Book description
A European superstar comes to the UK for the first time! Geralt is a
witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a
mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless
assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the
multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack
the innocent. He roams the country seeking assignments, but gradually
comes to realise that while some of his quarry are unremittingly vile,
vicious grotesques, others are the victims of sin, evil or simple
naïvety. One reviewer said: 'This book is a sheer delight. It is
beautifully written, full of vitality and endlessly inventive: its
format, with half a dozen episodes and intervening rest periods for both
the hero and the reader, allows for a huge range of characters,
scenarios and action. It's thought-provoking without being in the least
dogmatic, witty without descending to farce and packed with swordfights
without being derivative. The dialogue sparkles; characters morph almost
imperceptibly from semi-cliché to completely original; nothing is as it
first seems. Sapkowski succeeds in seamlessly welding familiar ideas,
unique settings and delicious twists of originality: his Beauty wants to
rip the throat out of a sensitive Beast; his Snow White seeks vengeance
on all and sundry, his elves are embittered and vindictive. It's easily
one of the best things I've read in ages.'
