Book Review
Title: Sword of Destiny (The Witcher Book 0.7) by Andrzej Sapkowski
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3.75 Stars
It has been a while since I read The Last Wish but that and Sword of Destiny are short story collections in the Witcher universe so I was looking forward to getting back into this before diving into the main series. We are continuing to follow Geralt on his witcher adventures before ethe events of the main series and in the first story The Bounds of Reason Geralt ends up meeting Borch and his two women, Tea and Vea after completing a job. They agree to travel together because Borch unlike a lot of others doesn’t dislike the witchers. They eventually end up on a bridge barred to them where Dandelion is also waiting to pass into the town but it has been set upon by a dragon. A true dragon is one of the only creatures that Geralt won’t touch but he wants to enter because Yennefer is there. They succeed in getting in but Yennefer wants nothing to do with Geralt and this could be because their relationship in The Last Wish ended on a very sour note but I am excited to see what goes down in the rest of this story. When they encounter the dragon it isn’t the one they were expecting as it is golden practically a legend and it won’t let them go any further. After thrashing the majority of the men with Yennefer’s help the dragon doesn’t want to harm them as it was only protecting the other dragon and its baby. We learn that the dragon is Borch as he can shapeshifts at will before he lets Geralt, Yennefer and Dandelion go it tells Yennefer and Geralt that they were made for each other but no children will ever come of their union but Yennefer refuses to give up hope of becoming a mother.
The second story is A Shard of Ice was an interesting insight into the relationship between Geralt and Yennefer. Both Geralt and Yennefer despite seeing themselves as incapable of loving because of what they are, love each other fiercely and bring out both the best and worst in each other. During a stay in a small town Geralt learns it is home to another sorcerer, Istredd who is a close companion of Yennefer’s and the men end up facing each other down as they both love Yennefer. Istredd has made an offer to Yennefer for her to stay with him permanently and he feels that Geralt is in his way. When Istredd confesses that he is also sleeping with Yennefer this hurts Geralt deeply and the pair have a heart to heart over it but the two men are going to fight over her. Yennefer takes the decision into her own hands and leaves the town because she explains to Istredd in her own way that she loves Geralt more and can’t stand to watch them fight which Geralt realises and leaves hoping Yennefer is still around even though he knows she won’t be.
The third story is Eternal Flame and through this story we get to see more of Geralt’s values as a witcher and a person. This story also introduces us to a lot of humour through Dandelion’s actions, the trouble they find themselves dropped into and Geralt’s deadpan nature. While this story wasn’t particularly action packed it was an interesting insight into Geralt as a character and how most of the trouble he finds himself in isn’t because of his profession he just gets dragged into it by people like Dandelion and how he just goes with the flow.
The fourth story is A Little Sacrifice began with the interesting relationship between a local duke and a mermaid and how Geralt was employed as a translator in order to resolve the issues between the couple. The job, however, doesn’t go as planned and Geralt doesn’t get paid but the same duke comes back to Geralt for help during a wedding Dandelion was employed to perform at in order to help kill the creature that killed an entire crew of pearl divers. The most interesting things about this story isn’t the monsters or Geralt’s job but the relationship between him and another bard at the wedding, Essi Daven. It is love at first sight between them but Essi can’t get through to Geralt because his perception of love has been warped by Yennefer. However, Dandelion comes to the rescue and helps the pair come to their senses and while they temporarily part ways both hope to meet again but it isn’t to be as only four years later Essi dies and Dandelion goes to bury her with only two things her lute and the pearl that Geralt gave her showing that her affections hadn’t changed in all those years. Honestly, this romance was 10 times better than anything I have seen between Geralt and Yennefer and I would have liked to have seen more of it.
The fifth story is the story the collection is named after, The Sword of Destiny and it was also the story that sets up the main series as Geralt is tasked as an envoy to travel into the sacred dryad forest, Brokilon. He is taken to the leader by Braenn but along the way the encounter a missing princess named Ciri who is a child of destiny. Through their encounter we learn that Geralt made Ciri’s parents swear vows which results in Ciri being a child of destiny so she and Geralt are bound together. By the time they get out of the forest Geralt should have taken Ciri with him especially considering that neither he or Yennefer can have children of their own but he refuses thinking it is the right thing to do because he leads a dangerous life but we know he is going to encounter this girl again in the future and I can’t wait to see it.
The final story is Something More and I wasn’t sure what to expect from this story after The Sword of Destiny. It turned out to be one of my favourite stories in the collection as it really sets up the events we are going to see and some of the events that is going to come. However, the most interesting thing for me was seeing a more human side to Geralt especially where Yennefer and Ciri are concerned and I have really high hopes for this series now. Even though The Last Wish and The Sword of Destiny are prequel story collections to the Witcher series they are easy to follow and understand without any prior knowledge of the series. They also do an amazing job of introducing us to the key characters and their histories before we getting into the main series so not as much world building will be needed there and I can’t wait to get into the meat of the series as soon as I can.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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