man i just want to tell u I watched review and everything from other youtubers but I never followed any one of them but u by far my favorite I liked from the beginning u r great guy 🎉❤
I am from Poland. The Witcher is pretty much the Lord of the Rings here. Even people who don't like fantasy at least heard of the witcher. The series was coming out in the 90' and was probably groundbreaking then. Since then we have had a lot of other great series (like Lord of the Ice Garden or Tales of the Meekhan borderlines, sadly they haven't been translated into English yet) but the witcher is still considered by many as the goat. One thing I can say that the prose is worse in English. I think that part of the book's appeal is the style of writing. It's so good that I can forgive the slower pace.
Can confirm, this is Slavic LOTR. I'm Slovak and read Czech translation which is very close to the original I imagine. This book also got special treatment all the way back in the 90's and 00's with illustrated edition which was quite rare for an adult-ish fantasy series.
Sapkowski`s strength as a writer are his characters and dialog, rather than being outside the box, and watching actors on a stage it feels more like I’m right next to the characters sitting at the fire with them all the arguments themselves, and you can use your imagination to fill in the rest and take cues from the words themselves to determine to have someone feels about what you’re saying. He manages to say quite a bit without saying anything at all. This is why I think a video game was the best way to adapt The Witcher being an interactive medium, you are right there making the tough decisions about good and evil, and sometimes (most of the time) there is no good answer this book defiantly suffers from being a "set up" book that info dumps a bit to much, but the next book Time of Contempt has a lot more things happening, not nessisarly more monsters ( in the traditional sense) but defiantly better political intrigue now that everything is set up, Geralt becomes less of a main character as the story goes on and he ends up with an ensemble that many fans agree is the best part of the whole saga, Ciri becomes the protagonist and she really goes through it it was very satisfying to see her grow as a character, I think you will like the next entries more than this one
The short story collections are more engaging and fast-paced. The main story takes a long time to get going, but Baptism of Fire until the end is great. I enjoyed Geralt and Regis' relationship, as well as Cahir's character arc. I hope you keep going even if it seems a bit slow at first!
I understand your feelings about Blood of Elves. It is a book that has no real plot, and doesn't setup much of anything for the later story. I don't understand what the author was thinking. I'm glad you are committed to reading Time of Contempt though. That book starts off very similar to Blood of Elves, but the 2nd half is where the main story really kicks off and the main plot of the series becomes apparent. And from there each book gets better and better, in my opinion.
The focus on character interactions is what I love about the book. The least enjoyable chapter was the politics between the kings. I think it worked really as a kind of a warmup to the coming characters and conflicts, which worked very well for me.
I loved the short story books But I haven’t read book 3 (or 1 if you count it as that) yet. Your thoughts were the thing I feared from stepping into the full book story’s. That’s why I was a bit hesitant on continuing the series soon after . It’s like you said, the Witcher series seems like something that the short story format would be it’s bread and butter. One day I’ll give book 3 a try though👍. Gotta see it myself. Looking forward to hearing your continuing thoughts
Update: I finished Blood of Elves. I actually liked it. I agree that it’s a bit of a step down to the short stories, because the chapters don’t end in a conclusion nor is there a overarching theme/plot that ends in a conclusion by the end of the book, but I don’t agree it made the book bad. This book was just a very “building the foundation” book. focusing on Ciris relationships, strength growth, and knowledge of the world. This paired with the main Witcher plot that’s about to go down.
Thank you for contributing to my non-FOMO for this series-I just didn’t really enjoy the Last Wish stories and called it quits. I think the translation might be a big barrier of enjoyment.
Blood of Elves is easily the worst Witcher book by a very large margin. After loving the short story collections, BoE almost turned me off the series. TIME OF CONTEMPT however is awesome and picks the story up and sends it spinning in many different directions.
Recently read through the Witcher books up until Baptism of Fire. I quite enjoyed the Last Wish, but not so much Sword of Destiny. I went into Blood of Elves knowing that it would be a different kind of book, and not a collection of short stories, and I thought it was quite good, but nothing special. Time of Contempt is better, in my opinion, but while reading Baptism of Fire I realised that the story is just too slow-paced for me. The characters are all great, and I really enjoy the world, but there is just so much of the story I just don't care for, and it feels like every single book is just a part of a larger book that is unbearably long to get through. I wish there were more books like The Last Wish because, for me, the fun about the Witcher is the Witcher fighting monsters, and the main story books are lacking just that.
