Sword of Destiny is another collection of short stories following a talented witcher (a magic assassin of monsters that ravage the land and attack the innocent) called Geralt of Rivia. I really loved the short stories "The Bounds of Reasons" and "Something More" in particular and I am eager to read Blood of Elves. I really feel that Sapkowski is similar to Gaiman or Rothfuss in how he takes old genre tropes of fantasy and creates an immersive and fresh world. Highly recommended. ( )

Great audio book ^.^ love all the different stories. ( )

Geralt of Rivia is a witcher, a human given up as a child to be supernaturally mutated so as to fight monsters that endangered humanity, but he is a “dying” breed. Sword of Destiny is the second story collection by Andrzej Sapkowski that follows the adventures of Geralt in a chronological fashion that will lead to the main Witcher Saga.

The six stories in the collection are loosely linked in chronology and two are directly linked to one story in the previous collection that will bear directly on the upcoming Saga. Throughout the stories, Geralt becomes more complex, and his world gets bigger through a lot more human, as we see that the witchers overall had been doing their job very well. Yet it’s the last two stories that are directly linked with one another as the reader is introduced to Ciri, whose existence was hinted at in the previous volume. Half of the stories are very good with the beginning and final stories among them, though the best of the lot was “Eternal Flame”. Only one story was just fine and that was “A Shard of Ice” which features Geralt and his relationship with Yennifer and a major downgrade to their story in the previous volume. Overall Sapkowski gave Geralt more character and weaved together various story threads that the reader will be looking forward to seeing how they develop in the bigger Witcher Saga.

Sword of Destiny is a good collection of short stories with half of the stories very good and only that was “just fine”.

The Bounds of Reason (4/5)
A Shard of Ice (2.5/5)
Eternal Flame (4.5/5)
A Little Sacrifice (3/5)
The Sword of Destiny (3.5/5)
Something More (4/5) ( )

The first two books seem to have a pattern of better second halves. This one certainly has a great end build-up and ending. That being said, the first half of this book is phenomenally awful, and that second half is not without its frustrating flaws.

The dragon hunt story is handled much better in the 2019 show. Everything about how Tea and Vea are handled in the book is... not great. Just a lot of the typical exoticism stuff. Not that having Jaskier's additions to their story in the 2019 show is great, but on their own, they're much better handled in the show. I do appreciate that Three Jackdaws has a foursome with Geralt in the book, and Geralt seems down for it. I'm not sure why Geralt sticks around after that through to the bridge scene because he and Three Jackdaws don't agree to anything until Yennefer is mentioned THEN (again, something better handled in the show).

This book also continues the series seeming tradition of writing nonsensical philosophizing. And perhaps part of that is best exemplified in the character of the sorcerer Dorregary, and the conversation he has with Yennefer. Dorregary is an environmentalist bent on protecting endangered monster species from humans who just like to kill stuff for funsies. But he is also, narratively, an idiot, and also sexist. That's not to say that all people who champion just causes are without flaws. Certainly PETA comes to mind when thinking of Dorregary. But as Dorregary is one of like... two humans in this story who care about the preservation of endangered animal species, or really any justifiable just cause (certainly no one is championing women's rights, although Geralt does frequently work to help marginalized groups, and even Dandelion does a small bit of it), I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say whatever message there is about activism is overly muddled. Maybe the message is that if your activism isn't intersectional, it's not good activism? I don't know.

The conversation he has with Yennefer is... bonkers. Admittedly that's also on Yennefer, who has a bizarre understanding of nomadic versus non-nomadic peoples. Of course whatever commentary there is here about prejudice against nomadic groups and status quo preservation is quickly buried under Dorregary just being sexist because I guess we're doing that now. And don't get me started on Dandelion being okay with sexual harassment because Yennefer nearly got him murdered. You know who the show saw sense in not including as much of? The Reavers. Who are duly killed. Good riddance. It is depressing that the show also killed off the green dragon, but well... Again, that show ain't perfect, either.

The fairy tale references are a mixed bag in this book. The Ice Queen references are pointless and buried under more of that nonsensical philosophizing and Geralt not liking being monogamous and oh doesn't it suck to have a ball and chain now after I spent a whole story thinking my ball and chain was in love with me even when she refused to admit it. We get it, Geralt. You are miserable with Yennefer in this telling. Move on. These books present literally no reason for these characters to be together, and it's almost as bad as the "romances" in "Wheel of Time".

The "Little Mermaid" story was a bit better, mostly because Sh'eenaz is amazing in every way, down to the very end. I did think the line about eggs was very funny. And I love Little Eye. She's great. Even though a good chunk of her arc with Geralt just... no. Please. Why is this happening? Please someone stop this author from writing romance and sex scenes and almost sex scenes, I'm begging you. He is bad at it. Or maybe the translator is, I don't know. Her relationship with Dandelion is cute.

I'm conflicted about the Brokilon storyline. It's not the best story, but I think it better builds up Geralt and Ciri's relationship than the show did. In the show, when they finally meet, it's copying that final scene in the books. But in the books, they'd already met and knew each other and Ciri wanted to go with him and Geralt didn't want to burden her, and they had all this emotional build-up, which later built up even more until finally they met again and it paid off quite well. In the show... I mean yeah, they're technically both looking for each other so there is that pay-off sort of. But they're strangers to each other. So it's not... as big. As an audience, we were more involved in Ciri's story and so are happy for her to finally be with who she was looking for (who I guess she recognized because Magic) but it doesn't make as much sense for a character like Geralt, who seems largely touch averse, has no apparent attachment to children, and hasn't done the emotional legwork to actually want to care for kids. The last time he even mentioned the subject, before the Cintran invasion, he didn't want anything to do with his Child Surprise.

And also, the Child Surprise thing? It's even dumber in the books. In the show, Geralt for no real reason seems to do it as a joke. In the books it's like... weirdly for no reason against his better judgment intentional? All around, it's still dumb. But also all around, it is worse in the books.

The halfling/doppler story is pretty good. I don't often enjoy misdirection stories but this one was handled pretty well. I was hoping we'd get something like the ending we got, and we did, which was also pretty good. I also like to think that Geralt was right that Dandelion was actually heartbroken and acting out because of it, rather than just moving on. If you look over his actions, it actually makes sense. It was rather touching.

"Something More" is quite good, if you ignore all the stupid philosophizing from Calanthe and Geralt being a patronizing prig, and enjoy Yurga, one of the few mostly decent people in this story universe. And Geralt's meeting with Visenna is quite good. The whole Beltane thing is dumb and forgettable.

Overall, I mean I really enjoyed the ending. I think it was built up quite well. There were parts I did genuinely enjoy, and some good character moments. Geralt is very cutting and still pointing out hypocrisy and people using the marginalized as scapegoats. But overall, looking at these moments between EVERYTHING ELSE, I don't think I can recommend this book. It's just not enjoyable, and what messages it might have are badly muddled by bad writing, a boring and depressing story world, and characters that are mostly not fun to read about. I would still recommend Steven Brust's "Vlad Taltos" books over these, for similar themes that are dealt with far better, and with more humor (and less gratuitous sexism). Pia Foxhall's "Fae Tales" universe also deals better with trauma and sexual assault and feeling helpless in a corrupted system. And Tamora Pierce's "Circle of Magic" is much better with women-centric stories. ( )

I loved this book. It really webbed a great tale of Geralt and connected the short stories together. The ending of A Little Sacrifice is now one of my favourite passages written. ( )