Time of Contempt

Once again a good story for a fantasy book. There is some fighting, intrigue, spying and backstabbing.

War is coming again. Nilfgaard once tried to conquer the northern kingdoms, but a group of mages and sorcerers prevented their progress by setting aside their neutrality in human affairs and taking up arms against those who would disrupt the peace that they encharged themselves to keep.

Many of them died that day, but Nilfgaard was stopped for the moment. Now the northern kings are planning their next move, because they don't believe the invaders will give up their ambitions af conquest, even though they signed a peace treaty. They want to get ahead of the invaders and attack where they re most vulnerable, taking back Cintra in the process.

But they can't be the ones to break the peace treaty, else the mage counsel will turn against them. This is the background of Ciri and Geralt's adventures this time. She finds herself being a key part in it, whether because the prophecies regarding her powers are true or just the fact that she is of royal blood, the solo heir of Cintra's throne. This kingdom holds a key strategical geographical position in the war to come, and having a rightful claim to its control will make it much easier to rule it then by force.As such, both Nilfgaard's emperor Emhyr and the other kings are searching for her. Emhyr wants her alive at any cost, as he seem to believe in the prophecies as well as see her political value. The other kings however are more distrustful of mages, sorcerers and magic in general. They want her either on their side, or dead so she doesn't fall into enemy hands. Since they can't be sure of her loyalty even once found, they decide that is better that she dies. Dijkstra, head of Intelligence for the kingdom of Redanian is heading the search.Geralt hires the best detectives money can afford to find out more about Ciri's pursuers, and learns along the way more about her past and why she is so important for both parties in the conflict. He had previously entrusted Yennefer to take care of Ciri is but now he is worried for both of their lives, He is after all Ciri's destiny appointed protector, and Yennefer is the love of his life. He sets off to find them.On the way, he dispatches some assassins and tracks down the ones who hired them. The trace leads back to a mage named Rience. In order to find him, he gets help from his friend Dandelion, a medical student named Shani, joins forces with the kings sorcerer Philippa, and finally gets to fight the mage.The battle is brief and bloody. But when he is about to kill Rience, another mage comes to his rescue, by opening a portal and lending his power for him to escape. Geralt wants to pursue him, but Philippa stops him. She doesn't want him to find out who hired those assassins.Meanwhile Yennefer is teaching Ciri how to become a sorceress, how to control her powers and how to vanquish her nightmares. After learning more about Ciri's powers, she decides it is imperative she tells the other mages about it. She and Ciri leave the temple of Melitele where they have being staying.On the way the conclave, with plans to drop Ciri at a school of sorceresses, Ciri has some adventures involving a "fake" monster and the ghosts of the Wild Hunt.Eventually Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer all meet and proceed to the enclave, where the upcoming war is expected to be discussed. On a normal occasion they would discuss what they can do in order to stop unnecessary blood shedding, but there is a faction inside the Guild of Mages that believe that magic and power is all that matters, and this war is necessary to further their goals.Not knowing about this faction and what is about to happen, Ciri is brought to the conclave and spouts a prophecy while in a trance. Soon after all hell breaks loose, the mages start to fight each other. basically there is a faction of those loyal to the kings of the north and those loyal to Nilfgaard. Geralt, who doesn't care about either way, is caught in the middle.As Ciri is in the hearth of their dispute, Geralt fights his way towards her. Many mages die along the way, one or another by the hands of Geralt himself. Ciri is captured by soldiers of Nilfgaard, but manages to fight them off and escape, Geralt helps her.Once she is out of harms way, he goes back to help Yennefer. But then he finds his match in the hands of Vilgefortz, and is brutally beaten into near death. Triss Merigold with the help of Philippa take him to Brokilon to heal his wounds.Ciri escapes by entering a mysterious portal. She is teleported in the middle of a desert, goes trough hell but manages to escape it. She finds a safe haven with a group of bandits, and become one of them.The story ends with Yeneffer's fate unknown.

Time of Contempt was a far less enjoyable read than its predecessor, Blood of Elves. The first half contains some adventure on all sides; Geralt makes a risky partnership, Yennifer is seen among her own kind and Ciri is given a taste of freedom with the chance to explore independently. Sapkowski's characters are fun to read about in almost any scenario, but at every moment of this book they are bogged down by rambling politics. For every spell cast, each exciting mis-adventure and all deadly foes slain, there are a barrage of political ramifications, and we get to read about them all in numbing detail. This is often par for the course with fantasy novels, however in this case there is a distinct lack of pay-off for drudging through it (at least in this instalment of the series!).

Ciri is placed in greater peril than ever before – she finds herself in some very dark situations, and while it was interesting to see her navigate these extremes, I'm not satisfied with how Sapkowski seemingly ‘resolves' these scenes. In fact, without divulging too much, the treatment of gender and toward the end, consent, is frequently uncomfortable here, and I'm not quite willing to write this off as it being a product of its time (original published in 1995). The ‘powerful' women in this story are cookie-cutter copies of each other – backstabbing, egotistical, women-hating sorceresses who I struggled to keep track of.

This said, I'm not ready to completely write this series off. I will more than likely continue on to Baptism of Fire, however I will need a little time before I'm ready to plunge back into the world of The Witcher.