Blood of Elves (The Witcher #3) – Andrzej Sapkowski

Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit
Pages: 398
Release Date: May 1, 2009

The New York Times bestselling series that inspired the international hit video game: The Witcher.
For over a century, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves have lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over, and now the races are fighting once again. The only good elf, it seems, is a dead elf.

Geralt of Rivia, the cunning assassin known as The Witcher, has been waiting for the birth of a prophesied child. This child has the power to change the world – for good, or for evil.

As the threat of war hangs over the land and the child is hunted for her extraordinary powers, it will become Geralt’s responsibility to protect them all – and the Witcher never accepts defeat.

The Witcher returns in this sequel to The Last Wish, as the inhabitants of his world become embroiled in a state of total war.

I bought Blood of Elves from a used bookstore because the television show airing later this year. On the spine of the paperback, it indicates that Blood of Elves is the first in the series. So, I started reading it immediately. Unfortunately, it’s not the first novel. A quick search on Goodreads says that it’s the third installment in the series. So, I trudged through the novel confused for most of the time but enjoying the characters nonetheless.

The reason I rated the novel three stars instead of two is because of the characters. Ciri, Triss, and Yennefer are all interesting and powerful. They are the reason I did not DNF the book. For most of the novel, the story is slow paced as the characters are maneuvered from one place to the next to force the plot along. Sapkowski’s finger on the scale driving the story forward is evident.

There are moments sprinkled throughout that kept me entertained and wanting to spend more time simmering in the moment. However, these moments are few and far between. I especially enjoyed Ciri’s training moments and her time with Yennefer near the end of the novel.

Geralt is supposed to be a badass Witcher with swagger. Unfortunately, he’s not present for most of the novel. Instead, readers are given a few glimpses of him doing badass things and other characters hyping him up. This criticism is probably unfounded since his character is most likely built up more in previous novels, but that’s what happens when something is mislabeled.

Overall, Blood of Elves has a semi interesting story buried under everything else here. Will I go back and read the first novel? Probably not, but I will be tuning in for the television show.

 

Have you read any of The Witcher novels? What did you think? Are you going to watch the television show?