You may remember that I had a brief bout of UNBRIDLED FRUSTRATION with The Witcher a few months back. I’ve recently dove back into it (dialing down the difficulty because my blood pressure is high enough, thanks) and have found it a pleasing experience. While I’ve gotten to the point that I can’t stand a linear RPG (sandbox game play FTW), I still find this game fun: it is odd how the “RPG effect” has come full circle. Action games snuck RPG elements into their structure, and now RPGs are more fast-paced and exciting than ever.
It is sad that due to some questionable business practices, The Witcher will not be coming to consoles; good thing I got it for PC when I did. But if you are a console-only gamer (or if you are a Mac only computer person), then you can still experience thedelight of this game in convenient book form.
You see, Geralt of Rivia (the titular Witcher) was the main character of a short story series written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. His first span of stories starring Geralt are collected in the book The Last Wish. If you live in Poland, you can read all of his stories and the few novels he has written; if you live here in the States, you should be able to find and English translation of The Last Wish and the follow-up novel Blood of Elves at your local book store.
I love short story collections, and The Last Wish is among the best I’ve read. Framed by the story of the atheistic Geralt recovering from a terrible battle wound at a nunnery, the tales of Geralt’s travel are gritty and real while being full of humor and humanity. My only fault with the book is literally stylistic; there is no table of contents. While, unlike most modern short story collections, this one should be read straight through, it would be nice to be able to revisit my favorites without having to flip through the pages.
And what are my favorites? While I love them all, “A Question of Price” reads like one of my other favorite short stories, Robert Howard’s “The God in the Bowl.” It has a much happier though just as satisfying ending, and it plays directly into the novel Blood of Elves. The titular short, “The Last Wish,” has a well-orchestrated plot twist; it is one of my favorite short stories overall, not just of Sapkowski’s.
I’m reading Blood of Elves now, and it is a proper novel. So far so good, though I prefer The Last Wish. I can’t argue with the novel’s pace though: it’s smooth and logical.
If you have played and loved The Witcher PC game, do please give these books a try. If you can’t buy them, check with your local library. I’m sure they would love to do an interlibrary loan for you if they don’t have them right there on the shelf. You won’t regret having read them, and your appreciation of the game and its characters will be much deeper and richer. In case you were wondering, the story that the game tells is set after the events of the stories/novels and exists independent of them, so either way you’re getting a fresh narrative unhindered by obligations to another source.
