Hello everyone!
Returning to a very specific fantasy world based off Slavic folklore, just like I promised two weeks ago (and then got side-tracked, as you do), I am here with another one of Sapkowski's books.
I should also admit that, at this point, the two I've reviewed are the only ones I've read.
Oops?
I'm planning on reading at least the third short story collection, Season of Storms, pretty quickly, but I have a couple of other books I promised to review before I can properly sit down to Blood of Elves.
Yes, yes, I know, our Witcher is an impatient kind of person and he would very much like it everything was reviewed ASAP.
And I'm working on it, I promise.
But when you've got so many other books on your to-read list ... you have to somehow juggle the lot.
I suppose I've become master of the art. For tonight, however, we're back, and Sword of Destiny is our next pit-stop!
You'll find the links to both The Last Wish and The Witcher television show at the bottom of my page, because I've already done blog posts on both of those. I just now have to make a slow, slow trudge through the rest.
Considering I would also very much like to begin some other series while I'm at it - or at the very least CRACK OPEN Jules Verne's 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea, if nothing else - I think I'm going to have to hustle a bit. You would think I'd have nothing better to do but read, but it's kind of funny how, when you're at home, there are a MILLION other things that pop up!
Still, without further ado, let's check right back with our favourite Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, who, if we remember correctly, heartily dislikes the song that made him famous.
And other things. He dislikes other things, too.
LIMITS OF THE POSSIBLE
The first of the short stories in this collection tells us all about the material covered in the show's first season, how Geralt ended up at a dragon hunt, right along with Dandelion and Yennefer. It also isn't for the faint-hearted or for those who dislike Yennefer to begin with, because, honestly, she has yet to reveal any redeemable qualities at this point.
Anyway, as we know, there are multiple groups running after this dragon, some more and some less skilled, and of course the one that wants all the glory ties our witcher and his two companions up.
How is it that Geralt ALWAYS finds himself trussed up like a Christmas turkey?
There's a dragon attack - naturally - and Geralt learns that the rarest of all dragons, the golden dragon, actually exists - and it can take on human form. Because Geralt, Dandelion and Yennefer helped protect instead of tried to kill, the dragon spares them. Yennefer also decides that all is well in the world again and she can cuddle up to Geralt some more.
Honorary mention for this story should be the tub at an inn and the ... number of people in it.
Geralt included.
A SHARD OF ICE
So this is the story where everything went to hell in a handbasket for me. Why? Read on.
Geralt is dealing with a trash monster while he stays in the city (a city which, in the Elven tongue, is called a shard of ice, ironically), and he and Yennefer have some sort of co-habitation going. The interesting fact dropped during their little talks is information on the Wild Hunt - something Geralt has been offered money to stop, but he's refused, saying nothing can stop it.
The most pertinent storyline, however, is that Geralt runs into Istredd, another magician (whom we may remember from the television show as Yennefer's first lover), and Istredd reveals that Yennefer is not a one-man kind of woman. Actually, she's been with Istredd too, even while staying with Geralt.
The witcher tries to instigate a fight to have the people kill him - UGH - but fails, and then almost ends up in a duel with Istredd over Yennefer, although he walks away from it.
Just as Yennefer walks away from them both.
See, apparently, because she's immortal, she gets bored very easily, and needs to switch up lovers to keep things fresh. Or something of the sort. I'm not a Yennefer fan so it's hard for me to even pay attention because even if she didn't choose Geralt, she could at least have the decency to pick ONE.
Anyway, she leaves notes for both Istredd and Geralt, and Geralt is in a big hurry to read it - even though he knows what it'll contain (aka: see ya later, alligator).
THE ETERNAL FIRE
This was probably the funniest story of the entire lot, in which we see Geralt reunite with Dandelion and together encounter a doppler, who not only takes on the appearance of a wealthy merchant first, but Geralt too at one point, and Dandelion at another (during which he gets accosted by one of Dandelion's scorned lovers, which, if you haven't read yet, IS HYSTERICAL). There's also a second doppler who's impersonating this guy who was the most evil of evil - but now obviously isn't, under the doppler's acting.
It's basically madness and mayhem all around because the doppler is incredibly astute when it comes to business, so in the end the merchant (oh yes, the original merchant ends up getting involved, too) sort of adopts him as a cousin and whatnot, and they go into business together.
A LITTLE SACRIFICE
If you're looking for a slightly more macabre rendition of The Little Mermaid, look no further.
Geralt is hired to negotiate a marriage between a siren and a duke, and the siren is eyerolling because her human lover doesn't want to come under the sea with her. Newsflash, says Geralt, he wouldn't be able to breathe down there.
Bah, says the siren, he would if he truly loved me!
Naturally the duke blames Geralt for just about everything, and the witcher makes plans to go investigate where ships have been disappearing and running aground, thinking the sirens might be the cause of it. To his detriment, they aren't, because it's fairly obvious there's something else down there, a civilisation that's much, much stronger than anything Geralt can conjure, and this may well have been the spot where we said farewell to our witcher if not for the intervention of none other but the siren from the beginning of the story.
