Name: Blood of Elves
Rating: 4.002645502645502 (567 reviews)
ISBN: 9780316452663

Danusia Stok

Andrzej Sapkowski

Blood of Elves

Krew elfów

Alina Meier

Lady of the Lake

Renee Dick

This story took a different path than the ones before. It took a bit to adjust. But I loved this book, except for the deaths of my two favourite characters.

The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, holds the fate of the world in his hands in the New York Times bestselling first novel in the Witcher series that inspired the Netflix show and video games. For more than a hundred years, humans, dwarves, gnomes and elves lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over and now the races are fighting once again - killing their own kind and each other. Into this tumultuous time is born a child of prophecy, Ciri, surviving heiress of a bloody revolution, whose strange abilities can change the world - for good, or for evil... As the threat of war hangs over the land, Geralt the Witcher must protect Ciri from those who are hunting the child for her destructive power. But this time, Geralt may have met his match. Translated by Danusia Stok.

Witcher 1 – Now a major Netflix show

Luke Harkness

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.

The adventures of Geralt the Witcher continue in this second novel in the bestselling Witcher series that inspired the Netflix show and video games. The kings and armies are manoeuvring for position, each fearing invasion from across the river, each fearing their neighbours more. Intrigue, dissent and rebellion fester on all sides. After decades of oppression, the elves and other races are fighting each other and attacking the humans - and with growing numbers preparing for battle, the threat of all-out war looms ever greater. Against this backdrop of fear, Geralt and Yennefer must protect Ciri, the orphaned heir who is sought by all sides. For the child of prophecy has the power to change the world - if she lives to use it. Translated by David French.

Witcher 2 – Now a major Netflix show

Time of Contempt

Another phenomenal addition

I continue to enjoy this series. Now onto the fourth book (second in the official series) and I continue to enjoy the lore and the stories that are being told.

The characters are truly likeable and even the politics is interesting (and I'm not one for politics in books).

If you've read the first, this is a must as the story continues.

Soon to be a major Netflix original series! A deadly coup within the Wizard's Guild leaves the Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, gravely injured, and his ward Ciri missing in the third book of the NYT bestselling series that inspired the blockbuster video games. The Wizards Guild has been shattered by a coup and, in the uproar, Geralt was seriously injured. The Witcher is supposed to be a guardian of the innocent, a protector of those in need, a defender against powerful and dangerous monsters that prey on men in dark times. But now that dark times have fallen upon the world, Geralt is helpless until he has recovered from his injuries. While war rages across all of the lands, the future of magic is under threat and those sorcerers who survive are determined to protect it. It's an impossible situation in which to find one girl -- Ciri, the heiress to the throne of Cintra -- until a rumor places her in the Niflgaard court, preparing to marry the Emperor. Injured or not, Geralt has a rescue mission on his hands. Andrzej Sapkowski, winner of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award, started an international phenomenon with his Witcher series: Witcher novelsBlood of Elves The Time of Contempt Baptism of Fire The Tower of SwallowsLady of the LakeSeason of Storms Witcher collectionsThe Last WishSword of Destiny The Malady and Other Stories: An Andrzej Sapkowski Sampler (e-only) Translated from original Polish by David French

Baptism of Fire

I bloody love this series. The way Andrzej Sapkowski writes characters is actually incredible. He makes each and every person in this book lovable in their own right. And once again, he makes mysterious creatures and myths seem cool and dark. Another fantastic book in the series.

I couldn't drag myself to the end despite my love of The Witcher 3 game and its lore.

Blood of elves

Shape Mismatch

The book sets a solid foundation for a very exciting series well. It doesn't bother with coherent narratives but it is a collection of discrete stories that take place in the order they're presented in the book. Each book has a complex, fresh narrative, an intriguing storyline. 

If you're someone who played the games and wants a back story, this is more than rewarding. If you're into fantasy books, this book should convince you that its a great setting, the author is worth reading. 10/10 should read :D

After walking through a portal in the Tower of the Swallow, thus narrowly escaping death, the Witcher girl, Ciri, finds herself in a completely different world... a world of the Elves. She is trapped with no way out. Time does not seem to exist and there are no obvious borders or portals to cross back into her home world. But this is Ciri, the child of prophecy, and she will not be defeated. She knows she must escape to finally rejoin the Witcher, Geralt, and his companions - and also to try to conquer her worst nightmare. Leo Bonhart, the man who chased, wounded and tortured Ciri, is still on her trail. And the world is still at war.

The Lady of the Lake

One of the most spectacular High Fantasy book I've read as of late. A very fitting end to the entire Witcher Series. The book has a complex, interwoven narrative which so far has been a characteristic of Sapkowski, but not on this scale. I love how he's spun the tale.

Honestly, the penultimate book felt like a drag, but this totally makes up for it and puts the Series high up in the must read fantasy novels list of mine. Highly recommended. Do not dare to read it without reading the previous ones though.

good story with a couple slow parts here and there. a complaint though is almost all the chapters are 50 pgs or more😳. find it a little funny though how season 2 of the show was to be based off this book but seems like season 3 is more based off this book than s2. but anyways book was good and can’t wait to see what happens next. 

