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*＊✿❀ Maki ❀✿＊* (7 KP) rated The Warrior Heir (The Heir Chronicles, #1) in Books
May 3, 2018
[a:Cinda Williams Chima|125308|Cinda Williams Chima|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1291420167p2/125308.jpg] was my biggest takeaway from [b:The Way of the Wizard|8121665|The Way of the Wizard|John Joseph Adams|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1297656860s/8121665.jpg|12917149]. I absolutely adored the short story of how Linda and Hastings met, and knew that I had to read the actual series.
You can definitely tell that this was written a few years before the short story in The Way of the Wizard. The writing isn't quite on the same level - all of the key elements are still there, but in a rawer form.
That's not a bad thing. I'm not insulting the quality of the writing, at all. It was still a very enjoyable story, and the writing and the editing were solid. And I'm happy to watch the progression of the narrative, as it gets stronger over time.
...but. If I had read The Warrior Heir before I read "The Trader and the Slave", I probably would have enjoyed this book more than I did. Part of me kept waiting for the dark, grittiness that the short story had, and it never really showed up.
Were parts of The Warrior Heir heavy? Sure. There's a lot of double-crossing, morality, and self-sacrifice in there. But it wasn't quite the same.
Sorry for that slight detour there. I felt that, before I started talking about the book itself, I should explain the factors that went towards my final rating.
Because, in general, I loved this book. It was a lot of fun to read. I loved the "world" and the magic system, I loved the history and explanations of why magic works, and where it came from. The dedication to the magic system was very nice, and much appreciated in such an action-based fantasy book.
The main characters all managed to keep me interested in what was going on (even though there wasn't nearly enough Linda and Hastings in there for me), and the antagonists walked a delicate balance of being evil, and just doing what they thought would be best for themselves, or for those around them. Even some of the protagonists walked that line, which was <i>really</i> nice to see.
Morality - it's pretty important to the story.
There weren't really any surprises in the plot department. It was incredibly easy to guess the various "twists" the book had to offer. <spoiler>Especially anything having to do with Ellen.</spoiler> But personally, I was too distracted by the world-building to overly care about how predictable things were.
Because in Maki-land, well-established magic system > plot.
You can definitely tell that this was written a few years before the short story in The Way of the Wizard. The writing isn't quite on the same level - all of the key elements are still there, but in a rawer form.
That's not a bad thing. I'm not insulting the quality of the writing, at all. It was still a very enjoyable story, and the writing and the editing were solid. And I'm happy to watch the progression of the narrative, as it gets stronger over time.
...but. If I had read The Warrior Heir before I read "The Trader and the Slave", I probably would have enjoyed this book more than I did. Part of me kept waiting for the dark, grittiness that the short story had, and it never really showed up.
Were parts of The Warrior Heir heavy? Sure. There's a lot of double-crossing, morality, and self-sacrifice in there. But it wasn't quite the same.
Sorry for that slight detour there. I felt that, before I started talking about the book itself, I should explain the factors that went towards my final rating.
Because, in general, I loved this book. It was a lot of fun to read. I loved the "world" and the magic system, I loved the history and explanations of why magic works, and where it came from. The dedication to the magic system was very nice, and much appreciated in such an action-based fantasy book.
The main characters all managed to keep me interested in what was going on (even though there wasn't nearly enough Linda and Hastings in there for me), and the antagonists walked a delicate balance of being evil, and just doing what they thought would be best for themselves, or for those around them. Even some of the protagonists walked that line, which was <i>really</i> nice to see.
Morality - it's pretty important to the story.
There weren't really any surprises in the plot department. It was incredibly easy to guess the various "twists" the book had to offer. <spoiler>Especially anything having to do with Ellen.</spoiler> But personally, I was too distracted by the world-building to overly care about how predictable things were.
Because in Maki-land, well-established magic system > plot.
Ross (3282 KP) rated The Seventh Decimate : The Great Gods War Book One in Books
Jan 22, 2018
The main character (2 more)
The storyline
Everything else
1 dimensional short story that goes on too long
*** Disclosure: I received a free copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***
I haven't previously read any of Donaldson's work, though my Dad's unwieldy omnibus edition of the First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever has been in my pile for some time now.
