I'm a recent convert to Sapkowski's universe. By which I mean that just this autumn, I started reading The Last Wish and ultimately ended up consuming 5 books in a few months; the two short story collections up to Baptism of Fire. I'm currently reading the Eye of the World so that I can watch the amazon show, but right after that I'm looking to finish the witcher saga.
I really like this universe. It's actually fairly counter-intuitive, since it's not all that original when you think about it. The short stories started off heavily referencing common tropes or well established stories and putting a twist on them.
Then it evolved and while The Blood of Elves was a slow read and ultimately not very eventful, it really picks off afterwards and things get larger in scale and impact.
Now, with this well-liked book series as the base for these modern adaptations (the games, the netflix show and now this), it's very easy to take the already established characters and tell their stories or expand on them.
The trouble is, they are already established. Choose that path, and you don't have much wiggle room if you're telling stories from a period that is at least somehow documented already. I feel like this is one such case.
Though I haven't finished the book series and I expect I might learn new things that make some of the things here less out of place, it still feels a bit... off?
The story itself, the animation, the visuals -- it's all very beautifully done and if nothing else, entertaining.
I can't help but feel that if they just told this exact story from an entirely different POV, this would have stuck so much better.
I get the temptation to tell Vesemir's story -- he's a liked character, especially so now that the third game came out and people who haven't read the books would also recognize and like the character.
But even acknowledging that, this entry is indeed entertaining and looks awesome. I'm not a big fan of animations, but for me, this really works because I know the world and thematically it really fits the universe. The story itself, if we disregard the characters involved, seems entirely on brand for the world and what we've seen in the books, for example. At least that's how I feel, but then again I haven't finished the book series yet, so that that as you will.
It was fun and exciting to watch, so I'll give it a 7. A lot of that is probably just the universe, that I'm presently consuming and loving, inflating the number, but that's sort of the point of making this in the first place, no?
I already played Thronebreaker after Baptism of Fire to get Meve's POV, even if not canon, and I'm looking forward to playing the main game series after I've read all the books.
This was a fun little journey along that path that I did like, so I would recommend anyone in similar position to do the same, if you're so tempted.
I really like this universe. It's actually fairly counter-intuitive, since it's not all that original when you think about it. The short stories started off heavily referencing common tropes or well established stories and putting a twist on them.
Then it evolved and while The Blood of Elves was a slow read and ultimately not very eventful, it really picks off afterwards and things get larger in scale and impact.
Now, with this well-liked book series as the base for these modern adaptations (the games, the netflix show and now this), it's very easy to take the already established characters and tell their stories or expand on them.
The trouble is, they are already established. Choose that path, and you don't have much wiggle room if you're telling stories from a period that is at least somehow documented already. I feel like this is one such case.
Though I haven't finished the book series and I expect I might learn new things that make some of the things here less out of place, it still feels a bit... off?
The story itself, the animation, the visuals -- it's all very beautifully done and if nothing else, entertaining.
I can't help but feel that if they just told this exact story from an entirely different POV, this would have stuck so much better.
I get the temptation to tell Vesemir's story -- he's a liked character, especially so now that the third game came out and people who haven't read the books would also recognize and like the character.
But even acknowledging that, this entry is indeed entertaining and looks awesome. I'm not a big fan of animations, but for me, this really works because I know the world and thematically it really fits the universe. The story itself, if we disregard the characters involved, seems entirely on brand for the world and what we've seen in the books, for example. At least that's how I feel, but then again I haven't finished the book series yet, so that that as you will.
It was fun and exciting to watch, so I'll give it a 7. A lot of that is probably just the universe, that I'm presently consuming and loving, inflating the number, but that's sort of the point of making this in the first place, no?
I already played Thronebreaker after Baptism of Fire to get Meve's POV, even if not canon, and I'm looking forward to playing the main game series after I've read all the books.
This was a fun little journey along that path that I did like, so I would recommend anyone in similar position to do the same, if you're so tempted.