Name: Vojtech's review of Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski
Item: Sword of Destiny
Rating: 5
Author: Vojtech

Andrzej Sapkowski

Geralt the Witcher battles monsters, demons and prejudices alike in Sword of Destiny, the second collection of adventures in Andrzej Sapkowski’s groundbreaking epic fantasy series that inspired the Netflix show and the hit video games. Geralt is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless hunter. Yet he is no ordinary killer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. Sword of Destiny is the follow up to The Last Wish, and together they are the perfect introduction to a one of a kind fantasy world. Witcher collections The Last Wish Sword of Destiny Witcher novels Blood of Elves The Time of Contempt Baptism of Fire The Tower of Swallows Lady of the Lake Season of Storms Hussite Trilogy The Tower of Fools Warriors of God Translated from original Polish by David French

Sword of Destiny

Geralt the Witcher - revered and hated - holds the line against the monsters plaguing humanity in the bestselling series that inspired the hit Witcher Netflix show and video games. Geralt of Rivia is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers and lifelong training have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary killer: he hunts the vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil; not everything fair is good . . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth. Translated by David French. Andrzej Sapkowski, winner of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award, started an international phenomenon with his Witcher series. In this second collection of short stories, following the adventures of the hit collection The Last Wish, join Geralt as he battles monsters, demons and prejudices alike . . .

Tales of the Witcher – Now a major Netflix show

“How long has passed since… A year?’

‘One year, two months and eighteen days.”

“Cat got your tongue? Who are you, I said? What’s your name?’

“I told you our rights are equal. No, dammit, mine are greater.”

“He felt like bursting out laughing. He did not know why.”

“If anybody can deal with it then it’s that sorceress who rode through yesterday.’

‘Who was that?’ Geralt cocked his head.”

Vojtech

Geralt is a witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. He roams the country seeking assignments, but gradually comes to realise that while some of his quarry are unremittingly vile, vicious grotesques, others are the victims of sin, evil or simple naivety. In this collection of short stories, following the adventures of the hit collection THE LAST WISH, join Geralt as he battles monsters, demons and prejudices alike...

Connor J. Daley 

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! Although, I will say that Gollancz choice of Cahir for this cover was really weird? I get the idea of giving each main character a cover, but Cahir isn't even mentioned by name for like another 2 or more books...

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 Sword of Destiny might be my second favorite book out of all of them. I just think that short stories is really a sweet spot for Sapkowski. Even though this one gets more serious and does much more of the setting up of the overarching series with Ciri, it still has that monster hunter deep-lore Witcher feel that I loved about The Last Wish. And as this is in fact the book where Ciri is first introduced, I loved it. Obviously young Ciri goes through some terrible things with the fall of Cintra, but it was necessary to the overall progression of the story.

Ryan LaFerney

Sword of Destiny is another collection of short stories following a talented witcher (a magic assassin of monsters that ravage the land and attack the innocent) called Geralt of Rivia. I really loved the short stories "The Bounds of Reasons" and "Something More" in particular and I am eager to read Blood of Elves. I really feel that Sapkowski is similar to Gaiman or Rothfuss in how he takes old genre tropes of fantasy and creates an immersive and fresh world. Highly recommended.

Some parts of the short stories were a little slow but overall enjoyed this book! Loved the last two stories where we finally see Geralt and Ciri interactions!!

Hannah Williams

Geralt the Witcher - revered and hated - holds the line against the monsters plaguing humanity in the bestselling series that inspired the hit Witcher Netflix show and video games. Geralt of Rivia is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers and lifelong training have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary killer: he hunts the vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil; not everything fair is good . . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth. Andrzej Sapkowski, winner of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award, started an international phenomenon with his Witcher series. In this second collection of short stories, following the adventures of the hit collection The Last Wish, join Geralt as he battles monsters, demons and prejudices alike . . .

dimmie

if you can get past the fact that you'll always know a woman's boob size before knowing anything else about her and geralt annoyingly brushing off dandelion's gross objectifications of women as merely banter, you could really enjoy this book. out of the 6 stories, the 4th one was the only one I didn't enjoy that much (the main plotline was quite boring in comparison to the others, and I would've liked to see more of the mermaid), and 5th one was definitely the most exciting. that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing geralt and yennefer banter like teenagers; it was refreshing. and while i'm not rushing to read the rest of the series asap, I know I definitely will, slowly.

