Current Events > Finished there Witcher books and they were kinda bad... Spoilers

(+) Yeah! (+)

So a good while back after I went through The Witcher 3, I was interested in checking out the books since I thought the game was decent, s1 of the show was decent, and the general consensus among fans was that the books are better by far.

I went through first the short story collections, and they were fine, but then the main series just took a nosedive. It started off decent, but then it turned into a pretty weird, generic fantasy type thing with pretty bad characters. Geralt and his friends especially are just not very interesting? He's always an annoying prick and all his friends and lovers are like "he's irresistible", then at the end there's a bunch of interdimensional time travel and unnecessary loose ends like Ciri bringing the plague. And this is all not to mention that Sapkowski felt the need to describe in some detail several instances of her (a child) getting raped.

Agreed

That's what happens when the protagonist is a self-insert by a guy who wishes all women would fawn over him IRL.

Tbf the series is bad not just the books

I couldn't get through the first one.

Cthulhu_Fhtagn posted...

I couldn't get through the first one.

Yeah I talked with @GregsMedley about this a couple weeks ago, I got halfway through Blood of Elves, seemed like it dragged, and was very slow paced. I heard a lot of people praise it, so I thought it was a me thing, I wound up dropping it about 2/3 through, might still finish it just because of mild OCD but I don't think i'll keep reading even though I own the next 3. Interesting to see others kind of felt the way I did.

I picked up the X-Wing Rogue Squadron book and i'm like halfway through 400 pages in 2 nights.

That's kinda how I feel about them. Like, I like the overall story idea and main arc, but the writing itself if meh, the pacing is really bad and like the individual books are structured terribly, with most not really having a beginning/middle/end.

The short stories are fine though.

The books are famous but Im not surprised that the short stories are better then the full novels. I remember people saying the writer was a true asshole so if Geralt is his self insert that is no surprise to me.

Yeah I bought the 4 book set and i'm probably not gonna touch the other 3. Buy the first one and if you dig it, i'll mail you mine.

Yeah, it's one of the reasons why I hate that people bitched about the show not staying true to the books. The books sucked. Like the overall plot and narrative were mostly ok but there were huge tangents where people were talking about people from the past who themselves were talking about Geralt and co. Like just use a narrator's voice, don't complicate things by making 2 outside meta narrators. Plus the creepy rape stuff was not cool. Not to mention one of the plots involving said rape was entirely tangential and irrelevant to the plot other than to kind of explain what the Elder Blood meant.

Like i genuinely would prefer if the show deviated from the books. What I do like about it all is the setting. It's a fun world with a lot of neat Slavic folklore, which is why I was quite fine with s2 of the show doing a whole Baba Yaga thing. That fits into the universe. But I can very well understand why fans wouldn't like it.

I dunno, I think the concept of a witcher set in that universe is a great setting for a game, a monster of the week type show, heck even a pulpy fantasy series. It's just that the execution is a garbled and sloppy mess. It's funny that someone brought up the X-Wing series because while I consider those books to be quite pulpy and idk not "good", I think they're incredibly enjoyable for what they are. They don't try to be anything more and execute that really well. I suppose that's what I was hoping this Witcher series would be, too. Instead it made the second half of Witcher 3 seem like a well paced and tight adventure.

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When I say child here, I mean the age that she's supposed to be in the show i.e., young teen. But yeah don't worry, both instances she eventually gives in and enjoys it.

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Sucks is probably a bit harsh. At a minimum there is a lot of fun lore and world building. It's more of a messy not good.

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IMO yes. The short story collections are fine. I didn't read the stand-alone novel that's set before the series though. But the series imo is pretty crappy.
And yeah like Scazar mentioned, in like the 2-3 last books, the narrative all of a sudden shifts every now and then to like people in the supposed future having a history lesson, or excerpts from someone's memoirs, etc. It just feels out of place and quite tacky. And there are also some chapters where you get to follow insignificant side characters that don't really have any impact on the plot except to just explain in large detail some battles of a war that really doesn't matter much in the story. The last book in particular didn't feel very cohesive at all, and the way it was "open-ended" was more like Sapkowski couldn't be arsed to finish up all the threads he'd started.

Compsognathus posted...

Sucks is probably a bit harsh. At a minimum there is a lot of fun lore and world building. It's more of a messy not good.

Yeah and this is also a fair assessment. But I'd say you really don't need all the books for that.

I read them all about a couple years ago. For what it's worth, I thought the recent short story collection was decent, too, if you wanted to give it a try.

Anybody else who asks, I tell them to read the short story books and not to bother with the rest. Or not to bother at all.

I remember really liking them and reading them before the games came out

The plot sucks ass but the characters really shine. You won't enjoy it much if you like fantasy books that focus on a magic system or plot though

Witcher 3 was the GOTY and I don't read much anymore so idfc.

Well duh, whaddya expect from a series based on vidya gaems?

HairyQueen posted...

That's what happens when the protagonist is a self-insert by a guy who wishes all women would fawn over him IRL.

Ciri is the protagonist beginning after the short story novels.

God_of_6strings posted...

Ciri is the protagonist beginning after the short story novels.

I dunno about that. I'd she gets about equal attention as Geralt. She's definitely a protagonist. But I think it's hard to argue that Geralt isn't.

Jagr_68 posted...

Witcher 3 was the GOTY and I don't read much anymore so idfc.

Thanks for your valuable input. I thought it was decent but it kinda dragged on after a while. I've heard really good things about the DLC though.

I am picking them books up as they go on sale for kindle (under $5). Got the last wish, sword of destiny, & blood of elves so far.

Over 100pgs the last wish (geralt talkin to wizzy about renfri) and i like it so far

HBOSS posted...

I am picking them books up as they go on sale for kindle (under $5). Got the last wish, sword of destiny, & blood of elves so far.

