Blood of Elves

no, i hadn't expected to enjoy this as much as i did and yes, i will be continuing with the series

i played the games a little, and watched the tv show in full, so the books are sort of the last leg that i've gotten to in the witcher universe, but by far is it my most favorite. i think it makes up for what the show lacks in terms of dialogue, story, and world-building, and makes up for what the games lack in an even balance of story and action (well, for my taste — i don't like too much action/battle scenes).

i also like the plot of the books much better than the tv show. the major differences between the two made the book more enjoyable, especially with regards to ciri (who i find a bit insufferable in the tv show). i get that the writing style might not suit some tastes, but having the imagery of the witcher tv show it wasn't hard to give settings to places when a majority of the chapter was dialogue.

overall, i quite enjoyed this and i hope i can get my hands on the next book soon!

A very well written story for a fantasy book, a qualification I unfortunately must add. I read almost exclusively fantasy books, and in regards to prose quality, there are 2 types: good prose, bad story and good story, bad prose. This one is fulfills the checklist of what I consider to be a minimum for a descent reading.

The story shows signs of tactical thinking, the plot is well planned out. The geopolitical discussions regarding kings and wars are meaningful, short and to the point. So are the fight scenes, the world building and the apprenticeship scenes. The “school apprentice” is a trope that can make me quit a book imediately, but it is well executed here. Ciri's learning period as a witcher and latter as a sorceress has a good amount of character focus rather then on the day to day activities which I find dreadful.

The plot itself is nothing exceptional, but the the characters take the front seat by being well fleshed out and with distinct personalities.

Geralt is the most boring one because he is so simple, but he does have a Conan like quality of the brute that talks little, understands nothing but kicks ass when needed. For him life is about duty, and his mission is to kill monsters for a living.

He is not a knight in shining armor, but a magically and genetically mutated monster slayer mercenary on drugs. He uses his brutal training, forced physical mutations and magical elixirs to overcome his foes. He has no emotions, and has no use for concepts such as morality. Or at least that's what everybody thinks. And so does he, most of the time.

He does have a code of honor though, and that is good enough for him. Or used to be enough. Where once he was a lone, uncaring monster killing machine, now he has friends he cares about. And the things their friends care slowly starts to sip in to him, making him care about those things too. Or almost care, it is not clear yet what he believes in. Wars come and go, people will always kill each other. It is not his business to interfere.

Dandilion plays perfectly his role of the unlikely friend. He is the opposite of Geralt, he talks a lot, is wise in knowledge but has no fighting skills. Life for him is about pleasure, and his mission is to exercise his skills as a bard and poet to create beauty in the world, and in turn, to indulge in everything beautiful the world has to offer.

In spite of his demeanor of a care free bon vivant, his loyalty to Geralt is unyielding.

Triss Merigold is a powerful sorceress and Geralt's former lover. She is strong willed and just might be the only person in the world capable of bossing around the witchers of Kaer Morhen. She is loving and caring towards others. She dislikes the witchers indifference to the rest of the world, as she herself is willing to give her life for the sake of others, and even to disobey her superiors in the council of magic.

Ciri is the focus of the story, and the most colorful character in the book. Her personality shines throughout the story. She is the one that came to challenge Geralt's life long belief that he lives somewhat apart from this world, unmoving to the pain of others unless it involves a monster and a payment. Destiny has put them together, no matter how much he tried to deny his fate. And Ciri is his fate.

He takes her along to the witchers training grounds fortress and she begins her first apprenticeship as one of their own. He does not put her through the more harsh challenges and forced mutations a witcher has to endure though. The only reason given for this is that they are uncertain of how the girl's innate and mysterious powers will interact with their usual magical herbs and trials routine.

That's where Triss Merigold comes in. She has proven to be their friend in the past, and someone they can trust with Ciri's secret. Maybe she can figure it out just what her strange power is.

After Triss arrives, even if the witchers did plan to make Ciri into a fully fledged witcher, Triss would not allowed it, as it is very cruel to submit any child to the sort of procedures that makes a witcher. That and the fact that they never used their mutagens on a girl before.

