Sword of Destiny

Product Information

Yurga wakes Geralt up wondering why the witcher went up there, when he could have been told everything by Yurga. Geralt tests Yurga's memory by asking for the last name of the mage, it turnes out not to be who Geralt has thought. The scene ends by Geralt glancing at all the names on the menhir answering Yurga's question whether Geralt knew the last mage. With a feeling of being lost and drowning his sorrows, Geralt ends up in a brawl with a group of local thugs. Not until they realise he is a Witcher do they spare his life, but we get a very strong and distinct line from one of the group, "next time you feel like killing yourself Witcher, don't drag other people into it. Just hang yourself in a stable from your reins." Without knowing how this encounter began we can only assume Geralt went looking for a fight to numb his pain, which is the truest sign of a man with a broken heart. An Offer You Can't Refuse: The fake inquisitor gives Geralt one of these when he is trying to hire him to find the doppelganger. Geralt doesn't want to because not only is Dudu not evil, there's no actual way to find a man who can shapechange in a city of 30,000 people. In contrast, we see truly how volatile Yennefer is in this book; she’s manipulative, impulsive, and quite sexually liberated. I liked this about her, she’s a character who is strong, and unpredictable, which made her scenes all the more fun and intriguing. She reminded me of the character Lanfear from the Wheel of Time series; she was also a character I both loved and hated. Yennefer’s ambitions and goals always governed over any feelings she had towards Geralt, and therefore their encounters were always laced with tension. I really felt for Geralt, I wanted him to have love and companionship and although he seemed to be a bit of a magnet for women, I wanted him to be with Yennefer and no one else. I’ve been told by a few friends who play The Witcher game that there will be another love interest when the character Triss is introduced, so I’m eager to meet her and possibly change my mind! Like I said, I got far too caught up in the drama!

I find the stories well written, suspenseful and engaging. The characters are diverse, colorful and relatable. One of the treasures of Sapkowski's style is how much of the plot is revealed through character interactions. Conversations flow naturally yet give all the necessary exposition and world building. The characters are interesting, believable and three dimensional no matter how small their role. The stories are at times bleak and grim, and yet there is an odd sense of whimsy like you might find in a classic Grimm's fairy tale. They can be comical or tragic but never contrived. Legacy Character: Geralt reveals this of Roach; Dandelion identifies the horse as a different one then he was used to, and Geralt As You Know informs him that all his horses are called Roach.

Tropes found in the book:

Ultimately, Eithné allows Ciri to choose her own fate and Ciri chooses the witcher. The queen also decides to spare Freixenet on the basis that he is an acquaintance of Geralt and that he did not have the intention of hunting dryads when he trespassed into the forest. After all, dryads still need males to make new dryads, so it seems that the large man will become a stud. That Man Is Dead: Braen used to be a human girl named Mona before she became a dryad, and she suffers a Heroic BSoD after being reminded of it. By the end of The Sword of Destiny, she has finally let go of her previous identity and tells Geralt that "there is no Mona." I found the stories in The Last Wish more consistent but two or three of my favourites are from this entry. If you decide to read the short story collections first I'd truly recommend starting with The Last Wish and not Sword of Destiny. Two stories in The Witcher #1, one including Yennefer and one including a Queen and a Princess, add huge depth to the action and events that occur in this collection, especially with certain relationship complexities. I won't go into the details of the stories too much as it might approach spoiler territory. I will confirm that these tales feature many fantasy races as well as mermaids and underwater warriors, showdowns with sorcerers, a group trying to trace a doppleganger, and also meeting Ciri. It features monster hunting of course but not as much and as frequent as The Last Wish. Each The Last Wish story played like a level on the Witcher games. These are less standalone and cleverly building up for the full narrative which will start with Blood of Elves. Geralt doesn’t try to attract women, he’s still too caught up on Yennifer, but they all throw themselves at him anyway. Something about his quiet power and complete confidence draws them in and convinces them that he’s worth chasing. I think that they secretly think that they’ll be the ones to finally capture his heart. So when it turns out that he will return their physical advances but never the emotional ones, they always break. Geralt leaves a string of broken hearts behind him without even trying. It’s sad. Both for the women and for him. After all, Geralt is always alone and sad because of how Yennifer toys with him, but he can’t change how he feels for her, and so he can’t try with anyone new. Joey Batey as Jaskier (aka Dandelion) in The Witcher season 2 (Netflix) How Sword of Destiny ties to The Last Wish

I fell in love with Geralt and his story,and he never disappoints with his perspective or his choices. He is relatable in a way that he is not the hyper self-righteous paragon of justice like many fantasy protagonists. He's merely a tradesman, of an albeit interesting line of work, trying somewhat desperately to keep his head above water and do the right thing. There's something of us all in Geralt in that respect. Apart from that, I realised that I’m not Yennefer’s biggest fan, it tends to repel me somehow, but I don’t entirely dislike her. She’s just tough to love I guess.On the whole, I mostly enjoyed each story immensely. Although the writing felt repetitive at times, I still found myself engaged in seeing each scene unfold. If you’re expecting lyrical descriptive prose here, you won’t find it. Let’s not forget though that this is a translation, and within the nature of that, nuances, meaning and general flow can be lost. Or this could be a trait of Polish/Eastern European fantasy stories, and therefore I appreciated the simplistic style, it was quite soothing. I did find that some of the stories lost their momentum during the middle section, they felt too long, but I absolutely loved how each story ended on little twists that really brought the narrative together. My favourite story was ‘Sword of Destiny’, which finally introduced Ciri’s character! I’d heard a lot about Ciri from fans of the game, so I was eagerly anticipating her arrival. She didn’t disappoint, I loved her fiery but innocent temperament, and I can’t wait to see her story arc develop in future books. A close up on the witcher characters is the unofficial title of Sword of Destiny book, I swear! It was very enjoyable to remeet with the men and women I came to love in The Last Wish. They are now a bit less of a mystery and more like old friends to me.