Book Bearings
Last Wish
- 342 pages · about 6 hours
- First published 1993
- 34 editions
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1 About this book
The Last Wish is a collection of short stories by the Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, first published in 1993, and the usual starting point for his Witcher series. Geralt of Rivia is a witcher, a hunter of monsters for pay, stronger than ordinary men and mistrusted by the people who hire him. Recovering from a wound in a temple, he thinks back over recent events in his life, and each memory forms one of the seven stories. In them he finds that not every monstrous-looking creature is evil and not everything beautiful is good, and he meets the sorceress Yennefer.
- Fantasy
- Fantasy, short stories
- Fantasy, collections & anthologies
2 What to expect
Seven linked short stories that introduce the monster-hunter Geralt of Rivia, held together by a frame in which he recovers from a wound. Several of them turn familiar fairy tales into darker, more ambiguous shapes, with dry humor and sudden violence. It is quick and episodic, the usual way into the Witcher books, and more ironic and talkative than the games and the television series made from them.
Good for readers who want: dark fantasy, fairy tales turned upside down, and short stories with a wry hero.
3 About Andrzej Sapkowski
Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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