Time of Contempt

Accidently read the third Witcher before this one, so it was fun filling in the blanks.

7/10

Fast paced and more focused on Ciri and Yennefer than Geralt, but a worthy story in the canon.

No momento em que escrevo isto, estou no penúltimo livro da Saga The Witcher, sentindo saudades dos contos escritos por Andrzej Sapkowski. Confesso que gostaria que a saga nunca tivesse sido escrita, pois, embora Sapkowski seja o melhor contador de contos que já encontrei, ele se revela um romancista mediano.

“O Último Desejo” e “A Espada do Destino” são obras excepcionais! Cada conto se aprofunda em tópicos contemporâneos, como política e racismo, além de explorar as condições atemporais da humanidade, como o amor. É incrível como o autor consegue inserir essa carga filosófica sem perder o fio da narrativa, tornando as tramas ainda mais atraentes. A escrita é impecável. Os diálogos são fundamentais para aprofundar nossa compreensão dos personagens, e as descrições das lutas são tão vívidas que parecem cenas de um filme da Idade Média.

O universo que Sapkowski criou é extremamente rico. Há livros fictícios citados nos contos, referências a eventos anteriores e menções a outros reinos e criaturas diversas. Como estudante de medicina, admiro as descrições anatômicas precisas que ele faz, demonstrando um estudo aprofundado para compor os contos.

Enfim, recomendo fortemente a leitura!

3,75⭐️

mild spoilers, you've been warned

yeah uh... the next book better explain what the hell all of that was, because you can't just have an entire war progress and have it covered in a chapter via dialogue

but otherwise, i enjoyed myself and i'm really looking forward to the next book. lots of fun yennefer & geralt moments in this book, and a lot of political navigation & trying to finally get to ciri's role in everything. that being said, i didn't appreciate the aforementioned chapter where an entire progression of the war was glossed over in a dialogue and would have rather have read about that for another 100 pages than be left with the bare minimum information to go off of (and even then, it didn't even seem that relevant to the rest of the book?)

This didn't end like I thought it would. In a way I'm glad. On to the next one.

Après deux tomes d'histoires courtes touchantes, drôles, intéressantes... Un premier tome inintéressant et maintenant ce tome qui est trop fastidieux, trop vulgaire.

J'ai eu beaucoup de mal avec la représentation des femmes, des personnages superficiels et caricaturaux. La sexualité est aussi un thème prédominant, traité de manière maladroite selon moi.

Dur de trouver des bons points dans ce livre à vrai dire. Geralt n'est pas présent pour remonter le niveau. Dandelion est quasi absent. J'hésite à continuer la série

Seeing that I’m currently viewing House of the Dragon with friends, the grandiose fantasy worlds filled with white hair protagonists were destined to be compared. As I said in my previous Witcher log (Blood of Elves, which S02 of the Netflix show uses a lot from), I’m writing these partly in hindsight, as I have been pushing myself to use GoodReads more as I begin to regain my literary stride. I had a couple pages left apparently, so I just finished it up with haste in order to pick the series back up. Time of Contempt, while not bad, is certainly the most dense and convoluted of the series so far. On one side of the blade, if you’re not invested into this world and its politics by this point, good luck getting through this one. But on the opposite side of the blade, there’s a similarity to the sociopolitical dynamics of Game of Thrones (the elongated banquet chapter specifically).

The fourth entry—if reading in chronological order of events—Time of Contempt sees most of the chess pieces prior set, all fall into place: traps, betrayals, deaths, and deceptions all ignited. By now, we are comfortably familiar with the majority of the big names, the complex world and its multifaceted politics, and the inevitable dawn of the Second Great War. What I’m trying to hit home, is that a lot happens in this book. A lot. So much that Geralt himself is forced to finally break free from a Witcher’s neutrality and pick a side.

