Blood of Elves (The Witcher #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski
"To be neutral does not mean to be indifferent or insensitive. You don't have to kill your feelings. It's enough to kill hatred within yourself."
The book starts 2 years after a war between the humans and elves that destroyed and killed the monarchy in the southern region of the world (known as The Continent). Ciri, the Princess of Cintra, escaped and fled from the war and is now living in Kaer Morhen with the Witcher, and is studying to be the first female witcher. When Triss, and enchantress, comes to stay at Kaer Morhen she realises that Ciri is actually extremely powerful with magic and needs to be trained before it likely destroys her.
So begins the journey to take Ciri somewhere safe to study magic whilst they also avoid elf attacks, and a strange man asking too many questions about the heir of Cintra.
Ciri is 12 years old and up until she was 10 she had been living as the Princess of Cintra with her grandmother, Queen Calanthe. Both of Ciri's parents died at sea when she was very young so she only had her grandmother and the Queen's husband, King Eist. Geralt of Rivia inherits Ciri as his ward after the war and it is mentioned several times about the Princess being his 'child surprise' and 'destiny'. Despite being a mutant (this is how witchers are described) he takes good care of Ciri and even takes her to his home, Kaer Morhen, where they train witchers.
By the time the story begins Ciri has been training extremely hard to learn how to fight, and the four men at the keep help her, even seeming to care for the child.
I really enjoyed this book but I do have a couple of criticisms. First of all, it relies on the reader having read The Last Wish (#0.5) and Sword of Destiny (#0.75) before starting Blood of Elves. Luckily, these books were actually released prior to book #1 so many may have read them first. This is not really a book series that you can just pick up any number in the collection as the first books lay the groundwork for Geralt's relationships with Yennifer (an enchantress) and Dandilion (a bard), and even Nenneke (a priestess). You are also told in more detail how Ciri came be Geralt's ward, and what the princess's grandmother, Calanthe, was like. I urge anyone wanting to read this series to start with The Last Wish, or it could become frustrating.
Secondly, Sapkowski does a fantastic job of creating The Continent and all of the colourful characters, beasts and monsters,
but he can sometimes get a little carried away when it comes to introducing characters. The author tends to throw in lots of names and then have large speeches (which tend to go on a little too long), and just hope his readers can catch up. He doesn't even describe much of these characters, instead focusing on their dialogue. I shouldn't complain as many authors struggle to make their character's conversations sound relaxed and natural, but unfortunately I really struggled to even get through certain parts of the book due to some characters just repeating what another had already said.
I'm still really enjoying reading about Geralt and Ciri so I will continue to do so. I just hope the next installment is a little less confusing with so many characters being thrown in.
I give this a solid 3.5 stars.
Blood of Elves (The Witcher #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski
Paperback 315 pages - first published 1994
The book starts 2 years after a war between the humans and elves that destroyed and killed the monarchy in the southern region of the world (known as The Continent). Ciri, the Princess of Cintra, escaped and fled from the war and is now living in Kaer Morhen with the Witcher, and is studying to be the first female witcher. When Triss, and enchantress, comes to stay at Kaer Morhen she realises that Ciri is actually extremely powerful with magic and needs to be trained before it likely destroys her.
So begins the journey to take Ciri somewhere safe to study magic whilst they also avoid elf attacks, and a strange man asking too many questions about the heir of Cintra.
Ciri is 12 years old and up until she was 10 she had been living as the Princess of Cintra with her grandmother, Queen Calanthe. Both of Ciri's parents died at sea when she was very young so she only had her grandmother and the Queen's husband, King Eist. Geralt of Rivia inherits Ciri as his ward after the war and it is mentioned several times about the Princess being his 'child surprise' and 'destiny'. Despite being a mutant (this is how witchers are described) he takes good care of Ciri and even takes her to his home, Kaer Morhen, where they train witchers.
By the time the story begins Ciri has been training extremely hard to learn how to fight, and the four men at the keep help her, even seeming to care for the child.
I really enjoyed this book but I do have a couple of criticisms. First of all, it relies on the reader having read The Last Wish (#0.5) and Sword of Destiny (#0.75) before starting Blood of Elves. Luckily, these books were actually released prior to book #1 so many may have read them first. This is not really a book series that you can just pick up any number in the collection as the first books lay the groundwork for Geralt's relationships with Yennifer (an enchantress) and Dandilion (a bard), and even Nenneke (a priestess). You are also told in more detail how Ciri came be Geralt's ward, and what the princess's grandmother, Calanthe, was like. I urge anyone wanting to read this series to start with The Last Wish, or it could become frustrating.
Secondly, Sapkowski does a fantastic job of creating The Continent and all of the colourful characters, beasts and monsters,
but he can sometimes get a little carried away when it comes to introducing characters. The author tends to throw in lots of names and then have large speeches (which tend to go on a little too long), and just hope his readers can catch up. He doesn't even describe much of these characters, instead focusing on their dialogue. I shouldn't complain as many authors struggle to make their character's conversations sound relaxed and natural, but unfortunately I really struggled to even get through certain parts of the book due to some characters just repeating what another had already said.
I'm still really enjoying reading about Geralt and Ciri so I will continue to do so. I just hope the next installment is a little less confusing with so many characters being thrown in.
I give this a solid 3.5 stars.
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