In The Last Wish, Andrzej Sapkowski introduces readers to The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, a renowned hunter of monsters. His tale is told through a set of short stories tied together by an overlying plotline. The author has built a detailed and rich fantasy world, knit together tenuously by political alliances fraught with strife and populated by a varied cast of humans, other races such as elves and dwarves, and creatures of legend.

The pace of Sapkowski’s writing is engaging, beginning with adventure, then taking a step back every now and then for pieces of the narrative that provide peaceful interludes between the action sequences. Though this story serves as an introduction to the main character, the author avoids the plodding pace of a typical origin story by narrating short vignettes that give insights into different aspects of the character while maintaining the narrative.

Geralt himself is a major part of what makes this such a good book. He is an outsider who is feared and, in many places, disliked, but who provides a valuable service to the community. As the best fantasy writers often do, the author is able to use the protagonist’s inherent “otherness” to explore themes like loneliness and discrimination from behind the comfortable shield of fantasy. Geralt is a noble, brave, and witty character, and that makes it easy for the reader to enjoy accompanying him on his journeys. This book is full of mystery, humor, and magic. It is one that fantasy lovers should not miss.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  1 religious exclamation; 57 mild obscenities; 1 religious profanity; 16 derogatory names; 20 scatological words; 20 anatomical terms; 3 f-word derivatives. Note:  In addition, the following are used but not included in the tally: The word “bastard” is used in the correct way, to describe a child of unknown parentage; several uses of the British “bloody”.

Violence/Gore:  Several verbal threats; a report of executions; a few reports of suicide; a few reports of people killed by monsters; a few reports of murders; report of a town burned; a few reports of rape or attempted rape; a character hears screams and finds the results of a character killed by a monster; a few reports of torture; report of deaths in war; report of a fight; report of corporal punishment of a child; a crowd attempts to stone a character; a few fights with minor injury; one character bites another;a fight between a character and monsters with magic and bloody injuries; a few fights with swords and magic with bloody injuries and deaths;a character discovers gory corpses; a fight in which a character is wounded and a monster is killed, with bloody wounds described.

Sex/Nudity: Characters kiss a few times; a few instances of characters naked in a nonsexual context; a woman sleeps partially naked, no details; a character has a talisman with a phallic symbol; a few mentions of prostitution; prostitutes flirt with patrons at a bar; mention of impotence; a man talks in his sleep about how beautiful a woman’s breasts are; an allusion is made to oral sex; areport that a brother and sister have had sex; a few reports of rapes or attempted rapes; a few reports of couples having sex; it is implied that a woman sleeps with several men; report of a woman tortured while naked; report that a minor girl has had sex with an adult man; report that men want humanoid female monsters for sex;joke about a tapestry with sexual pictures;a female servant is naked; a woman is naked in bed and while bathing in front of a man, though she uses surroundings to obscure indecency; a woman’s clothing tears, revealing her breast;a man and woman have sex, without explicit details a few times.

Mature Subject Matter:

Incest (reported); rape (reported); suicide (reported); banditry; abortion (mention); war (mention); death.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adults drink alcohol.