Those who were upset that Ciri had a lot of focal time will be glad to hear that the balance with her adoptive father, Geralt, is much more aligned here. Yenn and almost all of the sorceresses get moments to shine here (particularly in the aforementioned banquet chapter), and even Dandelion/Jaskier aren’t forgotten in the giant mix of tumultuous events. There are various reunions of crowd faves, long-time-coming face-offs, and the lifting of the veil for the established cogs of destiny to begin speeding up. Suffice it to say the book does live up to its title quite well.

If their pacing and timeline is what I think it is, I’m both concerned and interested to see how the next season of Netflix’s The Witcher manages to include all of this. I brought up HotD earlier because I can foresee S03 of Witcher also struggling to balance the lack of action with the abundance of dialogue, royal court negotiations, and political espionage that is overtly present and pivotal in Time of Contempt. It’d be smart of the show runner to break this book into two parts, were it up to me (I wouldn’t want to miss smaller detailed moments like Codringher & Fenn, Yenn & Ciri dealing with tuition costs, Black Rayla, and Geralt & Yenn’s romantic daydreams of impossible love and peace).

Time of Contempt was a far less enjoyable read than its predecessor, Blood of Elves. The first half contains some adventure on all sides; Geralt makes a risky partnership, Yennifer is seen among her own kind and Ciri is given a taste of freedom with the chance to explore independently. Sapkowski's characters are fun to read about in almost any scenario, but at every moment of this book they are bogged down by rambling politics. For every spell cast, each exciting mis-adventure and all deadly foes slain, there are a barrage of political ramifications, and we get to read about them all in numbing detail. This is often par for the course with fantasy novels, however in this case there is a distinct lack of pay-off for drudging through it (at least in this instalment of the series!).

Ciri is placed in greater peril than ever before – she finds herself in some very dark situations, and while it was interesting to see her navigate these extremes, I'm not satisfied with how Sapkowski seemingly ‘resolves' these scenes. In fact, without divulging too much, the treatment of gender and toward the end, consent, is frequently uncomfortable here, and I'm not quite willing to write this off as it being a product of its time (original published in 1995). The ‘powerful' women in this story are cookie-cutter copies of each other – backstabbing, egotistical, women-hating sorceresses who I struggled to keep track of.

This said, I'm not ready to completely write this series off. I will more than likely continue on to Baptism of Fire, however I will need a little time before I'm ready to plunge back into the world of The Witcher.

Warning, rant review.

What the fuck is this series? And this book?,


The author writes women so poorly, sexualises them and don't get me started on the child assault! But oh the child if fine with it because it's gay. Piss off.


The more I think about this book the more angry I get. I love the concept and the first book was okay. Not great. I wasn't a fan of the short stories but I had high hopes for more and from what everyone was saying, it was going to be great

Oh, how wrong I was.


I've read omniscient. I like it. But each character has a point, it in this it's takes pages and pages to get one point across and then we don't see the character again. The dialogue is odd, but I can let that slide as he is a Polish author.


But what is the point of this plot? Book 1 and 2 could have been mashed together. There's an odd coup, Ciri gets lost and wondered the desert for fucking ages and then she's captured but not. The fight scenes come across as a blow by blow. I was bored. Not understanding the reasons why characters have theses points, the time jumps are odd and honestly, the writing style is so strange.

I've tried the audible, tried the physical and honestly I'm starting to hate this more than curse child.


And the CHILD ASSAULT

Too much politics for my liking. I mean - who is who and who is plotting something against whom... Not my cup of tea. I still liked it but basically skipped over the parts where there was no Ciri/Geralt/Yennefer.

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Time of Contempt

Tensions run high as rumors of Nilfgaard's influence over the other kingdoms begin to cross the land. Sorcerers and warriors alike begin to choose sides, and those who try to remain neutral won't find it easy. Despite all Geralt has done, the number of enemies searching for Ciri continues to grow. And as skilled as Geralt is, even he is not invincible.

