As part of my attempt to gain control over my unruly bookshelves, I’ve been tackling my Unread Reads. 

This year, I was super proud of reading 17 ‘bookshelf challenge’ books…until I realised that I’d 140 books bought, but never read in the house! 

Mostly, I’m just trying to get the numbers down and to clear space for books I love! 

Newly invigorated/horrified, I knew exactly what I’d be reading first. 

I’ve absolutely loved The Witcher series on Netflix and requested the books for Christmas…2019? – it’s all so far in the past, it’s hard to be sure of the dates! 

While I did read the two books of short stories that inspired the first series – The Last Wish and The Sword of Destiny – I stalled afterwards, focusing on LeedsBookClub choices instead.

However, season two will be starting in a week or so and I’ve my book club choices completed for the year, so this seemed like the perfect time to get back into the murky magical world of Geralt of Rivia, Yennifer and Ciri. 

Geralt, the witcher of Rivia, is back – and this time he holds the fate of the whole land in his hands …

For more than a hundred years, humans, dwarves, gnomes and elves lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over and now the races once again fight each other – and themselves: dwarves are killing their kinsmen, and elves are murdering humans and elves, at least those elves who are friendly to humans …

Into this tumultuous time is born a child for whom the witchers of the world have been waiting. Ciri, the granddaughter of Queen Calanthe, the Lioness of Cintra, has strange powers and a stranger destiny, for prophecy names her the Flame, one with the power to change the world – for good, or for evil …

Geralt, the witcher of Rivia, has taken Ciri to the relative safety of the Witchers’ Settlement, but it soon becomes clear that Ciri isn’t like the other witchers. As the political situation grows ever dimmer and the threat of war hangs almost palpably over the land, Geralt searches for someone to train Ciri’s unique powers. But someone else has an eye on the young girl, someone who understand exactly what the prophecy means – and exactly what Ciri’s power can do.

This time Geralt may have met his match.

AMAZON

The novel picks up almost immediately after the short stories, so I was quickly reacquainted with the primary characters and storylines. 

The author writes in a deceptively simple way, romping merrily through events and situations; the true significance of which often only become apparent later on, usually dropped casually in conversations. Often by Ciri! 

I also really enjoy that the titles of the books never seem to relate to the main story, until the very end. 

Absolutely recommend to fans of the tv series. I’ve no idea how faithful the games are to the books but I can’t imagine backstory would be a drag so will cheerfully recommend there also. 

My score? Probably a 7. (3.5 for writing and plot each). 

And here’s the season 2 trailer.