The Last Wish: Introducing The Witcher

The Last Wish was… my introduction to The Witcher. See what I did there? Actually, that’s a lie. The Netflix series was my true introduction to The Witcher, but I did buy this book after watching the first episode. Count me as one of the many thousands who fell into the Netflix trap on this one!

As for the book/writing itself, well, it wasn’t my favorite. A lot of the writing is dialogue, which I like as a writing style. Except in The Last Wish, much of the dialogue was long, drawn out paragraphs that seemed to keep going and going. Another thing that annoyed me is I kept thinking to myself, “He (Andrzej Sapkowski) keeps telling and not showing,” which is a cardinal sin of writing. I personally struggle with that when I write, so I noticed it more than usual. If I hadn’t seen the first season of The Witcher on Netflix, I am not sure I would have enjoyed this book as much as I did. This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it, because I did! But like I mentioned, I didn’t fall in love with the long blocks of dialogue.

If you’re a fan of The Witcher on Netflix and a voracious reader, then this is a read for you. Season 1 follows this book at least in terms of following Geralt, not necessarily Yennefer or Ciri. If you weren’t a fan of The Witcher on Netflix and are looking for a fantasy series to start reading, there are better options out there. I plan to read the other books in the series since they are fairly short compared to other series, but again – if it wasn’t for Henry Cavill bringing Geralt to life, I am not sure I would be so gung-ho about the series.

C. L.