Amina Madadi (ⴰⵎⵉⵏⴰ)

Here we go again, to meet our dear Witcher!
This was by far better, almost the each short story allows us to know something more about Geralt, his character, his convictions. We're also intruduced to some new characters that would play a great role in the novels to come.
All in all, it was a good read, I'll be reading the first novel pretty soon!

nonchi

Chiara Vitale Zelaia

Finally a 5-star rating in 2020! My journey into the world of the Witcher continues, and so far, I enjoy every step more than the one I’ve taken before. Sword of Destiny, like its predecessor The Last Wish, is written in short story format. While those were an introduction to the world and a glimpse into the way Geralt is perceived by others, Sword of Destiny was a much more introspective and personal approach to Geralt as a character. We get to see more of his friendship with Dandelion (I’m still bitter Jaskier’s name was translated), more of the complex relationship between him and Yen, we finally get to see him interacting with his Child of Destiny, Ciri! Irony and sarcasm were the key to access each short story, but behind every laugh was a lesson about friendship and loyalty, betrayal and forgiveness, the fine line between hate and love, fate and destiny. The stories of Sword of Destiny really added more layers, depth and flavor to the characters and relationships we were introduced to in The Last Wish. Most importantly, I feel like I finally reached a place where Book Geralt has aligned with the Geralt I have grown to know and love (read: obsess over) through the show and the games: a character who exists somewhere between confidence and self-doubt, with moments of great vulnerability and others of glorious broodiness and sass. Geralt of Rivia may just be my favorite character of all time.

The world-building remains the least explored aspect of these short stories, but you’ll hardly notice if you’re familiar to the tv show or the games. Otherwise, the world may still feel a bit trivial to you, but my advice is to enjoy the witty dialogues and the amazing character building in these short stories, as I’ve been told that the magic and world-building are topic of the main books in the series.

Maria Elena Vitale Zelaia

Hello and welcome to my incoherent babbling on Geralt and Ciri. 

Okay, I’m only kidding. I will spare you my one-thousand and one thoughts and feelings on the beautiful father-daughter relationship that is Geralt and Ciri. I will not write a one-page review on why I think everyone needs to read this series for this relationship alone. I will only tell you that, yes, I absolutely loved this book and you should read it too. 

While I did enjoy The Last Wish, I had some problems getting into some of the short stories in that book, mainly for the overly long dialogues. Granted, there are long dialogues in Sword of Destiny as well, but they were a lot easier to follow. I might have grown used to them, or they were indeed shorter, either way, the stories in this book were more enjoyable. I laughed, I shed a tear, I screamed my throat raw out of anger—and that is the mark of a great book. Some places, like Brokilon Forest, were described in more depth than others I’ve seen so far in the series, which is something I appreciated and other readers—particularly those who are not familiar with the show and games already—could appreciate too. I also found the characters to be closer to the ones I already know. (Except Yennefer, but I shan’t say anything.) Needless to say, my favorite story is the one that gives the name to the book, where Geralt and Ciri meet for the first time. *cue in incoherent fangirling*

I cannot wait to dive into Blood of Elves and finally enter a territory that hasn’t been breached by the show!

Shikhar Jaiswal

Loved it. The last few chapters are just amazing and keep you hooked. The book quite brilliantly builds up to the climax and leave you wanting more. Some dialogues did have me confused but some reddit posts helped me there. I can definitely see myself reading it again a couple of years later.

Sword of Destiny did not let me down. It provided fantastic humor, romance (as in Geralt getting whipped as f*ck), and, above all, fantastic fantasy adventure. 

This review was written seven months after I read 

. And I should say that the main highlight of it all is Geralt’s reunion with Ciri.

Sword of Destiny did not let me down. It provided fantastic humor, romance (as in Geralt getting whipped as f*ck), and, above all, fantastic fantasy adventure. 

This review was written seven months after I read Sword of Destiny. And I should say that the main highlight of it all is Geralt’s reunion with Ciri.

Aidan Francis

Loved this book, A Little Sacrifice and Something More were my favourites. Good stories overall but those stood out for me a lot more than the others in the first two prequels. Looking forward to heading into the main story now!

Ken Yuen

I wasn't too sure about the first couple stories, but after that, I really got into it. As intricate and beautiful as one of the Witcher's potions, it's really all about the alchemy between dark European fairy tale, the Witcher world, and the inextricably bonded core cast.

These stories really shine because they get that balance. They have the adventures against man and monsters, but also wax philosophic about relationships and destiny.

