This book review was part of a podcast discussion.
Listen to the episode here.
As an avid fan of The Witcher video game series (like many others), I decided to read the books that inspired it. Taking place many years before The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, Andrzej Sapkowski’s Blood of Elves Ciri, a child of royalty born into a war-torn world, and Geralt, a Witcher—a dying breed of mutated men who slay monsters in exchange for coin. Ciri, bearing the magical elder blood gene, is sought after by many different factions, both for her lineage and her abilities.
As someone traveling “backwards” from the games to the books, I can confidently say that the game accurately depicts the dark and gritty tone of the books.
For those who have played the game, it is well known that the war plays a major part in both the setting and the story. While witchers typically go out of their way to avoid taking sides or otherwise getting involved in wars, war still has consequences on their world: Monstrous creatures known as necrophages sprout from the ground to feast on the body-strewn battlefields.
This book focuses on a series of battles by a group of elves and other minorities—like dwarves and gnomes—known as the scoia’tael (elvish for ‘squirrels’) who are attacking humans from the woods.
This conflict becomes an important lesson for the young Ciri. After years of Geralt teaching her that witchers remain must neutral in conflicts, she decides that she does not agree. She believes that if someone has the ability to defend the defenseless, then they must. She wants to fight the elves.
Geralt takes Ciri to a ruin in the woods, at the center of which stands a statue of a female elf. He explains that the last time humans and elves came into conflict, many of the elves didn’t want to go to war. One elf, the one on the statue, convinced all of the young elves to take up arms and fight. All died, and since only young elves can reproduce, nearly an entire generation was lost, akin to the real-world ‘lost generation’ following World War I and World War II.
Witchers, Geralt explains, avoid taking sides in conflict not out of indifference, but out of compassion. War only leads to loss.
Overall, I would highly recommend reading this series if you are already a fan of the games.
Cincinnati, OH
Co-host of 'Why is This a Thing?' and 'Fantasy Book of the Month' Podcast. Coffee lover, cat-dad, fantasy nerd and workaholic.