Triss's beauty, imposing presence and protectiveness makes Ciri to immediately become attached to her.

Yennefer comes in a little late to the party. She is Geralt's current love affair, although they aren't on speaking terms for quite some time. At the suggestion of Triss, she is entrusted to care for Ciri's instruction in the ways of magic, to keep her safe and to find out just what kind of power she has. She and Triss are very good friends, having fought and nearly dying together

Triss is hoping that Yennefer's greater knowledge of the magical arts can help to figure it out the source of Ciri's mysterious predictions and nightmares. She is stern in her teachings, acts like a cold hearted and bossy bitch. Ciri didn't liked her at first. But in time, their master apprentice master relationship evolves into a beautiful friendship, the lengths of which are still to be developed in the book series.

Yennefer and Geralts are basically Ciri's adoptive parents, an informal arrangement brought by need that suits all three of them very nicely.

This the first full length novel of the Witcher series (the previous 2 books are basically a collection of short stories). The story follows the aftermath of the attack on the Kingdom of Cintra by the Nilfgaardian empire. Ciri starts her training as a Witcher but she starts to demonstrate weird powers so Geralt asks for the help of Triss Merigold. They decide that Ciri needs a normal education as well as some magic training, so Yennefer starts training her too. The story and the world building are extremely well done. I couldn???t put it down until the end and then I had to continue reading the next book?????

This was an easy read for me. The story was enjoyable, even without reading the prior stories, however I have played the Witcher games which did help my understanding.

The Blood of Elves mainly centres around the POV of Ciri, the child surprise, who is very likeable. Geralt is great, as expected. The other characters were good, I enjoyed Triss and Yennifer. Dandelion was a stand-out, lovable and cheeky.

The world-building was somewhat lacking. I would have liked to hear more about the other races within the world, albeit I understand there may be more of this in the other books.

Overall, 3.5 out of 5, rounded up to 4 as I did really enjoy it and I would recommend this to friends who enjoy fantasy.

Love the characters, plot and even the politics

That last point is the biggest winner for this book in my opinion. I'm not one for politics in books, it's why I never finished the Game of Thrones series. Usually I find it relies on too many geographical places, people's names, their titles and who deserves what. However, this book has be intrigued and the author has cleverly explained the politics and the oncoming war (I presume) in layman's terms.

On top of this, I've grown to love the characters ever more and want to know more than ever about them. However, I am hoping for more monsters in the ext book, but I understand this was setting up for a much larger tale to be told.

So I think this top portion will be the basis for my review for all five of the Witcher series (excluding The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny–Kind of, you'll see...)

I feel like it took me a long time to read these, when in actuality, I started the first one in January so that isn't really all that long. Some of the way I'm feeling may be based off a lapse in memory though because I read around 95 books around the reading of these so I may be hazy.

For starters, I think Andrzej Sapkowski is a phenomenal writer. Secondly, I think David French did an absolutely wonderful job translating these to English. And thirdly, I think the Gollancz paperbacks were amazing–great cover art, nice quality–I actually managed to read them all without breaking the spines.

Sapkowski has such a way about his writing that the dialogue in the novels can be truly captivating. He wields it so well that he has honestly created such a wonderful lush lore within his world that really carried the hundreds of pages he wrote. I think that overall, this attention to detail within every word uttered may actually have been in some ways at a detriment to his overarching story.

So to speak, his great characters, the companions of the Witcher, and even the enemies, all have this way of leaving you wanting more. However, if you were to pull away all of that and the world's lore, the series itself is kind of about... nothing. I did find myself more than once getting to the end of one of the novels and being like wait... nothing happened? Destiny has brought the Witcher and Ciri together, and yet they are also destined to never be together... it's just the kind of realization that stings. If you read the first book you can skip to the final book for the ending because the others are just more of the same. Luckily for me, as I've already stated, I enjoyed the dialogue and the world building, I drank that sh*t up. It's just kind of weird/funny to realize negative things like that about something you've rated pretty well. Despite all of that, I really enjoyed them.

