Book Review – Season of Storms

10 Mar 2023 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski is the most recently published book in The Witcher Saga, but is not the end chronologically. This could almost be read as a stand-alone novel and is set sometime after the initial relationships in the series have been formed, but before Geralt takes up his quest to protect Ciri. I listed to this as an audiobook, narrated by Peter Kenny.

Here are my reviews for the other books in the series:

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Here is the blurb:

Geralt of Rivia. A witcher whose mission is to protect ordinary people from the monsters created with magic. A mutant who has the task of killing unnatural beings. He uses a magical sign, potions and the pride of every witcher — two swords, steel and silver. But what would happen if Geralt lost his weapons?

In this standalone novel, Geralt fights, travels and loves again, Dandelion sings and flies from trouble to trouble, sorcerers are scheming … and across the whole world clouds are gathering – the season of storms is coming…

This last Witcher novel was a lot of fun to read and felt like a side quest. Geralt’s two special swords are stolen and he suffers a series of unfortunate events as he attempts to find them. While this is a conceptually simple plot, other complications arise, both from the local politics, the attentions of a sorceress, and a mad wizard who lives by the credo that the ends justify the means.

One of the best parts of Sapkowski’s writing is how he comments on the genre while clearly being a fan of it and all that it entails. In this novel he jokes around with the trope of the magical or otherwise special sword, with Geralt refusing to ever truthfully answer what powers his swords have beyond functioning as well-made blades.

Those readers not familiar with this series could likely read this book with no prior knowledge of the story. But anyone who has read the main series will get more out of this one with multiple references to minor characters throughout the text. I suspect that at least one part of the ending won’t make sense unless you know how Geralt and Ciri’s story ends in The Lady of the Lake (although it doesn’t give anything away about that ending).

Overall, if you have read the rest of the books, Season of Storms is one not to miss. It mixes the best parts of Sapkowski’s craft while putting Geralt into ever-worsening situations with Dandelion, and taking new twists as he struggles to survive magic and monsters.

Have you read any of The Witcher Saga? What did you think? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Lady of the Lake

20 Feb 2023 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I finally made it to the end. This is a book review for The Lady of the Lake, the final book (#7 publication order) in The Witcher Saga by Andrzej Sapkowski. I listened to this as an audiobook, narrated by Peter Kenny. There is another book that was published later (Season of Storms), but it is set earlier in the chronology and I’ll review that one soon.

There will be some spoilers in this review because I want to talk about the ending, but I’ll have a warning and some space before them.

You can find my reviews of the earlier books in this series here:

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Here is the blurb:

After walking through the portal in the Tower of Swallows while narrowly escaping death, Ciri finds herself in a completely different world… an Elven world. She is trapped with no way out. Time does not seem to exist and there are no obvious borders or portals to cross back into her home world.

But this is Ciri, the child of prophecy, and she will not be defeated. She knows she must escape to finally rejoin the Witcher, Geralt, and his companions – and also to try to conquer her worst nightmare. Leo Bonhart, the man who chased, wounded and tortured Ciri, is still on her trail. And the world is still at war.

It becomes ever more clear through this series that the main character of this story is Ciri, and NOT Geralt the Witcher. She is immediately identified as the titular character in the opening of this book, and we spend a lot of time with her in this one.

Like in some of the earlier books, the author uses multiple points of view and jumps into other times (and even worlds) to tell this story. This method is incredibly effective during the Battle of Brenna, the final clash between the armies of Nilfgaard and the allied Northern Kingdoms. I can’t say that I’ve ever read anything quite like it, and even though you don’t get a play-by-play exchange of blows, the scenes relayed from the viewpoint of a field hospital, a messenger, and Jarre (the boy Ciri knew from her days in the temple, now an infantry soldier), gave a perspective that shows a chaotic struggle while also depicting the events with eerie clarity.

This novel did not give anything away in regard to how it would end, so I read with a lot of trepidation as I got further along. It was satisfying to finally see Ciri use her power as she tried to decide whether to embrace her destiny or fight it. For my spoiler-free review of the finale, I will say that I thought it was well-done and brought the character arcs to a gratifying end. From reading other reviews, it seems that this ending was very polarizing with readers. If you want to hear more of my thoughts on it, keep reading, but there will be…

Spoilers to follow!

