You invariably desire to row upstream and piss in the wind. It had to end badly. Know that today, you have pissed into a hurricane.
The Lady of the Lake
by Andrzej Sapkowski
Genre: Adult Fantasy
About: The last book in the epic Witcher series. Ciri is finally to understand her destiny, the war with Nilfgaard is to come to a close, one way or the other, and the fate of the world will be decided by the choices our heroes must make.
The Good
Sapkowski is a master at giving distinct point-of-views. We see the world and the story through so many different eyes, and whether it's a quick visit or a lengthy one, you really get to know the characters. You smell and taste their world and feel each of their emotional beats - I cried at one point, and very nearly did in other parts too. The character journeys really came together and even characters who I didn't quite understand their purpose in previous books, I suddenly felt their importance in this one. How the author made me care about so many characters, and how real their experiences felt, is what made this series so enjoyable to read.
The Bad
War and politics. A running theme of the series has been the very visceral and detailed chapters devoted to battles and battle strategy. In this book we're given a chapter entirely on one (apparently important) battle, seen through the eyes of, I think, a commander, a soldier, another commander, a medic and a historian? It's a lot of eyes on one battle, and although I thought the medic POV was very clever and I cared about that one, I also think I could have appreciated the battle well enough from a single paragraph. The same goes for the detailed passages on treaties and successions. Because the main characters have such epic journeys, and this is the end of their road, I wanted the focus to be entirely on the main cast.
The Somewhat Iffy
Pretty much every woman Geralt has every encountered in this series has fallen in love or lust for him. The same goes for Ciri. Sure, they are the main protagonists, and I'm also guilty of falling in love with them, but at the same time it felt a little tiresome that everyone seemed to have such an intense pull towards them. Almost felt a bit of wish fulfillment on the author's part.
Also while I liked the ending (and no spoilers here), I did find myself with questions still. Maybe I need to re-read it as it's possible I missed something, but there was one plot point in particular concerning elves and Ciri that did not feel resolved to me.
Overall
I loved this series so much. This is fantasy as it should be: full of destiny, humour, friendship, lots of blood and a good amount of sex. Ciri is a princess turned badass, Geralt is a mutant turned more human than humans, and Yennefer is a power-hungry bitch turned sassy mum. Loved the journey, can't wait to go on it again one day.
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