And the gestalt of these individual stories, just amazing. Man, what an ending this one had.

Claire Fuesting

A must read fantasy classic for sure. You can tell it is dated in some parts but overall very worth the read. 

3.5 stars. skipped some stories, mainly read this for ciri and i loved every moment she was in! funny how geralt is a father all of a sudden!!!!

Sarah Escorsa

Uh-oh, I think my boyfriend Geralt is on strike. I mean, why else would the Most Deliciously Scrumptious Witcher Ever aka the Super Hot if Slightly Mutant Monster Slayer (MDSWEakatSHiSMMS™) butcher such a ridiculously low amount of supernatural beasts in this volume? Well, I guess it is also possible that his evil boring twin took over while I was, um, otherwise engaged with some of my other harem, um, boarders and stuff. Or maybe he was abducted by aliens, submitted to vigorous brain reprogramming sessions, and then shipped back to us via Expedited Shrimp Express (ESE™)? Who the fish knows? In any case, there is way too little delicious slaughter here and way too much pondering on the meaning of life, destiny, blah blah blah and all that crap. Not to mention the inordinate amount of Suicide-Inducing Lovey Dovey Crap (SILDC™) one has to bravely endure while reading this book. 



Indeed.

Okay, so there's some really good, err, what's the word for this? Oh, yes, I remember now, "stuff" is the technical term I'm looking for. So yes, there is definitely some good stuff here: a little bit of intrigue, a pinch of adventure, a dash of Let's Gleefully Hack at Things (LGHaT™), a speck of humor, a drop of shenanigans and a soupçon of my homicidally sexy boyfriend. Alas, unfortunately and stuff, sufficient to make this short story collection as yummilicious as The Last Wish this wasn't. Most of the stories begin stupendously enough, I'll give you that, my Little Barnacles. One opens with a basilisk, 
  free warrior women
 and crayfish. Which got me all excite because coming across my freshwater cousins in books always makes my exoskeleton tingle and stuff. Another story begins with tentacles, serrated claws and mountains of exploding trash. Which brought back fond memories of my past life as Marjory the Trash Heap.

 

Ah, good times.

Then there is the story that kicks off with a delightfully capricious mermaid and later introduces super, um, friendly sea creatures. And then the story that starts with most, um, welcoming monsters. And severed limbs. Oh, and let's not forget the one with the dryads! So, you see, all the stories in this collection begin quite gloriously indeed. The problem is, most of them then proceed to deflate like the proverbial (if bloody shrimping) soufflé. Because too many pointless ramblings and endless dialogues, not enough blood-shedding. Because too much allergy-inducing relationship drama, not enough action. And don't get me started on Yennefer. Actually, no, please DO get me started on her. To think I locked her up in my harem kindly offered her asylum after reading The Last Wish! She was cool! She was cunning! She was badass! She was hot! She was mine! But now? It's pretty obvious the aliens kidnapped and then brainwashed her like they did Geralt. Why else would she act like such an exasperatingly selfish—or is it selfishly exasperating? I forget—bitch? And the angst! Bloody stinking fish, the angst! There's enough of it here to feed a battalion of Thoroughly Frustrated New Adult Fangirls (TFNAF™)! 



Yeah, more or less.

But hey, it's not ALL bad. (view spoiler)[
  Just so you know, I deny ever writing what you are about to read. It only exists in your alcohol-drenched little head. You shouldn't drink and read, you know. It's not the most sensible behavior, you know. Follow my example! Drink chamomile tea at all times!(view spoiler)[



That detector of yours is obviously broken, Young Man of the Silly Costume. (hide spoiler)]
 (hide spoiler)] I mean, there's a super cute kid in two of the stories. Her name is Ciri. She made my black, withered heart do all kind of weird things. First of all, it started beating, which was kind of, you know, spooky and stuff. Then it kinda sorta felt like it was getting slightly squished and stuff. Strange, err, what was that technical term again? Oh yes, stuff. Strange stuff. Indeed. Disgusting, too. You have to admit that feeling so revoltingly emotional and human isn't really in my line of work. I find the idea both terribly repulsive and horribly inadequate, to be honest. So I very logically kidnapped Ciri. For her own good, obviously. Also, she'll make great blackmail material. I won't release her until my Geralt returns to his former MDSWEakatSHiSMMS™ self. Muahahahaha and stuff.

