The Last Wish

By: Andrzej Sapkowski

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's Summary

Geralt of Rivia is a witcher. A cunning sorcerer. A merciless assassin.

And a cold-blooded killer.

His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world.

But not everything monstrous-looking is evil, and not everything fair is good...and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

The international hit that inspired the video game The Witcher.

©2008 Andrzej Sapkowski (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Better than the show, of course!

I became invested in The Witcher after watching the netflix show and wanted more. i knew about the game, but had no idea there was a book series until a post online told me not only that it existed, but the order itself. So here's me, a thirsty mfer wanting more Geralt content and diving head first into this series.

Intro to the Witcher

Overall, an entertaining read/listen. I enjoyed the short stories of adventures bookended by a larger story. The reader was very good. My main issue is that there is way too much exposition, with only brief moments of actual action.

Interesting Start to a Series

At this point I am not sure if I will listen to the rest of the series. I chose the book mostly due to my experience with the games and it was enlightening to get a clearer perspective of the history of Geralt and how he met Yennifer. The story itself was mediocre, characters were not developed enough to draw me to the next book and the story jumped around too much. That may just be preference.

Narrator was good with separation of character voices being fairly clear and well formed accents. Areas of the recording were poorly edited although most of it sounded smooth.

Would recommend to people familiar with the games.

Terrible narrator

The narrator has the pace of William shatner putting strange pauses and inflections in the middle of sentences then speeding way up and slowing way down unnecessarily

I regret getting it. buy the book.

love the story. hate the narrator, totally took me out of the story. buy the physical or ebook.

Book starts great, gets boring. Narrator is A++

Alright. Spoilers, I guess...

I was looking forward to the Netflix series, but figured I would check out the books first. This one is tough because it started out SO INTERESTING. You've basically got this masterless samurai who's roaming from land to land and in and out of fairy tales. For me, this is a recipe for success. And then you throw in like, having to deal with the ethical repercussions of magic and human depravity? YES.

And then in the last quarter of the book, we get introduced to the sidekick bard and the uninspiring love interest.

First off, I think every bit of my issues with the devolution of the story could have been fixed with LESS EXPOSITION. Second, the idea that women have to enpretty themselves when they become sorceresses because that's how the trade works just doesn't make a lot of sense. Are you going to these people because they're pretty or because they can do the job? Come on. If women want to be pretty, that's fine, but it sounds stupid to say that in order to perform abortions, you have to be pretty. It's like saying all doctors have to be beautiful to find patients. It sounds dumb because it is dumb. Third, you just didn't need this sidekick to humanize Geralt. He was doing fine on his own. He was doing BETTER on his own. I don't even know why he's taken up with what amounts to a stray puppy who doesn't even listen to Geralt in matters of magic.

I mean, yes, this was written in the mid 80s and has all the trappings of a mid 80s fantasy story. I clearly set myself up for disappointment. It's not that I'm against romance. It's that this one was poorly set up and booooooooooring to listen to. I'm like, fine. Go have your weird belligerent sexual tension and then have sex. It's whatever. I'm just here for the narrator.

Oh. The reason I finished the book was the narrator. SO FREAKING GOOD.

Fantastic! I feel lucky to have found this book.

If you could sum up The Last Wish in three words, what would they be?

The Last Wish is enchanting and clever. The stories are nonlinear, but the links are easy to follow. I fell in love with Geralt and his story, but I was totally won over by the reinterpretation of familiar fairy tales in the Last Wish and in Sword of Destiny.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Last Wish?

The whole book was memorable- love how Sapkowski incorporates complicated questions about morality, religion, diversity, progress, and love into the stories and the characters. Geralt never disappoints with his perspective or his choices.

What about Peter Kenny’s performance did you like?

This was the first book I listened to that Kenny performed, and now I am choosing books based on his narration-- he's a great performer. I can't believe he actually does all of the voices, each character has a unique and recognizable voice-- even when you don't encounter them for several chapters, they're consistent. I'm sure the books are great to read, but Kenny's performance adds a layer of magic.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. I usually listen to books while I do chores like laundry and dishes-- my house was spotless by the time I finished this book. I am so glad it's a series so I can go right to the next one.

captivating.

This was my first foray into the tales of Geralt of Rivia, and I do not regret it one bit. The story is well written, suspenseful and engaging. the characters diverse, colorful and relatable. The voice acting in this audiobook captures the tone and emotion of the narrative perfectly, and portrays the characters superbly and believably.

Love the book

Well written and translated. this book was a collection of short stories to introduce the witcher and his background. I will listen to and read the entire series now, couldn't put this book down.

A Stunningly Amazing and Unique Novel

The first book about the one-of-a-kind character, by the name of Geralt of Rivia. If you're not the type to read the physical book, you can instead buy the audiobook which just came out. If you're not into books at all, go play one of the games. I'd recommend the second or the soon-to-be-released, third installment of the award winning game series. Personally I love story of The Witcher so much that I wish to do it all. Both the books and the games, or anything else to come out. I highly recommend this book to anyone who's a fan of any novels such as Game of Thrones or even just fantasy at all.
The narrator has a great voice and does a superb job of expressing all of the characters, emotions and attitudes very well. The book starts off rather blunt, with an interesting sex scene between Geralt and a Water Nymph. The scene previously mentioned turns out to be a dream, but such scenes only help you to better understand the Witcher. The Last Wish relates to A Song of Ice and Fire very much in the manner of gruesome and violent fight scene as well as a few intimate sexual moments. However unlike George R.R. Martin's masterpiece this astonishing story has a wider variety of majestic yet wild beasts and monsters. These are just some of the reason why shortly after finishing the audiobook it has become one of my favorite series and I plan to read the others.