The storyline follows Prince Bifalt journeying to find the sorcery that can undo his country's current plight (they appear to have lost all magical abilities, key to staying in their generations old battle with neighbours). It starts off in the moments before battle, with the prince teaching his comrades about the history of the battle in a very hard to believe section of "here's the backstory but isn't it good that I wove it into the dialogue". We are introduced to his brothers at arms and each of their quirks and peccadillos, which turns out to be a waste as they pretty much all die within the next 100 pages, whether they like horses or are womanisers or not.
The opening action is very gripping and filled me with hope for the book to follow, as Bifalt and his companions lead a special mission to assassinate the enemy's sorcerers with their previously unreleased rifles.
Thereafter the action pretty much dries up. What follows on Bifalt's quest is a nonsense 200 pages of journey through the back country with a thoroughly detestable character who suspects everyone except those who actually have a reason to be his enemy.
After days in the desert, he meets a nonsensical caravan of misfits that he manages to ostracise himself from by being himself.
What follows is a tedious nonsense of journey, discussion, treachery, intrigue and just general nonsense.
Donaldson has an annoying habit of occasionally following a line of dialogue with "What he meant was" to show what the prince is actually trying to ask but didn't. This gets very annoying very quickly.
The conclusion of the story can only be described as relief that it is over, no great revelations, no climactic sequence or discovery, just "that's that sorted then now send to publishers".
Having recently read a number of fantasy books told from numerous viewpoints and covering really epic storylines, to come to such a linear, one dimensional tossed away story as this from someone who is supposed to be one of the greats of the genre, it really was an incredible disappointment.
I shan't be reading the second or third books of the trilogy, and Thomas Covenant has just slipped down my pile a bit.
I haven't previously read any of Donaldson's work, though my Dad's unwieldy omnibus edition of the First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever has been in my pile for some time now.
The storyline follows Prince Bifalt journeying to find the sorcery that can undo his country's current plight (they appear to have lost all magical abilities, key to staying in their generations old battle with neighbours). It starts off in the moments before battle, with the prince teaching his comrades about the history of the battle in a very hard to believe section of "here's the backstory but isn't it good that I wove it into the dialogue". We are introduced to his brothers at arms and each of their quirks and peccadillos, which turns out to be a waste as they pretty much all die within the next 100 pages, whether they like horses or are womanisers or not.
The opening action is very gripping and filled me with hope for the book to follow, as Bifalt and his companions lead a special mission to assassinate the enemy's sorcerers with their previously unreleased rifles.
Thereafter the action pretty much dries up. What follows on Bifalt's quest is a nonsense 200 pages of journey through the back country with a thoroughly detestable character who suspects everyone except those who actually have a reason to be his enemy.
After days in the desert, he meets a nonsensical caravan of misfits that he manages to ostracise himself from by being himself.
What follows is a tedious nonsense of journey, discussion, treachery, intrigue and just general nonsense.
Donaldson has an annoying habit of occasionally following a line of dialogue with "What he meant was" to show what the prince is actually trying to ask but didn't. This gets very annoying very quickly.
The conclusion of the story can only be described as relief that it is over, no great revelations, no climactic sequence or discovery, just "that's that sorted then now send to publishers".
Having recently read a number of fantasy books told from numerous viewpoints and covering really epic storylines, to come to such a linear, one dimensional tossed away story as this from someone who is supposed to be one of the greats of the genre, it really was an incredible disappointment.
I shan't be reading the second or third books of the trilogy, and Thomas Covenant has just slipped down my pile a bit.
Blood Rage
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"Life is Battle; Battle is Glory; Glory is ALL" In Blood Rage, each player controls their own...
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Gareth von Kallenbach (971 KP) rated Shining Resonance Refrain in Video Games
Aug 14, 2019
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of JRPG’s, but I really don’t have any reasons why. Growing up I loved watching the Shogun Warrior feature length cartoons and I’m a huge fan of RPG’s in general, so you’d think they’d be right up my alley. I’ve tried and tried to figure out why I have such a hard time sinking into them, and while I have never completed a Final Fantasy game, I continue to buy them in the hopes that one of these days I’ll just get it. So, I’m probably not the first person that would come to mind to review a game like Shining Resonance Refrain, a game that was released exclusively in Japan on PS3 back in 2014. Yet here we are, 4 years later, with a version released for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch, with updated graphics and English voice acting.
