 Hey guys, it's Liana and I'm here today to talk about The Witcher series by Andrey Sapkowski. Yeah, it's a lot of books. And I've read them all, but not kind of all in one go. I read these in 2018. And then this year, I read Tower of Swallows in 2019. And I finished it this year and then I just finished Lady of the Lake. And this is a lot of freaking books. So I don't think I need to hold them up. You know what we're talking about. I have not read Season of Storm. That's the only one that I haven't read. That one came out very recently and it takes place before even The Last Wish. It's like a pre-pre-prequel. So I will get to that at some point, but I regard this as kind of like the official Witcher series as it was until very recently. So yeah, what did I think of it? I have extremely mixed feelings about it. And even my history of pissing off hardcore fans of things, I anticipate that whatever I say in this video, I'm going to piss somebody off because I did not think it was perfection. So you know, come at me and tell me I'm an idiot woman. Go for it. That's what you all like to do. I thought it started out really strong. And then the ending is where I started to feel mixed about it. Overall, I would say that I think it's a good series. Overall, I would say that I do not regret reading it at all. And I do recommend the series to people like without reservations, I recommend it. But in terms of enjoyment of the reading experience and in terms of the strength of the writing, I feel like it tapered off towards the end. I was really into it. I really loved The Last Wish and the sort of destiny. I loved Blood of Elves. I love Time of Contempt. I love Baptism of Fire. And then Tariff Swallows, I was pretty bored. And then Lady of the League, I was just kind of scratching my head a lot. And not because, honestly, I was confused and not, I don't mean I was confused. Like I didn't understand it. I just kind of didn't understand why I was being told things. When I was being told them, in the order I was being told them, or like why it was important to know them at all. Like I understood what was going on. I was just like, why are you telling me this? I don't get why, not that I don't get it. It's a really long series and there's a lot to it. So I, this video can't, wouldn't even be spoilery if I wanted it to be because like to go into spoilers for this, what is five core books and then the two prequel kind of novella bind up type short stories situation because that's kind of if you don't know anything about Witcher series, the official kind of saga starts with Blood of Elves, then it's Time of Contempt, then it's Baptism of Fire, then Tara Swallows and the Lady of the Lake. So those are like the five core books, but you're supposed to read The Last Wish and The Sword of Destiny before Blood of Elves. So I've read all of those and I've heard people complain that The Last Wish and The Sword of Destiny feels disjointed because it's kind of more a series of vignettes and short stories kind of introducing you to the concept of what a Witcher is and introducing you to the world of the Witcher and kind of the various characters that come into play at some point, the places and the politics. It's kind of an introduction into the world without having really an overarching plot and I didn't mind that at all. I enjoyed it because I really liked the world and I really like Geralt's character and I was into it. It had a lot of dark humor in it and I didn't mind that it was seen kind of directionless because it was kind of monster of the weak type set up which it was fine with. And then the core books that take you on this saga that do have an overarching plot that begins with Blood of Elves. At first I was into it. At first this core story had my attention and interest and you still had the kind of monster of the weak type situations here and there, but I really loved getting to know the characters more. I to this day, when I talk about this series with people, when I try to convince them to read it or I talk about what I loved best about it, one of the things that I loved best about it was Geralt with Little Ciri, the rough and gruff and over the hill warrior witcher raising a little precocious princess. It's so funny and also so authentic and genuine and and I that I loved so so much and I'm very upset that in the show Ciri is already basically an adult when Geralt meets her because you're not gonna get Geralt and Little Ciri which is I fucking love it. I love it so so much. Yeah, so there was a lot of things about the series but other than that too that I liked. There's so many female characters featured prominently in the story as significant political movers and shakers as some of them are conniving, some of them are benevolent, some of them are kind, like there's a as great a variety in the representations of females as there is of males which is refreshing and fantasy in particular especially a Polish fantasy written in the 90s. If anyone if I was gonna give anyone a pass or kind of not representing females all that well, I would probably give something written in the 90s in Poland to pass but I didn't need to give this a pass because women are strongly featured, heavily featured prominently and frequently featured in this series. They are significant. They're not just like in there to have a token female. They're not just in there to