(view spoiler)[
  This is the end of the paragraph you thought you read but didn't because you're drunk and because I never wrote it. You're welcome.
 (hide spoiler)]
 
➽ And the moral of this The Evil Russians™ Quite Evidently Replaced my Geralt with a Sappy Doppelgänger That's It I'm Unleashing the Shrimps on the Kremlin and Getting the Real Him Back to the Harem and Stuff Crappy Non Review (TERQERmGwaSDTIIUtSonKaGtRHBttHaSCNR™) is: my pet Algernon misses his monster friends, Mr Sapkowski. Please bring them back, even if it's just to have them slightly slaughtered by my Geralt. Algernon feels awfully lost without them, you see. I mean, look at the poor thing! Doesn't he look utterly helpless and completely befuddled to you? 



So please do the charitable thing, Mr Sapkowski. Bring my mutant beast slayer back and Make Algernon Gleeful Again (MAGA™)! 

· Book 1: The Last Wish ★★★★★
· Book 3: Blood of Elves ★★★
· Book 4: The Time of Contempt ★★



[Pre-review nonsense]

Geralt, dear boy, we need to talk. I locked you up in my High Security Harem because you were a super hot monster slayer, not for your disgusting love sick puppy tendencies. So you stop this revolting display of vile maudlin sentimentality right this minute, or I'm sending you to the DNF Graveyard until you become yourself again, you hear me?!



What? You didn't know Geralt looked like a toast with tiny arms? You really are clueless, aren't you, my Little Barnacles?

➽ Full Who The Bloody Fish Are You and What Have You Done with My Sexey Badass Mutant Boyfriend Crappy Non Review (WTBFAYaWHYDwMSBMBCNR™) to come.

Anna 

At first, I was overwhelmed by the universe, cause I did not read the short stories. But I loved this book. My first book in 2022 and it was truly amazing

Sahi K

I had to wait a while to get to this second short collection because of the wait at the library. But I’m glad I did, because it gave me an opportunity to savor the experience of the previous one and enjoy this even more.

As with any collection, this one had a couple of amazing stories and a few bored me. As a very dialogue heavy writing style, this one too had many many conversations which I thought were pointless, but some of them were profound and emotional too, so I don’t wanna dismiss it all entirely. But it’s the couple of stories which were part of the TV show which I had the most fun reading. I definitely like that Dandelion is much more prominently featured in the stories, Yennefer here is a little less fiery and more emotionally available, and Geralt is a grumpy delight. There’s one story featuring a new character Essi which made me very emotional, and it was just so beautifully tragic. But it was the introduction of Ciri that stole the show, and I can’t believe how different the first meeting of Ciri and Geralt is. I definitely would have loved to see that in the show. And the ending was amazing, with the exact final scene from the show playing in my head and on the page. 

In conclusion, I’m having as much fun reading these books as I was watching the adaptation. Both the similarities and differences are quite exciting to explore and I can’t wait to finally dive into the novels which will bring a whole new story. The writing (or maybe the translation) isn’t always easy to follow, but hopefully I’ll get used to it. The wait times for the next books seem to be quite high at my library, so I hope I’ll be able to finish them all before the start of the next season.

Toni Turner

I cried and I’m hooked and I want to reread the first set of stories as well as obviously continue on!

Morgana

Ci sono alcune cose che non capisco ancora di questo libro.
Se la madre di Gerald era una maga/strega come ha fatto a rimanere incinta? Per tutto il libro ripete che strighi e maghe sono sterili e yennefer si dispera perché non potrà avere figli e poi puff! questa riesce ad averne senza nemmeno volerlo. Comunque, perché l'ha abbandonato? Aveva tutte le possibilità del mondo, poteva dargli una vita favolosa e lo vende agli strighi sapendo che 4 su 10 sopravvivono??
Quanto è insopportabile Occhietto? Si innamora di Gerald dopo averlo visto appena ( chiaramente è la fama di lui che l'attira ) e pretende che lui provi le stesse cose, eppure dalle ballate di Ranuncolo ormai dovrebbe sapere che lui ama Yennefer ( e pensa sempre solo a lei ). Non mi è dispiaciuto sapere che Occhietto era morta, era proprio insopportabile.
Ciri e Yennefer personaggi migliori del libro, spero che nei prossimi abbiano anche più spazio

Story Eater

I hate short stories. 

These are not short stories. 

These are tiny bits of awesomeness I should have read by now but have ashamedly been ignorant of until I saw the Superman imposter do some funky thing on Netflix with weird-looking white hair. 

