The Last Wish (Andrzej Sapkowski, 1992) is a high fantasy adventure novel set in a world of dark twisted fairy tales, where monsters roam and professional killers known as witchers are hired by townspeople to keep the evil in check.
One such witcher is Geralt, a horribly effective man known throughout the land as the Butcher of Blaviken. Having come to know The Witcher series from the video games, I didn’t know what to expect from Sapkowski’s first exploration of Geralt’s world and life. I was pleasantly surprised to find an overall less grim atmosphere than the one projected by the electronic counterpart – which often felt so dreary as to detract from the experience – thanks to in no small part the borrowing of several well-known fairy tales and Polish folklore elements. This isn’t to say the world is a happy, shining place. It’s still medieval and dark, but there’s plenty of welcome humour to stave off the otherwise stifling grittiness of it all.
Held together by a framing story in which Geralt recovers from a recent misadventure, The Last Wish is a series of vignettes portraying a few of Geralt’s forays into monster hunting and problem solving. In between vignettes, Geralt deals with the intolerant town guard who want him out immediately, as well as philosophising with the nurse-nuns of the hospital he stays in.
Most of the stories (or all, if I’m missing some of the literary allusions) are a twist on a famous fairy tale. For instance, one chapter takes the tale of Snow White and transforms the heroine into a Kill Bill-style warrior, with Geralt stuck in the middle of her roaring rampage of revenge. I quite liked this recurring element because I’m a sucker for new twists on old things, and these twists are nice and original. Although it ties the world to these already existing tales, the author does so in a way that doesn’t limit the world he’s building. I didn’t even realise I was reading a bizarre Beauty and the Beast analogue until fairly deep into the chapter. Indeed, it feels like the stories were built and restructured to make stand-alone sense in the world.
Geralt himself would be a fairy tale hero, if fairy tales starred loner, mutant murderers-for-hire. As far as wandering heroes in violent, medieval worlds go, Geralt is fairly standard. Considered a monster himself by the majority of the human race for his mutations – which grant him enhanced reflexes and control – and only wanted in society when terrible things roam the streets, any disaffected teenager is going to find a way to empathise with Geralt. He is a monster hunter, trained from a young age to fight evil… for a price. We’ve heard it all before, but if it ain’t broke? Geralt has a sharp wit to go with his blade, but the author isn’t afraid to make Geralt look silly when he’s been beat. And Geralt does get beat.
Of course, he’s also a ladies’ man. If there’s an attractive woman mentioned in the story, chances are Geralt will either sleep with them, have to kill them, or both. I’m sure this is a fantasy staple -although I’m not versed in the genre past Discworld – and, given the target market of adolescents, it’s not surprising that Geralt has James Bond-level seduction skills. To the novel’s defense, Geralt is usually being manipulated by virtually every person he meets, so I’m sure if you try hard you could make some argument that justifies the way women throw themselves at him. Although, any points the book gains in sexual intrigue (is this a thing?), it loses in the wizard that has a naked illusionary nymph wandering around his tower. Yeah, wizards get lonely too.
Given his status as a wanderer of the land, there are few characters who persist across the chapters. Geralt makes frequent reference in the framing story to a love who debuts properly in the penultimate chapter. Yennefer is a sorceress with a seriously manipulative and caustic personality. I can’t understand what Geralt sees in her past – we can only guess that he’s shallow – but given Geralt’s own propensity for subterfuge maybe they’re meant for each other.
The bard Dandilion is every fantasy bard. He has a lute, acts rashly, but with good intentions, and has absolutely no business hanging out with a strong silent type like Geralt. Even with that being the case, it’s impressive how well the author portrays the friendship the pair share, particularly how natural it seems for a bard and a trained killer to be chilling out, catching fish, and generally having a great time together.
Character development-wise, there’s not much to talk about. It’s difficult to develop personalities for characters who are only present for all of thirty pages. Dandilion apparently learns nothing from his share of mishaps across the chapters he’s in, and Geralt is set in his ways. He does learn a thing or two about ethics in the chapter called The Lesser Evil, which is about… Well, you can probably guess the theme. Not that anything he learns actually ends up being applied.
The writing is great and easy to follow, with the many action sequences expertly described. Geralt flits about the place, dual swords swinging and heads flying. In the version I read, Geralt really likes doing things in a semi-circular fashion (tracing sword arcs in the air, moving around an object), but that’s probably a side-effect of the translation. Speaking of the translation, the translator has chosen to leave many monster names untranslated, such as the rusalka, a form of water nymph. Thanks to a Polish friend, I was able to confirm that some of these aren’t Sapkowski’s inventions but rather monsters from Slavic folklore. Others, such as the vampiric bruxa, seem to borrow their name from other ‘real’ beings but are otherwise original creations.
I enjoyed The Last Wish. It’s an easy read, full of fantasy action and fairy tale-style aesops. Geralt is on the right side of brooding hero, actually having a personality when he uses his words. The world itself, while bootstrapped in existing stories, feels vast and thought out. As long as you’re not looking for something progressive, and want a series of exciting adventures with more than a dash of grimness, you could do a lot worse than The Last Wish.
– Matthew
