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Anyone else read and/or enjoyed this series?
I've read up to and including "Times of Contempt" and they're pretty good, I'd compare the writing style to Glen Cook. There's definitely a more direct approach to "subverting the tropes" with human hating, guerrilla warfare employing elves rather than say living in fancy tree cities and pogroms against non-humans among others.
There's some ASOIAF-esque politicking between kingdoms with more up-front magic than that series too.
I'm definitely looking forward to the other ones in the series, they're all relatively short so are a good light read in between malazan tomes.
Also the games are great, played them first before I found the books.
Andrezj Sapkowski's Witcher Series
#2
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Posted 10 May 2014 - 08:32 PM
started reading this years back after Gothos' repeated pimping on this board.
kept an eye out, very glad they're translating it more frequently now, as the Last Wish came out and then nothing for ages.
kept an eye out, very glad they're translating it more frequently now, as the Last Wish came out and then nothing for ages.
meh. Link was dead :(
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Posted 10 May 2014 - 08:38 PM
Same here.
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#4
Gothos
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Posted 10 May 2014 - 09:15 PM
Well, they're what made me start reading fantasy, and I very nearly know them all by memory by now, so there's a recommendation. I'm glad they're translating it, though I'm not happy about the pace, and I'm furious that they skipped the entire Sword of Destiny short story book that should go between Last Wish and Blood of the Elves. But hey, you won't be disappointed.
This post has been edited by Gothos: 10 May 2014 - 09:16 PM
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
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Posted 11 May 2014 - 02:01 AM
Last Wish was fun, esp the way they played with various classic faerie tales. Blood of Elves otoh, was weak, disconnected and overall just not that good.
I realize to an extent this is due to the translation ans some questionable publisher decisions, but even so I won't jump on the next book.
I realize to an extent this is due to the translation ans some questionable publisher decisions, but even so I won't jump on the next book.
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#6
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Posted 11 May 2014 - 08:54 AM
I've considered picking them up. Big fan of the games, especially the second one, so I'd enjoy having some more insight into the world. More Geralt and Dandelion is a plus, too.
How good are the English translations?
How good are the English translations?
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Posted 11 May 2014 - 01:26 PM
The translations are pretty good for the most part, sometimes a little clunky and the first 2 books are translated by a different person than the others.
There's a couple naming discrepancies such Wyzim/Vizima Transriver/Riverdell changing names between translators, but overall still very good.
They definitely dropped the ball on missing the second volume of short stories though, from what I've heard it's pretty important in introducing some main characters. The English language publishers are the only ones that have missed it out, every other one included it. There's already an artwork for it that matches the others but they still chose to drop it. Hopefully when the Witcher 3 comes out it'll get more people interested and they'll finally get round to it.
There's a couple naming discrepancies such Wyzim/Vizima Transriver/Riverdell changing names between translators, but overall still very good.
They definitely dropped the ball on missing the second volume of short stories though, from what I've heard it's pretty important in introducing some main characters. The English language publishers are the only ones that have missed it out, every other one included it. There's already an artwork for it that matches the others but they still chose to drop it. Hopefully when the Witcher 3 comes out it'll get more people interested and they'll finally get round to it.
#8
tiam
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Posted 11 May 2014 - 10:16 PM
How many are translated at the moment? Ive tried on two occasions to get into the Witcher 2 but cant get into it. I like the world and the characters but cant stand the game for some reason.
Wouldbe interested to read the books if theyre a good translation and affordable.
Wouldbe interested to read the books if theyre a good translation and affordable.
#10
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Posted 12 May 2014 - 09:42 AM
Graablick, on 12 May 2014 - 05:29 AM, said:
You got the last wish, blood of elves, time of contempt, and baptism of fire as far as I know. Last wish is without doubt my favorite.
That's the first set of short stories and first three books of the five-book saga. Quite a lot, though I once again wail at the stupidity of not getting the second part of short stories out before the saga, it'd be very beneficial to the reader. Even though I've myself started with Blood of Elves and the saga before I read the short stories (which made for a lot of confusion!), I can see how reading them first would be great.
@Tiam - heretic!
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
#11
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Posted 12 May 2014 - 08:02 PM
It's classic in eastern Europe and pretty similar with Erickson in dark humor, cynicism and "postmodern" flavour of the genre. Imagine Gesler, Stormy and Tehol in the harsh world. I don't know about the translation, in polish version its pretty demanding because of the archaic language. But I would recommend it, it's nothing like "western" high fantasy
#12
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Posted 12 May 2014 - 09:49 PM
Books are great. read them all in Russian.