have a token damsel like there are so many female characters in this in this series and I love the shit out of that, like the fact of that. Again, they're not all the same. There's a huge diversity, it's not like they're all schemers or all anything. They're complicated and varied just like male characters which is a good job. Again, a lot that I like about this series, I really enjoy the juxtaposition of Geralt with Dandelion. That's funny just like I mean it's funny in the show but it's different in the books because Geralt is different in the books and I didn't really mean to make this a video comparing the book to the show but now that the show is out I can't not do that. Geralt to me is not like a hot guy like he is on the show because he's played by Henry Cavill and Henry Cavill don't get me wrong he is fine and he looks great as Geralt. Sure but it doesn't look like Geralt to me. To me the person who should have played Geralt to be the way that I pictured Geralt would be Carl Urban. If you're not familiar with Carl Urban he's the actor, he's one of the lead actors in The Boys which is the Amazon show and he's also Bones in the the movie versions of Star Trek by JJ Abrams. He's also in Lord of the Rings the actor who plays Elmer so he's been in some other stuff you may have seen him. He particularly his character in The Boys you just put a white wig on that give him a sword instead of a gun. That's Geralt, that's how I pictured him. Kind of gruff and a little bit uncouth and just more grizzled really really grizzled. Henry Cavill yeah they grizzle him up a little bit but he's still too pretty like he's really really pretty you know what I mean. That's kind of one of the things that I loved about this book series too is that Geralt's character he isn't a star-eyed heroic noble knight figure like you get in a lot of heroic traditional fantasy he's also not which you find in Abercrombie where in Abercrombie books everybody is just kind of like a shit human who has like no moral compass whatsoever. Geralt has a moral compass it's just his own moral compass and he doesn't really give a shit about what your moral compass he has his own ideas of what's right and wrong. That can make him appear to have no moral compass when you don't agree with his decisions or you don't get why he's making the decisions he's making but it's not like he is heartless his just his position on things is his own position on things and he's not naive and he's not idealistic but he does have a sense of right and wrong that his own sense of right and wrong and he kind of lives by that and he's not gonna patiently explain it to you he's not going to respect your position on things he's not that kind of guy either so I just I found Geralt's character to be a lot more layered and interesting than he seems to be on the show so far and his character the fact that he you know he does sleep with a lot of women in the books there's a lot of sex in the books surprisingly a lot of sex in the books but it's not like a romance novel type of sex and it's not like Abercrombie sex either because there's sex in Abercrombie books and he just suggests as grim dark and like yikes as all the battle and the blood and the violence. The sex in the Witcher books is sometimes romantic sometimes not sometimes extremely like idealized and magical and sometimes kind of because you felt like it so so Geralt does sleep with a lot of women in the book or in the books plural and I feel like I've heard people complain that they don't like that about the portrayal of his character where like all the women are just like falling over themselves to sleep with him because that's not really how it came across to me it just came across to me as a lot of powerful people who all have urges and needs and Geralt is you know a virile man and he's there and these women it's not like they're lusting after him only but you know he's interesting and he's exciting and he's physically powerful so why the fuck not it didn't strike me as like these all these damsels who are just like so like wetting their panties over Geralt it was more like other strong female characters seeing this strong male character and you know why not it felt pretty balanced and equal to me I didn't feel like it was sexist I guess it's what I'm trying to say it didn't feel sexist because the women were also sleeping around with dudes other than Geralt it's not like he's the only one getting laid around here so yeah all of the complicated interesting characters and there's a lot of like complicated interesting politics and and world building the way the magic comes into it the way that this is getting into a little bit something spoilery so I guess warning but there is kind of almost like a his dark materials parallel universes type thing that kind of comes into it which is kind of when it started to lose me but I still think it's a cool concept but I don't know that to me I don't know that Andrei Sapkowski knew exactly what he wanted to do with that as a concept as a it seemed to me that it was thrown in there as like a isn't that interesting just on its own and it is but like what's the point of that because it does kind of begin to cross over and bleed over and into making you ask questions about what universe this is taking place in or not taking place in which again as a concept yeah cool but I don't think enough was done