The Last Wish

While this book isn't destined to be one of my favorites, I read it at the exact right time to enjoy it. I just started playing D&D again, and the characters in this book put me exactly in that RPG campaign space. This book functions as an anthology introduction to the Witcher universe. It is a series of self-contained tales within a frame introducing many of the characters that later appear in the series (and the video games which you do not need to play to enjoy the books. The novels came first and the author has said he holds them far over the games in terms of canon). The stories draw a lot from fairy tales and Slavic mythology, making them both familiar and original. The characters are not terrifically interesting or unique, but are fun representations of RPG archetypes. I might enjoy a novel-length treatment of the characters more, but this was an enjoyable series of adventures to get me back in that D&D headspace.