Sword of Destiny
Ratings466
Average rating4.2
A wonderful follow-up anthology that does a great job in giving the snowball that is the saga it's first push downhill.
Amazing. I'm so pleased by this book. I read The Last Wish over a year ago and didn't continue with the series straight away because I wasn't blown away by it. Well, after finishing this one, I can officially say I'm a Witcher fan. I have a few books on my immediate TBR, but I'll get to Blood of Elves asap!
These short stories are not necessary. I honestly think I would have had a better reading experience if I saved these till after I finished the main Witcher series. I would have DNF'd the book if it wasn't for the audiobook on 2x. Anyway, just skip the both “The Last Wish” and “Sword of Destiny” and read the main series.
ok this was actually such a good short story collection and it was so much more interesting than the first witcher collection. i really enjoyed all of them - also helped that i watched the tv show and i felt like i got way more out of the book cuz of that
Initial review: Why does nobody know that you don't urge a horse forward by pulling at the reins?
Longer Review below (28/8, 2022)
The biggest problem for me with this book, as seen in the very short review above, and this comes from a horse-girl-turned-horse-man so I'm probably in the minority about this detail being a problem at all, is the way riding horses is portrayed. If you know you know, but you don't pull on the reins when you want to urge a horse forward. Perhaps characters inexperienced with horses could be written to do this, but characters that ought to be fully experienced riders? I think not. Those poor horses. Has Sapkowski never been on a horse or is this down to a translation thing? I do not know Polish, so I can't simply find a copy in Polish and compare it. This might be one seemingly insignificant problem, but it has haunted me through the entire book, even when it's not described done. It simply frustrates me to no end and yes, something so “trivial” made it lose a whole star.
Now for the good parts. Dandelion is both a busybody and a gossip and he is a gem. Even ravenous werewolves agree. He is quite delightful and I love when he makes an appearance. Little Eye is a very interesting character and I would very much like to see more of her. Her dynamic with Geralt is very different from his dynamic with Yennefer, and Dandelion having basically a little sister is really nice. (I quite like the Found Family trope.) It's not that often that you get to see him be the older one in his relationships, so to speak. (Though, this is coming from someone who has only read this particular Witcher book, “The Last Wish”, and watched the two seasons of the Netflix adaption; but I'll get to the other books in time.)
Geralt using Witcher Signs for non-Witcher things was amazing. It's a brief mention, barely touched upon, but I am a person who loves the misuse of magic thing. It's in fact one of my favourite tropes. Something so smiple as using abilities meant for battle for mundane things like fixing a pot fills me with such glee like you wouldn't believe.
The last page of the last chapter of “A Little Sacrifice” made me tear up. I won't go into it, but there's a lot of emotion on that one page. I also like that there is much more emotion in Geralt that people expect, and when he learned about the fall of Cintra, I felt for him.
Sometimes the book did feel a bit disjointed, though I understood after a while that at least in some parts (especially in the last chapter) it was purposeful. It does not change that I was very confused the first couple times the text literally fell down a paragraph in the middle of a sentence.
Had a bit of a hard time with the writing style (again). But I did enjoy the stories and the world a bit more than the ones in The Last Wish.
It felt like a setup for something big. It had that tension feel like before a storm.
Can't wait to read the next one in the series.
Somehow, when I first read The Witcher, I ended up skipping this book. This time around, I grabbed it and read it from front to back. It's a great book, even if it's not as good as The Last Wish. But the ending is...oh man! So good, so compelling. Geralt of Rivia is one of my favorite fantasy characters ever.
“The sword of destiny has two blades. You are one of them. But what is the other, White Wolf?”
~
The Sword of Destiny brings us back for another bunch of witty tales following Geralt through his adventures and against the monsters of his world. I enjoyed getting more of Gerald's back story and what led him to his destiny.
Some of the short stories are clearly better than others, but overall I loved it!
Very entertaining set of short stories. A Little Sacrifice made me cry. I was confused a bit in Something More. But I figured it out in the end, I think.
I really did enjoy this short story collection, even though I DNFed it a couple times because I had a hard time getting through the first short story. I devoured the first book (Last Wish) in physical format, I was really enjoying the humorous and witty side of Geralt that you don't see in the show or video game, and you kind of lose in this book. But I'm not sure if it was an issue of switching to the audiobook for this one, or if his tone really did change. Solid and very enjoyable read overall. I'm going to continue on I think.
The Ciri storylines were the best.
Other than that.. I get it Geralt loves boobs, geez.
This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Sword of Destiny
Geralt does not believe his life is led by fate. But despite his adamant denial, each short story in this collection shows how fate continues to intervene in his life. Whether he chooses to believe in it or not. In this collection of stories, Geralt will find out that his destiny is not as escapable as he wants it to be. Despite the choices he makes in life, there will always be a way that destiny weaves his path back to its original design. And when he forces destiny's hand too many times, there will be dire consequences.
