Paperback, 409 pages
English language
Published Jan. 6, 2009 by Orbit.
The New York Times bestselling series that inspired the international hit video game: The Witcher. For over a century, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves have lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over, and now the races are fighting once again. The only good elf, it seems, is a dead elf.
Geralt of Rivia, the cunning assassin known as The Witcher, has been waiting for the birth of a prophesied child. This child has the power to change the world - for good, or for evil.
As the threat of war hangs over the land and the child is hunted for her extraordinary powers, it will become Geralt's responsibility to protect them all - and the Witcher never accepts defeat.
The Witcher returns in this sequel to The Last Wish, as the inhabitants of his world become embroiled in a state of total war.
I don't read much Fantasy so I'm not sure how this compares to the rest of the genre. I enjoyed this book a great deal. I found it gritty in a much more pleasant manner than something like Game of Thrones.
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Blood of Elves is the first book of the Witcher series that is not an anthology of short stories about Geralt of Rivia. In fact, the book is hardly about Geralt at all. In the previous anthology we met Geralt's Destiny for the first time: Cirilla of Cintra, lost after Nilfgaard invaded Cintra.
In Blood of Elves we learn what's become of Ciri. Found by Geralt, she is brought to Kaer Moerhen, the Witcher keep, to train as a witcher. But Ciri carries the blood of elves, the Elder Blood, in her, giving her huge magic capabilities. Geralt has her brought to a temple of Melitele (which we already were introduced to in The Last Wish) so that his estranged lover Yennifer can train her.
That's pretty much all that actually happens in this book. The plot moves at the speed of a glacier. But inbetween this, we learn more …
Blood of Elves is the first book of the Witcher series that is not an anthology of short stories about Geralt of Rivia. In fact, the book is hardly about Geralt at all. In the previous anthology we met Geralt's Destiny for the first time: Cirilla of Cintra, lost after Nilfgaard invaded Cintra.
In Blood of Elves we learn what's become of Ciri. Found by Geralt, she is brought to Kaer Moerhen, the Witcher keep, to train as a witcher. But Ciri carries the blood of elves, the Elder Blood, in her, giving her huge magic capabilities. Geralt has her brought to a temple of Melitele (which we already were introduced to in The Last Wish) so that his estranged lover Yennifer can train her.
That's pretty much all that actually happens in this book. The plot moves at the speed of a glacier. But inbetween this, we learn more of the world of the Witcher that is so familiar from the video games. The increasing attacks by the scoiatel elves. Racial tensions and pogroms, as this is a world full of racism of humans against all other races. Political maneuvers of the kings and emperors and wizards of this world. Everyone is trying to find Ciri or use her, in order to come out on top, while rumors of ancient elven prophecy about the end of times are spreading.
As someone who has extensively played The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt that follows up on the story of the books, it was a delight to learn of Ciri's childhood.
I enjoyed it a lot, despite how little actually happened.
