Andrzej Sapkowski , a good fantasy author translated into English

[Ludmian]

For some reason, the thread about Andrzej Sapkowski wasn't transferred to the new forums, so I decided to copy my message myself.

 

A short story collection by Andrzej Sapkowski titled The Last Wish, the first book about Geralt the Witcher, was published in the UK by Gollancz. Andrzej Sapkowski is one of the most popular authors in Poland, and his books have been translated into several European languages. Among Russian-speaking readers (I read the series in Russian) he is as well known as RJ or George Martin. His books about Geralt include 2 short story collections and a series of novels titled The Blood of Elves.

 

Short story collections:

 

The Last Wish (1993)

A Sword of Destiny (1992)

 

Blood of Elves novels

 

Blood of Elves (1994)

Time of Disdain (1995)

Baptism of Fire (1996)

The Tower of the Swallow (1997)

Lady of the Lake (1999)

 

Naturally, as only the first book was published in English all the other titles are tentative. When the books are actually published they may be translated in a slightly different way. The same with the characters’ names below. I have little idea of how most of the names will be spelt in the English translation.

As we can see from the publication dates, the books should have been translated into English long ago. They deserve this. But better late then never.

The central character of the series is Geralt the Witcher, a mutant assassin who, like other witchers, makes his living killing various monsters. The early stories are rather simple, but gradually the story grows in scope and complexity. Geralt’s search for Princess Ciri, a girl who was to be given to him by her parents for a service he did to them in one of the early stories and whom he treats as a daughter, his troubled romance with the sorceress Yennifer happen on the background of great turmoil, and the three characters find themselves in the center of events that may change the face of the world.

The characters are one of Sapkowski’s strengths. They are all excellently written, not only the main trio, but numerous secondary and tertiary characters as well. The ones that come to my mind at the moment are Geralt’s friend, a wandering poet However-his-name-was-translated-into-English, Nyvellen, an unfortunate guy cursed with a bear-like head from one of the early stories, a beast who was too careless in his choice of a Beauty, Regis, a vampire from later novels who gave up the bad habit of drinking blood (the story of his relationship with blood drinking is hilarious). Sapkowski’s other strength (and the thing that is mentioned extremely often) is his skill with language. Hope the translation does him justice. And I also need to mention Sapkowski’s sense of humour. The series is hardly meant to be humorous in the same way that Discworld books or A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are. Moreover, at times it may become rather morbid and it’s not something one could easily recommend to children, for the same reason Martin’s ASOIAF isn’t, but it has more than enough moments where one can’t help smiling or even laughing.

And one more thing. The novels in the series are not standalone, but rather parts of a larger novel. The short stories are more or less standalone, but still there’s a chronology to them, and the main plotlines of the series start there, so the books should be read in the same order I listed them. Now the UK Amazon lists The Last Wish and The Blood of Elves, but not the second collection. If the publisher releases the novel before the collection, it will be a bad decision.