Blood of elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

Synopsis

The story of the white wolf begins

Witchers are human-made mutants in a land that is home to humans, dwarves, elves and gnomes. Geralt of Rivia is one of the last living witchers and stories about his adventures have spread across kingdoms. For over a century, humans have lived in harmony with other races but now the war is an imminent threat over them all. One of the mighty kingdoms called Nilfgaard is invading and spreading its power over other kingdoms and Ciri- the princess of Cintra and the prophesied child- has escaped the clutches of Nilfgaardians. Now, Geralt must do everything in his power to protect the princess and her powers from falling into the wrong hands.

Genre: Adult Fantasy

Page count : 314 (paperback)

Year of publishing: 2008 (English translated version), 1994 (original)

Goodreads Rating: 5/5 stars

In my opinion, this is one of the fantasy series that’s very easy to get into because it has a beautiful writing style and a magic system that's not very complicated to follow. One question that I pondered over before going into this series was ‘can I read the novels without reading the 2 short story collections?’

Luckily, after listening to the advice of many BookTubers, I decided to read the series according to the publication order. Now, I am glad I listened to them because I loved the short story collections but most importantly it provided the necessary groundwork for the story that takes place in the novels. I think I wouldn’t have enjoyed this book as much as I did, had I not read the previous short story collections. I would also like to say that reading the short story collection is important before going into the novels because they cover important events -like how Ciri became the child of surprise, the first encounter of Geralt and Ciri in Brokilan forest, and the downfall of Cintra- which are important to fully enjoy the first novel.

In terms of the plot, it is not action-packed like the previous books and the story mainly focuses on Ciri and her training. I liked how Sapkowski told the reader of the ongoing war by weaving details about it into conversations rather than explaining it in massive paragraphs. It made the chapters interesting to follow because it looked less info-dumpy and more of a conversation between a band of people. However, one thing that sort of threw me off in the first 30% of the book is the lack of Geralt’s perspective. After becoming used to the fast-passed action-packed Geralt-scenes in the short story collection, it was like missing a functioning limb to not get Geralt’s side of the story immediately. And at the beginning of the book, the pacing of the story slows down a bit because Sapkowaski takes his time to build and explain the world, characters and the current political situation in the first half of the book. So, in my opinion, the slow pacing of the book was quite necessary for laying out the foundation for the story. Also, the pace does pick up in the second half of the book so it didn’t bother me as much. We get a basic introduction to the magic system in the short story collection and in this book, we get to explore and delve more deeply into how this magic system works. I quite enjoyed reading about different principles of this magic system, how the sorcerers draw energy to perform magic and how sorcerers and witchers perform their own type of magic.

In this book, we get perspectives of 4 other main characters besides Geralt of Rivia. The story starts with a scene of the troubadour and Geralt’s constant companion Dandilion who is singing a baled about the witcher, and the scene was also used to give a recap of events to the reader. We also get to meet a new character, Triss Merigold, who is a former love interest of Geralt. I liked Triss’s character, she is kind and strong but I did not like her when she was swooning over Geralt and trying to make him come back to her by making him feel guilty about their past. The first 30% of the book focuses on Ciri’s life at the witcher fortress, the Kaer Morhen, and of her training to become a witcher. I admire Sapkowski’s ability to portray child characters because I loved the way Ciri’s character was written. Sometimes she is a typical spoiled, bratty kid who wants what she wants but other times she is so goofy, sweet, adorable and caring. I loved how she viewed the world around her and her burning curiosity about EVERYTHING. Also, her relationship with Geralt is so precious and adorable. I loved how she can sometimes change Geralt’s rough exterior and bring out his softer sides. And of cause, I loved the banter between them which I think helped to highlight the father-daughter relationship between the two characters. In the last chapter, we get another Ciri training montage with Yennefer and also we get to see the relationship dynamic between them. Their relationship was slowly built, starting from mutual dislike and it slowly develops into a trusting and caring relationship. I think this was done amazingly within a span of one chapter with a handful of scenes. So, let's give a toast to Sapkowski for writing deeply-layered and solid characters for us.

I loved Sapkowski’s descriptive and poetic writing style. This is a conversation-heavy story and sometimes he would include random characters we know nothing about into the conversations. But I don’t think it bothered me that much. Also, I love his humour, especially in Ciri’s scenes. They cracked me up so hard. Overall, I think his writing style made this series all the more interesting and special for me. I can’t wait to pick up the next book and follow the journey with the white wolf.