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Sword of Destiny: Tales of the Witcher – Now a major Netflix show by [Andrzej Sapkowski, David French]

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Andrzej Sapkowski

David French

Sword of Destiny: Tales of the Witcher – Now a major Netflix show Kindle Edition

by Andrzej Sapkowski (Author), David French (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition

8,248 ratings

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Geralt the Witcher - revered and hated - holds the line against the monsters plaguing humanity in the bestselling series that inspired the hit Witcher Netflix show and video games.

Geralt of Rivia is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers and lifelong training have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary killer: he hunts the vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil; not everything fair is good . . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

Translated by David French.

Andrzej Sapkowski, winner of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award, started an international phenomenon with his Witcher series. In this second collection of short stories, following the adventures of the hit collection The Last Wish, join Geralt as he battles monsters, demons and prejudices alike . . .

Length: 385 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled	Audible Narration: Audible Narration Switch back and forth between reading the Kindle book and listening to the Audible narration. Add narration for a reduced price of $13.49 after you buy the Kindle book. Ready	Language: English

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Review

A great read - Waterstones.com

Like Mieville and Gaiman, Sapkowski takes the old and makes it new - FOUNDATION --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A great read - Waterstones.com

Like Mieville and Gaiman, Sapkowski takes the old and makes it new - Foundation --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

ASIN : B00U68KUE2
Publisher : Gollancz; 1st edition (21 May 2015)
Language : English
File size : 1862 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 385 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 5,127 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 14 in Greek & Roman Myth & Legend
- 30 in Cyberpunk Science Fiction
- 160 in Sword & Sorcery Fantasy (Books)

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AussieVG

Great storytelling

Reviewed in Australia on 22 January 2020

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Bought this to read before the Netflix show and wasn’t disappointed. Great storytelling.

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LanaZ

Amazing, just brilliant.

Reviewed in Australia on 19 August 2019

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Just brilliant, I am hopelessly hooked on these books, finishing The Wish and this book in less than a week. Any spares moment I have has been dedicated to devouring the pages.

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Amazon Customer

Great entry to a great series

Reviewed in Australia on 28 December 2018

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Great book that kicks things off in the series. Fantasy with strong adult themes that are ASOIAF like but slightly milder.

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Doug

Awesome

Reviewed in Australia on 12 September 2019

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Loved the games and thus far living the story. Can't wait to read the next book. Highly recommended this book.

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Kindle Customer

Good read

Reviewed in Australia on 2 November 2018

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As above good read, if you're a fan of the witche r series this is a must read so enjoy

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Dezztroyer

Another Great Collection of Stories

Reviewed in Australia on 27 January 2020

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Good for a bit of backstory on some of the events in the Netflix series.

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Coral Neighbourlink

A person has an opinion

Reviewed in Australia on 8 March 2020

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Brilliant way to while away some time.

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Edwin Heywood

The next in line to read

Reviewed in Australia on 30 January 2020

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Great reading all the way to the end

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James Tivendale

The tales are exciting and addictive to say that a story can be finished within about half an hour.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 January 2019

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Much like The Last Wish before, Sword of Destiny is a collection of short stories following a talented witcher called Geralt of Rivia. Although you can start the series with Blood of Elves which is where the full-length novels commence, I can't recommend enough that even though a handful of these short stories are hit-and-miss, that they will add considerable depth to the future narrative arcs.

The Last Wish featured mostly isolated stories with the Witcher tackling a certain monstrosity for a set payment. He travels around the world to where his peculiar killing and magic techniques are needed to tackle a problem and individuals will hire him. In the first book, apart from a couple of brief interludes, there were no recurring characters. It was solely about a certain adventure at one end of the world and then another a thousand miles away. Sword of Destiny features a handful of main characters from the series who become more fleshed out as there presence recurs. Geralt's friend and lady loving bard Dandelion, his mysterious sorceress love interest Yennefer and a potential child of destiny called Ciri. If you've played The Witcher computer games I imagine you a familiar with these characters, the sort of missions set and the monsters the Witcher is assigned to eradicate, and how beautiful and vast this created world is.

I found the stories in The Last Wish more consistent but two or three of my favourites are from this entry. If you decide to read the short story collections first I'd truly recommend starting with The Last Wish and not Sword of Destiny. Two stories in The Witcher #1, one including Yennefer and one including a Queen and a Princess, add huge depth to the action and events that occur in this collection, especially with certain relationship complexities.

The Witcher tales are exciting and addictive to say that a story can be finished within about half an hour. Sapkowski doesn't dumb down the world and there are a plethora of complex characters and demons throughout these pages. My favourite story is here is The Bounds of Reason and it features about twenty-five different well-crafted characters who set off on a mission to kill a wounded dragon. I found this narrative exceptional, unpredictable, thrilling with a hell of a twist at the end. This sets Sword of Destiny up brilliantly. This constructed world does feature typical fantasy tropes but nothing feels forced. It all feels enticing and original. I'm not looking forward to seeing more of the Elves in the next book!

