Time of Contempt: Witcher 2 – Now a major Netflix show (The Witcher)

Compelling reading. A book that is difficult to put down, at times it can be difficult to follow the political intrigues and at one point I was trying to remember which witch was which! Generally though this is a fast paced exciting adventure that leaves you wanting more. Geralt is a fantastic protagonist and when reading this book I enjoyed the chapters that included him the most. I'd really recxomend this book I have loved the series so far.

I mistook stars reflected in a pond at night for those in the sky." The narrative commences at what seems like a time of contempt indeed. The Kings aren't conversing with the Mages as they have previously, the Nilfgaardian army is still planning for war, and the Scoia'tael (Squirrels) are attacking humans in forests and villages. Many parties are all still looking for the elusive Lion Cub, the child of Destiny, Cirilla. After an interesting and quite tragic point of view chapter following a King's messenger called Aplegatt, where the worrying and uneasy times that the world is currently facing are expressed, we are introduced back to Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer. Geralt is doing typical Witcher work and trying to find out more about the mysterious magician Rience. We are unfamiliar with the mage's motives or who his employer may be but it's clearly known he wants Ciri. Yennefer and Ciri are travelling to Thanedd which is where a conclave of mages and enchantresses is set to take place shortly to discuss these times of contempt and how it affects the magic-wielders of the world. Whilst here, it transpires that Ciri may be left with the enchantresses to study at the female magic school of Aretuza. This is a difficult book to review, not because it is bad but because the book seems to be split into two distinctive styles of telling the story. One of these two styles generally features fan favourites such as Dandelion (although not as much as I would have liked), Geralt, Ciri, Triss, and Yennefer and includes some of the finest and well-crafted scenes that have been created in the series to date. Two of my favourites include a spectacular dual with someone who I'm sure is going to become a huge character in the saga, and also reading into the intrigue, politics, backstabbing, and agendas at the mages 'meet-and-greet' buffet prior to the conclave. A war is brewing and through unfamiliar point of view characters or slightly boring chapters where a member of the ensemble talks to another we are relaid complex political happenings that are occurring in all states across this world. These often include many complex and unfamiliar names of people, places, alliances, etc... It was difficult to keep track of who was supporting who. It also wasn't really obvious that some of the point of views were from the Nilfgaardian perspective until I was halfway through that segment and had to reevaluate what I'd just read. These later sections take up about 25% of the book. Honestly, I just forced myself through them knowing that I wouldn't follow every exact detail but it wasn't enough to truly affect my enjoyment when the scenes with less info dumping were reintroduced a few pages later. There are also a lot of names of mages to remember when the magicians' meeting arrives about forty percent through the story. Of the scenes that aren't information dumps, I'd estimated that seventy-five percent follows the Witcher and Ciri although not necessarily following the same storyline, and the rest tracks the action of Yennefer, Dandelion, and others. Geralt and Ciri are my favourite characters so this was fine for me. Please be warned, that as well as typical fantasy violence presented in line with what has been presented previously, there is a potential/ implied rape scene towards the end of Time of Contempt. Although it is not graphic it is not for everyone so I thought I'd make you aware. This happens around the ninety-five percent mark and if you don't want to read that, it doesn't actually take that much away from the story to pass it by. Ciri is still having her visions and nightmares, we meet the Wild Hunt for the first time, Geralt slays a few monsters, Yennefer is still beautiful, charming, powerful and manipulative, Dandelion is still a world-renowned poet. We are also introduced to some very interesting new characters including Vilgefortz and Nilfgaard's ruler. This book feels more like a progression than a full story in its self. Unlike some fantasy, I've found that these books don't really have gut-wrenchingly tragic or 'oh-my-god-I-did-not-see-that-twist-coming' endings. I believe that these should be read as one huge novel that same way that Stephen King thought of his The Dark Tower books. That being said, the ending does set up things nicely for Baptism of Fire and it looks like it might introduce a new dynamic for one of the main players. So far this isn't my favourite fantasy series of all time yet, something does seem to click with me. I love the characters and the tales are utterly addictive. Every single one of the four entries I have read so far has only taken me two days apiece to complete. My original aim was to read this series before the Netflix show is released next year and I don't think I'll be the only person who has these thoughts. If you weren't sure whether to dive into the Witcher's world then I would personally recommend that you take the leap.

A great book, the detail of the hardback is 100% worth it.

Another stunning entry in The Witcher saga from Sapkowski. Cleverly written with great characters. The development of Ciri, in particular, is noteworthy. Also noteworthy is how true Netflix's Season 3 of The Witcher stayed true to the source material. I could see episodes in my mind's eye as I was reading. The fight scenes are also truly superbly written. I'd argue they're the best written combat scenes in all fantasy (that I've read, thus far, at least). On to 'Baptism of Fire'!

