Book Review – Season of Storms

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

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.

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