The Tower of Swallows (The Witcher)

The tale of the sorceress, the witcher and the girl they love as daughter continue to unfold. This book is broken mainly in between those characters, given us a look into what they believe and they do, and how that's end up being seeing by the others, this enrich the perspectives, and lets you see what the truth may be in this world.
The writing doesn't dwindle to much into description, and focus more in the character interaction with their world, and in between them, as they are usually rushing from one bad situation to next. Frantic action, with a study on the characters motivation gives this book its form, with a world that it is ugly as it is human.
My only complaint with the book would be that I have to wait until next translation is ready. Great read, particularly better than the previous entry on the series, at least from my perspective.

The Witcher novels tend to vary in quality, however I found the fourth outing of Ciri's story to be far superior to the last book, wherein Great does nothing but travel with little interruption. The Tower of Swallows largely follows Ciri for the first act, but fleshes out both the world and characters greatly in the subsequent chapters.

I'm giving this version of the novel two stars, however, because the translation appears to have been made hastily or lazily. A notable character from the game series appears, but his name is misspelled constantly. On one page, I counted four misspellings of his name. Other typos exist throughout the book that took me out of events. The title itself, The Tower of Swallows, is also a mistranslation. In fact, the novel itself properly calls it The Tower of the Swallow throughout! Why wasn't the cover proofed for this glaring error?

I have really enjoyed the darker, denser style of writing from Sapkowski. I see clearly why his world was so easy to translate to game and why a Polish studio needed to be its steward. I think this is an exceptional work and the translations still maintains the tone and flavor of Eastern European culture/outlook.

While Andrzej Sapkowski is a splendid writer of short stories - as The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny prove - he is a mediocre novelist. How bad could it be, you might wonder, if I made it through all of his translated novels, plus The Lady of the Lake which you can find in PDF format though, as yet, unpublished? Because there are wonderful moments of in all of his works.

His strengths as a short story writer appear to work against him as a novelist. The tight plots, vivid portrayal of people and scenes employing such a clever economy of words, gripping fighting scenes with stark and often unexpected outcomes are close to brilliant. In his novels, however, there is often endless exposition and long, LONG conversations among too, too many characters, many of whom are introduced long after Act I.

And just when matters FINALLY become interesting, he switches to another group of too many people, talking much too much in another over-described place, far, far away from events you've been reading about for the previous 50 pages. The technique is as valid as it is venerable. And it would work with fewer words.

What Sapkowski, desperately, needed was an editor. These novels need to be cut by at least 100 pages each just for pacing alone.

Finally, his female characters never approach the dimensions and depth of many of the males. Plus, if the females are not attractive they rarely exist at all. We journey with myriad interesting male dwarves, gnomes and assorted halfings with no sexual appeal. But, except for a couple of occasional matronly women, all the gals simply must be beautiful. Sapkowski especially has a thing for female breasts and hair.

Where this becomes a huge problem is with the female teenage protagonist, Ciri. She's, to use the current term, emo. She reacts intensely and emotionally to EVERYTHING and quickly becomes a bit of a bore. Apart from the fact that she has large green eyes and mousy hair we get little sense of what she looks like. We get more detail about thugs, introduced one page before they're gruesomely killed, than we ever get about this all important central character.

In short, these novels are far from being literature by any measure but Sapkowski is a great story teller if the story is brief.

The author does not hold back from expressing his nihilistic and postmodern views the most in this novel. He doesn't she away from moral relativism, nihilism, death, Will to Power, Neitzche, humanism, autonomy, the whole shebang....and contradicts himself several times, in what probably seems appealing to the dull, standard postmodern reader. Except it is utter garbage, distracting, unconvincing, intrinsically contradictory, emotion bating......

Author make it clear he thinks women should have the right to choose to kill their unborn child...it's their body right. But then also makes it clear it would be a sad event. Why sad if nothing is wrong with it. In the end an abortion doesn't happen but a miscarriage does...

Author makes it clear he doesn't believe in right and wrong....good and evil....because it restrains you from being able to punish the evil....but if there is no evil then what are you punishing and mad about?

One character is very confusing, Vysigoto. it clear he doesn't believe in Gods or Goddesses, he says so multiple times, then Ciri insinuates that he actually believes in One God I in a sort of deistic type of way...hmm..

Yennefer is the most confusing. She doesn't believe in Gods or Goddesses. But then the Goddess grants her her wish? Telepathic or empathic energy? What?....