I won't go into the details of the stories too much as it might approach spoiler territory. I will confirm that these tales feature many fantasy races as well as mermaids and underwater warriors, showdowns with sorcerers, a group trying to trace a doppleganger, and also meeting Ciri. It features monster hunting of course but not as much and as frequent as The Last Wish. Each The Last Wish story played like a level on the Witcher games. These are less standalone and cleverly building up for the full narrative which will start with Blood of Elves.

I adored The Bounds of Reason, A Little Sacrifice and Sword of Destiny. Eternal Flame and A Share of Ice were very average. The final story Something More I really struggled with initially. It follows two timelines as Geralt in a fevered state and I sometimes got confused where and when we were. If it was a full-length story I wouldn't have finished it but I did and I'm glad I fought through as the ending is highly satisfying with setting up what can possible happen in the next outings.

I decided to read all of the Witcher books before the TV series is released and I am glad that I have taken on this venture. I've read the first two books within four days and I can't wait to move on further. I often struggle with short stories but I can recommend these highly. The Bound of Reason is one of the top two finest short stories I've ever read alongside Sebastian De Castell - The Fox and the Bowman.

44 people found this helpful

Justyna Tenel

Kindle Edition - Amazing but publisher/editor/translator could do better for your enjoyment dear reader- few words from a Pole

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 July 2017

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My enjoyment of this book which I originally read in Polish in the 90s, is only marred by sometimes clunky translation. I must say that 'The Last Wish' was done much better.

Some phrases are clunky, some difficult to understand the original meaning of, some are clear copies of certain Polish expressions without looking for better alternatives in English, some due to sloppy editing are a bit illogical or grammatically incorrect.

Also there should be reference section/ sections- for stuff (cultural or language related) clear as day to Polish person, but alien to non-Poles reading. As this time I was reading the book, at roughly the same pace as my British friend, I found myself explaining a lot of context, which should have been made clear, to those willing to understand.

Surely this could be fixed for next editions, right lovely publishers/translators?

All in all, still an amazing book, all of the above notwithstanding, but some editing/ additional information would make it even better.

36 people found this helpful

Ross

I got annoyed with the Last Wish/Season of Storms's clumsy attempt to ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 July 2018

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This is a largely well-written set of Witcher short stories, which start to piece together some of the stories in the Last Wish with the main books (which I have yet to read!).
While this time there is no over-arching story linking them together this is to the book's credit. I got annoyed with the Last Wish/Season of Storms's clumsy attempt to sew together a number of different stories - like those old episodes of a sitcom that was just a hashing together of different flashbacks. Though it does mean you could struggle with the chronology, but I think assuming the stories are after the Season of Storms is a safe bet.
All of the stories are reasonably exciting, but Sapkowski does have a tendency to start these stories with the Witcher's triumph over another creature, and focus on the aftermath - sometimes you long for the thrill of the preceding hunt.
The final story, which I feel is the main link into the first book, includes a number of sections where the Witcher is hallucinating. The segue between these isn't always clear, and while this adds to the atmosphere and feel of the Witcher being drugged, it does leave you a little confused at times (though this passes briefly).
A good set of stories and a decent translation with few clunky parts.
I would recommend these are read after the main books (i.e. in published order) - while I haven't read those, I have probably taken some characters/stories for granted and not appreciated how they feed in to the overall canon of Witcher works (without googling for spoilers).

4 people found this helpful

George T.

Utterly incredible.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 May 2017

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This outdoes the first book in every way, especially given the conclusion.

As a fan of the video game series, this sets up the events of Witcher 3. I'll say nothing more. Starting the book series even after having played the games was far from a mistake. All I can say is I wholeheartedly thoroughly enjoyed this. Can't wait to read the next book.

12 people found this helpful

Mr Smith

Ignore the silly cover and misleading blurb ........ just read the book. Its worth it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 January 2017

Verified Purchase

' a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer' advertises the description of the book. I don't know who wrote that sad sales pitch, but 'The Witcher' is neither an assassin, nor a murderer, so ignore it. Ignore the Mills & Boon book cover as well, because 'The Witcher' has white hair. Seriously, this book deserves better.

Anyway, on to the actual book.

Read this Witcher book before the others. I read book 1 to 3, then this one. Only to find this one is set before the events of the main series - books 1 to 5(?) - I wish I'd known that before starting reading.

Books 1 to 3 (and maybe 4 and 5 too, I haven't read them yet) are all one epic story, split over several books, and flow one into to the next almost seamlessly.

This book is a collection of short stories, all set prior to 'Book 1'. The stories themselves are a mixed bunch - varied length and quality - but several provide some very important background for the Book 1 - 5(?) epic. Because there are several short stories here there is a lot less of the lengthy geopolitical exposition you get in the multi book epic - the stories are far 'more personal' by necessity. That said, you still get the philosophising and moralising.

Of the stories in this book: one is quite predictable, one is very sad (brought a tear to my eye anyway), one is very clever (unexpectedly thought provoking), one is very confusing (maybe deliberately so because of the nature of the story it is telling) ..... and so on ...... but all are well worth reading. Read it before 'Book 1', and don't skip any of the stories. You won't regret it.

4 people found this helpful

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