#witcher thots

[fagcrisis]

wait i forgot to mention my favorite short story in sword of destiny is when a shapeshifter starts manipulating the stock market in novigrad and geralt and dandelion are sort of there, superfluous. like all they were trying to do is bum a meal off this man and then they had to listen to him insider trade

[hotniatheron]

Geralt really did not show one inch of skin. He said I've got sponserbilaries now. That means I'm not allowed to have fun anymore.

[fagcrisis]

done with tower of the swallow! the pacing in this one was a bit fascinating w the way it jumped around in time, although i really liked how most if the events were contextualized from the pov of various side characters i think thats a really strong aspect of the series. geralt being completely useless and complaining about his knee was relatable to me. his whole thing is quite separate from everyone else at this point and i do wonder how thats going to be reconciled. i enjoyed ciri and vysogotas conversations. the lodge of sorceressws continues to be kind of poimtless. i love how dijkstra is in a completely different book. i think there were a lot of plot threads in this book that i honestly cant imagine will be wrapped up neatly in the next one but we shall see. im probably gonna take a bit of a break here though

[fagcrisis]

finished baptism of fire

that was pretty good! great stuff about war. i also liked the ciri/rats interludes even though i hate the rats. the lodge of sorceresses is kind of nonsense but jurys still out on how that develops. i found the political stuff a LOT more engaging in this book, especially because milva, zoltan and cahir provided varying perspectives that were missing previously. there were a lot more of these little cutaway stories with dijkstra etc, about the war which was fun bc it provided an overarching perspective. also this is the first book where geralt spends a long time hanging out with a woman and doesnt have sex with her. dandelion as geralts voice of reason/conciense makes a return, and i liked this. some sorely needed nuance on the scoia'tel too. oh and regis was fucking awesome i love a teetotaler vampire absolutely a trope im a sucker for. i think the only major turnoff in this book is sapkowskis insistence to keep doing that thing where a character is doing something and then the narration is like "and then she remembered what happened the previous day" idk im not describing this well but its a very amateurish framing device that was kind of charming in a silly way in the short stories but he really should have moved past it by now

[fagcrisis]

finished time of contempt. the eminent zoë is of the opinion that the series gets better with every book and id have to agree because i liked this a lot more than blood of elves. the part where dandelion explains the war starting to geralt was really cool, like it was fun to read and it was also great that this book beat geralts neutrality into the ground. like i think thats the main reason im much more positive on it. yen and geralt getting back together was very sweet, the subsequent confrontation at thanedd very cool. i really loved the character of the messenger the book started with and in general there were a lot of great one off guys in this book. i think its gotten a bit more politically interesting as well altho my criticisms of how racist it is remain

[fagcrisis]

finished sword of destiny. def an improvement from the last wish. despite not having a framing device this one has more of a unifying idea behind it, that being What Is Geralt Like. and geralt is like a pretty straightforward heroic figure, more heroic that if he was presented as such. like. geralt of rivia (not actually from rivia) defends the innocent, respects women (more or less), likes kids etc. pretty much the only reason hes not Aggravating is bc most of the time hes not aware of the fact that hes like literally nice

this is the one i always remember as being the book where sapkowski first attempts feminism and he stumbles immediately at the start with the zerrikanians who i think r also racistly presented. like cmon man. bounds of reason is such a solid pastiche of your usual dragon story why ruin it with the savage and sexually avaliable warrior women. he sort of recovers it near the end where he has geralt look in the camera and go "every woman should have unrestricted access to abortion and consent is important in a sexual encounter" which is reassuring to read in a polish fantasy book written by a man in 1992. i also sort of like the way he does yen and geralts relationship in this one, its a bit brought down by the fact that altho he does say most sorceresses arent bothered by their infertility, the only sorceress we really meet is yen and she is bothered by it. but then again, late stage visenna introducrion recovers this bc shes a rare sorceress who isnt infertile and she absolutely did not want that kid at all & the book doesnt begrudge her this. we havent escaped every woman we meet being a love interest, child or mother of someone tho.

the short stories are like, 60% geralt & dandelion shenanigans by weight and they Are funny so its ok. 2 friends who physically cannot shut the fuck up. the thread of whether or not geralt can feel emotions kind of gets curbstomped not only by the yen thing but also by dandelion repeatedly yelling at him about how he can feel emotion so thats cool. im a little bit sad that im moving onto actual books now, leaving shenaniganland forever behind

the whole destiny throughline is a bot heavyhanded but i was sort of blinded by how excited i was for ciri to show up.

btw speaking of racism the whole nonhuman oppression thing gets really driven in, which has always been a bit silly especially with zero actual people of color showing up so far. geralr keeps getting lumped in woth nonhumans too even tho witchers were specifically created to aid in human colonisation so its just kind of whatever. geralt keeps goimg around telling indigenous-coded groups of people that the only way they can survive is by assimilating and the book kind of agrees with him, which is fuckt

[fagcrisis]

im gonna review the series as a unit but i need to note my thoughts book my book. the last wish is like, fine but its not mindblowing and its definitely easier to enjoy on a reread. i think its on the less irritating end of fairy tale retellings, because its just like "what if my oc was there" plus geralt is pretty charming so its broadly fine. most of the stories concern some kind of moral dilemma that r all Pretty weaksauce. the worldbuilding is kind of haphazard at this point. the thing that saves it geralt, who is great like right off just a pretty funny guy and its fun to see him in situations

[hotniatheron]