Don't get me wrong the story is still great, but the character development is hopelessly postmodern and pointless, aimless, hopeless, yet it still aims and fights...for which we keep reading with great interest, yet all the characters don't believe in any purpose for which they fight, but their still fighting...for justice of course, even though they don't believe in it. If I confused you don't blame me, this author is confused, he might be older and have some wisdom, but there is definitely a hard-hearted antagonism towards righteousness and justice, hope, and truth, light, and peace, love and good. Reader you are warned.

This is the fourth book in the Witcher series.

Andrzej Sapkowski uses this book to forward the plot about Ciri's "elder blood" roots, and he spends considerable time fleshing out the kingdoms, principalities, and other political orders in the world.

Geralt and his band are in about a third of the narrative. A third of the narrative surrounds Ciri's individual adventures, and a third focuses on espionage, skullduggery, and politics (all of which get conflated in this book).

You also learn a great deal about the creatures that the Witcher hunts such as vampires.

Most of the books in the series to this point have been stand alone works, but you really need to read the proceeding books to get this one.

If you liked the previous books then this book is a must read for you.

One note, as a parent, the PG language filter is off, and there is very adult language in full bloom throughout most of the book.

** Spoilers Follow **

Geralt does not catch up with Ciri in this book, and that might be a major disappointment to some.

Some of the reveals about the world are a bit silly, e.g., vampires drink human blood to get a buzz, not to feed.

All in all though, it is a five star effort. Sapkowski still has his same clever, witty ways of describing thing.

You get to see most of your Witcher favorite characters in action.

By the end of this book, Geralt has renounced being a Witcher.

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

The Tower of Swallows, published in Polish in 1997 and translated into English in 2016, is the sixth and penultimate book in Andrzej Sapkowski’s WITCHER series. I’ve enjoyed all of these books. If you look at the covers and read the publishers’ promotional materials, you get the feeling that WITCHER is just another one of those medieval-style epic fantasies full of elves who are tall and beautiful but arrogant, dwarves who wield axes and mine precious metals and gems, kings and courtiers who conspire against each other, and magicians and sorceresses who sometimes interfere with kings’ plans. Indeed, WITCHER does have all that, but Sapkowski often subverts expectations with unusual heroes, strong smart heroines, fresh-feeling prose, amusing dialogue, experimental narrative techniques, deep philosophical discussions, and an unpredictable plot.
The story begins soon after Baptism of Fire ends. Princess Ciri, who had been a member of a gang called the Rats, is lying in a forest, near death, when a hermit finds her and begins nursing her back to health. As she recovers, she tells the hermit what has happened to her since we saw her last. Her story is tragic and she is scarred both physically and emotionally. She feels betrayed by her destiny and abandoned by ideals she held dear. She thinks everyone who loves her is dead and she’s bitter. Ciri’s heart-rending narrative is interspersed with scenes showing the Witcher and his comrades (Dandelion, Milva, Cahir, Regis, etc.) trying to find Ciri. They are pretty sure she is not in Nilfgaard, as the rumors say, and are searching for some druids who may be able to scry Ciri’s whereabouts. Geralt is worried, though, that there may be a traitor in their fellowship. Meanwhile, intelligence operatives from Nilfgaard are searching for Ciri, Caer, and Vilgefortz. Yennefer, rumored to be a traitor, is also trying to find Ciri, so she sets out on a journey that she expects will kill her. And of course there is plenty of political intrigue going on in the background as kings and sorcerers plot for their own advantages and one character is determined to overthrow them all and establish a democracy.

The Tower of Swallows has a lot more plot than the previous book, Baptism of Fire. Most of Ciri’s part of the story is told as a series of flashbacks and courtroom testimonies, so it’s not happening live. This might disappoint some readers, but I really appreciated how Sapkowski creatively plays with different narrative techniques. The Witcher’s storyline is told in a series of diary entries written by Dandelion. Dandelion, a pretentious bard, is the most amusing of Sapkowski’s characters, so I thought it was a great choice to have him narrate their journey. He’s hilarious and the addition of the diary adds more levity to the story when the characters traveling with Dandelion begin demanding to know what he’s writing about. In one hilarious scene set hundreds of years in the future (there are a few other flash-forwards, too), we get to see what eventually happens to Dandelion’s journal. This journal-writing technique also works great with the audiobook because Peter Kenny does such a wonderful job with Dandelion’s character.

There are some awesome scenes in The Tower of Swallows. All of the scenes with Leo Bonhart, the vicious bounty hunter, are terrifying, as is the gladiator scene set in a coliseum. At the end of the book there’s a spectacular battle in which the combatants are on ice skates, and there’s an intense episode in a ship on the ocean.