with it to justify having it in there except I don't know if that's fair to say y'all probably already shitting on me in the comments were saying that but whatever that's how I felt about it a lot of people don't like yennefer and I don't get why gerald is so into yennefer specifically however I never have a problem with that like people complain about name of the wind and say they don't get like foots into denna and people complain about the gentleman bastard series and say they don't get why Locke is so into sabbath I don't care I'm not the one that's into those women it's just important to the character and so if it's believable to me that gerald is into yennefer I don't have to love yennefer he loves yennefer so it's a story about him not about me so I don't have to think she's amazing I don't have to be in love with her it's significant to Geralt's character that he's in love with yennefer and it defines a lot of his choices and it doesn't have to make sense to me love doesn't make sense so yeah so I don't have a problem with that like I don't I don't see what's so great about her but I don't need to see what's so great about her so I don't care if that makes sense it's it doesn't bother me that Geralt's in love with yennefer like great that's who he's in love with fine Yennefer's character is again a layered and interesting and complicated character which again I think Andrew Sapkowski handles women fairly well in this series not flawlessly but fairly well and series character I liked a lot at first but the story stopped being about Geralt right around Tower of Swallows and Lady of the League and became kind of entirely about Ciri and Ciri is important of course she's important and I I want her to be prominently featured in the story and she was prominently featured to begin with it was always clear that she was linked with Geralt the child surprise linked by destiny blah blah like we know this but it got to the point where towards the end of the series I was like why is Geralt even here why even have him at all why call this the winter series because he's hardly in it and I guess that's kind of my issue with it I was like then I felt a little bit cheated in terms of the naming of the series I was like why aren't why don't you call this like the Chronicles of Princess Cirilla or something because it's more about her than it is about Geralt Geralt's just like also there and in the way that it keeps being forced down our throats that they are linked by destiny and how important Geralt and Ciri are like in terms of fate and destiny I by the end I was like I yeah they ended up being tied but not in a way that really it didn't live up to all the build up because the books all from the beginning are building up this this destiny this fate that they're all marching towards where Geralt and Ciri are inextricably linked and it's just like at the end I was like are they linked they were around each other a lot and they ended up doing stuff that affected the other but so by the end of the books I was starting to miss Geralt I was like where the fuck is Geralt I thought this was the Witcher series where is the fucking Witcher and I it's not like I didn't want Ciri in it I didn't want it to be like 80% Geralt with like Ciri also there but it turned into 80% Ciri with like Geralt also there I wanted it to be more even it could be if it's the Witcher series and it's about Geralt which is apparently what it's supposed to be according to how it's named and how it's sold and how it's pitched um maybe make it 60 Geralt and like 40 Ciri you know like where is the Witcher so overall I enjoyed the series overall is a good read overall it's doing some really interesting things with magic and real building and politics and there were times again towards the later books where it wasn't even about Ciri it was not about Geralt or Ciri we would off-road into like other parts of the world where it's just like suddenly giving me a bunch of politics and history lessons on other parts of the world which is significant to what's generally going on and into the diplomatic and political and battle decisions that are taking place in the world that affect Geralt and Ciri it was just kind of so much off-roading into not our main characters that it made me feel quite detached and even the way that it's told even when we are talking about Geralt and Ciri the narration could feel quite detached at times so that I guess was somewhat of a criticism but for the most part that didn't bother me really only started to bother me in the later books when I kind of lost the feeling of being connected to this story and being connected to these characters and the way that I felt very connected and really interested and very invested I was very into it in the beginning into Geralt's character into Ciri's character into seeing how they were linked into seeing where all this is going into the politics into the history but it's just kind of like a bit like with George R R Martin's books which is kind of again how I feel about them and feel free to shoot on me for this too I feel really connected to George R R Martin's characters in the beginning books but then by the time we get to like Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons it's just like so all over the place that I'm just like who am I following anymore do I care where are my main characters that's and