Review: Baptism of Fire, by Andrej Sapkowski
by
Stuart Holland
The Witcher books are strangely good at very specific things that you don’t really think about in other books. In this one, for example, there is a chapter where a bunch of the characters get drunk. And I realized while reading it that it really was quite a believable portrayal of actual drunkenness, which isn’t something you see a lot. Books talk about it, but don’t show the meandering dialogue of it. It was a fun one.
That aside, in this book things are starting to point toward events that connect up to the bits of Witcher canon that I recognize from having played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (and not its predecessors, an uncharacteristic turn of events for me to have jumped ahead). Again, the Witcher books lean on dialogue where most other fantasy would have instead used prose, and it makes them feel very different.
From my prior information, I did have knowledge about Regis () as soon as we encountered him, though for the characters that reveal came much later. At first, Milva’s willingness to help Geralt seemed strange. But now that I’ve reached the end of the story, I understand why she did it.
At the end, the turnaround where . And it was interesting to see that link up with the Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales game as well (which I have not actually yet finished).
Overall I enjoy the Witcher books and will keep going. They don’t blow me away, but they are also fascinating in a weird kind of way.
