The Last Wish

I have a bad memory, which in the case of reading books actually turns out to be a good thing. I first read The Witcher when I was in college and now, about five years later, I barely remember anything of it other than that I found it really enjoyable. I did watch the Netflix show back in December, but found it disappointing and didn't finish the season.

That's what made me want to reread it, but also made me somewhat concerned. What if it wasn't as good as I thought?

Well, I didn't have anything to be worried about. This is an excellent collection of short stories. They roll along quickly, none of them are boring, standouts being The Lesser Evil, The Last Wish and The Witcher. There's plenty of dark humour, lots of fun references to well-known fairy-tales (a friend describes it as Shrek for adults, which isn't exactly inaccurate) and monsters galore. It's in this volume that you're introduced Geralt and the supporting cast of Yennefer and Dandelion and the bulk of it, and the sequel, essentially helps to illustrate the world before book three heads into the saga proper (I was surprised Ciri didn't show up, but that must be book two!).

All in all, I'm glad I reread this, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the books. A bad memory has its perks; I'm basically looking at this again for the first time!