She tells him to stay well away - they're too powerful. He definitely takes the hint, and explains as much to the duke, although of course, as arrogant fools go, the duke is convinced they can subdue whatever and whoever comes their way.
Geralt can't really stop that much stupid, but luckily for him he may not have to - because in walks the siren, on two legs, having given up her fin so she could come be with her human lover as his wife, and since she's pretty smart, it's to be assumed she's going to prevent her husband from doing something incredibly stupid while he's at it.
Another important thing that happens (aside from the fact that Dandelion is once again Geralt's partner in crime): Geralt tangles with another minstrel, Essie Little-Eye, who falls in love with him point-blank, but he can't return her love, because Yennefer; he can only gift her an azure pearl.
The importance is this: he figures out just how Yennefer sees their own situation, in which Geralt is Litte-Eye. So you see, Geralt KNOWS Yennefer doesn't love him, and can never love him.
Doesn't stop him from mooning about her, however.
THE SWORD OF DESTINY
The story we've all been waiting for, in which Geralt and Ciri find themselves in Brokilon forest, dealing with the dryads. The story is definitely darker than in the show, because the dryads of this one take human males for their lovers, for a time, so they can replenish their own ranks, but kill trespassers.
And actually, Geralt is sent to the forest to try and negotiate something between the leader of the dryads and one of the kings of the surrounding kingdoms, although she of course declines.
He also drags Ciri along with him, who ran away from what's supposedly an arranged marriage for her. Of course we all know exactly how that's going to go - and how. But it's still DELIGHTFUL to see the instant bond between the surly witcher and inquisitive little girl, who trusts him on sight and cuddles up to his side at night.
Mousesack, who comes searching for her after Geralt and Ciri are out of the forest already, tells Geralt that Ciri is indeed the child-surprise he had demanded from Calanthe and Pavetta way back when; Geralt, however, attempting to preserve her childhood and her innocence, renounces her, despite the fact that Mousesack warns him the sword of destiny has two edges. This means that, just as easily as Ciri loves him, she could end up hating him, and considering her immense powers, that could be SO much worse.
Still, Geralt's mind is made up - he can't take Ciri, whom he's grown fond of, and create her in his likeness. Instead, he rides away, ignoring her pleas and cries that she is his destiny.
And if that doesn't break your heart, nothing will!
SOMETHING MORE
In the final story of this collection, Geralt stops to help a farmer whose servants abandoned him because of their fear of creatures roaming the land at night; he also receives a promise that the farmer will give him whatever he has, but doesn't know he has, you know, the promise which got Geralt in trouble in the first place.
Oh well.
For his efforts, Geralt gets bitten, and so ends in a trance in which he remembers (or imagines) Belleteyn, the night of May, which he spent with Yennefer, meeting completely by accident.
He also remembers going to Cintra, before the events that happen in the previous short story, to check on his child-surprise, and almost ending in a spat with Calanthe, though he promises her he's not there for the child. He also says he himself was NOT a child-surprise, though Mousesack is apparently saying so.
This is important, because later on we run into a healer who helps Geralt - his own mother,
Geralt insists he's an orphan whom his mother didn't want. Readers, however, can't be so sure of that, because not only did his mother actually name him Geralt, unlike he previously thought, but she seems to imply that he doesn't know everything that happened. So whether or not he was a child-surprise she promised to the witchers, or simply gave him to them for him to hopefully have a better life, remains unsolved, at least at this point.
As we move further into the present, the farmer tells Geralt about the second battle of Sodden, where the sorcerers took their stand and fourteen died. Geralt thinks for a while that Yennefer was one of them - and if I understood the story right, he meets Death, or Destiny - someone who walks with him, always behind him, and she tells him when the time comes, she will take him by the hand and lead him through a meadow and fog, into nothing.
After that delightful conversation, and learning Yennefer did not, in fact, die at that place, the farmer and Geralt reach a ford where they tag-team with none other than Dandelion. People are fleeing from the incoming Nilfgaardian forces; initially, Geralt wants to head for Cintra, suddenly remembering Ciri, but is told of the city's fall - and thinks the girl is dead.
However, upon arriving at the farmer's homestead, he discovers that Destiny isn't letting go of him that easily.
At the homestead, he finds none other than Ciri, and she is the thing the farmer didn't expect - so by the law of surprise, twice over, she now belongs to Geralt.
And she is SO much more than just his destiny.
There's so much to cover even in these short stories that it's impossible to write everything down. I'd encourage everyone to pick up these compilations and the other books to read, just so you can see for yourself all the nuances that go into the telling!
I'm annoyed as all get-out over how alluring and impossible to resist Yennefer is made out to be, but I love just about everything else about this story so far, and now that Ciri is safely with Geralt, I think their adventures are only just beginning. I can't wait!
So if you like folklore, a lot of wit and humour, and of course Dandelion, why don't you pick up Sword of Destiny? I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed!
xx
*image not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment