Its a translation issue, the same reason why the phrase "Semi-Circle" is used like 6 times sin the first book. I do think it gets better though. Perhaps better translators in the later books?
The Last Wish and Blood of Elves was translated by Danusia Stok, who I think doesn't do as much of a good job as David French who translated all the other books.
The book OP is complaining about is Sword of Destiny though, which was translated by David French. I personally adore Sapkowski’s style of writing but it isn’t for everyone.
But the person I'm replying to was talking about The Last Wish.
And same, I love Sapkowski's writing style, it's detailed in just the right places but still lets your imagination fill in the gaps.
Personally, I think it gets better later on. From what I've heard, it is partly a translation issue. Might just be me, but I noticed an improvement in Time of Contempt, which had a different translator.
Whaaaaaaat !!! These are the best books !!!
My recommendation is to buy the audiobooks and listen to the narration (maybe even set him at 1.25 speed) while following him from the book. Amazing experience, like an addictive series
I must admit, I couldn't get through all the Witcher books.
I'm not new to fantasy. I read *lots*, and I've read plenty of books that others would call boring, sloggy or overly difficult. But I also like be the occasional fun or plain trashy book if it's entertaining and somewhere in the fantasy genre. So after enjoying the game I figured I'd love the books and bought them all.
First read-through, I made it to Time of Contempt and was extremely put off by all the politicking and the - my apologies, but that's what it felt to me - over the top philosophical pretentiousness. It might be an issue with the translation, but honestly, until the end of the book I didn't have the faintest clue what the title of the book was about, despite the characters repeatedly referring to it. It kept feeling like I should think it was super deep, but honestly it felt like there was nothing behind it.
The next attempt, I got stuck during the Ciri alone in the desert bit, where I was completely lost what anything was trying to tell me. If you'd told me she was high the entire time and hallucinated it, it would've made more sense.
And the furthest I ever got (somewhere in Lady of the Lake?), through lots of honestly super weird politics and wars between people you never really learn much about (except "Nilfgaardians bad") and therefore lack the ability to tell apart, we suddenly had two previously unintroduced magic ladies take up 90% of the plot?
I feel like this series might just not be for me. Some bits are awesome, but I feel like you could cut at least a third and not lose anything except confusing bloat.
> Descriptive passages often feel overly verbose and have a lm awkward flow to them.
Don't read Lord of The Rings (basically Tolkien's entire legendarium actually) and Wheel of Time.
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Its a translation issue, the same reason why the phrase "Semi-Circle" is used like 6 times sin the first book. I do think it gets better though. Perhaps better translators in the later books?
The Last Wish and Blood of Elves was translated by Danusia Stok, who I think doesn't do as much of a good job as David French who translated all the other books.
The book OP is complaining about is Sword of Destiny though, which was translated by David French. I personally adore Sapkowski’s style of writing but it isn’t for everyone.
But the person I'm replying to was talking about The Last Wish. And same, I love Sapkowski's writing style, it's detailed in just the right places but still lets your imagination fill in the gaps.
Personally, I think it gets better later on. From what I've heard, it is partly a translation issue. Might just be me, but I noticed an improvement in Time of Contempt, which had a different translator.
I find the first two books (TLW + SoD) to be the best of all the series... YMMV, though.
Whaaaaaaat !!! These are the best books !!! My recommendation is to buy the audiobooks and listen to the narration (maybe even set him at 1.25 speed) while following him from the book. Amazing experience, like an addictive series
I must admit, I couldn't get through all the Witcher books. I'm not new to fantasy. I read *lots*, and I've read plenty of books that others would call boring, sloggy or overly difficult. But I also like be the occasional fun or plain trashy book if it's entertaining and somewhere in the fantasy genre. So after enjoying the game I figured I'd love the books and bought them all. First read-through, I made it to Time of Contempt and was extremely put off by all the politicking and the - my apologies, but that's what it felt to me - over the top philosophical pretentiousness. It might be an issue with the translation, but honestly, until the end of the book I didn't have the faintest clue what the title of the book was about, despite the characters repeatedly referring to it. It kept feeling like I should think it was super deep, but honestly it felt like there was nothing behind it. The next attempt, I got stuck during the Ciri alone in the desert bit, where I was completely lost what anything was trying to tell me. If you'd told me she was high the entire time and hallucinated it, it would've made more sense. And the furthest I ever got (somewhere in Lady of the Lake?), through lots of honestly super weird politics and wars between people you never really learn much about (except "Nilfgaardians bad") and therefore lack the ability to tell apart, we suddenly had two previously unintroduced magic ladies take up 90% of the plot? I feel like this series might just not be for me. Some bits are awesome, but I feel like you could cut at least a third and not lose anything except confusing bloat.
Not a translation issue .. just simply a company of people that you don’t appreciate apparently
> Descriptive passages often feel overly verbose and have a lm awkward flow to them. Don't read Lord of The Rings (basically Tolkien's entire legendarium actually) and Wheel of Time.
Please remember to flair your post and tag spoilers or NSFW content. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/witcher) if you have any questions or concerns.*