Review: Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

Title: Blood of Elves

Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Genre: Fantasy
Publication: 2009 (First Published 1994)

Summary: For over a century, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves have lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over, and now the races are fighting once again. The only good elf, it seems, is a dead elf.

Geralt of Rivia, the cunning assassin known as The Witcher, has been waiting for the birth of a prophesied child. This child has the power to change the world - for good, or for evil.

As the threat of war hangs over the land and the child is hunted for her extraordinary powers, it will become Geralt's responsibility to protect them all - and the Witcher never accepts defeat.

My Thoughts: Upon reading the prequel to this book, The Last Wish, I was extremely excited and looked forward to reading Blood of Elves. Although I enjoyed it, ultimately I was disappointed. I knew these books were part of a series but didn't think that it would have been an unfinished story. Perhaps that's my mistake for not looking into it more but the book ends... with nothing. There isn't really an ending. The book ends with a chapter break and feels like it should keep going on the next page, which I imagine will continue on in the next book once it's finished being translated into English. Last night when I was only left with thirty pages I wondered "How is the author going to wrap ALL that up in thirty pages?" but he doesn't. So that's why I felt disappointed because I wanted to know how it ends and what happened to the characters.

I concluded that this book was basically an introduction to the series as a whole. Like setting up/introducing characters and allowing us to get to know them so we can care about them, and giving details of the wars and the political and economic struggles going on so the real action can take place in the next book. A lot of talking happened, which I'm not bashing because I loved it all, and very little action took place. Because of that fact it made it feel just like what I said - an introduction; very informative and something to give us the low down.

Aside from that I did enjoy Blood of Elves. I got a good feel for the characters and enjoyed learning about the history of some of the things. The dialogue, which takes up about eighty percent of the book, was superb and was believable and drew me in. Some of it did drag on a bit but every character had a life of their own. Reading about the relationships between characters like Ciri and Geralt, and then Ciri and Yennefer were my favorite bits. I loved reading up on the history of Kaer Morhen, the Witchers settlement, and observing Ciri develop her skills in different arts. What little action there was was exciting too and I'm hoping for more of it in the next book.

All in all I enjoyed Blood of Elves but was ultimately disappointed because I wasn't satisfied with its ending. Although it was perhaps intended by the author to be that way. Because the characters were so well drawn out I do intend to read the next book because I really want to know what happens to them and of what will become of this war and of Ciri's fate.

My Rating: 3.5/5