Season of Storms

I had completely forgotten about the standalone witcher novel, Season of Storms (Sezon burz / Myrskykausi), until I saw its just-published Finnish translation at a local bookstore. The novel originally came out in 2013, which is 14 years after Lady of the Lake. I wonder if The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings in 2012 inspired Andrzej Sapkowski to continue the series.

The Lady of the Lake

I took my sweet time reading The Lady of the Lake (Pani Jeziora / Järven neito). Knowing it was the final book and there would be no continuation, I did not want to end it too quickly. The book also turned out to be pretty good, probably the best one in the five volume saga. Even with the odd tone the Finnish translation by Tapani Kärkkäinen adds to the Witcher novels (the English one is not coming out until March), I quite enjoyed this one.

The Swallow's Tower

The fourth volume of the Witcher Saga, The Swallow's Tower, was a fairly interesting experience. Not only because the viewpoint wanders around in the neat way it did in the previous novel, but also because much of the book is told in flashbacks.

Baptism of Fire

It is as if the plot set for the saga turned out to be too short and the series needed a fillerish volume. Baptism of Fire takes Geralt and his fellowship of the witcher into a long journey to find Ciri but they never reach their destination, partly because of the distance and the difficulty of navigating between armies, and partly because they are not even sure where exactly they need to go. (I wish there was a map in the book.)

The Time of Contempt

The Witcher Saga saw a new translator, as for the second book, The Time of Contempt, David French replaced Danusia Stok. Either because of that, or because the source material was better, I liked this volume more than the first.

Blood of Elves

Blood of Elves (Krew elfów) begins the Witcher Saga, which currently has six volumes. Though since the latest one is apparently a prequel story, and was published just last year -- 14 years after the previous one -- I guess the story will end in the fifth one. But since it and fourth one still lack translations, hopes of ever finishing reading the series are not too high.

The Sword of Destiny

Since The Sword of Destiny (Miecz przeznaczenia) -- the other witcher short story collection -- hasn't been translated into English, I bought it as a Finnish one. Which means it cost more than twice what an English paperback would cost. But what can you do; they just decided to skip translating it, even though it has two stories leading into the saga.

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.