Speaking of Blood of Elves specifically, I enjoyed that this was the start of the war with Cintra. I had ordered the books after really enjoying the Netflix adaptation so to finally get into the war stuff was nice. The way they chopped the show kind of has you reading through the two short story collections and book one to really connect everything strewn throughout those eight episodes.
I also liked the opening training with Ciri in Kaer Morhen, much like the opening to the Witcher 3 game, however it did go on for just a little too long (it ended up dry).

One negative for me about entering the actual overarching part of the series was losing out on those nice cut and dry short stories from the two previous collections. Not to mention the overall loss of monster hunting over the following 4 books. As a fan of the games this hurt for me.

This is for an English language audiobook version. Surprised that I liked it, I had tried to read a physical version of some book in the series and it went nowhere very fast - but this worked well. Rich world with interesting characters and narrator was good. Not a mind blowing listen but different enough from other Medieval Fantasy to be an engaging and enjoyable. Solid, I will try others in the series at some point.

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Blood of Elves

The Witcher, Geralt, has taken in a young girl named Ciri. She is the last of her royal line. Her family lay slain by the Nilfgaardians in the battle for Centra. He takes her to Kaer Morhen, the home of the witchers, to protect her and train her in their ways. But she is the first female to be trained by the witchers, and she is more than just a normal girl. Rumors start to spread that she is alive and political powers begin their search for Ciri. Geralt does all he can to protect the girl and prevent her from falling into the wrong hands. There is a power deep within Ciri, one that can be used for good, or evil.

Geralt is one of those characters that took a while for me to connect with. Having read The Last Wish, I knew a bit about Geralt's personality, and I was a bit on the edge whether or not I liked this series. However, this book won me over. Not only does he have a fierce dedication to protecting Ciri, but Geralt lives by his own code. He doesn't kill if he doesn't have to. I also love how sarcastic he is to people who try to prove they are smarter than him. He waits for them to prove themselves wrong and isn't afraid to embellish the fact afterward.

Andrzej Sapkowski has created a unique hero in the witcher series. Geralt certainly doesn't view himself as the hero type and he is a man of few words. He lets his actions speak for themselves and is fierce in his protection of Ciri. His nickname of white wolf shines brightly as he does what he can to defend her. And when he becomes angry, you'll know because that isn't something he hides.

The world-building done in Blood of Elves is subtle but effective. Andrzej Sapkowski doesn't bog the reader down with unnecessary details. He gives just enough so readers can form their own connections to keep the plot steadily moving forward. He also cuts off the story abruptly and left me needing to know what happens next! I can officially say I am a fan of this series, and I cannot wait to see what happens with all the characters.

“When you know about something it stops being a nightmare. When you know how to fight something, it stops being so threatening.”

Another solid entry! Looking forward to the next one (after the next Wheel of Time) interesting to see more of Ciri's backstory and her training.

“You love her that much,' she stated, not asking.
‘That much,' he admitted in a whisper after a long moment of silence.”

Ao contrário de outros livros de alta fantasia, Andrzej consegue nos deixar boquiabertos sem enfadar com um universo extremamente rico, seja por aspectos culturais, mágicos e políticos. E como toda fantasia, esta possui aspecto secundário, o alvo principal discutido durante toda obra é o ser humano. Suas relações conflituosas, atos heróicos, egoísmo e amor.
Corruptos, racistas (neste caso, contra seres fantásticos) e machistas. Estes temas extensivamente debatidos durante a obra. E mesmo que a apresentação seja sempre pelos personagens, o narrador utiliza de comentários e atitudes de Geralt para descrever o que pensa a respeito. Engana-se que acha se trata de um livro sexista. Longe disso, aliás o personagem está pronta pra esmurrar personagens que possuam alguma ação ou ideia favorável a atrocidades sociais.
Super recomendo.

На этот раз читать было интереснее (это не первая книга в серии). В основном там все про Цири. Про Геральта немного вначале. Больше всего нравится, что ощущаешь погружение в этот как бы “параллельно существующий” мир. Конечно, игруля от «Си-ди-прожект ред» серьезно этому содействовала. Главное, что? Главное, что хочется читать следующую книгу.