"Sword of Destiny" is important, though. super-important. English publishers are idiots fro skipping it. It's why "Blood of the Elves" seems disjointed by comparison.
"Times of Contempt" is a shining example of how GRRM should've written AFFC as an inter-war novel.
"Sword of Destiny" is important, though. super-important. English publishers are idiots fro skipping it. It's why "Blood of the Elves" seems disjointed by comparison.
"Times of Contempt" is a shining example of how GRRM should've written AFFC as an inter-war novel.
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Jump Around, on 23 October 2011 - 11:04 AM, said:
And I want to state that Ment has out-weaseled me by far in this game.
#14
tiam
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Posted 14 May 2014 - 01:15 PM
Gothos, on 12 May 2014 - 09:42 AM, said:
Graablick, on 12 May 2014 - 05:29 AM, said:
You got the last wish, blood of elves, time of contempt, and baptism of fire as far as I know. Last wish is without doubt my favorite.
That's the first set of short stories and first three books of the five-book saga. Quite a lot, though I once again wail at the stupidity of not getting the second part of short stories out before the saga, it'd be very beneficial to the reader. Even though I've myself started with Blood of Elves and the saga before I read the short stories (which made for a lot of confusion!), I can see how reading them first would be great.
@Tiam - heretic!
Weve had this convo before. I like everything about the game except playing it
#15
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Posted 14 May 2014 - 05:59 PM
Cause, on 13 May 2014 - 09:56 AM, said:
@Gothos - So how do we convince you to translate sword of destiny?
Lots of dosh for my time.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
#17
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Posted 14 May 2014 - 06:53 PM
No, that's latvian currency. In our currency it would amount to a little bit of "good old times" and a splash of nationalist sentiment against russians.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
#18
Wolfdrop
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Posted 14 May 2014 - 08:11 PM
For anyone who's interested here's a link for a fan made translation of the "The Sword of Destiny". It's far from perfect but that's all there is. On the far left of the screen you can save it as PDF, MOBI for kindle etc. Don't get me wrong I'm not supporting the torrenting of books and would rather have a physical copy rather than ebook of any sort any day, but given its just a fan made translation I guess this one time is allowable.
Link: https://archive.org/...eSwordOfDestiny
I actually emailed Gollancz/Orion about it a while back, mentioning that it's a shame that fans would have to fall back to fan translations and that once people read one that way they might be inclined to read only fan translations that are available. I also mentioned that it would alleviate a lot of the confusion new readers seem to have with The Blood of Elves. Needless to say I didn't get a reply.
I read somewhere else that Gollancz did reply to query about missing it out. Their response was something along the lines of "Nobody reads short stories any more". They also went onto to say that they really only published The Last Wish at all because they had the game coming out (the first one) more or less at the same time and could ride off that.
Hopefully once Witcher 3 comes out it will bring in a lot of new fans and hopefully finally get the sword of destiny released. Again, in my email I mentioned that if they rode off the success of The Witcher (1) for The Last Wish they could do the same for SOD with Witcher 3, which will no doubt be a far more high profile release given the success of the other two.
Kind of OCD about these things like missing books in series and matching covers haha
Link: https://archive.org/...eSwordOfDestiny
I actually emailed Gollancz/Orion about it a while back, mentioning that it's a shame that fans would have to fall back to fan translations and that once people read one that way they might be inclined to read only fan translations that are available. I also mentioned that it would alleviate a lot of the confusion new readers seem to have with The Blood of Elves. Needless to say I didn't get a reply.
I read somewhere else that Gollancz did reply to query about missing it out. Their response was something along the lines of "Nobody reads short stories any more". They also went onto to say that they really only published The Last Wish at all because they had the game coming out (the first one) more or less at the same time and could ride off that.
Hopefully once Witcher 3 comes out it will bring in a lot of new fans and hopefully finally get the sword of destiny released. Again, in my email I mentioned that if they rode off the success of The Witcher (1) for The Last Wish they could do the same for SOD with Witcher 3, which will no doubt be a far more high profile release given the success of the other two.
Kind of OCD about these things like missing books in series and matching covers haha
This post has been edited by Wolfdrop: 14 May 2014 - 08:14 PM
#20
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Posted 28 October 2014 - 08:01 PM
I've been meaning to read this series for a long time, I'm a big fan of both video games. Was wondering if someone here can suggest a reading order, from what I've read online I can't seem to piece one together. Start with the Last Wish, then move onto to Saga starting with Blood of Elves? I'm not averse to reading the fan translations either.