Over 100pgs the last wish (geralt talkin to wizzy about renfri) and i like it so far

You're at the peak imo. But definitely read on for as long as you like it.

Its crafts a cool world with potential but yeah, the books are not good.

Yeah I lost interest very quickly after the short stories.

HairyQueen posted...

That's what happens when the protagonist is a self-insert by a guy who wishes all women would fawn over him IRL.

There is very little romance at all in the Witcher novels, and honestly Geralt isn't even the real protagonist of several of them

Anyway I agree OP. The short stories are pretty good, especially the ones sold in the Sword of Destiny compilation. When it comes to the novels they are incredibly poorly paced. The story he wanted to tell could have been told in about half as many books as he put it in.

IDK why anyone would read the Witcher in this day and age.

I played some of the Witcher 3 and it was pretty good, but it's obvious what the series is. The video game literally gets the acclaim it gets because it gives you the experience of a smutty fantasy novel as a video game. Once you have the ability to bring that to life with visuals for the sex scenes, and make the fighting interactive, why would you turn to a sub par written story about a fairly one dimensional character? It's like people who think Dresden Files is high art, but comic books literally exist and Jim Butcher just wanted to do an MCU/like fantasy novel series.

is it true that geralt is weak af in the books?

why does everyone wank him to be above comic book street tiers (like cap america and batman)?

Ratchetrockon posted...

is it true that geralt is weak af in the books?

why does everyone wank him to be above comic book street tiers (like cap america and batman)?

i dont think ive ever seen someone saying he's on that level but i guess i tend to stay out of lame ass death battle conversations.

he's got abnormally fast reflexes and movements to the point where he can take on monsters and groups of trained fighters on in a fight. he's not on the level of someone like captain america, no. in like the second novel he gets in a hand to hand fight with someone who just beats his ass and breaks his leg with an iron rod

I've read that the English translations are inferior to the original Polish text, but I don't know Polish so I have no way to confirm that.

I only literally just started the first one, but it seems... fine? seems kind of like generic fantasy, but I at least know who Geralt is, what he's trying to do, and what the current like, goal for him is.

Maybe it'll get worse when I'm more than like 30 pages in, but so far I don't really see the problem. Though I don't quite see why it would be that popular yet.

scar_the_1 posted...

Thanks for your valuable input. I thought it was decent but it kinda dragged on after a while. I've heard really good things about the DLC though.

I know the sophisticated snob inside us wants us to feel accomplished reading a book over playing a video game just for the sake of the source material originating from that but what I was kinda getting at is that there's no shame in just loving the game's narrative and disregarding the book series.

CDPR's writers did an incredible job with their own adapted stories, it is what it is.

Ratchetrockon posted...

is it true that geralt is weak af in the books?

why does everyone wank him to be above comic book street tiers (like cap america and batman)?

Nah. He's still superhuman. But he's not invincible. He does do a lot of pirouettes and semicircles though.

Weird, I remember liking them overall. I will say that the short stories are much, much better than the novels.

MarcyWarcy posted...

i dont think ive ever seen someone saying he's on that level but i guess i tend to stay out of lame ass death battle conversations.

he's got abnormally fast reflexes and movements to the point where he can take on monsters and groups of trained fighters on in a fight. he's not on the level of someone like captain america, no. in like the second novel he gets in a hand to hand fight with someone who just beats his ass and breaks his leg with an iron rod

Oo thanks for the info

and yeah people say a lot of stuff about geralt. they mainly wank his speed. I believe it has to do with them just taking figurative language literally. seems to happen a lot in battleboard communities. I've seen people scale Geralt up to supersonic speeds w/ lightning-timing reflexes. something like that lol.

Proto_Spark posted...

I only literally just started the first one, but it seems... fine? seems kind of like generic fantasy, but I at least know who Geralt is, what he's trying to do, and what the current like, goal for him is.

Maybe it'll get worse when I'm more than like 30 pages in, but so far I don't really see the problem. Though I don't quite see why it would be that popular yet.

Why even comment 30 pages in? You've read virtually none of the book.

Jagr_68 posted...

I know the sophisticated snob inside us wants us to feel accomplished reading a book over playing a video game just for the sake of the source material originating from that but what I was kinda getting at is that there's no shame in just loving the game's narrative and disregarding the book series.

CDPR's writers did an incredible job with their own adapted stories, it is what it is.

That's not it at all. Playing the game and watching the series, I thought the setting was really nice and wanted more. So I was pretty excited about there being like 8 books worth of content, and pretty disappointed when it all kinda went to shit. There's nothing "sophisticated" or snobby about it. I've long since given up on snobby reading, now I mostly read crap that scratches some itch of being part of a large, easily digestible fantasy/sci-fi series. For example, I recently went through the Dresden Files. I think they're pretty crappy books, but I enjoyed them anyway. Diverse enough character gallery, interesting world borrowing from all kinds of folklore, formulaic books (which is a good thing for that series). I was hoping the Witcher series could be something similar, instead it just feels like Sapkowski is a hack who is trying too hard.

scar_the_1 posted...

When I say child here, I mean the age that she's supposed to be in the show i.e., young teen. But yeah don't worry, both instances she eventually gives in and enjoys it.

Um what ?!, that is beyond fucked up, sexual assault is not ok and the books having her give in and enjoy it tells me the writer is one twisted sick fuck.

MabusIncarnate posted...

I picked up the X-Wing Rogue Squadron book and i'm like halfway through 400 pages in 2 nights.

Great choice.

RiKuToTheMiGhtY posted...

Um what ?!, that is beyond fucked up, sexual assault is not ok and the books having her give in and enjoy it tells me the writer is one twisted sick fuck.

Yeah. It was a pretty big wtf moment when I read it.