I read the first book in the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski last year after watching the show on Netflix. Although the fantasy based show had a lot of terrific action scenes as well as an interesting premise, it did seem a little incoherent overall. It felt as though it had been pulled directly from a comic panel by panel leaving the story structure a little jumbled. To try and put the pieces together, I decided last year to read The Last Wish which, not only fixed a lot of the issues I found with the show, but also provided me with a great read overall. It was so good that I had to pick up the second book in the series.
Until relatively recently, I would have said that Sword of Destiny was the best book that I had read this year. Just like the preceding book in the series, the book starts quickly and maintains at a rapid pace until the very end. Unlike other fantasy books, there’s no dawdling in Lothlórien or any meandering Bran chapters. In the Witcher series, the important things happen while we’re reading the book and everything else is either just left out or told in tidbits through character interactions.
There aren’t many differences between this book and the previous entry. However, I will say that I preferred this book just because of how it explores Geralt’s character. As a mutant designed solely to kill dangerous beasts, he does not experience emotions and as a supernaturally powered warrior who can quickly dispatch any assailants, most people are naturally wary of him. It creates an interesting dynamic between himself and his companions particularly in this book. His relationship with Yennefer causes him something of an existential crisis as he wonders how he can love someone when he, by nature, isn’t capable or having any feelings at all. Or is he? His companion Dandellion (Jaskier in the show) shows us many of his positive attributes and would appear to be a mutual friendship. Geralt’s a cynic, he’s sarcastic, and he’s very very dry – maybe based on his own experiences – but it seems that he’s still open to believing that there’s something more to his life and his destiny. I’m very sympathetic to this line of thinking – exploring the human parts of someone who is only part human makes for a very interesting character analysis.
You can see why it might be difficult to adapt this to television as there isn’t really room to fill in the gaps as Geralt moves from one place to the next. There’s no intermission scenes between chapters where characters can just launch into some expositionary dialogue in the book so the TV show writers have a choice between inventing these scenes or just going with the flow from the books. I think the choices they made are overall good but it does make it a little difficult to understand what’s happening in the show. It also looks like the show will be omitting one of the best chapters in this book, the titular “Sword of Destiny” where Geralt has some interesting dialogue with some dryads as well as a key character in the series. It’s a shame but it will be interesting to see their own changes to the story.
I haven’t read a series of books in a long time (The last series probably being Sherlock Holmes during college) but I imagine I will be reading every book in the Witcher series. After this book, the format changes from the fast paced short story structure to a more overarching linear narrative. Even so, I will be picking up the next book in the series as there’s a lot to like about these characters and this story. I can’t wait to dive into the next book in the series.
