WiC Reads: Blood of Elves

Obviously, we here at WiC are big fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, but there’s a whole world of wonderful fantasy fiction out there, from J.R.R. Tolkien to Ursula K. Le Guin to Patrick Rothfuss and beyond. And thanks in no small part to the success of HBO’s Game of Thrones, fantasy fiction is having a bit of a moment, with lots of TV networks scrambling to get their hands on whatever hot property they can and turn it into the next big pop culture sensation.

Among those contenders is Netflix, who’s turning Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s series of Witcher novels into a TV show to debut later this year. We thought this would be a good time to read through those books and see what we think. Join us, won’t you?

First, a note: there are eight Witcher books in all, but only five novels that comprise what is known as the “Witcher saga.” Blood of Elves is the first of those novels, so we’re going to start there, reading and reviewing chapters one at a time and updating this post as we go. I’ve already read The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, which are short story collections that set up the characters and the world but aren’t technically part of the serialized Witcher saga that starts here.

And with that, let’s open it up: