The Witcher
“You played the lute and hollered so the whole neighborhood could hear you, nothing more.”
Geralt
The Last Wish is a uniquely compiled book that consists of short stories with over-arching interludes that connect them together. If you’ve watched the Netflix series, you will be familiar with several of these stories. It’s well worth coming along for the ride with Geralt, Dandelion (Jaskier), and Yennefer.
The cast is a great combination of opposites. Geralt is stoic and sarcastic, while Dandelion talks people’s ears off about everything and nothing. Yet, they work well together as friends. The fishing scene, especially, was entertaining because of this clash of personalities. Dandelion’s addition to the cast in the latter part of the book added a sense of levity to the stories.
Some of the stories unabashedly riffed off of classic fairytales. Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, and Cinderella all merited a mention or more with a Witcher twist. The Cinderella mention made me giggle, which I was not expecting with this book. The book flows smoothly from one tale to the next, with the interludes smoothing the way. I liked this approach much better than a compendium of random novellas.
I was surprised with how the sex scenes faded to black compared to the games and the Netflix series. There is no mistaking what is happening, but it is not explicit. I still would not universally recommend it for teen reading, but it was more modest than I was expecting.
I enjoyed my first foray into the Witcher books and am already anticipating diving into Sword of Destiny.
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