Andrzej Sapkowski - The Last Wish (Book Review)

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"The Last Wish" (Amazon: UK, USA)
by Andrzej Sapkowski (Wikipedia)
Format: Paperback, 280 pages
Publisher: Gollancz

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---Geralt was always going to stand out, with his white hair and piercing eyes, his cynicism and lack of respect for authority... but he is far more than a striking-looking man. He is a witcher; his sorcerous powers, enhanced by elixirs and long years of training, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. He is no ordinary murderer, though: his targets are the vile fiends that ravage his land, preying on the unwary. But as he roams the country he comes to realise that first appearances are often deceptive: not everything monstrous-looking is evil, and not everything fair is good... and in every fairy tale, there is a grain of truth.
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---In his role as a guardian of the innocent, Geralt, the witcher from Rivia, meets incestuous kings with undead daughters, vengeful djinns, rancorous maidens, shrieking harpies, love-lorn vampires and despondent ghouls. Many are pernicious, some are wicked, and none are quite as they seem.
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I usually avoid blurbs-slash-synopsis on the back of the book, since in most cases I see them as tedious, spoilerific, pompous and in most cases not at all in character that permeates the actual story. But in this case I've made an exception as the blurb hits the proverbial nail on the head.

Sapkowski is considered a bit of a superstar in Poland and in few other European countries that were lucky enough to get a translation of his works - ironically enough, the English speaking world had to wait for more than 15 years to get a translation of the first book featuring Geralt the Witcher. The second book in the series, entitled "Blood of the Elves" (US import, UK), is scheduled for release on September 18. So, was "The Last Wish" worth the wait? Without doubt. Sapkowski brings a set of fresh elements and twists alongside with the otherwise pretty straight-forward quest oriented epic fantasy.

First off the bat, despite ¹the disjointed structure of the narrative - "TLW" is basically a set of short stories set apart by individual chapters and loosely interconnected by a story of Geralt's reprieve which is dissected and wedged in between the chapters that delve into the past exploits of Geralt - and ²simple adventurous-oriented plot I liked the book a lot. It read really well and besides, Geralt is a most sympathetic character (I'm a sucker for righteous outcasts with their own heightened sense of judgment and highly reflective approach to situations). We get to know little about his past and he doesn't show any signs of personal growth (since he is already a fully grown/developed adult), but he nevertheless displays incredible depth and complex personality which is revealed through well-timed and well-measured snippets of dialogue, through the way he looks at the world and through how he deals with situations. In some of the later adventures Geralt is joined by Dandelion - a sidekick in the form of a wandering scholar, famed bard and skirt-chaser. The novel's structure and the Geralt/Dandelion due resembles much the adventures of Gotrek and Felix. One of the downsides is that the rest of the crew is not as fleshed out as Geralt and usually cross the threshold of stereotypical by a fair margin, although if I'm honest this didn't bother me all too much as Sapkowski compensates elsewhere in abundance.

What makes "The Last Wish" stand out from the crowd is not the way it mixes fantasy tropes with their subverted and disfigured mirror images because this is not a groundbreaking practice anymore - it's become a bit of the latest trend really - but the inclusion of the (mainly) Slavic mythology within the faux-medieval setting; ¹predomination of Slavic names for cities and people is a relief from the randomly generated multiple-vowelled names with apostrophes jutting here and there to make things more otherworldly and exotic, as is the ²inclusion of creatures such as strigas, spriggans, leshys, kikimoras, vyppers etc. where otherwhere we are being literally drowned with imps, orcs, goblins and other creatures from the Nordic folklore.

Worldbuilding is otherwise spare and the info-dumping dampened to boot - the book concentrates on Geralt and the tasks that lay at his feet. Magic is present, but subdued and complimented by vials, elixirs, Signs, intentional body mutations and other inventions. Like said, these elements are subdued and unobtrusive, but the mere hint of their presence really makes the otherwise unadorned storytelling work on a deeper level. If you are at least partly familiar with the structure of fairytales and myths you will probably be delighted by the way Sapkowski plays with conventions.

Sapkowski's dry wit permeates the whole book; from dialogue, characters' traits, to his use of language and so forth. There is little to no explicit content in the book so it is suited for the people of all ages (and convictions) without turning out childish or...well, anesthesised. The younger readers should be hooked on the awesomeness that is Geralt and those a bit older might appreciate his subtle cynicism and world-weariness that make him a truly memorable character.

"The Last Wish" is not all flowers, though. The world and the secondary characters could be done with more care so they wouldn't turn out so one-sided. The plot lacks real substance and coherence; all you get is a set of short stories that account for the Witchers exploits and not much else. The whole book works as an introduction into the word and the protagonist that Sapkowski created, but I think it is safe to expect that the later installments improve on this aspects of the storytelling, as the potential and talent are obviously present. All this niggles might be seen as shortcomings when you dissect the text, but on the accumulative level everything works as it should and that's what matters the most.
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~ Thrinidir ~