I have a feeling you'll be dropping the main line story. Much of the series is exactly like what you just read, although I will admit that the 3rd book, Baptism of Fire, is the best. But it was a slog to get there, and it's a slog after that till the end. I finished the series last year, and I can safely say it's one I will never revisit.
Not a gamer here. But I pretty much agree with everything you say here, even down to the 3/5 rating. Going forward, it's much of a muchness - but with less Geralt
I got 2/3 through this audiobook before dropping it. Something about the short stories was so much more interesting. Probably the fact they focused more on Geralt. I haven’t played Witcher 3 but when Witcher 4 comes out and lives up to the hype, I’m gonna have to jump on the bandwagon!
You should definitely give Time of Contempt a shot and if it doesn't work for you then just dnf the series. Life is too short to read books you don't enjoy
This is the weakest book in the saga so your review is undesrstandable. I think Sapkowski was struggling with the transition from short stories to a full novel, but it gets much better from here. The fifth book is my favourite novel of all time so I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
I loved the short storys and this book should arrive on Friday :) In Germany the books are also in a bit of a different order with seasons of storm being book 2 in the series, after the last wish and before sword of destiny. Since i've pushed myself through that slog of a book im still hopefull I'll enjoy the main series...still, i am trying to keep the bar low. Good thing i havent read a lot of other fantasy books, so it can only get better i guess. I really enjoed Sword of Destiny, especially "a shard of ice", so it will be interesting to hear what you'll think about the book.
Please keep reading it. Maybe all those extra long chapters seem unnecessary to you since you're all familiar with the world now. But the witcher is an amazing story, as you know from the games
Rest of Saga is better, i like Blood of Elves but not like a rest 4 books(Sidequel Season of Storm is worse than Blood of Elves). Some thing are impossible to translation from polish to english a specialy sence of humor.
Your taste is quite strange. You love the First Law, but don't like The Witcher? First one is childish disney version of gritty and the other one is for grown ups.
Let’s be honest. Witcher games are amazing. One of the bests. But books are not on the same top tier level. I am from Ukraine, there is Sapkowski is very big name. We waited for first Witcher game because this game is based on books! (And game was brilliant) But people in USA read his books only because of video game. More than this, I think Sapkowski may be is not the best fantasy writer even in Poland. Because there are a lot of great Polish writers of fantasy.
I liked the other character pov and political talk, but I see how someone could come from the games and think Geralt is 100% the main character and that he has to fight monsters every 5 pages
Matt, do the second short stories and punt on the series. If BoE didn't tickle your fancy then I cannot envision a scenario in which you enjoy any of the rest of the books. Geralt basically disappears from the story, absolutely nothing memorable happens, and it was so bad I am still holding off playing Witcher 3 because of the bad taste. And it's been 3 or 4 years since I read the series.
@@sarugard9115 the point is that witcher is written mostly renaissance polish. Tge traslation in spanish is in baroque spanish. Nobody says that is in shakespirian english, so i guess they translated it in modern english. That way loses part of its charm.
Yes...I know I am blurry. That's what I get for always filming on one take I guess!
finished deadhouse gates the other day, holy moly Matt - thank you for getting me into Malazan
@@joldomort5515 So glad you are loving it!
I love that you just take it and roll with it. 😂
We can see your books crystal clear though
man i just want to tell u I watched review and everything from other youtubers but I never followed any one of them but u by far my favorite I liked from the beginning u r great guy 🎉❤
I am from Poland. The Witcher is pretty much the Lord of the Rings here. Even people who don't like fantasy at least heard of the witcher. The series was coming out in the 90' and was probably groundbreaking then. Since then we have had a lot of other great series (like Lord of the Ice Garden or Tales of the Meekhan borderlines, sadly they haven't been translated into English yet) but the witcher is still considered by many as the goat.
One thing I can say that the prose is worse in English. I think that part of the book's appeal is the style of writing. It's so good that I can forgive the slower pace.
Totally, im spanish, the traslation in baroque spanish was wonderful, it gives it a special flavor.
Seems english don’t care for that.
Can confirm, this is Slavic LOTR. I'm Slovak and read Czech translation which is very close to the original I imagine. This book also got special treatment all the way back in the 90's and 00's with illustrated edition which was quite rare for an adult-ish fantasy series.