Sword of Destiny is the second set of short stories that takes place before Blood of Elves. The main set of secondary characters that accompany Geralt on and off throughout his journeys are given more depth in these stories. They also highlight key moments in Geralt's life. Even though The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny were published after Blood of Elves, I highly suggest reading them before you start the core series. Sapkowski writes in a way that makes the reader put together the pieces of character relationships and history. Reading the two short story collections will provide new readers with a better foundation to carry on into the main series.
As I venture deeper into the world of The Witcher, I am becoming more and more entranced by the world and Geralt. He's such a realistic character in how he behaves and questions himself. At one point he held an internal monologue about awkward feelings of attraction. I was amazed at the exposure to such raw emotions and it made him all the more endearing to me. And he can be such a stubborn character. Watching him fight against the inevitable provides a wealth of conflict and entertainment. Especially when Yennifer and Dandelion are thrown into the mix.
The Witcher series is filled with memorable characters and a fantasy world bursting with lore. There is so much still to discover with this series, and I can't wait to dive into the next book! I took a side quest into the short stories, now it's time to continue my main journey!
More short stories of Geralt of Rivia and his companion, Dandilion. The same topics are addressed, with more focus on one or another, I forget which one specifically.
This was good but DANG was there a lot of Yennifer in this book... perhaps too much for my taste. I tend to enjoy the storylines that take place outside of the overarching ones. Further: these “side quests” of adventure tend to hold characters of more quirky, and ecclectic personalities, as opposed to the usual. (Also side note: I guess in this universe sorceresses have the ultimate power and are the most untouchable beings? I don't hate it because feminism but I do find it magically underexplained at times) Many female characters emerge as prominent people in Gerault's life during this novel. Many overarching storylines get followed up on, less side quests (less Dandelion, saaaaad). Overall 3/5 purely just because I don't like Yennifer. 4/5 book series, 3/5 this book in the 4/5 series.
Solid short stories, much better than the first book, but still a lot of story jumps.
Amazing book, last few time jumps are a little confusing at first but well worth reading!
Do you believe in destiny. If not this book just might have you believing.
Book 0.75 of the witcher series makes for a fun entertaining read. Mermaids. Trolls. Sea monsters etc...
Lots of adventure and fun for everyone
Witchers are not supposed to have feelings but don't believe it. Either Geralt of rivea is a odd ball witcher or that's just myth and legen. You will have to read it and decide for yourself
To check out a full review visit me on YouTube drews book reviews
I had to wait a while to get to this second short collection because of the wait at the library. But I'm glad I did, because it gave me an opportunity to savor the experience of the previous one and enjoy this even more.
As with any collection, this one had a couple of amazing stories and a few bored me. As a very dialogue heavy writing style, this one too had many many conversations which I thought were pointless, but some of them were profound and emotional too, so I don't wanna dismiss it all entirely. But it's the couple of stories which were part of the TV show which I had the most fun reading. I definitely like that Dandelion is much more prominently featured in the stories, Yennefer here is a little less fiery and more emotionally available, and Geralt is a grumpy delight. There's one story featuring a new character Essi which made me very emotional, and it was just so beautifully tragic. But it was the introduction of Ciri that stole the show, and I can't believe how different the first meeting of Ciri and Geralt is. I definitely would have loved to see that in the show. And the ending was amazing, with the exact final scene from the show playing in my head and on the page.
In conclusion, I'm having as much fun reading these books as I was watching the adaptation. Both the similarities and differences are quite exciting to explore and I can't wait to finally dive into the novels which will bring a whole new story. The writing (or maybe the translation) isn't always easy to follow, but hopefully I'll get used to it. The wait times for the next books seem to be quite high at my library, so I hope I'll be able to finish them all before the start of the next season.
I feel like it took me a long time to read these, when in actuality, I started the first one in January so that isn't really all that long. Some of the way I'm feeling may be based off a lapse in memory though because I read around 95 books around the reading of these so I may be hazy.
For starters, I think Andrzej Sapkowski is a phenomenal writer. Secondly, I think David French did an absolutely wonderful job translating these to English. And thirdly, I think the Gollancz paperbacks were amazing–great cover art, nice quality–I actually managed to read them all without breaking the spines! Although, I will say that Gollancz choice of Cahir for this cover was really weird? I get the idea of giving each main character a cover, but Cahir isn't even mentioned by name for like another 2 or more books...
Sapkowski has such a way about his writing that the dialogue in the novels can be truly captivating. He wields it so well that he has honestly created such a wonderful lush lore within his world that really carried the hundreds of pages he wrote.
I think Sword of Destiny might be my second favorite book out of all of them. I just think that short stories is really a sweet spot for Sapkowski. Even though this one gets more serious and does much more of the setting up of the overarching series with Ciri, it still has that monster hunter deep-lore Witcher feel that I loved about The Last Wish. And as this is in fact the book where Ciri is first introduced, I loved it. Obviously young Ciri goes through some terrible things with the fall of Cintra, but it was necessary to the overall progression of the story.