The Last Wish

I thought it was about time to read Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher books, and bought all the short story collections and novels at once. All the translated ones anyway, as curiously enough, only three of the five volume novel saga have been translated into English (and Finnish) even though the last two came out back in 1996 and 1997.

Maybe they had trouble finding someone who can do Polish to English translations after Danusia Stok stopped doing them after Blood of Elves for whatever reason. David French's translations of the next two novels came out in 2013 and this year's March, but no translation of Wieża jaskółki (The Swallow's Tower) is planned. The Finnish translations are in a similar situation. Hopefully they will get them out eventually, though.

The Last Wish is one of the two witcher-stuff-only short story collections (and the only one that has an official English translation). It was the not the first to be published but the stories take place before The Sword of Destiny, and thus I started from it. The book includes seven stories, one being a frame story (The Voice of Reason) that sort of ties them together. It almost reads as an actual novel.

I think they presented Geralt faithfully in the games as I found the character in the book very familiar. I could even hear Doug Cockle saying the White Wolf's lines. In general, the whole setting felt like an old aquaintance. Which on one hand might not be a good thing. It's like reading a book after the seeing the movie that was made of it: you already know how everyone looks (according to someone's vision) and don't get to imagine them by yourself. But at least the anachronisms didn't bother me as I knew to expect them this time.

The striga fight part of the first story, The Witcher, is in the first game's lengthy intro movie. It shows how Geralt fights but the part happening before the movie does pretty good job in explaining who Geralt is. I liked the rest of the short stories, too, but my favorite one was probably the last one, The Last Wish, where Yennefer is introduced. She is left pretty mysterious in the games, not really being in them and all, and it was nice to get to know her a bit. The plot twist really surprised me. And I liked how it was left for the reader to decide what actually was the last wish.

The Lesser Evil is worth a mention as well. It's one of the stories that shows how good a swordsman Geralt is compared to experienced yet otherwise mundane human fighters. The short story is not in the two games but I recall there being a quest named after it. And I think that it's a common theme throughout the games. In the book, Geralt struggles to not be the good guy and just stay as a monster killer for hire. He often fails the struggle, or maybe even every time, and ends up aiding people.

Another theme found in the stories, is how stuff tends to not last forever. Elves, monsters, even witchers are a dying breed, while humanity keeps expanding. There was quite an interesting dialogue in one of the framework segments when Geralt notes how Nenneke has plants that no longer grow anywhere but in her cave hothouse. Nenneke explains it's because sunlight has become more lethal. (Due to thinning ozone layer?)

   "I understand." The witcher nodded. "And us, Nenneke? What about us? The sun shines on us, too. Shouldn't we shelter under a roof like that?"
   "In principle, yes, " sighed the priestess. "But..."
   "But what?"
   "It's too late."

I wonder what she meant...

Sometimes Geralt also stops to consider who's the actual monster that needs killing. Others often point out that Geralt isn't exactly the standard human himself. I guess the Witcher stories are dark fantasy but not in all aspects. Magic, for instance, isn't nearly as corrupting as it could be. The witcher universe is maybe more like "gray fantasy".