The universe intrigued me, so I bought the books before the show came out (I might have been that person that cleaned out the Witcher section at the local B&N-totally not sorry about it) and am now reading them. In order.

We shall see if the rest are as good.

Kristina Masone

I find that I enjoy the parts that aren't in the Netflix show more.

Jelke Lenaerts

average rating: 2,8/5 stars

 The Bounds of Reason 
 rating: 4/5 stars 
This story was a lot of fun. I liked the big cast of characters we followed. Like always, this book raised quite a lot of interesting discussion points. I loved learning more about this world and especially dragons. I also really liked the twists that this story took towards the ending. I didn't see them coming and it kept the story interesting and unique.

 A Shard of Ice 
 3/5 stars 
Not a lot really happened in this story and I felt just a bit bored while reading it. However, this story gave some great insight into the relationship between Yennefer and Geralt. Up until now we had only gotten small glimpses into their relationship. For the rest it raised some great questions about feelings that I hope will be explored more once we go into the full lenght novels. Can we also just have more of Yennefer please? I love her.

 Eternal Flame 
 2/5 stars 
I wasn't the biggest fan of this story. It focusses a lot on the economics of this world and economics is something that just never grabs my interest. Therefore I bored throughout most of the book. The changing thing also confused me quiet a bit. Sadly, this was not a story for me at all.

 A Little Dedictation 
 3/5 stars 
This story started out promising but went in directions I didn't really like. I was excited to be by the seaside so that we can learn more about sea creatures but the main focus in this series was a sup bar romance. In the ending there were also some decsions made that I wasn't the biggest fan of but for the rest I really enjoyed this story.

 The Sword of Destiny 
 2/5 stars 
This story wasn't for me at all. I was bored throughout most of it and couldn't really care about anything that was happening. I did like the discussions around destiny though but that's where it all ends. 

 Something More 
 3/5 stars 
This was a nice little story in which we got a great insight into Geralt's personality as well as some great discussions around destiny. For the rest it did feel a bit like fluff. It did tie in with some of the previous stories but I feel like I could have also done without ever reading this story because nothing really nececary was in it.

celeste

i've never been a fan of short story collections so i didn't particularly have many expectations when i went into this book. i really didn't like the majority of these stories and i have to admit that i enjoyed way more reading the last wish, because other than the last two short stories in this one, i think the rest were not that important or even relevant for character development.

the bounds of reason: 2.5 stars. a pretty average story to start off this collection of short stories. nothing worthy to mention except for geralt and yennefer, they were cute in this one. there was somewhat of a plot twist that was unexpected and cool but that was it.

a shard of ice: 1 star. i'm sorry to every single hard-core fan of this series, but i honestly don't understand the hype over yennefer's character. maybe she will grow into a character that i'll be able to appreciate but so far she's been awful. she was the actual worst in this one?? if geralt is supposed to be a mutant who is incapable of feeling anything, i fail to understand why he would wanna stick around someone who does not give a fuck about him? yennefer is cheating on him and he's like welp, okay but i still wanna stick with you. like, what??? make it make sense. this one was awful, don't hate me.

eternal flame: 3 stars. the whole changeling drama was funny but still a pretty average story. again, there was somewhat of a plot twist that was unexpected and nice towards the end. overall a pretty nice story, nothing more than that.

a little sacrifice: 2 stars. sighs and here i thought that high fantasy was free from the deplorable insta-love trope. what could have been an interesting mermaid story was suddenly turned into an annoying and dreadful tale of a poet falling in love with geralt after knowing him for less than 24 hours and refusing to take no for an answer from him. i don't even rememer her name, but she was incredibly annoying and cringy and i could not care less about that drama.

the sword of destiny: 4 stars. finally we are introduced to the character 'ciri' which i've heard of countless of times. the whole myth of the dryads was really interesting too. it really pains me to see how geralt is always turning his back on people he really cares about because of what he is. this one was better than the first four short stories. 

something more: 5 stars. 'a choice which should be respected, for it is the holy and irrefutable right of every woman' we stan feminist ally and icon geralt of rivia. oh my god FINALLY this right here is what i've been waiting for from this whole book. the best short story in this entire collection, if i do say so myself. it had everything i wanted: enough lore and so much character development!! also, that brief introduction of a certain character from geralt's past life I SCREAMED and also made me feel very sad for him. i'm already sold on his relationship and dynamic with ciri, it was so cute and heartbreaking and i can't wait to see where they go from here.

Vojtech &
Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski

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