superNOWA, 1993
This will be a quick review, but I didn’t want to skip it because The Last Wish is one of the most fun things I’ve read in awhile. I love SFF and every time I get back around to reading fantasy, I ask myself why I don’t do it more often.
The Last Wish is one of two short story collections preceding The Witcher Saga written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. I’d never heard of the saga, but its been explained to me that it entered American popular culture with an extremely successful video game. I’m not a gamer but was told I would love the book, and I really did. As I was reading The Last Wish and thinking about how it was both serious and absurdly fun, I thought that it felt sort of like reading Lord of the Rings if it was written by Terry Pratchett. It’s not a perfect analogy, but I think helps indicate the tone you can expect from The Last Wish. I also enjoyed that there are elements that are reminiscent of familiar fairy tales—Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, etc.—but with distinct differences that clearly originate from a separate mythology. And of course, the writing is impeccable. I already have the next book of short stories and The Witcher saga on a shelf waiting for me to read.
Links: Goodreads | Andrzej Sapkowski | Buy it on Bookshop .org
Looseleaf 
Emily, it was fun to read your take on this book! My brother gifted me the book because he loves the games and the story and thought I might too, but the novel didn’t click with me on my first read, so I didn’t get very far in. I did really like the Netflix adaptation though–they had a lot of fun with it–so perhaps I’ll give it another try.
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