Witchers are like Onions

Notes: Hardly any witcher-ing in this one. Instead, it’s main focus was that politics of various countries as they reacted to Nilfgaard’s invasive intentions (evidently a set up for following books) and the training of Ciri first at Kaer Morhen with Geralt and the other Witchers (the part where Triss comes and upbraids them for how they were raising Ciri will always be hilarious to me.), then at the Temple of Melitele with Yennefer. (Effective use of flashbacks, really liked their interactions with each other, Ciri and Yen are great characters.) Lucky for me, I happen to enjoy political intrigue and always love when characters get trained. The constant reflections on neutrality and acceptance of races began to grate slightly, but that’s par for the course when it comes to this series, so what can you do? I suppose it adds character to the books. Geralt had an okay plot-line, very satisfying when his true intentions were revealed. It was cute how he was dryly happy about being vindicated against some poor scholar who thought he knew more about monsters than Geralt. Dandelion’s POV was fun as he did some spy work. The line about him being forty, looking thirty, acting twenty and thinking like he’s ten was was great summation of his character. Considering he’s a recurring character in the Witcher books, I’m not too concerned about him being killed off in the show (through old age at least…).

Notes: The first half was gripping, mostly because of the Geralt and Yennefer and Ciri interaction we got. Too bad they didn’t stick together. The coup in the Lodge of Sorcerers could have used a bit less talking, but the- causalities still stung and I was on the edge of my seat. It’s fascinating learning more about the politics. If Yen doesn’t say ‘I love you, my daughter’ to Ciri in the Netflix series I’m gonna snap. The 2/3 (?) part of the book was a bit hard to keep track of as it was mostly and update on the political situation with Nilfgaard and if I don’t have those place names in front of me, they become mixed up. I did enjoy Dandelion’s progress in Brokilon. Ciri was the main focus of the last part of the book and I am really growing to love her. Loved how she survived in the desert. (As a side note, this is the first time I have ever seen a mention of a tampon in a fantasy book, so kudos I guess.) The fire magic she called upon was confusing to me- it was obviously tied with power and idk, sexually arousing (ish) to Ciri, because that dear unicorn hightailed it out of there. I enjoyed the parts with the Rats, she’s gonna be playing bandit while everyone looks for her, isn’t she?