Before I talk about the ending, I wanted to first comment on how Sapkowski brought Arthurian legend into these books. At first I was rather put off by this because I didn’t feel like his fantasy world should be so connected to our own. But then as I thought about this, I realized that Arthurian legend is NOT our world, but another mythic tale. So why couldn’t it be connected to The Witcher Saga like all of these other stories from eastern Europe that influenced the author’s writing?

I feel a little betrayed by the television show after reading this because it gave away the secret that Emhyr was Ciri’s father, Duny, so early. When that was revealed in the book, I don’t think that it had as much impact as it could have without already sort of knowing that.

The struggle at Vilgefortz’s castle was terrifying to read since I was convinced that every last one of Geralt’s band was going to die. And then they did (sadness!)… so when Sapkowski began to use the same story-telling technique with Geralt I was in agony. I had forgotten that ominous prophecy back at Caer Morhen about his death. But then… it was okay.

Or, do you think Geralt did actually die at the end? Were the unicorn and Ciri only able to help him reach an afterlife together with Yennefer?

If Ciri used her power to travel to another world, then what happened to the prophecy and her destiny? This is the only loose end that I felt was left too open-ended. Was she really able to scorn her destiny and move on? What happened to the prophecy that said the world would be covered in ice? I wish this aspect had come to more of a conclusion, but perhaps the answer to that is that Ciri was able to thwart destiny and then the prophecy became irrelevant in the end. What do you think? Let me know in the comments (above)!

Read more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Tower of Swallows

17 Feb 2023 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

This review is for the 6th book (publication order) in The Witcher Saga by Andrzej Sapkowski and I have seen it titled both The Tower of Swallows and The Tower of the Swallow. I listened to this as an audiobook narrated by Peter Kenny.

You can find my reviews of the earlier books in this series here:

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Here is the blurb:

The world has fallen into war. Ciri, the child of prophecy, has vanished. Hunted by friends and foes alike, she has taken on the guise of a petty bandit and lives free for the first time in her life.

But the net around her is closing. Geralt, the Witcher, has assembled a group of allies including Dandelion, Milva, Regis, and Cahir, to rescue her. Both sides of the war have sent brutal mercenaries to hunt her down. Her crimes have made her famous.

There is only one place left to run. The tower of the swallow is waiting. . .

As the author has done in other parts of this series, the scenes are not told in chronological order for much of this book. Ciri relates her story to a hermit as he cares for her during recovery from a horrific injury. She eventually opens up to him and relates the events that led her to him. Despite all the trauma Ciri has withstood, it felt like she was actually safe for the first time.

As I read this book, I began to realize that I had no idea where this story was going and how it might end. Everything about this book hints at a tragic end. Ciri’s story continues to become darker, while Geralt and his companions stick with him through increasingly dire situations.

One small issue that I’ve had with this series is that Ciri is often a victim of circumstance and runs from her power and her problems. Finally, she begins to take charge of her own situation in this book, which was a welcome change to her character.

The author also continues to use the fantasy genre to comment on itself, and the time spent in the land of Toussaint was a dive into a land of over-the-top chivalry used to excuse and mask human nature. The way that the author writes about the fantasy genre is a large part of why I don’t have a good feel for how this will end. Much of the focus in the series has been on destiny and prophecy, with Geralt obstinately refusing to believe in either. Will the finale lead to the fulfilment of prophecy or characters that somehow defy their destinies? At this point, I didn’t know, and that is why I had to read on.

How many books in this series have you read? Do you think the show will try to adapt these later books accurately? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – Baptism of Fire

08 Feb 2023 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Next up for review is Baptism of Fire, the 5th book (publication order) in The Witcher Saga by Andrzej Sapkowski. I listened to this as an audiobook, narrated by Peter Kenny.

You can find my reviews for the other books in this series here:

Paid links help to support this blog.

Here is the blurb:

The Wizards Guild has been shattered by a coup and, in the uproar, Geralt was seriously injured. The Witcher is supposed to be a guardian of the innocent, a protector of those in need, a defender against powerful and dangerous monsters that prey on men in dark times.

But now that dark times have fallen upon the world, Geralt is helpless until he has recovered from his injuries.

While war rages across all of the lands, the future of magic is under threat and those sorcerers who survive are determined to protect it. It’s an impossible situation in which to find one girl – Ciri, the heiress to the throne of Cintra, has vanished – until a rumor places her in the Nilfgaard court, preparing to marry the Emperor.

