Last week I toddled along to the annual book fair being held in Wellington, NZ. There I got some fantastic books. The only book I purchased that I had never heard of was titled “The Last Wish” by Andrzej Sapkowski. The main reason I picked it up was the review on the back: ‘Like a complicated magic spell, a Sapkowski novel is a hodgepodge of Fantasy, intellectual discourse, dry humour and economics’ – Time.
Economics seemed so out of place in a Fantasy book that I had to read it. Honestly, I did not find a lot of economics in the book but I did find a unique and beautifully written collection of stories.
The main character Geralt is a witcher a highly skilled and magical slayer of monsters. He encounters dark and twisted versions of characters from our favourite fairy tales. Including a deadly Snow White, a bloodsucking Belle and a destructive genie.
Although Sapkowski‘s source content is not original as he has taken his narrative from fables and tales , the way the stories have been put together is utterly unique.
I was not aware that it was a collection of short stories when I began reading the book, I actually only figured it out after I had finished. There are seven main short stories in this collection. However instead of them remaining separate and linear, one main story about Geralt recovering from injury is spread throughout the collection. It appears that Geralt is reminiscing on his past adventures and seeing his victories and failures while he is recovering from a nearly fatal wound.
I would recommend this book as it was a new and refreshing way of putting a short story collection together. It was beautifully written with many dark twists and turns. I look forward to more of Sapkowski’s work being translated from Polish to English. Four out of five stars.
I've seen this book at the library but I keep avoiding it because I'm not that big of a fan of short story collections, but after reading your review I might have to re-think that.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know this was a short story collection, either! I feel like I've heard a lot about it, but yours is the first actual review I've read. It sounds very good; I'll keep an eye out for it at my library.
ReplyDeleteOh that does sound interesting. I need to start reading some more short stories. I really liked one of Orson Scott Card's called The Porcelain Salamander. I've also read Yann Martel's The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios which I really enjoyed. So, I probably should read more since I tend to like the ones I do read! I'll keep this one in mind. :)
ReplyDeleteThere will be plenty of short story recommendations coming from me. I am going to focus on reviewing mostly short story collections for the next month or so. The next review will be "Father Brown Stories" by G K Chesterton. I also have a couple of New Zealand short story collections to read and review.
ReplyDeleteI read this book and made exactly the same mistake - thought it was a novel. But also found it reeeeeally good. The English-speaking world is decades behind on Sapkowski's career, dammit.
ReplyDeleteAlso, weirdly, one of the first books I reviewed as well... http://www.pornokitsch.com/2008/09/underground-rea.html