“Well, what can I say, it’s a base world,’ he finally muttered. Seriously, a few days have passed since I read this short story, and all I remember now is only him being infuriating. I like Dandelion in the TV show adaptation and the games, but here? Nope. Yabbering, yabbering, yabbering, like we have to pay attention to this pitiful guy. Dandelion in Eternal Fire has a mouth of an intolerable Donald Duck here. The third short story, Eternal Fire, on top of being one of the most boring stories I have read, somehow, has also made me incredibly dislike Dandelion. Honestly, I dislike her even more now after reading A Shard of Ice. Not in the games, and certainly not in the books so far. I need to note, and I know this will sound like sacrilege, that I am not a fan of Yennifer. Coming into this book from the games and the TV show adaptation, it actually felt cringe to read their bickering and flings. The main point of these two stories is simple: Geralt and Yennifer fight like teenage YA characters. Although these two were not boring to read, they were also frustrating. Let’s start with the first two short stories: The Bounds of Reason and A Shard of Ice. And I can’t even claim that I loved the last two titles they were alright, but not amazing. What caused my mixed feelings on Sword of Destiny was due to my dislike of the first four out of six short stories here. But that, in essence, IS what a collection of short stories mean. Everything felt more random and fragmented in Sword of Destiny. In The Last Wish, in the present time frame, we have Geralt recovering, and the content told in this time frame chapters reflects the short story we will get to read. It is six short stories put into this book. Unlike The Last Wish, there doesn’t seem to be a coherent sense of continuity between the stories contained in this collection. “There is never a second opportunity to make a first impression.” However, I felt so mixed about this collection of short stories. But still, I expected more out of it because I enjoyed reading The Last Wish, and of course, I love the video games adaptation so much. I fully understand that technically this is Sapkowski’s first published collection of stories in The Witcher Saga even though it chronologically takes place after The Last Wish. I have heard many mixed things regarding the main novels of the series, especially in its ending, but tons of praises seem to have been given to the first two collections of short stories. I’ll be lying if I say I’m not worried about how I’ll fare with the series after reading Sword of Destiny. Sword of Destiny is a huge step down from The Last Wish. Genre: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy

The witcher book sword of destiny