Hannah Williams

Geralt, the witcher of Rivia, is back - and this time he holds the fate of the whole land in his hands.

For more than a hundred years, humans, dwarves, gnomes and elves lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over and now the races once again fight each other - and themselves: dwarves are killing their kinsmen, and elves are murdering humans and elves, at least those elves who are friendly to humans ...Into this tumultuous time is born a child for whom the witchers of the world have been waiting. Ciri, the granddaughter of Queen Calanthe, the Lioness of Cintra, has strange powers and a stranger destiny, for prophecy names her the Flame, one with the power to change the world - for good, or for evil ...Geralt, the witcher of Rivia, has taken Ciri to the relative safety of the Witchers' Settlement, but it soon becomes clear that Ciri isn't like the other witchers. As the political situation grows ever dimmer and the threat of war hangs almost palpably over the land, Geralt searches for someone to train Ciri's unique powers. But someone else has an eye on the young girl, someone who understand exactly what the prophecy means - and exactly what Ciri's power can do. This time Geralt may have met his match.

C. J. Daley 

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.

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. 

In terms of The Lady of the Lake especially, I find that in each novel he kind of played with different ways of storytelling and this one starting with the knight of Arthur finding her really threw me off. It also then didn't resolve itself for 500 pages. I think at one point I thought it was a ploy and that he was actually one of the elves in the other world? I don't know, but it was kind of weird. In general, that whole world hopping bit was a little dragged out for me. 
Alternatively, in terms of this being the ultimate finale, I loved the level of gore and action. I thought the Battle of Brenna was outstanding writing. The jumping between the battle and the future with survivors of the battle writing about it really worked for me. 
I will say though another negative for me was the deaths at Stygga Castle. I know the bad luck surrounding the Witcher and those that follow him, but this kind of heartless, unforgiving killing off of main characters didn't exactly work for me. It's not like reading A Song of Fire and Ice where it's expected, therefore the lack of emotion I felt around them dying was a little lackluster. Also, I mean come on, we get all the way to the end and everyone dies EXCEPT Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer? In that sense it seemed a little cheesy. 
A giant positive for me was that I did not see the twist of Duny being the emperor at all. I don't know if I was supposed to (?) but WOW. Ciri's dad the whole time? WOW incest is so absolutely gross. Glad it didn't go there...

I did like the kind of hazy ending myself. Did Yenn and Geralt die? Did they live? No! They got married and several other people we know are dead were said to be in attendance!
I know what the game series wants us to believe.

Colleen

3.5 Stars

*An unbalanced but overall exciting instalment in the Witcher series*


Continuing on with the Witcher series, I still have mixed feeling. Blood of Elves does improve upon its predecessor. However, these stories still feel like they lack cohesion.

Although this is listed as a complete novel, it is essentially still a series of loosely connected short stories. So there are a lot of gaps. This installment does go back and fill in some previous gaps, but it does so through flashback scenes. The lack of chronology gives the narrative even more of a fractured feel.


  “Intolerance and superstition has always been the domain of the more stupid amongst the common folk and, I conjecture, will never be uprooted, for they are as eternal as stupidity itself. There, where mountains tower today, one day there will be seas; there where today seas surge, will one day be deserts. But stupidity will remain stupidity.”

The individual stories are also quite unbalanced. Some sections are exciting and action-packed. Other sections are almost entirely dialogue, often covering long and dry expulsions on politics. And some characters were much more compelling than others. I certainly felt more than one moment of frustration when a story I was enjoying would abruptly end and switch to something more dull. Or when information would be once again purposefully withheld from the reader.

As I mentioned, the characters interested me in varying degrees. Ciri was surprisingly my favorite of the novel. Although she was often petulant and impulsive, I enjoyed her impertinence. Dandilion is always good for a laugh. And Geralt continues to grow on me. Although Geralt doesn't actually get much page time in this installment. I'm not a fan of either Yennefer or Triss. The whole sexy, mysterious witch with no character development thing is getting old.

I do enjoy this series overall, but I still have noticeable issues with it. The biggest hindrance is my frustration at having information purposefully withheld for multiple books. It drives me nuts when an author thinks that completely withholding information is the only way to build suspense. So the end result is still that I tentatively recommend these with a huge caveat that they aren't for everyone. And I'm reserving final judgement until I've read more of the series and hopefully gotten some darn answers! But I can see why these books are so popular for Swords and Sorcery fans.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 4 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 4 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

Vilandra

Such a complex narrative. I am still amazed by the richness of Sapkowski’s world building. We got to see more of these characters and the deep feeling that drives them. There’s so much hope in it but also so much loss - it really is a roller coaster. I can’t imagine where the story goes from here.

Audrey Lord

Much different from The Last Wish but still incredible

Blood of Elves

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