The Last Wish (1993)

Geralt - an edgy, mysterious white-haired swordsman with a dark side - battles against demons, vampires, assassins, mercenaries, and clichés while fighting off a bevy of Hot Topic babes after the mutagens in his pants if ya know what I mean and I think you do. But never mind all that! How about a round of cards? Gwent, specifically.

And so we come to Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series, the Wal-Mart Great Value brand of Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné series. While the specter of plagiarism has surrounded Sapkowski's work over the last several years -  let's just say there are more than a few passing similarities between Sapkowski's Geralt and Moorcock's Elric - it ultimately did not hinder my enjoyment of The Last Wish. Yes, it's slightly annoying that the author seems to acknowledge every other luminary of fantasy fiction as an influence except the guy he appears to be the most influenced from, but hey, he's not the only one to borrow from one of the best.

Bulwarked by a clever Chaucer-esque frame story, The Last Wish is a collection of short stories Geralt regales the reader with as he convalesces after a life-threatening injury at the hands (er... claws?) of a monster. Some of my favorites include "A Grain of Truth" - in which Geralt encounters a cursed bandit and the aforementioned vampire and pulls a dirty trick in order to break the curse afflicting the bandit - and "The Edge of the World" - in which Geralt and his companion Dandelion encounter fae creatures and witches in an eerie countryside setting. The prose eschews the grandiose in favor of uncomplicated brevity. Whether this is by design or a result of the original text being translated over from its original Polish language, I couldn't say, but in a genre rife with pretension, some simplicity in the writing style is usually a breath of fresh air.

Something that perhaps sets Sapkowski apart from the Moorcock comparisons are the stories of The Last Wish lean into a lot more dark humor, presenting what some might consider a satire of traditional fantasy fiction. Classic fairy tales are referenced often, yet their expected twists and resolutions are often inverted. The women are not always the damsels and fair maidens of fantasy yarns but power-hungry and selfish schemers. The protagonist is not a handsome, fearless hero ready to throw down for king and country, but a scarred, grumpy, blue-collar soldier of fortune who only does the monster slaying gig to earn enough coin to shelter himself and feed his alchemical addictions.

Definitely worth a look if you're curious or if you've already read Elric and you just don't have enough magic-wielding albino edgelords on your reading list.