Injured or not, Geralt has a rescue mission on his hands.

Geralt begins this book recovering from his injuries, yet he is desperate to discover the fate of Ciri and Yennefer after the events at the conclusion of the previous volume. Finally he sets out from his refuge and follows rumor in an attempt to track down Ciri in Nilfgaard.

This book isn’t about reaching Ciri, but rather about the relationships that form on the journey, and how a war that spreads over a continent affects the everyday people trying to live there. Geralt slowly changes as a character and even though he is a Witcher, he is propelled more by his drive to see Ciri safe than his former mercenary lifestyle of monster-slaying.

Several characters are introduced in this book who will feature through the end of the series: Milva the archer, Cahir the outcast Nilfgaardian knight, and Regis – an aloof hermit with valuable medical skills. Geralt has always tried to handle danger alone, but through this story we can see how he starts to accept help from others, a theme that continues through the finale of the books.

Ciri and Yennefer take more minor roles in this book, so it came as a surprise that Sapkowski brings in issues of reproductive rights and pregnancy loss in this story. This topic becomes relevant in later books in a more indirect sense, so I can see why he has a direct conversation between the characters in this one.

Despite being an epic fantasy tale, this series uses stories to also make fun of fantasy in a very self-aware sense. Is Geralt of Rivia from Rivia? This book will finally explain his title.

While most of this book moves slowly in terms of plot, the characters are the high point here. Yet, action lovers can be satisfied with a fantastic scene near the end of the book in The Battle for the Bridge. I enjoyed this book and thought it was a solid installment in the series as it continues to add complexity and higher stakes.

Have you read any books in The Witcher Saga? What did you think? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

Books to Read in 2023

04 Jan 2023 2 Comments

by Clare in Books, Comics Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I like to start my reading year by updating my Goodreads lists with all the books I want to read for the year ahead. Usually this means taking the list from the previous year and pushing it over into the next one since I never get everything read that I had wanted to.

This is how I started my plan for 2023, but there were just too many books! I solved this problem by creating lists for 2024 and 2025, and then rolling some books onto those. For the rest of my 2023 choices, I am continuing a past theme of trying to finish some series. Of course, I tend to start a lot of new series, so this keeps the list continuously growing.

In the end, here is a graphic of all the books I’m hoping to read in 2023:

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Looking at overall numbers, last year I read 39 books from my Goodreads goal of 89. That was 44% of my goal. For this year, I’m not backing down! I set my goal for 100 books for 2023. My current 2023 list stands at around 90, so I can even add a few more.

To break that goal down, I’ll need to read 8.3 books per month, or roughly 2 per week to meet that goal. I’ve already picked out the first month of books I’m planning to read and these are my January choices:

I’m already a third of the way in to The Lady of the Lake, the final book in The Witcher series, and I’ve been listening to these as audiobooks. I also have Season of Storms queued up next for audio – this is a prequel in The Witcher universe.

I’d like to read more graphic novels this year, so I’ve put Demon in the Wood on here as a stand alone from Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse, and then the next volume of The Sandman (vol. 2) since I just finished volume 1. Noor is for a book club discussion in about 2.5 weeks so I started to read that yesterday. I need to get back to my read-through of The Wheel of Time, so I stuck the next book (#4 – The Shadow Rising) on here for January.

For the rest of these, I’ve been staring at Stephen King’s recent release – Fairy tale – since I picked it up at NY Comic-Con a few months ago. It is a longer book, but likely a fast read. Since I also just finished a re-read of The Silmarillion last year, I’d like to continue working my way through the less well-known Tolkien stories, so Unfinished Tales is up next.

The last one on here (Never Say You Can’t Survive) is a series of essays by Charlie Jane Anders about how to write when the world is seemingly falling apart. I grabbed a copy at an earlier NY Comic-Con (2021?). I started this book yesterday and I think it may provide a helpful perspective to get my fiction writing back on track for 2023.

Forging further ahead from January, I’m excited to get back to the Dune series, NK Jemisin’s The World We Make, the Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal, and the second two books in the Scholomance by Naomi Novik.

Lastly, I just received my first backer reward from Brandon Sanderson’s secret projects where he confessed to writing a ridiculous number of extra books during his pandemic confinement. The first one is Tress of the Emerald Sea and seems to have an interesting premise.

What are your reading plans for 2023? Have you read any of the books on my list? Let me know in the comments (above).

