Challenge Corner discussion

Geralt of Rivia is a witcher. A cunning sorcerer. A merciless assassin. And a cold-blooded killer. His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good... and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

A collection of short stories introducing Geralt of Rivia, to be followed by the first novel in the actual series, The Blood of Elves. Note that, while The Last Wish was published after The Sword of Destiny, the stories contained in The Last Wish take place first chronologically, and many of the individual stories were published before The Sword of Destiny

I've just added in my spoilery thoughts of each short story in The Last Wish below!
The Witcher: (view spoiler)[ This was a good introduction to Geralt and his core personality (in terms of trustworthiness, the fact that he's a witcher, his sense of duty/doing what's right), but I feel like the story didn't quite draw me in, and I did end up stopping my read for a bit before picking this book up again. (hide spoiler)]
A Grain of Truth: (view spoiler)[ The beauty and the beast grim-dark retelling, I really liked that we got to know more about the beast in this one, his backstory was pretty cool - but I did end up rereading this one because the ending confused me the first time. The whole thing about true love went over my head but I think I sort of get it now? (hide spoiler)]
A Lesser Evil: (view spoiler)[ The wizard vs. grim-dark Snow White story - this one probably made the least sense to me - I'm still not quite sure why Geralt is known as the butcher of Blavekin when what he did was blatantly self-defence? (hide spoiler)]
A Question of Price: (view spoiler)[ I think this was when I started to realise how these short stories tie in with the rest of the series and why you'd need to read them before going into the main series. I don't really know anything about the series but I think Ciri is alluded to in this one (I'm basing this off of the character study thing that Netflix put on youtube!) (hide spoiler)]
The Edge of the World: (view spoiler)[ We get Dandilion! I think he's a bit of an idiot but I also feel like he brings out the humanity in Geralt - especially the dry humour. I hope he gets fleshed out better though. Also this story has lots of elves and I like elves. (hide spoiler)]
The Last Wish: (view spoiler)[ This was definitely my favourite because Yennefer and Geralt is already a couple I ship and I'm almost 80% sure of what Geralt's last wish was but the fact that I'm not certain is keeping me intrigued! I feel like this was the point where I felt like I knew Geralt and Dandilion well enough to gallivant on these adventures with them, having gotten to know them in the previous stories. (hide spoiler)]
The Voice of Reason chapters: (view spoiler)[ I think this worked well as a device to transition from one story to the next, and helped to get to know Geralt beyond whatever happened in the short stories. (hide spoiler)]

Overall thoughts: (view spoiler)[ The only reason I didn't give this a 5 star was that I wasn't quite invested enough to feel connected to the characters, but I really liked the collection as a whole and I want to know more about this world in future books :) 4.5 stars (hide spoiler)]

12% (view spoiler)[I am really liking this so far. I honestly thought that the book would be hard to read because some adult fantasy series tend to be that way, but everything flowed rather nicely. At least, for me it did. I got a good sense of Geralt's character from the first main story. (hide spoiler)]

24% (view spoiler)[I really liked A Grain of Truth. I liked the concept of the cursed man. Kind of like Beauty and the Beast, but at the same time not. I didn't expect the outcome, that's for sure. I was a bit confused about the "true love" thing at the end. So the bruxa was in love with Nivellen or were they both in love with each other and that's what broke the spell on him? (hide spoiler)]

Anna wrote: "
I've just added in my spoilery thoughts of each short story in The Last Wish below!
The Witcher: [spoilers removed]
A Grain of Truth: [spoilers removed]
A Lesser..."

(view spoiler)[I liked the backstory for Nivellen as well. He clearly deserved the curse that was put on him because of his actions. At the same time, he didn't strike me as a malicious person despite what he did to the priestess to "become a man". I pitied him just like Geralt. (hide spoiler)]

Anna wrote: "
I've just added in my spoilery thoughts of each short story in The Last Wish below!
The Witcher: [spoilers removed]
A Grain of Truth: [spoilers removed]
A Lesser..."

(view spoiler)[I liked The Witcher story. I also think that it showed a lot in terms of his personality. He clearly has morals despite being a monster hunter. (hide spoiler)]

Vanessa wrote: "24% [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[ I got the impression that it was the bruxa who was in love with Nivellen! I know the bruxa said if Nivellen didn't belong to her, then he wouldn't belong to anyone, so felt secure enough that he loved her too? I'm not too sure hahah I've looked at theories on the internet but those are mixed too! (hide spoiler)]

Oh also I finally started the Witcher TV series :) Really like it so far - only halfway through, but Jaskier's song is so dang catchy I can't stop humming it!