I can read English, and the Scandinavian languages, but idk if they have (good) translations. I'd have to learn to read Spanish better perhaps
Sapkowski`s strength as a writer are his characters and dialog, rather than being outside the box, and watching actors on a stage it feels more like I’m right next to the characters sitting at the fire with them all the arguments themselves, and you can use your imagination to fill in the rest and take cues from the words themselves to determine to have someone feels about what you’re saying. He manages to say quite a bit without saying anything at all.
This is why I think a video game was the best way to adapt The Witcher being an interactive medium, you are right there making the tough decisions about good and evil, and sometimes (most of the time) there is no good answer
this book defiantly suffers from being a "set up" book that info dumps a bit to much, but the next book Time of Contempt has a lot more things happening, not nessisarly more monsters ( in the traditional sense) but defiantly better political intrigue now that everything is set up, Geralt becomes less of a main character as the story goes on and he ends up with an ensemble that many fans agree is the best part of the whole saga, Ciri becomes the protagonist and she really goes through it it was very satisfying to see her grow as a character, I think you will like the next entries more than this one
The short story collections are more engaging and fast-paced. The main story takes a long time to get going, but Baptism of Fire until the end is great. I enjoyed Geralt and Regis' relationship, as well as Cahir's character arc.
I hope you keep going even if it seems a bit slow at first!
Finally: The interesting part of the video is in Focus.
I understand your feelings about Blood of Elves. It is a book that has no real plot, and doesn't setup much of anything for the later story. I don't understand what the author was thinking. I'm glad you are committed to reading Time of Contempt though. That book starts off very similar to Blood of Elves, but the 2nd half is where the main story really kicks off and the main plot of the series becomes apparent. And from there each book gets better and better, in my opinion.
For me Baptism of Fire is the best part.
The focus on character interactions is what I love about the book. The least enjoyable chapter was the politics between the kings. I think it worked really as a kind of a warmup to the coming characters and conflicts, which worked very well for me.
Damn I really loved this book! I’ve found that I really enjoy a slower paced book
I loved the short story books But I haven’t read book 3 (or 1 if you count it as that) yet. Your thoughts were the thing I feared from stepping into the full book story’s. That’s why I was a bit hesitant on continuing the series soon after . It’s like you said, the Witcher series seems like something that the short story format would be it’s bread and butter. One day I’ll give book 3 a try though👍. Gotta see it myself.
Looking forward to hearing your continuing thoughts
Update: I finished Blood of Elves. I actually liked it. I agree that it’s a bit of a step down to the short stories, because the chapters don’t end in a conclusion nor is there a overarching theme/plot that ends in a conclusion by the end of the book, but I don’t agree it made the book bad.
This book was just a very “building the foundation” book. focusing on Ciris relationships, strength growth, and knowledge of the world. This paired with the main Witcher plot that’s about to go down.
Thank you for contributing to my non-FOMO for this series-I just didn’t really enjoy the Last Wish stories and called it quits. I think the translation might be a big barrier of enjoyment.
I got you!
Blood of Elves is easily the worst Witcher book by a very large margin. After loving the short story collections, BoE almost turned me off the series. TIME OF CONTEMPT however is awesome and picks the story up and sends it spinning in many different directions.
Recently read through the Witcher books up until Baptism of Fire. I quite enjoyed the Last Wish, but not so much Sword of Destiny. I went into Blood of Elves knowing that it would be a different kind of book, and not a collection of short stories, and I thought it was quite good, but nothing special. Time of Contempt is better, in my opinion, but while reading Baptism of Fire I realised that the story is just too slow-paced for me. The characters are all great, and I really enjoy the world, but there is just so much of the story I just don't care for, and it feels like every single book is just a part of a larger book that is unbearably long to get through. I wish there were more books like The Last Wish because, for me, the fun about the Witcher is the Witcher fighting monsters, and the main story books are lacking just that.
Same here. I loved the worldbuilding, but I think its just thanks to the games. Otherwise, I would be totally lost. Short stories were best
Hey Matt! Did you skip Sword of Destiny or did you just not do a review for it?
I have a feeling you'll be dropping the main line story. Much of the series is exactly like what you just read, although I will admit that the 3rd book, Baptism of Fire, is the best. But it was a slog to get there, and it's a slog after that till the end. I finished the series last year, and I can safely say it's one I will never revisit.