Time of Contempt has more politics than the previous novels. I'm not one for politics, but they do provide a good foundation for why certain characters are pushed in different directions. Though I will confess, with the number of characters and kingdoms mentioned, I can't remember any of them. I'm a reader who much prefers character development and action. The politics slowed the story down for me, but the moments when I was able to read about the main characters kept me turning the pages.

Ciri's past will be explained in greater detail, and the girl will receive plenty of page time. I enjoyed reading Ciri's point of view, even if it meant there was less of Geralt in this book. She is such an opinionated and fierce girl. She so badly wants to be independent and respected instead of viewed as a little girl. But Ciri will learn that with the independence she so badly craves, she will have to do things that will forever change her. It is one thing to learn how to defend yourself with sword and magic, but it is an entirely new experience to kill to protect yourself.

The Witcher series continues to provide an engaging story and characters that I can't help but enjoy. Geralt has such a different relationship with each of his companions, and I love the diversity in how he behaves with them. I also enjoyed seeing them all together for the first time in this novel. Readers will not be disappointed as the storylines begin to come together for a remarkable journey.

Once again a good story for a fantasy book. There is some fighting, intrigue, spying and backstabbing.

War is coming again. Nilfgaard once tried to conquer the northern kingdoms, but a group of mages and sorcerers prevented their progress by setting aside their neutrality in human affairs and taking up arms against those who would disrupt the peace that they encharged themselves to keep.

Many of them died that day, but Nilfgaard was stopped for the moment. Now the northern kings are planning their next move, because they don't believe the invaders will give up their ambitions af conquest, even though they signed a peace treaty. They want to get ahead of the invaders and attack where they re most vulnerable, taking back Cintra in the process.

But they can't be the ones to break the peace treaty, else the mage counsel will turn against them. This is the background of Ciri and Geralt's adventures this time. She finds herself being a key part in it, whether because the prophecies regarding her powers are true or just the fact that she is of royal blood, the solo heir of Cintra's throne. This kingdom holds a key strategical geographical position in the war to come, and having a rightful claim to its control will make it much easier to rule it then by force.As such, both Nilfgaard's emperor Emhyr and the other kings are searching for her. Emhyr wants her alive at any cost, as he seem to believe in the prophecies as well as see her political value. The other kings however are more distrustful of mages, sorcerers and magic in general. They want her either on their side, or dead so she doesn't fall into enemy hands. Since they can't be sure of her loyalty even once found, they decide that is better that she dies. Dijkstra, head of Intelligence for the kingdom of Redanian is heading the search.Geralt hires the best detectives money can afford to find out more about Ciri's pursuers, and learns along the way more about her past and why she is so important for both parties in the conflict. He had previously entrusted Yennefer to take care of Ciri is but now he is worried for both of their lives, He is after all Ciri's destiny appointed protector, and Yennefer is the love of his life. He sets off to find them.On the way, he dispatches some assassins and tracks down the ones who hired them. The trace leads back to a mage named Rience. In order to find him, he gets help from his friend Dandelion, a medical student named Shani, joins forces with the kings sorcerer Philippa, and finally gets to fight the mage.The battle is brief and bloody. But when he is about to kill Rience, another mage comes to his rescue, by opening a portal and lending his power for him to escape. Geralt wants to pursue him, but Philippa stops him. She doesn't want him to find out who hired those assassins.Meanwhile Yennefer is teaching Ciri how to become a sorceress, how to control her powers and how to vanquish her nightmares. After learning more about Ciri's powers, she decides it is imperative she tells the other mages about it. She and Ciri leave the temple of Melitele where they have being staying.On the way the conclave, with plans to drop Ciri at a school of sorceresses, Ciri has some adventures involving a "fake" monster and the ghosts of the Wild Hunt.Eventually Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer all meet and proceed to the enclave, where the upcoming war is expected to be discussed. On a normal occasion they would discuss what they can do in order to stop unnecessary blood shedding, but there is a faction inside the Guild of Mages that believe that magic and power is all that matters, and this war is necessary to further their goals.Not knowing about this faction and what is about to happen, Ciri is brought to the conclave and spouts a prophecy while in a trance. Soon after all hell breaks loose, the mages start to fight each other. basically there is a faction of those loyal to the kings of the north and those loyal to Nilfgaard. Geralt, who doesn't care about either way, is caught in the middle.As Ciri is in the hearth of their dispute, Geralt fights his way towards her. Many mages die along the way, one or another by the hands of Geralt himself. Ciri is captured by soldiers of Nilfgaard, but manages to fight them off and escape, Geralt helps her.Once she is out of harms way, he goes back to help Yennefer. But then he finds his match in the hands of Vilgefortz, and is brutally beaten into near death. Triss Merigold with the help of Philippa take him to Brokilon to heal his wounds.Ciri escapes by entering a mysterious portal. She is teleported in the middle of a desert, goes trough hell but manages to escape it. She finds a safe haven with a group of bandits, and become one of them.The story ends with Yeneffer's fate unknown.

