The Tower of the Swallow

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: The Tower of Swallows

Ciri has taken up a life of banditry, earning a name for herself and her gang. But being notorious criminals comes with a price. Ciri's carefree life comes to a violent end as she is captured and forced to fight for her life. Meanwhile, Geralt still searches for Ciri, plagued by nightmares and guilt. He journeys to find the Druids, believing they will lead him to Ciri. But along the way, he will find there is a price on his head and those that seek to collect the reward will carve a bloody path to receive their coin.

Now that all the political maneuvering has taken place in Baptism of Fire, we're finally able to focus on the characters once more. Immediately you are thrown into Ciri's storyline and all she has been through since the events of the previous book. The Tower of Swallows will show you some of the darkest parts of Ciri's journey, and her ultimate breaking point. But from that low dark place, she will rise to take up the sword and carve out the path to her destiny.

Now there were parts of this book I found hard to read, and not due to politics this time. Some of the ideologies and focus on sexualization turned my stomach. At the same time, I recognize that these elements were used to show the darker sides of history and certain characters, but I still felt it was unnecessary.

The storytelling itself was a bit disjointed, but I did like the idea of viewing Ciri's story from a mix of primary and secondary characters. Listening to it on audiobook was a bit hard. There is no clear distinction between the alternating viewpoints until suddenly you find another character making comments on the situation. But I have a feeling that was done on purpose and I would have felt the same reading the physical book.

The Tower of Swallows returned The Witcher series back to its roots of action and adventure. Despite its downfalls, I enjoyed once again seeing the characters struggle towards their goals and the comedic relief of Dandelion. I hope the final book, Lady of the Lake, does this series justice.