Book Review – Blood of Elves

03 Aug 2022 2 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I have been continuing my audiobook listen to The Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski with Blood of Elves, the first volume that is a novel, rather than a series of short stories.

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Here is the blurb:

For over a century, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves have lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over, and now the races are fighting once again. The only good elf, it seems, is a dead elf.

Geralt of Rivia, the cunning assassin known as The Witcher, has been waiting for the birth of a prophesied child. This child has the power to change the world – for good, or for evil.

As the threat of war hangs over the land and the child is hunted for her extraordinary powers, it will become Geralt’s responsibility to protect them all – and the Witcher never accepts defeat.

The Witcher returns in this sequel to The Last Wish, as the inhabitants of his world become embroiled in a state of total war.

Geralt, together with the other Witchers, struggles to raise Ciri and train her in combat and magic. Ciri excels in the training and wants to be a Witcher, but as a “Child of Destiny” she starts to manifest something more. This book contains fewer action scenes compared to the short story collections (The Last Wish, The Sword of Destiny), but more moments of character development and worldbuilding that look to be setting up a greater tale.

This was a fun book to read, despite the serious themes underlying the story. Geralt passes for human in most situations, but we are reminded that he is also a target of discrimination because he is different. So even though people need his services, he must shrug off bigoted comments and slights. When this book introduces the conflict between elves and humans, Geralt instantly sees the racism on both sides.

At this time, I’m almost done with the next book, The Time of Contempt, so look for my review of that soon.

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – Sword of Destiny

18 Jun 2022 6 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Sometimes my pace of audiobook listening surpasses my physical reading and I end up adrift on my to-be-read list, unsure of what to listen to next. This is how I ended up delving back into The Witcher series of books by Andrzej Sapowski, narrated by Peter Kenny.

Different suggested reading orders exist for this series, and I decided to start with the two short story collections, The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny. I had actually read The Last Wish in 2019, prior to watching the television series based on these books. I never reviewed The Last Wish, but I did enjoy it, so in anticipation of catching up on season 2 of the show soon, I decided that I needed to continue reading these books.

(The books were also the basis for a series of video games which are one of the top-selling series of all time. I have played part of these as well.)

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Here is the blurb:

Geralt is a witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. He roams the country seeking assignments, but gradually comes to realize that while some of his quarry are unremittingly vile, vicious grotesques, others are the victims of sin, evil, or simple naivety.

In this collection of short stories, following the adventures of the hit collection “The Last Wish,” join Geralt as he battles monsters, demons, and prejudices alike.

Sword of Destiny is another collection of short stories, but I found these to be more connected than those in The Last Wish, with recurrent characters and themes emerging. The sword of the title is figurative, but the concept of destiny features largely in the stories and in Geralt’s outlook on his life. The stories also delve into what it means to be a witcher, and whether someone who has undergone this change is human or not.

These stories were fun to read, with great banter between Geralt and the bard, Dandelion (Jaskier in the show). Geralt solves problems that involve monsters while needing to remain true to the witcher code. This doesn’t always require killing the monsters, and while he is occasionally outmatched in wits, he uses more than muscles to solve problems.

I already started the next book, Blood of Elves, so look for a review on that one soon.

Are you familiar with The Witcher in any of its versions (books, show, video games)? Let me know in the comments above.

Find more of my book reviews here.

Book Review – Sea of Tranquility

03 Jun 2022 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I had not read any of Emily St. John Mandel’s books until just a couple of months ago. I picked up her newest release–Sea of Tranquility–as an audiobook and made my way through it quickly. While her books are linked thematically and through some of the characters, you can read them in any order. You can find my review of her earlier book, Station Eleven, here.

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Here is the blurb:

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal–an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s bestselling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.

While I didn’t like Sea of Tranquility as much as I did Station Eleven, it was still an intriguing story. Both books are told through different points in time, but Sea of Tranquility is actually about time travel. Like in Station Eleven, pandemics are also part of this story, and eventually the different viewpoint characters become interrelated through the actions of the time travelers.

I had a harder time getting into this book because I didn’t find the opening chapters as engaging as I did for Station Eleven. However, once the overall theme and story started to take a concrete shape, I found myself enjoying it more. I don’t want to spoil anything by giving too many details, but the book delves into concepts of what is real in our world and how people act when faced with knowledge of mortality.