But even the non-action scenes are entertaining. One of the things Sapkowski does best is to create interesting and thoughtful philosophical discussions between his characters as they travel, or just sit around recovering. In The Tower of Swallows, one of these is about the importance of law and order and how the dogged pursuit of law and order can create exactly what it was intended to avoid. I also loved the passionate discussion between young Ciri (a warrior) and the old Hermit (a philosopher and healer) about the nature of evil and the most effective way to fight it:

“You seem to know a great deal about the problems of good and evil.”
“Because I do, and not from scholarly books, either.”
“No, of course. You know it all from experience. From practice. For you’ve acquired plenty of experience in your long sixteen years of life.”
“I’ve gained enough. Quite enough!”
“Congratulations. My Learned friend.”
“You can sneer,” she clenched her teeth, “without having any idea how much evil you’ve done to the world, you aged scholars, you theoreticians with your books, with your centuries-old experience of reading moral treatises so diligently you didn’t even have time to look out of the window to see what the world was really like. You philosophers, artificially shoring up artificial philosophies in order to earn salaries at universities. And since not a soul would pay you for the ugly truth about the world, you invented ethics and morality; nice, optimistic sciences. Except they’re fallacious and deceitful!”

It goes on and gets graphic as they continue to argue. It gave me chills and reminded me that our different viewpoints/politics, etc. come from our different experiences and that we should listen to people who are different from us because they might just know more about things we, especially those of us who live in our “elitist bubbles,” have never actually been forced to face.

The Tower of Swallows is 16.5 hours long in Hachette Audio’s excellent version. The final WITCHER book, The Lady of the Lake, will be released in English next spring. I look forward to it.

Admittedly I'm an English speaker listening to a translation from the Polish, however the alternate viewpoints timeline approach the author takes makes listening to an audiobook very difficult. I still think it's a worthwhile listen, but you may find yourself pausing and rewinding a bit. You might also find yourself questioning whether you are repeating a passage when it is retold from a different perspective.

Transitions between perspectives can be particularly harsh especially during action sequences when the viewpoint switches from the main character to an observing minor character.

My other issue, and it's mainly a criticism of style, is that the author has a rather ham-handed way of universe building. Deep discussions of economic conflict between remote territories slow down the plot and introduce unneeded boredom. With judicious editing the author could reduce world building passages by at least two thirds and produce a plot that flows more naturally.

You should read the series if you already love the characters, or want to fall in love with new ones. Even though at times reading the book feels like digging a ditch, there are diamonds to be found.

Unusual phenomena usher in an early autumn as Ciri is orphaned from the Rats and sets off on a quest to meet her destiny. The chronology here is all over the place, alternating between the autumn equinox and Saovine as it backtracks to explain the sequence of events. It's also the longest book so far, with a politics-heavy middle section and a huge cast--often confusing as a result, but it's still rewarding to watch the pieces come together. Structure aside, this has a strong atmosphere (a perfect autumn book, haunted and eerie) and gives Ciri generous page time and development. She's as phenomenal as always--here, traumatized, impetuous, but brilliant in her adolescence, foiled by the aged hermit that takes her in. Yennefer's ruthless pursuit of her daughter is equally compelling. (These fantastic female characters doesn't excuse the sexism seeded in the larger worldbuilding.) This isn't the most effective of the Witcher novels, but it's one of the most engaging by virtue its mythic leanings and core cast.

Playing the Witcher video game series developed by CD Projekt Red prompted me to purchase the Witcher Book Series. I personally lack the focus and imagination to enjoy reading on my own volition. First time I've purchased and read books for leisure. Felt absolutely immersed in the world depicted by Andrzej Sapkowski and replicated a strong sense of escapism that occurred to me when I played the Witcher video games.

Of the main series novels, Tower of Swallows has got to be my favorite so far (followed by Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, and Blood of Elves respectively). Sapkowski introduces new characters, builds on old characters who previously had few lines, and develops Geralt and Ciri in new ways. The final sequence is also a fantastic, suspenseful ride to the end. Can't wait for Lady of the Lake!

This whole series is amazing and Peter Kenny does a great job of reading it. I couldn't help but notice however that he changed the way he pronounced the names. Probably due to the influence of the video games.

Picked this up recently and fell in love. The Witcher series is near and dear to my heart, and I can say that this book does not disappoint. Ciri, Geralt, and many others develop in this story. New characters appear and old characters return. I would very much reccomend this book for anyone who loves detail. Sapkowski is the master of detail and he never fails to set the scene. Absolutely love it.

Tried to download several times but the download won't start. I'm concerned that after clicking the button to purchase multiple times that I may have spent more than the list price and not even received the book. Please help.

Having read the trilogy, I bought this to continue to the end of the story. It takes awhile to get there, but there is actually a climax to this book that feels very good to reach. It is still not the end, however, as Lady of the Lake comes next.