In 1996, Andrzej Sapkowski, released the first book in his famous Witcher series, “Blood of Elves”, he then when on to write another 4 mainline entries in his series, and wrote two collections of short stories taking place in the Witcher world. However, outside of Poland the series were not really popular, until the game company CD Project Red developed the Witcher games, which gave huge exposure for the franchise.
Then in 2019, the first season of the Witcher TV show was released. With all of this exposure and attention coming to this series, it made the books far more popular than they used to be. And for all the people who played the games and watched the show, but haven’t read the books, are the books worth reading? Yes, and let’s see why.
Blood of Elves takes place in fantasy world, filled with kingdoms, knights, wizards, witches, monsters, Elves, Dwarfs, and of course, Witchers, who are mutated monster hunters who fight for gold. The book also has lots references to famous fairy tales and legends, and the world in general feels like the author took a bunch of different fables and legends and threw them together into this crazy world, which takes its self a hundred percent seriously. The book has lots of death, swearing, sex, racism and prejudice, with humans treating other races as second-class citizens.
The main plot is about a 13-year-old princess named Ciri, who is under the protection of Witcher a named Geralt of Riva. Geralt took Ciri in after her home Cintra was conquered by the Empire of Nilfgaard. Nilfgaard then attempted to conquer the rest of the Northern Realms, but were stopped before they could go any further. A truce was then signed which has kept the peace for around two years. However, many of the Northern Kings know that the peace won’t last long, and each King wants Ciri so they can use her claim to take Cintra for themselves once the second war breaks out. The rest of the plot involves Geralt, his sorceress ex-girlfriend Yennefer, and his tall taking bard friend named Dandelion, trying to protect and train Ciri from the people who want to take her for the nefarious goals, while also discovering that Ciri is far more important to the fate of this world than they thought.
This Witcher series is type of franchise where can’t just read one book, to get a compelling story out of it, you have to read the entire book series to truly enjoy it. And that is clear as day when reading this book, almost none of the questions raised are answered, the book lacks a clear climax or falling action. So, if you are unable to read the entire series, this book is not for you, but if you are willing to fully immerse yourself into the Witcher world, like I am, and put in the time to read the rest of the series, then this book is a great introduction to this amazing world.