Is there anything better than an unexpected dessert after a great meal? The story of the Witcher concluded in The Lady of the Lake, but the loose fabric of the short stories gave Sapkowki a way to weave in one more novel into the cycle. We meet our characters once more somewhere between the short stories and the Blood of Elves.
Geralt is still a Witcher, not yet on a mission to save Ciri. We meet him when he fights one of the monsters, as is his job. But shortly after killing the monster he is arrested and loses his witcher swords. Together with Dandelion, they embark on a quest to retrieve them. As always there are larger forces at play here and they will not let Geralt keep his neutrality for long. Yennefer also makes an appearance, but she operates in the background, as her relationship with Geralt is on hiatus.
It is an interesting book because as much as it is a novel it really feels like a long short story (I know it sounds weird). It goes back to the slightly lighter tone of the initial books in the series. I enjoyed it a lot as a final goodbye to the series, it brings together what is the best of both the novels and the short stories.
And with that, we are done. It is the last one. Now let’s see how Netflix will handle the transition from the short stories to the novels in their second season of The Witcher.
Links to previous reviews in the series:
Photo by Violetta Kaszubowska
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