Shining Resonance Refrain has you take on the role of a young man named Yuma who has been held captive and experimented on by the main antagonists of the game, the Lombardian Empire. Yuma possesses the soul of the Shining Dragon, the most powerful dragon in the land of Alfheim. The Lombardian Empire is attempting to gather all the souls of the long-forgotten dragons in an effort to break a stalemate between the waring countries of Astoria and the Lombardian Empire. The only thing standing in their way are Yuma, his dragon soul and a powerful set of weapons known as the Armonics.
Quests and exploration are key to moving the story along, with the main quests involving attempts to hinder the Lombardian Empire’s search for the remaining dragon souls. There are also side quests that help you earn money and experience for your characters. The quests are either your typical fetch type quests or the type where you go to this area, fight this major boss, and then return to the castle. The world is broken up into much smaller zones, representing numerous landmarks on the map. Traveling to a particular spot on the map means going from zone to zone until you reach your final destination. The zones are very small, so traveling between them isn’t a huge problem, but not being able to use fast-travel between the zones you have already explored means you will spend a lot of time going back and forth between your castle and your next quest. It isn’t a huge deal breaker in the game, but the areas aren’t always very interesting, and going back and forth amongst the same areas over and over can get old the further you get in the game.
Combat is a mixed bag as well. During your quests, you will encounter various creatures wandering the zones. The battles take place in real time and each character has a set of action points that are used for physical attacks and magic points used for your special abilities and “breaker” moves. As your character levels up, you gain access to different magical attacks, which you can swap out as you choose, but most of the time your battles are simply button mashing your way through them with little strategy involved. The battles are also extremely inconsistent, as battling the various creatures is almost too easy (even at standard difficulty) but battling the boss monsters is almost entirely too hard. There is a HUGE difficulty curve when fighting the boss monsters, to a point where I sometimes had to drop the difficulty to casual and still had to fight a boss 3-4 times to beat them. On standard difficulty, I’d typically give up after succumbing to the same boss repeatedly. Even in the later stages of the games the boss battles do not let up, but the normal battles are practically a cake walk.
In addition to your standard and magical attacks there is also a B.A.N.D special attack where you get additional powers depending on the character who initiates it. Some B.A.N.D attacks provide guaranteed hits, while others increase the damage of your magical attacks. On the left-hand side of the screen there is a bar with three levels that fills while you battle your way through the enemies. Each level increases the longevity that the B.A.N.D lasts, so it’s almost always preferable to save these special attacks for the boss battles. Yuma also has the ability to turn into the Shining Dragon who can release devastating attacks, however if your magic points drop too low the dragon goes into a berserker attack and will throw damage at friends and enemies alike. This is never good, so when playing as the Shining Dragon it’s key to turn back into Yuma before losing control.
Graphically the game is beautiful, and if anime or JRPG’s are your thing you will definitely appreciate the update to the original graphics. The graphics do stick closely to the standard JRPG tropes of ridiculously large weapons and warriors in short skirts, etc. so it looks like many of the other JRPGs on the market today. That’s not necessarily bad, it has just worn out its originality over the years. The sound can get extremely repetitive as well, especially in battle where your characters repeat the same catch phrases over and over again. Once again, that’s not to say that the sound is bad, but it gets old quickly. There are some other technical idiosyncrasies that were also particularly jarring. For example, if Yuma is killed in combat, you can run back to town with whichever character has taken over the “leader” role, but the minute you enter town, Yuma reappears as the controlling character. I get that he’s the main character and it doesn’t make much sense for the other characters to run around asking for quests, but his sudden reappearance even though you know he’s dead takes some getting used to.
So, is Shining Resonance Refrain a game that made me take another look at JRPGs? Well, yes and no if I’m being completely honest. It’s around 30+ hours for the main story and side quests and I’ll admit that the more time I spent with the game the more I enjoyed it. After about an hour of my mental block on JRPG games in general, I was able to get into the groove of things and power my way through it. That being said, I still felt the story was a little bit ridiculous and some of the characters really started to grate on my nerves. Even the main character Yuma tended to be a bit too wimpy for me. He can turn himself into the mightiest of dragons but doesn’t know if he can handle it, I often had the feeling that he should get over himself and embrace this incredible power. In the end, I really did enjoy it, once I overlooked a lot of it, and it actually did put me in the mood to go back and try one of the Final Fantasy games. I can’t say that Shining Resonance Refrain converted me to a diehard JRPG fan, but it certainly made me want to give them another try and that is a win in my book.