Anna wrote: "Vanessa wrote: "24% [spoilers removed]"

[spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[Maybe it is lost in the translation? Since the book was translated from the author's native language? (hide spoiler)]

Anna wrote: "Oh also I finally started the Witcher TV series :) Really like it so far - only halfway through, but Jaskier's song is so dang catchy I can't stop humming it!"

I haven't started it yet. My husband has watched it though. He said that he liked it but had trouble following the story because you could never tell if things were happening in the present, future, or past since Geralt doesn't really age. Are you getting the same watching it?

Vanessa wrote: "Anna wrote: "Oh also I finally started the Witcher TV series :) Really like it so far - only halfway through, but Jaskier's song is so dang catchy I can't stop humming it!"

I haven't started it ye..."

Oh yeah I had the same thing at first, the timelines start to make sense about 3 or 4 episodes in but it's pretty confusing until then! - I'd say Geralt is the one who changes least as your husband mentioned. It's the characters around him that make the timeline clearer I think :)

Anna wrote: "Vanessa wrote: "Anna wrote: "Oh also I finally started the Witcher TV series :) Really like it so far - only halfway through, but Jaskier's song is so dang catchy I can't stop humming it!"

I haven..."

My husband told me today that they had to release an official timeline because so many people were confused. =P

40% (view spoiler)[I think that I liked this story best so far. I liked the overall Snow White story retelling or reimagining that was present in the story. Perhaps even a Rapunzel reference when the wizard mentioned the girl in the tower getting saved by a prince. I am still unclear as to why the wizard thought that girls born at a certain time were monsters. And all the talk of autopsies was creepy. I thought that it was crappy that Geralt was banished from Blavekin when he was only defending himself and preventing them from killing other people. I also really liked the voice of reason chapter that fell after A Lesser Evil. It gave a lot of backstory which I have been so curious about. While it gave some insight into Geralt and his origins, it still leaves me with questions. (hide spoiler)]

Anna wrote: "
I've just added in my spoilery thoughts of each short story in The Last Wish below!
The Witcher: [spoilers removed]
A Grain of Truth: [spoilers removed]
A Lesser..."

A Lesser Evil (view spoiler)[The only thing that I was really confused about was why the wizard and the king's mistress thought that Renfri was a monster. Girls that were born at a certain time were monsters? I didn't get that part at all. And it does suck that Geralt was banished from Blavekin. He didn't really provoke those thugs and prevented them from killing anyone at the market. (hide spoiler)]

54% (view spoiler)[This story mentioned Rumplestiltskin, which I thought was interesting. I am liking all the fairytale mentions and reimaginings in this book. I wonder if all of the witcher books have some sort of fairytale basis. I wasn't certain what was going on in this story at first but I liked how it ended. I wonder if Geralt will get his child in six years. (hide spoiler)]

Anna wrote: "
I've just added in my spoilery thoughts of each short story in The Last Wish below!
The Witcher: [spoilers removed]
A Grain of Truth: [spoilers removed]
A Lesser..."

The Edge of the World (view spoiler)[I also really liked Dandelion. He is the perfect sidekick-like character. I think that he and Geralt have a good chemistry together. (hide spoiler)]

Anna wrote: "
I've just added in my spoilery thoughts of each short story in The Last Wish below!
The Witcher: [spoilers removed]
A Grain of Truth: [spoilers removed]
A Lesser..."

A Question of Price (view spoiler)[I know that Ciri is important to the overall story but I'm not sure about Dandelion. I am really liking these stories. I think they add a lot to the overall series and I think that it will be beneficial when I start reading the full novels. (hide spoiler)]

71% (view spoiler)[I thought this story was interesting. I liked seeing the elves. I didn't catch what illness Geralt referred to regarding the female elf though. I kind of felt sorry for the elves, being driven from their home and forced to live in the mountains. I liked how Geralt was honest with them while still letting his mood show. Torque was adorable. I wonder how long he traveled with Geralt and Dandelion. (hide spoiler)]

Finished (view spoiler)[I think that I liked The Last Wish story the best. Though I honestly wasn't sure what his final wish was exactly. Or how he knew that Yennefer was a hunchback prior to becoming a sorceress just by looking in her eyes. Overall, I really liked all of the stories in this collection. I liked getting to know Geralt and his friends along the way. I also really liked the Voice of Reason chapters. I was kind of confused about what happened to Iola at the end of the book though. I'll definitely be reading more Witcher books in the future. (hide spoiler)]