Several years later, Dandelion could have changed the contents of the ballad and written about what had really occurred. He did not. For the true story would not have move anyone. Who would have wanted to hear that the Witcher and Little Eye parted and never, ever, saw each other again? About how four years later Little Eye died of the smallpox during an epidemic raging in Vizima? About how he, Dandelion, had carried her out in his arms between corpses being cremated on funeral pyres and buried her far from the city, in the forest, alone and peaceful, and, as she had asked, buried two things with her: her lute and her sky blue pearl. The pearl from which she was never parted. Screening the Call: Calanthe makes it clear she'd rather kill Geralt than let him take Ciri away to become a witcher. Despite this, Ciri still ends up in Geralt's care, because You Can't Fight Fate.

Geralt meets with Istredd, who confides that he loves Yennefer and proposed marriage to her, but she asked for time to think about it. Istredd believes that Geralt's presence makes her decision difficult, and wishes for Geralt to leave and never see her again. Istredd insists that he's a better mate for her than Geralt, as witchers do not actually feel emotions. Geralt insists that Yennefer loves him, as she slept with him the night before. Istredd smugly replies that she slept with him that morning. One-Gender Race: Dryads from the titular short story are downplayed version. They still need a male mate, but their offspring is always female. And they don't mind raising human girls as their own or outright brainwash pre-teens to bolster their numbers. Unlike The Last Wish, there doesn't seem to be a coherent sense of continuity between the stories contained in this collection. It is six short stories put into this book. 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. Everything felt more random and fragmented in Sword of Destiny. But that, in essence, IS what a collection of short stories mean. What caused my mixed feelings on Sword of Destiny was due to my dislike of the first four out of six short stories here. And I can't even claim that I loved the last two titles; they were alright, but not amazing. Dramatic Irony: A Little Sacrifice has a very minor and plot-irrelevant example Played for Laughs: Dandelion reacts with disbelief when Geralt informs him high and low tides are caused by the moon. A Shard of Ice - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Yennefer and Geralt angst (with hints of a certain infamous stuffed unicorn 🦄 )Sword of Destiny is similar to Sapkowski’s The Last Wish in that they’re both anthologies following the exploits of Geralt of Rivia. Sword of Destiny continues with the monster-of-the-day presentation that The Last Wish had. Dandelion is again at Geralt’s side for most of his adventures. Sometimes the two travel around together and other times they happen to encounter each other. I love when Dandelion is with Geralt because his levity and banter are a nice foil to Geralt’s seriousness. It’s also interesting to see the two getting on with women because while Dandelion is always trying to get women, Geralt can’t seem to get rid of them. The Polish game publisher, CD Projekt, created a role-playing PC game based on this universe, called The Witcher, which was released in October 2007. There is also a mobile version of the game which has been created by Breakpoint Games and is being published by Hands-On Mobile in Western Europe,Latin America and Asia Pacific. Geralt doesn’t try to attract women, he’s still too caught up on Yennifer, but they all throw themselves at him anyway. Something about his quiet power and complete confidence draws them in and convinces them that he’s worth chasing. I think that they secretly think that they’ll be the ones to finally capture his heart. So when it turns out that he will return their physical advances but never the emotional ones, they always break. Geralt leaves a string of broken hearts behind him without even trying. It’s sad. Both for the women and for him. After all, Geralt is always alone and sad because of how Yennifer toys with him, but he can’t change how he feels for her, and so he can’t try with anyone new. Joey Batey as Jaskier (aka Dandelion) in The Witcher season 2 (Netflix) How Sword of Destiny ties to The Last Wish The next morning, Geralt meets the pompous warrior Ivo Mirce (a.k.a. "Cicada") who works for the alderman Herbolth, who pays Geralt his fee for killing the zeugl but subtracts a small tax. Herbolth also mentions that Yennefer has been in Aedd Gynvael many times before to visit Istredd. As Geralt leaves, Cicada harasses him.

I am quite happy that I enjoyed those two books before the main series, I mean usually short story collections don’t work for me for some reason but those ones did and those introduced the characters so now it will be easier to read the main series! During the journey it has become increasingly clear that, this being Brokilon, Ciri will likely never be permitted to leave. So now, in addition to his original message, Geralt must now speak with Eithné about Ciri's fate as well. The queen of the dryads is proud and determined, not to mention particularly unsympathetic towards the humans who have relegated her people to one tiny patch of forest.

Tropes found in the book:

I think I need to mention that the translator did a very good job and translator efforts usually go unnoticed but I think that would not be fair here. Another thing I should mention is that Sapkowski has the typical white male voice of fetishizing women and describing their round heavy breasts *face palm* which I understand for a book published in 1992 but I don’t quite like! I hope the later books are better in that aspect!