What I liked: Unique Characters, General feel of combat
What I liked less: Inconsistent difficulty, Repetitive phrases and sound effects
Shining Resonance Refrain has you take on the role of a young man named Yuma who has been held captive and experimented on by the main antagonists of the game, the Lombardian Empire. Yuma possesses the soul of the Shining Dragon, the most powerful dragon in the land of Alfheim. The Lombardian Empire is attempting to gather all the souls of the long-forgotten dragons in an effort to break a stalemate between the waring countries of Astoria and the Lombardian Empire. The only thing standing in their way are Yuma, his dragon soul and a powerful set of weapons known as the Armonics.
Quests and exploration are key to moving the story along, with the main quests involving attempts to hinder the Lombardian Empire’s search for the remaining dragon souls. There are also side quests that help you earn money and experience for your characters. The quests are either your typical fetch type quests or the type where you go to this area, fight this major boss, and then return to the castle. The world is broken up into much smaller zones, representing numerous landmarks on the map. Traveling to a particular spot on the map means going from zone to zone until you reach your final destination. The zones are very small, so traveling between them isn’t a huge problem, but not being able to use fast-travel between the zones you have already explored means you will spend a lot of time going back and forth between your castle and your next quest. It isn’t a huge deal breaker in the game, but the areas aren’t always very interesting, and going back and forth amongst the same areas over and over can get old the further you get in the game.
Combat is a mixed bag as well. During your quests, you will encounter various creatures wandering the zones. The battles take place in real time and each character has a set of action points that are used for physical attacks and magic points used for your special abilities and “breaker” moves. As your character levels up, you gain access to different magical attacks, which you can swap out as you choose, but most of the time your battles are simply button mashing your way through them with little strategy involved. The battles are also extremely inconsistent, as battling the various creatures is almost too easy (even at standard difficulty) but battling the boss monsters is almost entirely too hard. There is a HUGE difficulty curve when fighting the boss monsters, to a point where I sometimes had to drop the difficulty to casual and still had to fight a boss 3-4 times to beat them. On standard difficulty, I’d typically give up after succumbing to the same boss repeatedly. Even in the later stages of the games the boss battles do not let up, but the normal battles are practically a cake walk.
In addition to your standard and magical attacks there is also a B.A.N.D special attack where you get additional powers depending on the character who initiates it. Some B.A.N.D attacks provide guaranteed hits, while others increase the damage of your magical attacks. On the left-hand side of the screen there is a bar with three levels that fills while you battle your way through the enemies. Each level increases the longevity that the B.A.N.D lasts, so it’s almost always preferable to save these special attacks for the boss battles. Yuma also has the ability to turn into the Shining Dragon who can release devastating attacks, however if your magic points drop too low the dragon goes into a berserker attack and will throw damage at friends and enemies alike. This is never good, so when playing as the Shining Dragon it’s key to turn back into Yuma before losing control.
Graphically the game is beautiful, and if anime or JRPG’s are your thing you will definitely appreciate the update to the original graphics. The graphics do stick closely to the standard JRPG tropes of ridiculously large weapons and warriors in short skirts, etc. so it looks like many of the other JRPGs on the market today. That’s not necessarily bad, it has just worn out its originality over the years. The sound can get extremely repetitive as well, especially in battle where your characters repeat the same catch phrases over and over again. Once again, that’s not to say that the sound is bad, but it gets old quickly. There are some other technical idiosyncrasies that were also particularly jarring. For example, if Yuma is killed in combat, you can run back to town with whichever character has taken over the “leader” role, but the minute you enter town, Yuma reappears as the controlling character. I get that he’s the main character and it doesn’t make much sense for the other characters to run around asking for quests, but his sudden reappearance even though you know he’s dead takes some getting used to.
So, is Shining Resonance Refrain a game that made me take another look at JRPGs? Well, yes and no if I’m being completely honest. It’s around 30+ hours for the main story and side quests and I’ll admit that the more time I spent with the game the more I enjoyed it. After about an hour of my mental block on JRPG games in general, I was able to get into the groove of things and power my way through it. That being said, I still felt the story was a little bit ridiculous and some of the characters really started to grate on my nerves. Even the main character Yuma tended to be a bit too wimpy for me. He can turn himself into the mightiest of dragons but doesn’t know if he can handle it, I often had the feeling that he should get over himself and embrace this incredible power. In the end, I really did enjoy it, once I overlooked a lot of it, and it actually did put me in the mood to go back and try one of the Final Fantasy games. I can’t say that Shining Resonance Refrain converted me to a diehard JRPG fan, but it certainly made me want to give them another try and that is a win in my book.