Not a super long review seeing as y'all know how I feel about this series (A+). But this book was a B- like just squeaked by bc the last 100 pages made up for the ONSLUAGHT of crap the beginning of this book was. This was the “Two Towers” of the Witcher series. Seriously, shit just hit the fan and it just kept getting worse. Like when you stumble down a steep hill and lose your balance so then you literally are barreling down and you can't stop the pain train? Yeah that was the Time if Contempt. Made me feel like it was the time of concept for me... yeah subpar but I see why it was necessary. Hard to swallow after the Blood of Elves but they can't all be homeruns. 3 (generous) ⭐️/5

I barely saw Geralt in this book. And he barely fought any monsters. It was mostly politics and other gang/army fighting.

So I think this top portion will be the basis for my review for all five of the Witcher series (excluding The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny–Kind of, you'll see...)

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.

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 that overall, this attention to detail within every word uttered may actually have been in some ways at a detriment to his overarching story.

So to speak, his great characters, the companions of the Witcher, and even the enemies, all have this way of leaving you wanting more. However, if you were to pull away all of that and the world's lore, the series itself is kind of about... nothing. I did find myself more than once getting to the end of one of the novels and being like wait... nothing happened? Destiny has brought the Witcher and Ciri together, and yet they are also destined to never be together... it's just the kind of realization that stings. If you read the first book you can skip to the final book for the ending because the others are just more of the same. Luckily for me, as I've already stated, I enjoyed the dialogue and the world building, I drank that sh*t up. It's just kind of weird/funny to realize negative things like that about something you've rated pretty well. Despite all of that, I really enjoyed them.

Speaking of The Time of Contempt specifically, I really enjoyed the use of political movements in this one. This is a writer that really understands the world he was building and manipulating in this time of war. With that being said, I did find the attack of Thanedd Island to feel a little too convoluted. I know that it was in part to show how the characters are experiencing it, ie. they have no idea what's going on, but I do admit to finding myself more confused with what was going on than I would have liked.

Geralt giveth Ciri, Sapkowski taketh away...

A perfect balance of action and development.

I really like the political intrigue of this series, especially how this book maneuvers the attempted coup in the Wizard's Guild. The Dandelion chapter was really special. I wish Sapkowski would talk less about peoples nipples and crotches when those aspects aren't relevant to the story. A great book.

“I mistook stars reflected in a pond at night for those in the sky.”

Another solid Witcher book, would have finished it much earlier if Christmas and New Year hadn't gotten in the way!

Onto the next one ☺

4.5.

that was fucking great.

Another phenomenal addition

I continue to enjoy this series. Now onto the fourth book (second in the official series) and I continue to enjoy the lore and the stories that are being told.

The characters are truly likeable and even the politics is interesting (and I'm not one for politics in books).

If you've read the first, this is a must as the story continues.

still very good, but not as good as the previous three ones.

It was sometimes painful to read, but it had got interesting to read closer to the end.