Fools
Warriors of God


Translated from original Polish by Danusia Stok

About the Author


Andrzej Sapkowski is the author of the Witcher series and the Hussite Trilogy. He was born in 1948 in Poland and studied economics and business, but the success of his fantasy cycle about Geralt of Rivia turned him into an international bestselling writer. Geralt’s story has inspired the hit Netflix show and multiple video games, has been translated into thirty-seven languages, and has sold millions of copies worldwide.

Praise For…


"This is a series you can sink your teeth into."—BuzzFeed News

"Delightful, intense, irreverent, and compelling....you have to read The Witcher books because they are rife with all of the elements that make you love fiction, and especially fantasy, in the first place....In a word, The Witcher delivers."—Hypable

"One of the best and most interesting fantasy series I've ever read."—Nerds of a Feather

"Like Mieville and Gaiman, [Sapkowski] takes the old and makes it new ... fresh take on genre fantasy."—Foundation

"Sapkowski has a confident and rich voice which permeates the prose and remains post-translation. I'd recommend this to any fan of heroic or dark fiction."—SF Book Reviews


Product Details
ISBN: 9780316029186
ISBN-10: 0316029181
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: May 1st, 2008
Pages: 384
Language: English
Series: The Witcher