What I liked: Unique Characters, General feel of combat
What I liked less: Inconsistent difficulty, Repetitive phrases and sound effects
Night Reader Reviews (683 KP) rated A Deadly Education: Lesson One of the Scholomance in Books
Sep 22, 2021
Rough start for a new series but shows promise
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik was given eighth place in the Goodreads choice awards for fantasy last year and has been nominated again this year. Unfortunately this book will not be receiving my vote although at this time I have not yet decided which book I will be voting for. This is the first book in a new series and I do have high hopes that future editions to the series will be better as it shows a lot of promise.
The basic idea here is that magical children are teleported away to The Scholomace for education and safety from the mals ( evil creatures attracted to the easy target of young magic user) though not all make it into the school. The school itself is dangerous as well yet even with the horde of mals waiting at the graduation gates to feast on everyone trying to leave the school once a year and the few who make it into the rest of the building the survival rate os those inside the school is still better than if they were left in the general magical population.
While completing school work is important it only because the school will attack those who don't complete their work the samation of alliances is almost more important. This is problematic thoug for those who don't come from an enclave and who are not interested n making friends in the first place.
What I liked about this book was that it is relatively unique. The fact that the main character actually goes through a very clear mental and maturity growth is a plus as well. She really improves as she learns about herself and her classmates. Unfortunately that is pretty much everything good I can say about this book. I enjoyed reading the book when I first started it but around halfway through it became clear that a lot of the book is repetitive. The book ended up becoming slow with the group just fighting off mals and not making much progress on the storyline for a while.it actually got to the point that I was about ready to put the book down.it is also rather predictable.
The ideal target audience for this book is teens to some young adults. I believe the book is too much for most readers younger than teens but at the same time it lacks the detail and depth needed to really capture the attention of older readers. I can only rate this book a 2 out of 5 at best with the hope that it is just a slow start to a good series.
For more reviews on popular books and independent authors check out these locations
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To see about having your book reviewed a message on any of the above platforms or email me at bookreviewsatnight@gmail.com
Thank you, Melissa
The basic idea here is that magical children are teleported away to The Scholomace for education and safety from the mals ( evil creatures attracted to the easy target of young magic user) though not all make it into the school. The school itself is dangerous as well yet even with the horde of mals waiting at the graduation gates to feast on everyone trying to leave the school once a year and the few who make it into the rest of the building the survival rate os those inside the school is still better than if they were left in the general magical population.
While completing school work is important it only because the school will attack those who don't complete their work the samation of alliances is almost more important. This is problematic thoug for those who don't come from an enclave and who are not interested n making friends in the first place.
What I liked about this book was that it is relatively unique. The fact that the main character actually goes through a very clear mental and maturity growth is a plus as well. She really improves as she learns about herself and her classmates. Unfortunately that is pretty much everything good I can say about this book. I enjoyed reading the book when I first started it but around halfway through it became clear that a lot of the book is repetitive. The book ended up becoming slow with the group just fighting off mals and not making much progress on the storyline for a while.it actually got to the point that I was about ready to put the book down.it is also rather predictable.
The ideal target audience for this book is teens to some young adults. I believe the book is too much for most readers younger than teens but at the same time it lacks the detail and depth needed to really capture the attention of older readers. I can only rate this book a 2 out of 5 at best with the hope that it is just a slow start to a good series.
For more reviews on popular books and independent authors check out these locations
https://www.facebook.com/nightreaderreviews
https://smashbomb.com/nightreader
https://nightreaderreviews.blogspot.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/40248897-melissa-espenschied
To see about having your book reviewed a message on any of the above platforms or email me at bookreviewsatnight@gmail.com
Thank you, Melissa
The Man Who Walked Through Walls
Marcel Ayme, Sophie Lewis and Yann Kebbi
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A collection of funny and fantastical short stories, Marcel Ayme's The Man Who Walked through Walls...
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Jewel Mania - The new match 3 sensation is here, with brilliant jewels in over 600 dazzling puzzles!...
