Act 4 Book Reference (SPOILER!)

I just got to act 4 and started the Holy grail quest. Does anyone get the feeling that the devs do not like Dan Brown? The hermit in act 4 slams his book pretty hard.

It is interesting how the devs mixed a lot of well known stories and authors into the game (Dagon - Lovecraft, Lady of the Lake and the Holy Grail - King Arthur Legend, The Da Vinci code - Dan Brown).

I would of liked an option that told the hermit that you disagree with his assumptions instead of "It sounds like a false trail." Doesn't really matter though, I still liked that they threw him in the game no matter if they seemed to hate every word he wrote or not

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
I just got to act 4 and started the Holy grail quest. Does anyone get the feeling that the devs do not like Dan Brown? The hermit in act 4 slams his book pretty hard.

It is interesting how the devs mixed a lot of well known stories and authors into the game (Dagon - Lovecraft, Lady of the Lake and the Holy Grail - King Arthur Legend, The Da Vinci code - Dan Brown).

I would of liked an option that told the hermit that you disagree with his assumptions instead of "It sounds like a false trail." Doesn't really matter though, I still liked that they threw him in the game no matter if they seemed to hate every word he wrote or not

That was one of my laugh-out-loud moments in the game too. And no, I don't think very highly of Dan Brown either.

You mean there are actually people who do?!!

I liked his books and I'm not even a conspiracy theorist I just know one hell of an entertaining story when I read it. All of them were a fun ride as long as you don't take them too seriously It doesn't hurt to give different views on some of these old legends or governments depending on which book you've read.

Absolutely. As a roller coaster ride kind of read, he's great. Exhilarating page turners that you can't put down until you're done all of them.

Then again, perhaps I'm just once more blessed with the ability to enjoy what is put in front of me without necessarily having to compare everything to a certain set of standards (no matter the height of the bar).

I haven't read Da Vinci Code, but I did read Angels and Demons. I didn't like it much; although the story itself was pretty good for what it is, I found the style stilted and irritating.

The flying pope and surviving a fall with a window shade was a little over the top, but still like Mr.fatbastard said a real page turner.

Damn, I wish there was a flying pope smiley

Lady of the Lake was actually not the dev's idea. Sapkowski introduced this character in the books of the Witcher saga. Just a note to those, who forgot it's not a standalone game, but a book-based one.

LOL, that statement was a bit high and mighty. It must be nice to have read the books because I, unlike you, have not been able to read any of his wonderful books I only speak English. So, you'll have to forgive me if I don't know what is put into the game from the devs and what is part of Sapkowski's world.

New statement: It was interesting how the devs and author mixed in a lot of well known stories and legends. There now, much better.

I would love to read the books. but so far I have not found a translated copy, and my german is not good enough to try it and still enjoy them. If anyone sees an english copy let me know.

There are numerous links to English versions of some of his works scattered throughout this forum. Try the search function!!

Corwin you truly are a god, Thank you! I'll search for that immediatly.

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Wish-Andr…dp/0316029181/
http://www.amazon.com/Lesser-Evil-An…dp/B000V9IRP0/

Took me 2 minutes to prove your inability to read Polish is just an excuse for being too lazy to look for it. Those are just 2 books (1 unavailable) but i am pretty sure ALL the books were translated. Just look for them deeper.

My, my someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Calm down There you go, feel better now. You can call me lazy again if it makes you feel better, I promise it won't hurt my feelings.

Passing judgement on people must be hard work. I wish I knew everything about everyone too . I could feel superior and belittle people I didn't even know. That would be fun

Back to TOPIC: Now if you have anything to add about the book references in The Witcher be they from the author or the devs, I would like to hear them.

You've just got to love the holidays when everyone is so pissy. Be nice, folks, or I'll send you all to your rooms without supper.

Originally Posted by Furia
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Wish-Andr…dp/0316029181/
http://www.amazon.com/Lesser-Evil-An…dp/B000V9IRP0/

Took me 2 minutes to prove your inability to read Polish is just an excuse for being too lazy to look for it. Those are just 2 books (1 unavailable) but i am pretty sure ALL the books were translated. Just look for them deeper.

I may be mistaken about this, but I do believe that these are the only two that have been translated thus far. Perhaps with the success of the game, the others will be forthcoming, but AFAIK not yet.

That's correct as far as I know also, Prime Junta. Only one book is actually available in English at this time. There are a few short story translations out there--here's a copy of one of Ausir's posts where he gives links:

Ausir wrote:

Three of the Witcher short stories are available online.

http://fallout.scifi.pl/The_Witcher.pdf

This is an excellent translation by Michael Kandel, the man who translated most of Stanislaw Lem's books to English as well, it was translated for some anthology and later sent out by CD Projekt as promotional material. Unfortunately, Kandel, while otherwise great, took much liberty with proper names - that is, he completely changed most of them, while the translators of the game and the book chose to stick to the original or only change it slightly to make it easier to pronounce. Kandel, for unknown reasons, changed:

Foltest to Hrobost
Vizima to Klosthur
Temeria to Kra
Velerad to Ethmond
Medell to Demell
striga to gomb
Mahakam to Apiph
Ostrit to Osrugh
Pontar to Fonzor
so you need to remember that while reading.

http://fallout.scifi.pl/A_Grain_of_Truth.PDF

This one is an excerpt from the translated book, and the translation here is more faithful to the original, but the language used is much more bland (it was translated by Danusia Stok, a Pole, not by a native speaker of English). Kandel would be a much better choice, although they probably would have to tell him to be less creative with proper names.

http://www.sme.sk/datahry/683/shortstoryLesserEvil.pdf

A fan-made translation, which was officially released some time ago by CD Projekt.

For the rest of the stories you'd have to buy the books. The first book has been published in the UK and will be published in the US next year. More books are forthcoming. You can read more here:

http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Witcher_series

Thanks for the info everybody, even Furia Sorry about being sarcastic earlier. Some of us don't know every detail about the games we play or don't know about every single character that was created before the game. I just play, enjoy and post interesting things I've seen in the game.

I'll be looking foreward to the forthcoming translations. I still like how the author threw in all kinds of references to other well known stories. I don't know if the Dan Brown reference was from the author or the devs but I liked it.

@magerette Nice avatar

I'm not quite in Act 4 yet… and I really enjoyed the story so far… but while the "fish people" and Cthulhu statues were ok by me as a tribute/hint to Lovecraft, finding the book about the Dagon which cites the Necronomicon already felt pretty cheap and out of place to me.

And you can KILL him?!? And now the Holy Grail?!?
Where the hell did Christianity come in?


I think they took "adaptation of books" a little too far. Or was this really in the original stories?

Funny, I particularly liked the way it lifted freely from just about anywhere, and the did whatever the hell it liked with the source material, often turning it upside-down and inside-out. Raymond Maarloeve anyone?