Tabitha Tomala
With the fall of the Wizard Council, Ciri has disappeared, rumored to be captured by Nilfgaard. Near-death from his injuries, Geralt is unable to search for her. As he recovers with the dryads the world enters a time of political upheaval. War breaks out and the sorcerers are left to pick up the pieces of their order. Baptism of Fire takes a step back from the witcher’s storyline for the majority of the book. As Geralt lies injured and recovering, Sapkowski gives a detailed overview of the world’s politics. I am not one for politics and had a difficult time remembering all the people mentioned as conspirators and spies. The story also came to a standstill for the majority of the book as all the politics were divulged. Of course, when the focus turned to Geralt, the pace picked up. Being injured he is limited in his actions, but it also gave time for readers to see how he is changing. And with the world growing darker, the comparison to himself and the humans around him is clear to see. Even injured he will not stand to see the innocent torn down. Sapkowski also made sure to give Geralt entertaining traveling companions. Dandelion is always a joy to read on-page, and a few dwarves were thrown into the mix as well. I was surprised to hear the title of the book said multiple times in the story. At one point baptism of fire was used three times in one paragraph. I’m not sure what the point of this was. The meaning behind the title was explained well enough the first time it was used. So much of this book pointed to it being filler. At one point the entire history of Ciri’s bloodline is even explained. If I had not invested so much time in this series already, and knew how good it could be, I may have DNFed this book. I know this series has potential and can be an entertaining read. I still have hopes for the next book to be worthwhile. I love Geralt’s character, and I can’t wait to see what Ciri’s ultimate destiny will be.
7 people found this review helpful
Jazmin Hernandez
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One Word: REGIS. He is literally the only reason I decided to buy the ebook version of this series. Other than that, eh... The story is good. Personally, I love it, and I don't mind the translation by David French as it's easier to read over a literal translation taken directly from Polish, but I can't give the same kind regards to the publisher. They really did not do this book justice at all. First of all, they belittled it by giving it these ridiculous cover arts. You'd think after this long, Orbit would update it to something more flattering and not just something so obviously ripped from the Witcher 2. (The images have nothing to do with the books.) To make matter's worse, the layout is just horrible. It was like there was no thought to it at all. But I think the worst thing is the poor quality of the few scanned images. You can see how grainy the title page is in the free same yourselves. Overall: amazing story, terrible book.
14 people found this review helpful
Jazmin P.
One Word: REGIS. He is literally the only reason I decided to buy the ebook version of this series. Other than that, eh... The story is good. Personally, I love it, and I don't mind the translation by David French as it's easier to read over a literal translation taken directly from Polish, but I can't give the same kind regards to the publisher. They really did not do this book justice at all. First of all, they belittled it by giving it these ridiculous cover arts. You'd think after this long, Orbit would update it to something more flattering and not just something so obviously ripped from the Witcher 2. (The images have nothing to do with the books.) To make matter's worse, the layout is just horrible. It was like there was no thought to it at all. But I think the worst thing is the poor quality of the few scanned images. You can see how grainy the title page is in the free same yourselves. Overall: amazing story, terrible book.
3 people found this review helpful