Ross (3282 KP) rated Season of Storms in Books
Apr 23, 2018 (Updated Apr 25, 2018)
2-d characters (2 more)
fantasy-by-numbers
Frequent incongruent Latin/French phrases
More a set of short stories than a novel in its own right
* I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review. Formatting issues (many) have not been factored into the review *
To my knowledge, the books of The Witcher are split into the short story collection prequels (one of which I have read) and the full books (which I have not read). This book is somewhere in between being neither strictly a collection of short stories nor a focussed standalone novel in its own right. Chronologically, this book falls in between the stories contained in The Last Wish) though it is impossible to say quite where it falls (as mention of the stryga is made near the end, which begins the Last Wish I have to assume it comes after the flashback stories from that tome but before the overarching story linking them all).
It may be because I haven't read the full novels, but I find the Witcher to be a thoroughly bland and unexciting character and I have no connection with him. He has next to no personality and contributes nothing to the dialogue of the book. Similarly, all other characters are very disposable - they are either supposedly strong-willed sorceresses (who smell of flowers and throw themselves at the Witcher and are bedded instantly) or they are otherwise instantly forgettable.
I think Sapkwoski was trying to give the sorcerers a sense of academic snobbery but they frequently use Latin phrases, which just gets irritating very quickly. Similarly French words and phrases are thrown in willy-nilly without translation which gets annoying as well. This seems even more unusual when you realise the story was written in Polish and translated into English, with some parts kept in French or Latin. And then further when it is meant to be in a different world where French wouldn't be a thing.
The story essentially follows Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher) who loses his swords and goes on a quest to get them back, and just happens along the way to meet people who need his skills (like on Neighbours where one character leaves and another comes in through the door at exactly the same moment). This aspect makes me think this was meant to be a series of short stories stitched together. But unfortunately here those short stories are not finished up within themselves and you have a number of unsatisfying loose ends in the back of your head throughout.
As with The Last Wish, I found the ending very confusing and had no idea what had happened. It may be that other works fill in the gap and I will have that filled in time, but if so that makes this not a satisfying read in its own right.
Overall, I don't mind Sapkowski's writing in general, other than a few irritating bad habits and I like the overriding idea of the stories but find the execution, character development and overall world-building somewhat clumsy and throw-away. But as I say, this may be because (I think) I have read these in chronological order, rather than published order. I will fill in the gaps and work out if that is the case.
To my knowledge, the books of The Witcher are split into the short story collection prequels (one of which I have read) and the full books (which I have not read). This book is somewhere in between being neither strictly a collection of short stories nor a focussed standalone novel in its own right. Chronologically, this book falls in between the stories contained in The Last Wish) though it is impossible to say quite where it falls (as mention of the stryga is made near the end, which begins the Last Wish I have to assume it comes after the flashback stories from that tome but before the overarching story linking them all).
It may be because I haven't read the full novels, but I find the Witcher to be a thoroughly bland and unexciting character and I have no connection with him. He has next to no personality and contributes nothing to the dialogue of the book. Similarly, all other characters are very disposable - they are either supposedly strong-willed sorceresses (who smell of flowers and throw themselves at the Witcher and are bedded instantly) or they are otherwise instantly forgettable.
I think Sapkwoski was trying to give the sorcerers a sense of academic snobbery but they frequently use Latin phrases, which just gets irritating very quickly. Similarly French words and phrases are thrown in willy-nilly without translation which gets annoying as well. This seems even more unusual when you realise the story was written in Polish and translated into English, with some parts kept in French or Latin. And then further when it is meant to be in a different world where French wouldn't be a thing.
The story essentially follows Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher) who loses his swords and goes on a quest to get them back, and just happens along the way to meet people who need his skills (like on Neighbours where one character leaves and another comes in through the door at exactly the same moment). This aspect makes me think this was meant to be a series of short stories stitched together. But unfortunately here those short stories are not finished up within themselves and you have a number of unsatisfying loose ends in the back of your head throughout.
As with The Last Wish, I found the ending very confusing and had no idea what had happened. It may be that other works fill in the gap and I will have that filled in time, but if so that makes this not a satisfying read in its own right.
Overall, I don't mind Sapkowski's writing in general, other than a few irritating bad habits and I like the overriding idea of the stories but find the execution, character development and overall world-building somewhat clumsy and throw-away. But as I say, this may be because (I think) I have read these in chronological order, rather than published order. I will fill in the gaps and work out if that is the case.