We journey with myriad interesting male dwarves, gnomes and assorted halfings with no sexual appeal. Plus, if the females are not attractive they rarely exist at all.

These novels need to be cut by at least 100 pages each just for pacing alone.įinally, his female characters never approach the dimensions and depth of many of the males. What Sapkowski, desperately, needed was an editor. The technique is as valid as it is venerable. In his novels, however, there is often endless exposition and long, LONG conversations among too, too many characters, many of whom are introduced long after Act I.Īnd just when matters FINALLY become interesting, he switches to another group of too many people, talking much too much in another over-described place, far, far away from events you've been reading about for the previous 50 pages. The tight plots, vivid portrayal of people and scenes employing such a clever economy of words, gripping fighting scenes with stark and often unexpected outcomes are close to brilliant. His strengths as a short story writer appear to work against him as a novelist. How bad could it be, you might wonder, if I made it through all of his translated novels, plus The Lady of the Lake which you can find in PDF format though, as yet, unpublished? Because there are wonderful moments of in all of his works.

While Andrzej Sapkowski is a splendid writer of short stories - as The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny prove - he is a mediocre novelist.

The tower of swallows andrzej sapkowski