Good to know!
Not a gamer here. But I pretty much agree with everything you say here, even down to the 3/5 rating.
Going forward, it's much of a muchness - but with less Geralt
Another fantastic video; thank you!! Finally got a couple more guesses right! haha
I got 2/3 through this audiobook before dropping it. Something about the short stories was so much more interesting. Probably the fact they focused more on Geralt. I haven’t played Witcher 3 but when Witcher 4 comes out and lives up to the hype, I’m gonna have to jump on the bandwagon!
You should definitely give Time of Contempt a shot and if it doesn't work for you then just dnf the series. Life is too short to read books you don't enjoy
Thank you!
00:37 - "...the first stort shory collection..." 😄
Whoops! Lol. I created a new term.
Kinda with you on this 1. This was a series I wanted to like way more than I actually did.
I found Blood of Elves to be the weakest in the series.But books 4 and 5 are really good imo
This is the weakest book in the saga so your review is undesrstandable. I think Sapkowski was struggling with the transition from short stories to a full novel, but it gets much better from here. The fifth book is my favourite novel of all time so I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
I loved the short storys and this book should arrive on Friday :)
In Germany the books are also in a bit of a different order with seasons of storm being book 2 in the series, after the last wish and before sword of destiny.
Since i've pushed myself through that slog of a book im still hopefull I'll enjoy the main series...still, i am trying to keep the bar low.
Good thing i havent read a lot of other fantasy books, so it can only get better i guess.
I really enjoed Sword of Destiny, especially "a shard of ice", so it will be interesting to hear what you'll think about the book.
Please keep reading it. Maybe all those extra long chapters seem unnecessary to you since you're all familiar with the world now. But the witcher is an amazing story, as you know from the games
The blood of elves is my least favourite witcher book, but i loved all the other ones, the rest of the series is a lot more fast paced
Wait, did you skip Sword of Destiny?
Yeah unfortunately these were my thoughts on the series as a whole. Its okay. I do think translation is part of the problem but i dont really know
Ey, why you didn’t review The sword of destiny?
Rest of Saga is better, i like Blood of Elves but not like a rest 4 books(Sidequel Season of Storm is worse than Blood of Elves). Some thing are impossible to translation from polish to english a specialy sence of humor.
Your taste is quite strange. You love the First Law, but don't like The Witcher? First one is childish disney version of gritty and the other one is for grown ups.
Let’s be honest. Witcher games are amazing. One of the bests. But books are not on the same top tier level. I am from Ukraine, there is Sapkowski is very big name. We waited for first Witcher game because this game is based on books! (And game was brilliant)
But people in USA read his books only because of video game.
More than this, I think Sapkowski may be is not the best fantasy writer even in Poland. Because there are a lot of great Polish writers of fantasy.
The Witcher series slowly became less about the Witcher and monster hunting unfortunately. I view it as a real missed opportunity by the author.
I liked the other character pov and political talk, but I see how someone could come from the games and think Geralt is 100% the main character and that he has to fight monsters every 5 pages
Blurry appearance just means Matt was using a copied dream ter’angreal
I dnf’d The Witcher after the first two books. This series just wasn’t for me. 😂
Matt, do the second short stories and punt on the series. If BoE didn't tickle your fancy then I cannot envision a scenario in which you enjoy any of the rest of the books. Geralt basically disappears from the story, absolutely nothing memorable happens, and it was so bad I am still holding off playing Witcher 3 because of the bad taste. And it's been 3 or 4 years since I read the series.
Thank you so much for the advice!
And now some advice for you. GO PLAY WITCHER 3!
I gave up after the 4th book, let's see how far you can get lol
The short stories are the only redeemable part of the entire series, IMO. It gets so much worse! 😢
What's your occupation mate? 🙂
witcher books are overrated and tv show is trash
games are the onyl excellent witcher medium
cd projekt did a great job
I think part of the problem is that english doesn’t properly translate them.
@@adamnesico it cant be that different in polish
and you could say the same for manga and anime, sadly i know only 2 languages
@@sarugard9115 the point is that witcher is written mostly renaissance polish.
Tge traslation in spanish is in baroque spanish.
Nobody says that is in shakespirian english, so i guess they translated it in modern english.
That way loses part of its charm.
MY EYES! lol