The Last Wish cover art

The Last Wish

The bestselling book which inspired season 1 of Netflix’s The Witcher

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About this listen

 Introducing Geralt the Witcher - revered and hated - who holds the line against the monsters plaguing humanity in the bestselling series that inspired the Witcher video games and a major Netflix show.

Geralt of Rivia is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers and lifelong training have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin.

Yet he is no ordinary killer: he hunts the vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent.

But not everything monstrous-looking is evil; not everything fair is good . . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

Andrzej Sapkowski, winner of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award, started an international phenomenon with his Witcher series. The Last Wish is the perfect introduction to this one-of-a-kind fantasy world.©1993 Andrzej Sapkowski Action & Adventure Dark Fantasy Dragons & Mythical Creatures Fantasy Fiction Magic Mythology Funny

Critic reviews

Like a complicated magic spell, a Sapkowski novel is a hodge podge of fantasy, intellectual discouse and dry humour. Recommended
Character interplay is complex, unsentimental and anchored in brutal shared history
Delightfully dry humour, mythology brimming with radical creatures and a group of interesting characters, The Last Wish is a great introduction to this universe
Sapkowski has a confident and rich voice which permeates the prose and remains post-translation. I'd recommend this to any fan of Heroic or Dark fiction
One of the best and most interesting fantasy series I've ever read
Like Mieville and Gaiman, [Sapkowski] takes the old and makes it new . . . [a] fresh take on genre fantasy
There's lots of imagination on show, the writing has a strong voice, and the Witcher is an entertaining character
Refreshing and a lot of fun to read
Captivating, often nerve-wracking, and truthfully . . . rip-roaring fun
I will passionately say that The Witcher is a character that demands your attention in whatever format you desire. Whether it be the games, comics, books or audiobooks. In each you will find a complicated character that roams the world in a fantasy setting that is hard to beat.
All stars
Most relevant
I have been reading the first two Witcher novels on my kindle (Blood of Elves and Time of Contempt) and loving every second of them. I came to the books from playing The Witcher 2 on my games console (sadly not managed to upgrade so I can play The Witcher 3 yet) so I had a general idea of the characters of Geralt of Rivia and his friends. As a lover of fantasy and sci-fi novels already I naturally needed more backstory so delved into the books happily, only being disappointed at the time I switched my bedside lamp off and pressed play on an audiobook to fall asleep to, that I’d have to rejig my brain back into another story/world etc because I didn’t have any Witcher stuff on my Audible (and not being well off can’t really justify an audiobook of something I already have as a paperback or kindle. That aside though (as I realise that is an incredibly personal issue that most people wouldn’t have) I became more and more involved in the characters and world the more I read and I needed more.
Imagine my great joy when I realised that they released three volumes of short stories based upon Geralt of Rivia, in audiobook format, which serve as prequels to the first Witcher novel, Blood of Elves.
Imagine my even greater joy then, when I listened to the Audible samples and discovered that the narrator was absolutely fantastic, giving each character their own unique voice and style and really bringing out the personality of each individual character. The narrator does have a sightly unusual cadence, which I didn’t notice in the samples and I spent the opening five to ten minutes of Blood of Elves worried that it would bother me and I wouldn’t be able to continue but after that I was completely lost in the story and having now finished the first “prequel” ‘The Last Wish’ I can honestly say that I didn’t hear it again at all.
Brilliant fantasy series which I cannot recommend enough.

There is just one tiny thing though....

....his name is Dandelion!! (dan-dee-lion) 😂

Fantastic...just one tiny thing...

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Would you consider the audio edition of The Last Wish to be better than the print version?

Yes

What other book might you compare The Last Wish to, and why?

Game of Thrones

Have you listened to any of Peter Kenny’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Haven't listened to any others.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not really, they are short stories so there's not a massive emotional arc.

Any additional comments?

This is a really entertaining read, recommend it to fans of the game.

Entertaining short stories

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i love the accents of the characters and the narration. brilliant from start to finish.

witty and brilliant

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Having already listened to 3 books in the main Witcher saga, I was a bit skeptical about the short story format. However I was absolutely captivated from start to finish. I am now going to listen to the second short story collection before continuing with the main saga. On a final note Peter Kenny's narration keeps these stories sounding fresh and exciting as always. Not to mention balancing drama and humour in spectacular fashion.

P.S. Don't worry about listening to these in between the main saga. They are still very easy to follow.

Amazing!

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loved every minute of this book. my only issue is the way Dandelion was pronounced. Dan Dillion. but I know it gets corrected in future books. other then brilliant.

Loved it. 1 issue i had

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