The Tower of Swallows

By: Andrzej Sapkowski

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's Summary

The world is at war and the prophesied savior is nowhere to be found. The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, races to find her in the fourth novel of Andrzej Sapkowski's groundbreaking epic fantasy series that inspired the hit Netflix show and the blockbuster video games.

The world has fallen into war. Ciri, the child of prophecy, has vanished. Hunted by friends and foes alike, she has taken on the guise of a petty bandit and lives free for the first time in her life.

But the net around her is closing. Geralt, the Witcher, has assembled a group of allies including Dandelion, Milva, Regis, and Cahir, to rescue her. Both sides of the war have sent brutal mercenaries to hunt her down. Her crimes have made her famous.

There is only one place left to run. The tower of the swallow is waiting...

Witcher collections:

• The Last Wish
• Sword of Destiny

Witcher novels:

• Blood of Elves
• The Time of Contempt
• Baptism of Fire
• The Tower of Swallows
• Lady of the Lake
• Season of Storms

Hussite Trilogy:

• The Tower of Fools
• Warriors of God

Translated from original Polish by David French.

©2016 Andrzej Sapkowski (P)2016 Hachette Audio

Name change?

In the previous 4 books a characters name was pronounced Dan-dil-li-on. In this book it is pronounced Dandelion, like the flower. It's just slightly annoying, since it is the same narrator.

Sapkowski does it again

Another wonderful entry in this fantastic and criminally underrated fantasy epic. I'm reminded again that Peter Kenney is one of the best (and certainly the most versatile) narrators I've ever heard.

Awesome!

Don't listen to all the reviews that had complaining and whining, because this book was everything it was supposed to be and honestly yes there wasn't tons of action but if that's all your looking for then go play the game and stop complaining! But if your a true fan of The Witcher series and want light shined on all those unanswered questions from the game series and if your looking for the complete story then this will be for you!

One Problem

I love this book; however there is one single problem with the performance that annoys me. In the past few books Peter Kenny has pronounced Dandelion as Dan-dill-eon, but in this one he switched to dandy-lion. It's minor but it annoys me.

Not as enjoyable as first three

I'm writing this prematurely as I'm still listening. Not sure why the poet's name is now pronounced 'Dandy-lion' when first 3 books called him 'Dan-Dilly-on'. Also, the storytelling from different story tellers (narrative within a narrative) is getting very annoying, and seems pointless.

awesome

Gets a bit slow in some chapters. But overall a very enthralling tale. a wonderful read

Mediocre Writing

I LOVE this series. I am enthralled by the idea of Witchers, and I am in love with the characters. I started playing The Witcher 2, then I began reading the books and playing The Witcher 3. I really really want to like these books, and I have enjoyed most of them, but the honest truth is that this one is really not that great. The writing feels lost, ambling around without direction, constantly jumping scenes, and forgetting about Geralt altogether about half way through the book. His quest is pointless anyway. Literally. As in he has no idea what he's doing, and the book admits it.

Sometimes the narration of an event just jumps around. Same event, different narrators from different times. Then there's this build up that always starts with the same words and goes nowhere "if someone looked into the cottage, they would have seen an ashen haired girl..." it says it like 7 times, and it's a full paragraph of text. Everytime you hear it you think, oh shit, someone's going to be there soon! But nothing ever happens. It feels like the author was bored and just decided to jump around and experiment with the story from different angles, then decided to throw the whole mess together and call it a book.

It gets really interesting near the end, but then it's over. There's little resolution, and half the characters are lost in limbo. Who know where the hell Geralt is. I get that it's trying to set up the next book, but the ending scene is strangely flat. There's little to suggest doom or hope, it just ends.

And part of you is grateful that it's over.

Weakest of the Series

I struggled to finish this as it is the least compelling of the previous books.

TV show good. Books Not.

I am giving this book 1 out of 5 stars, because that is the percentage of this book that was worth listening to, and at the end it all felt like a complete waste of time. I am very dissapointed with the whole series, and angry I waisted 5 credits on it. 
The main characters were okay. I even liked Ciri and Geralt a bit, but Yennifer's character was selfish and annoying. As for the rest of the characters, the book jumps around so much I couldn't keep any one straight. That and it was so boring it took me months to finish them, which is saying a lot, because I normally fly through books. I only finished them, because I spent so many credits on them, and I desperately wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Mostly it just drug on, and when something interesting did finally start to happen, the story would switch to another character. Often extremely boring ones that I couldn't even keep straight. I would not recommend this series to anyone. I don't feel like the author had any kind of plan when writing this series so it just darts all over with no real conclussion. I kept hoping things would tie together and the end would make it all worth it. It doesn't.

I disagree with other negative reviews

I love the series and author. I read many reviews of this book posted on Audible and so I thought about the critical negative opinions. My opinion is to disagree. When there is world building of any kind it can be for some not as fun, but this book did not labor so harshly in world building, it was all in context and enjoyable. For those who feel the "points of view from around the Witcher world" in this book made you yawn, go read crap teenage scifi. Lol. Great book. Highly recommend.