Review: The Witcher Series by Andrzej Sapkowski

Book Reviews

21 Oct

Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher follows Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster hunter travelling through a violent, politically fractured fantasy world where the humans are very often more dangerous than the creatures he’s paid to kill. As the story expands, Geralt becomes intertwined with the lives of sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg and Ciri, a young princess whose extraordinary heritage makes her the focus of prophecy, politics, and war. The books move from short-story collections into a larger saga (followed by two prequels), mixing fantasy adventure with morally complicated characters and questions about prejudice, power, and choice.

I absolutely fucking loved this series.

One of the themes I found most interesting is destiny. Perhaps a cliché? I honestly don’t know.

Destiny follows Geralt and Ciri almost constantly, but I never felt that Sapkowski was simply arguing that everything happens because some mystical force has already written the ending.

If anything… I took the complete opposite message from it.

There might be fate. There might be coincidence. There might even be those strange moments where the right people somehow appear in the right place at exactly the right time. But ultimately, our choices still matter.

We create so much of our own destiny.

That idea feels incredibly relevant outside fantasy worlds. We spend so much of our lives wondering whether we’re supposed to become something, meet someone, or end up somewhere. The Witcher continually asks what happens when prophecy collides with individual choice and whether being told who you’re destined to become means you actually have to become it.

Ciri is probably my favourite example of this, and unsurprisingly, she’s one my favourite characters. So many people want to define her by her bloodline, abilities, or supposed destiny. Yet, so much of her story is about fighting to become a person rather than somebody else’s prophecy.

My other favourite character is Regis. This is partly because he beautifully complicates the series’ recurring question of what actually makes somebody a “monster.” In a world obsessed with categories and definitions, he’s another reminder that morality is considerably messier than labels.

Sapkowski’s writing itself is impeccable. I loved his use of metaphor, imagery, and symbolism, particularly because the fantasy frequently becomes a way of talking about very real political and social issues. War, racism, nationalism, bodily autonomy, persecution, and inequality repeatedly sit underneath the monsters and magic. One example that particularly stood out to me occurs in Baptism of Fire, when Milva considers terminating her pregnancy. The characters explicitly discuss the decision as hers to make, with bodily autonomy treated as a right rather than something belonging to the men surrounding her. I found moments like this remarkably progressive, especially considering much of the saga was written during the 1980s and 1990s. Sapkowski doesn’t seem afraid of allowing fantasy to become political. My reading of the books is firmly pro-choice and broadly progressive, even when the world he creates is deliberately ugly, prejudiced, and cruel.

And somehow, decades later, those themes still feel painfully current.

Would I recommend The Witcher?

1000%

If you want simple heroic fantasy where good people fight bad people and everyone fits neatly into their assigned role, this probably isn’t the series for you.

But!

If you like complicated characters, political commentary, moral ambiguity, beautiful imagery, and books that use fantasy to ask uncomfortable questions about the real world, I absolutely hands-down recommend it.

There are monsters everywhere in The Witcher.

The clever part is that Sapkowski rarely lets us assume we know which ones they are.

About the Author

Andrzej Sapkowski

Andrzej Sapkowski is a Polish fantasy author born in 1948 who studied economics and business before the success of his Witcher stories turned him into an internationally recognised writer. His work has received multiple major fantasy awards, including five Janusz A. Zajdel Awards and the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2016.