WiC Reads: The Witcher Saga—Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

Chapter Seven

And so we come to an ending that is really a beginning, which is at once poetic, predictable and a little annoying, because it’s clear this book never really had any intention of standing alone. I know, I know; it’s the middle book in a series — I didn’t expect it to wrap up the whole story, but maybe to bring to a close some arc or another? One leg of the adventure ends and another begins? Instead, the fates of all of our characters are up in the air.

It could have helped had Sapkowski checked in with more characters, but he’s committed to the chapters-as-short-stories format; we’re again with Ciri here as she’s escorted to a prefect of the Nilfgaardian Empire by a group of Trappers who want the bounty on her head. So far as I can tell, she’s on the border between Nilfgaard and the northern kingdoms.

There’s some interesting exchanges among the Trappers and their Nilfgaardian boss, but the real fireworks start when the group reaches a small town occupied by Nilfgaardian settlers. Another group of soldiers has captured Kayleigh, a member of a notorious bandit group called the Rats, who happen to be the subject of a new Witcher spinoff show. Although after meeting them here, I’m not sure how badly I want to watch it.

From the start, Ciri is intimidated by Kayleigh, who is described as having a malevolent stare. The soldiers have cruelly strapped him to a post in an inn, but he and Ciri manage to work together to free him just as his fellow Rats burst into the place and take out everyone.

This is an interesting stretch. On the one hand, it feels like a swashbuckling adventure. Young rebels fight against the footsoldiers of an evil empire. There’s an exciting getaway on horseback! But on the other, we get brutal stories about how the Rats found each other and teenagers slashing the throats out of their enemies. It fits with how Sapkowski likes to juxtapose traditional adventure and fairy tale narratives alongside gritty realism.

And then, of course, there’s the bit where Kayleigh comes over to Ciri while she’s trying to sleep and attempts to sexually assault her, only to be stopped by Mistle, another one of the Rats. And then Mistle sexually assaults Ciri, who feels so dirty and ashamed she scrubs her skin raw in the river the next morning.

This bit was very disturbing, and I don’t know if Sapkowski earned it. Again — and this is the last time I’ll get to bring this up in this article — the language was a problem. Sapkowski is writing about serious stuff here, so it’s a bit cringey when people in this medieval fantasy say things like “we’re in the same boat” or talk about their “girlfriends.” It just sounds weird and anachronistic. And again — also for the last time — the translation could be part of the problem, but it is a problem; if you want to write about underage sexual assault, you need to be serious about your prose, and the prose here can be quite goofy.

So we end Time of Contempt with Ciri traveling with the Rats, Geralt in Broklin and Yennefer who knows where. Not the most satisfying ending, but a novel series is a marathon, not a sprint. I enjoyed reading the book — it especially picked up after the coup on Thanedd — but something about the style and subject matter consistently keeps me at a distance. I don’t think that’s going away, so I’ve decided to accept The Witcher as it is: grim, goofy, ambitious and compromised. On to the TV show!

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