Fantastic...just one tiny thing...

I have been reading the first two Witcher novels on my kindle (Blood of Elves and Time of Contempt) and loving every second of them. I came to the books from playing The Witcher 2 on my games console (sadly not managed to upgrade so I can play The Witcher 3 yet) so I had a general idea of the characters of Geralt of Rivia and his friends. As a lover of fantasy and sci-fi novels already I naturally needed more backstory so delved into the books happily, only being disappointed at the time I switched my bedside lamp off and pressed play on an audiobook to fall asleep to, that I’d have to rejig my brain back into another story/world etc because I didn’t have any Witcher stuff on my Audible (and not being well off can’t really justify an audiobook of something I already have as a paperback or kindle. That aside though (as I realise that is an incredibly personal issue that most people wouldn’t have) I became more and more involved in the characters and world the more I read and I needed more.
Imagine my great joy when I realised that they released three volumes of short stories based upon Geralt of Rivia, in audiobook format, which serve as prequels to the first Witcher novel, Blood of Elves.
Imagine my even greater joy then, when I listened to the Audible samples and discovered that the narrator was absolutely fantastic, giving each character their own unique voice and style and really bringing out the personality of each individual character. The narrator does have a sightly unusual cadence, which I didn’t notice in the samples and I spent the opening five to ten minutes of Blood of Elves worried that it would bother me and I wouldn’t be able to continue but after that I was completely lost in the story and having now finished the first “prequel” ‘The Last Wish’ I can honestly say that I didn’t hear it again at all.
Brilliant fantasy series which I cannot recommend enough.

There is just one tiny thing though....

....his name is Dandelion!! (dan-dee-lion) 😂

73 people found this helpful

fantastic Polish fantasy.

I am a fan of RPG videogame The Witcher and when I found out it is based on this novel, I did not hesitate to read it. it is very good. You meet Geralt of Rivia, a witcher whose job is to kill monsters.
This book is a collection of short stories telling tales of Geralt, his deals with politics ( unwilling but hard to avoid ) and the people who are friends in adventures ( Dandelion) and many lovers. Geralt is a mutated witcher and strange looking, but this only attracts women to him.
This book is for a more mature audience and should be the first one to read to get a glimpse of who the witcher is, but don't stop here. There are others to be read.

64 people found this helpful

First chapter missing!

I listened to this having never read any Witcher book before and I experienced a chapter cutting off within the first two minutes!?!?! I then dicovered that apparently the first chapter of the book is missing from this audio recording, not good. Don't buy until they sort this out.

51 people found this helpful

Surprisingly witty, funny and all round Amazing.

loved listening from start to finish. Had to stop listening at points due to the urge to burst out laughing at some of the wit but the humour is second to the amazing writing.

37 people found this helpful

Cut Short and Missing

The Chapters cutoff mid word, and move on to a following chapter- in a different scene, story. Situation. No connections. As If there’s missing pages.

The book and story I’m sure are amazing but this recording is flawed hugely.

32 people found this helpful

Big fan of the games, didn't disappoint

Having played the Witcher games and fallen in love with Geralt's character I thought I'd give the books a look in. This collection of short stories was a refreshing change of pace from the epic fantasy I often listen to, but didn't seem disjointed (which I often find a problem with collections) as they are all linked together nicely. Well narrated at a good pace - I usually speed up to at least x1.5, my only criticism is the accent used for Geralt, but very minor and subjective after all. Great listen.

24 people found this helpful

Good performance of a decent story

Decent story elevated further by a good performance by the narrator. Would be interested in further takes set in this world

19 people found this helpful

I mistook the stars reflected in a pond at night..

My comments are going to be about the whole series rather than one book in particular. The reason is they are all pretty much the same anyway and no spoilers are involved.
I eventually got around to listening to this series. This is the first set of books I have listened to without having read the books. I had high hopes having heard so much about them, the games and I really enjoyed the tv series on Netflix. Boy, was I disappointed! To coin the phrase used so often, "I mistook the stars reflected in a pond at night for those in the sky".
Narrated by: Peter Kenny I can't fault him for his story telling. I just wish there was more of a story to tell. Quite how any of these books became popular, I'll never know. They are a waffley, boring meander that at time goes no where and have side characters that are inconsequential and often add nothing to the story. Too much dialogue, too many names to keep up with, not enough excitement. I want a story to draw me in and keep me interested, to keep me wanting to listen or turn the page. Unfortunately, those moments during this whole series seem to be fleeting. I really wanted to like them, but at times found my self shouting, "Get on with it!" It got so bad at times I probably missed better parts because I had switched off mentally and when I came to I didn't care enough to go back and listen again. At times it really didn't matter any way because the story was concentrating so much on nonsensical dialogue that not much had actually happened and I hadn't missed anything of any consequence. I think the whole series could have been condensed into one or two very good books.

12 people found this helpful

Not quiet what was expected

It felt more like a collection of disjointed short stories rather than a complete book per se. They fitted togeather and didn't all at the same time, that said I did enjoy it, the stories moved swiftly, maybe lacked some depth due to the lack of background or history, but as a bunch of short stories put together it works and is a light and easy listen. The narrator wasn't too annoying either and he did grow on me as the stories progressed. Give it a try you will probably surprise yourself and enjoy it. Looking forward to seeing how the next book progress's the storyline.

12 people found this helpful

Not what I expected

What did you like best about The Last Wish? What did you like least?

There were a number of clever references to common folk law and fairytales which usually have a twist to them. This was an interesting concept for a fantasy book.
I did struggle with the style of writing, the book is almost a collection of short stories which are not told in chronological order. This certainly left me at times trying to understand what events had already happened and which had not. I would also mention that the chattering of the audiobook is not the best, it chapters at separate stories but does not sub chapter the individual "parts" as they are described by the narrator.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I would have changed the order of the individual stories and tried to make the chronology easier to understand.

Which character – as performed by Peter Kenny – was your favourite?

Some of the voices performed in this book were cleverly performed but, particularly the goat character was really annoying to listen to. Other than that it was a good performance.

12 people found this helpful