The audiobook is narrated by an ensemble cast, featuring John Lee, Dylan Moore, Arthur Morey, and Kirsten Potter. This is always a little odd to me, as I seem to grow attached to one narrator for a book. One of the voice actors (Kirsten Potter) narrated Station Eleven, and I also enjoy John Lee’s narrations, having listened to several of his performances in the past.

Have you read Sea of Tranquility or any of Emily St. John Mandel’s other work? Let me know in the comments above.

Find more of my book reviews here.

Book Review – The Empire of Gold

20 May 2022 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The Empire of Gold is the third and final book in The Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty. I listened to this one as an audiobook, narrated by Soneela Nankani.

You can find my reviews of the other books in this series here:

Spoilers below!

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Here is the blurb:

Daevabad has fallen.

After a brutal conquest stripped the city of its magic, Nahid leader Banu Manizheh and her resurrected commander, Dara, must try to repair their fraying alliance and stabilize a fractious, warring people.

But the bloodletting and loss of his beloved Nahri have unleashed the worst demons of Dara’s dark past. To vanquish them, he must face some ugly truths about his history and put himself at the mercy of those he once considered enemies.

Having narrowly escaped their murderous families and Daevabad’s deadly politics, Nahri and Ali, now safe in Cairo, face difficult choices of their own. While Nahri finds peace in the old rhythms and familiar comforts of her human home, she is haunted by the knowledge that the loved ones she left behind and the people who considered her a savior are at the mercy of a new tyrant. Ali, too, cannot help but look back, and is determined to return to rescue his city and the family that remains. Seeking support in his mother’s homeland, he discovers that his connection to the marid goes far deeper than expected and threatens not only his relationship with Nahri, but his very faith.

As peace grows more elusive and old players return, Nahri, Ali, and Dara come to understand that in order to remake the world, they may need to fight those they once loved . . . and take a stand for those they once hurt.

This book was a long read, but I found it necessary to wrap up all of the complex plot threads and character relationships in this story. I generally love long and complicated stories, so this is not a criticism, and the book delivered a stunning conclusion to Nahri and Ali’s stories.

Even though I thought I knew certain things, the author managed to reveal new secrets that changed the dynamics between the characters. It is neither a happy nor a tragic ending, but a bittersweet, satisfying, and still hopeful one.

Have you read The Daevabad Trilogy? Let me know in the comments above.

Find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – The Kingdom of Copper

18 May 2022 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty is the second book in The Daevabad Trilogy. I listened to this as an audiobook last year and loved the entire series. You can find my review of the first book, The City of Brass, here.

Also – beware! Spoilers below!

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Here is the blurb:

Nahri’s life changed forever the moment she accidentally summoned Dara, a formidable, mysterious djinn, during one of her schemes. Whisked from her home in Cairo, she was thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad and quickly discovered she would need all her grifter instincts to survive there.

Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of the battle that saw Dara slain at Prince Ali’s hand, Nahri must forge a new path for herself, without the protection of the guardian who stole her heart or the counsel of the prince she considered a friend. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage, watched by a king who rules from the throne that once belonged to her family, and one misstep will doom her tribe.

Meanwhile, Ali has been exiled for daring to defy his father. Hunted by assassins, adrift on the unforgiving copper sands of his ancestral land, he is forced to rely on the frightening abilities the marid, the unpredictable water spirits, have gifted him. But in doing so, he threatens to unearth a terrible secret his family has long kept buried.

And as a new century approaches and the djinn gather within Daevabad’s towering brass walls for celebrations, a threat brews unseen in the desolate north. It’s a force that would bring a storm of fire straight to the city’s gates . . . and one that seeks the aid of a warrior trapped between worlds, torn between a violent duty he can never escape and a peace he fears he will never deserve.

Set a few years after the tragic ending of book 1, we see Nahri settling into her new role as a healer as this book begins. But she still grieves both Dara and Ali, and resents the king who essentially keeps her captive in Daevabad.

This book complicates everything that you thought you knew about this world, and looking back at it now, I don’t know how so much fit into one book. The politics entangles the characters more than before, new secrets are revealed.

Like the first book, this one reaches an ending but leaves more to be done. Look out for my review of book 3, The Empire of Gold, in the next week.

Have you read The Daevabad Trilogy? What did you think? Let me know in the comments above.

Find more of my reviews here.

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