Fantasy Book Review: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski For over four years, Andrzej Sapkowski has been one of those authors that has been dangled in front of me, mentioned in passing by Polish readers here and elsewhere, along with an occasional mention on a couple of non-English-language sites that I frequent on occasion. Maciek (Vanin) in particular has been one who has been singing his praises to me, even going so far as to post a link to a fan-translated story (one that was done with Sapkowski’s blessing, I later learned). What I read was intriguing enough for me to want more. I looked into buying the Spanish-language editions, but the shipping costs (close to $25 per book) were too prohibitive for me to import from Spain and I never could find any available in American online stores. So I waited. And waited some more, fearing that Sapkowski might never be published in English translation. Until last year, when I heard that Gollancz, perhaps influenced by the upcoming The Witcher game (which stars the main character, Geralt, of most of Sapkowski’s stories), agreed to publish some of Sapkowski’s work in English translation for the UK market. The Last Wish is the first of those works to be published in English.

The Last Wish - read the full review

Andrzej Sapkowski was born on the 21st of June 1948 in Lodz, Poland. Sapkowski studied economy and business, but the success of his fantasy cycle about the sorcerer Geralt de Riv turned him into a bestselling writer and he is now one of Poland’s most famous and successful authors, selling more in his own country than Stephen King or Michael Crichton. Sapkowski has won five Zajdel Awards, including three for short stories Lesser Evil in 1990, Sword of Destiny in 1992 and In a Bomb Crater in 1993, and two for the novels Blood of the Elves in 1994 and Narrenturm in 2002.

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