then the again without spoilers the way that the series ends is it's the best word it's a bit underwhelming again and that's more because of how the series itself keeps building if the series didn't so frequently talk about fate and destiny and where all this is leading then it wouldn't matter to me because again I love Abercrombie and Abercrombie books he seems to take a perverse pleasure in ending things in a way that you're just like what that's how it ends what the fuck I love Abercrombie books so it's not a problem for me but if a book's gonna keep telling me that destiny and fate and destiny and fate are like such a big fucking deal and that this is the witcher series and destiny and fate and then by the last book I'm just like sorry what destiny what fate where's the fucking witcher so again overall I think it's very interesting and unique and pretty exceptional series honestly there's a lot of stuff that Andrew Sapkowski has done here that is incredible like Tolkien level complexity to world building like Dordar and Martin level of complexity of family trees and lineages and interweaving of destiny and whatever like it's a lot there and overall I'm impressed and in the beginning books was also very much enjoying it it seemed to me to kind of get away from him and you can even kind of see that when you look at the books and you look at how fucking long Lady of the Lake is this compared to the earlier books it just started to feel like he had too many threads and too many ideas that he hadn't had time to explore yet and needed to like get in there to the point where I was like you've lost the plot can we get back to the main plot so yeah it was stuff like that where it's just like you are spending so much time on this other stuff now that you've you're kind of losing me and you need to get back to the main story which is again how I feel about feast for crows and dance with dragons with song of ice and fire I'm pointing this way because that's where my song of ice and fire books are behind me so again to sum up overall I think there's a lot to like here and I am very impressed with the the characters he's written the prose he's written a lot of good humor honestly there's a lot of really you know kind of dark gallows humor in here which is my taste and I really like it a lot of interesting weaving in of other folklore and fairy tales and familiar concepts and kind of taking familiar concepts and turning them on their head he does a lot of like subversion of traditional depictions of fantastical and fantasy and and fairy tale type characters and creatures having something like a vampire and then doing things with it that are unexpected and that subvert your expectations for what a vampire is supposed to be in a story or taking traditional fairy tales like getting in the beast and kind of flipping them on their head and making turning them into a grim dark adventure for girls like there's a lot in there in this series that I really really like that I'm really impressed by and that's why I continue to recommend this series but by the end it gets a bit long and it gets a little bit kind of wrapped up in itself too much and I think it could be tightened a bit because he's also publishing all these other kind of offshoot novellas and things like that so I feel like if there's this there are I can see why some of the things that are being kind of told like mixed in to like Tower of Swallows and Lady of the Lake where we've suddenly left both Geralt and Ciri and Yennefer and we're not with any of our main characters anymore and we're learning about some other part of this world and some other history about this world I see why you kind of feel like the readers need to know about this I just feel like there are more organic ways to deliver this information without having to completely take us out of the main story for history lesson is kind of how it feels like I just feel like it could be tightened up a bit and if you wanted to have all that extra content where we're actually seeing these events and actually being told about these events you could release a companion book I've said this I've criticized other books and said that an author should probably have done that and I have been called a dumb female and many worse things for saying that but that's how I feel and I think that's what would improve the books for me other people think these are perfect the way they are so whatever let me know in the comments down below if you've read the Witcher series if you have just watched the show and we're thinking about picking up the books if you have just played the games and we're thinking about picking up the books I have never played the games I did watch the show I watched the show after having read everything apart from Lady of the Lake and then read Lady of the Lake so my image of this world and these characters was formed well before the show came out which is why I wanted to in the show I could enjoy the show for itself but the show isn't really anything like I pictured not the character is not the setting not really any of it so the show is fun and I enjoy the show but the show to me is almost nothing to do with the Witcher books because it's so different anyway yeah let me know your thoughts in the comments down below I post videos on Saturdays sometimes Wednesdays so like and subscribe and I'll see you when I see you bye