I am not a big book reader, loved the video game though, so after reading about the saga online i decided to order these books. And what can I say... I have not read a book so quickly in my life! Usually the books I was assigned to read in class were boring to me and I wasn't really so involved by them, but this, this was astonishing. I read the "Blood of elves" and this one just in a few days. I couldn't keep my eyes off them. I'm now reading the third book and I'am a bit worried I'll have to wait so long for fourth and fifth books translations. I wished I read the books first before playing the games, because they give you a good background on characters and events as they take place few years before games. Would recommend this to any fantasy lover.

I don't really know what happened with this book. It's certainly not bad by any means but it's not amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed Blood of Elves before this, and the two anthology stories (Last Wish & Sword of Destiny) were also fantastic, however this definitely doesn't live up to that level of praise. Tim of Contempt, the second book in Sapkowski's The Witcher series, is incredibly slow and feels like there was no point in it being written. It is drawn out and at the end makes you question why you even bothered reading it. It pains me to say something negative about the story because the three before this were outstanding, so what happened to this one!? It is still an ok read if you don't mind the slow and pointless plot. Everyone's favourite characters are back (including the introduction of Keira Metz), and the writing style has the same feel as previous volumes. Overall it is an ok book, not fantastic and not bad, but merely average!

I've always loved reading, especially Fantasy/SciFi stories. I also like playing video games that tell such stories, like Skyrim, DragonAge, MassEffect and Witcher. I played 'The Witcher' video game recently, so thought about readinga bit more Witcher backstory, spotted the Witcher books at a very reasonable price, bought them for my kindle and started reading. Finished reading Book 1 in the series last week. Just finished this one, book 2. Just started the next, book 3 ........ so that probably tells you I think they're worth reading! You really need to read these books in sequence. They very much read as a single story that has been deliberately cut into 350(ish) page length 'book sized chunks'. If you read book 2 before book 1 you will probably be very confused. As I noted in my review of book 1, its quite slow reading. Its a story of several individuals moving against a backdrop of several large nations at war and the bulk of the books are 'textbook' exposition, by characters, of the story world's races, conflicts, politics, events. There are 'action sequences' but they are only a small part of the book so don'r expect this to be a 'Conan the Barbarian' style hack'n'slash adventure - its focus is far more 'Game Of Thrones' style national politics - however much the main character says he tries to avoid being involved in politics. Politicking focus or not, you will have to suspend your disbelief at the almost omniscient knowledge of some of the main characters - they combine magic, politics, research, spies, contacts and 'Sherlock Holmes' style logic to 'know things' that you wonder how they could possibly know This all provides interesting backstory to the Witcher games - so its broadly what I was looking for - but, as noted, be prepared for long sections about whats happened, happening and planned in the wider world's backdrop. The book is translated from its original Polish, which may be why it feels a bit stilted. Translation of novels is notoriously difficult I am told, so no surprises or complaints, but know what to expect. There also seems to be some obvious formatting errors where the story moves from one character to another (in a totally different time/geography) with just the change of a paragraph. No chapter change, no white space - or any other grammatical or formatting clue- which can be very confusing if you're a fast reader. This sort of thing may be common in eBook conversions, I don't know as I've only just started reading them in place of paper (because ebooks are easy to read at night without turning on the room lights!). Finally, the this book again ends quite abruptly. Its not 'the end of the story', of course, which continues in book 3 of the series. So, overall, very worthwhile as Witcher videogame backstory - or, more generally, as a story of characters moving against a large warring multinational fantasy world backdrop.

I love this series!!! Why I never heard of it until I started watching the TV series I do not know as it is exactly the genre I read voraciously and constantly... not sure why its not appeared on my recommended. Spoiler alert!!! As for this book in the series.... the battles are raging in all parts of the land. The protagonists are together but then pulled apart again in awful circumstances and now I just dont know who to trust or believe. On to the next one it is to find out!!!

This book was quite entertaining. Again, I feel like reading on and look forward to book 3 in the saga!

Comprei pra treinar inglês . Livro estilo americano e papel de jornal , pra bolso . Linguagem difícil , mas com persistência da pra aperfeiçoar seu inglês .

I've become interested in The Witcher books after I played the game.

Si te gusta la fantasía y los cuentos épicos, seguro te va a gustar este libro. La narrativa salta entre personajes y debes mantener una mentalidad libre donde el autor te llevará por un viaje complejo pero gratificante. Si eres fan de la serie es complicado porque posiblemente te va a dar información de los eventos que suceden en la serie.

Il mio compagno è un grande appassionato quindi ha apprezzato anche questo capitolo