Andrzej Sapkowski and The Witcher

With the Witcher currently in a news all over the place, I thought I'd ask a question about the stories it is based on. I know we have a lot of Europeans who regularly post on RPGWatch, so I was wondering if any of you have read any of Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher stories or novels, and if so what you thought of them. All of us who can only speak and read english will be getting a translation of 'The Last Wish' in April, so in anticipation of that and the game I'd love to hear what you think.

I read everything by Sapkowski apart from his book on Arthurian myths. "The Last Wish" is a very good anthology of short stories. There's another one, horribly titled "The Sword of Destiny" and a 5-book cycle, all about the Witcher. It's best to read the stories first.
I think one of the main strengths of his writing was his idea to introduce serious modern problems like racism and terrorism into a fantasy setting. The guy is quite inventive and I think all of the stories are definitely worth reading. He writes with great flair; the main worries I'd have about the foreign edition are about if AS' great style is not lost in translation. Some fragments of his books really shine as first-class literature. Frankly, I've never read a fantasy book with a battle description comparable to the one in one of the volumes of the cycle. Or having such a great spy character as Dijkstra.

Of course, there are some drawbacks; e.g. the number of innuendos to modern times may be too high for some people.

He recently wrote a trilogy taking part in Silesia during Hussite wars. At least the first volume was released in Germany. I liked the books, although opinions vary. Definitely too many deus ex machina twists, that's for sure.

Hi,

I have read his whole series where the witcher is the main character and I have to say that they are really good books. The feel that you get from the first 2-3 novels is quite raw and I personally like that. But I think that Elwro made some really good points decribing his novels and his writing. Deus-ex machina style twists and also a bit of romantic ballast are present but other than that all of his work is based on his believable world and there are some really classic moments. I especially like his description of sword-fights and melee in general. I really think that his books much excel here.
Anyways .. buy the translations .. read the books i can only recommend.

"The Last Wish" and "The Sword of Destiney" are available in german and I've read both books, they are a bit like a mixture of "Elric" and "Conan". Nice Storys, in modern Grey-tones

Does anyoen know if they are available in Dutch? because I am from belgium and interested in his books since I heared about the game

This may have been mentioned already elsewhere, but The Witcher game site has an English translation of the Geralt story "Lesser Evil" in pdf form, here is the link to it:

www.thewitcher.com/michau/monk/Lesser_Evil.pdf

I've also found this link to an article about Sapkowski, and at the bottom of the article there are links to an English translation of his short story "The Malady" in two parts. It's not a Geralt the Witcher story, but it is very good.

http://www.polishwriting.net/?s=author&c=sapkowski

I bought the English subtitled edition of the movie "Wiedzmin",
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300657/
which was translated to "The Hexer" for English release; apparently it's just cobbled together from episodes of the TV series based on The Witcher books, and it shows. I can't recommend the movie; it's not well edited and it just comes across as a mess. On the other hand, I've watched a few of the episodes of the TV show, which are being fan-translated into English, and they are pretty good for a fantasy TV show. It doesn't seem like they had a huge FX budget, and the computer animated dragon in one episode, while I liked it as a character, just looked... well, really mediocre. Some of the actors are engaging, others fall flat. The actor who plays Geralt looks good in the role, however. It's worth checking out; it's like a lower budget, slightly more cerebral, Polish, "Xena" sort of show. There are also some topless barbarian warrior ladies in at least one episode! Yowza!
I was thinking about buying a Polish edition of one of the Geralt books and trying to translate it in my spare time; I don't speak or read Polish, but I've managed to do 1/2 assed translations of other things with only the internet and a language-to-language dictionary before. I probably don't have time to do that for real, sadly. I hope the game creates enough interest in the English-speaking world that all the books will be officially translated.

Thanks for the link to the Witcher story, Black Hood. Quite a good read, and though the translation isn't especially slick or professional, it gives a good feel for the style, which I like very much. Looking forward to reading The Last Wish when it makes it out.
And to the game!

O.T.:
For those who read English and like well-written, graphic battle scenes, I recommend The Archer, by Bernard Cornwell. It isn't a fantasy, but a historical novel set in the Middle Ages concerning the wars between England and France.