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Andrzej Sapkowski – Sword of Destiny | Review

Title: Sword of Destiny

Author: Andrzej Sapkowski

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 394

Rating: 4/5

It’s been six months or so now since I read the first Witcher book, and while I did enjoy it, there was also something about it that kind of held me back from fully committing. But it was one of those books that really stuck with me, and I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about it. By the time that the Netflix adaptation came out, I’d realised that I wanted to carry on with the series. Then I got an Amazon voucher for Christmas, and the rest is history.

This second book is also a collection of short stories, and indeed the first novel is the next one, book three in the series. I’m not sure how I’ll feel about that, and I guess I’ll see when I get there. I’ve read enough short stories now that I just sort of associate them with Sapkowski, and so it might be weird to go from short stories to a full-length novel. I guess we’ll see.

But the short stories are a great little introduction to the world of the witcher, not least because they tend to be set in different locations and with different creatures, so we can get more of a sense of a full world being built. We get to learn more about the Witcher, too. Better still, it’s never explicitly spelled out for us and we don’t have to suffer through extended flashbacks and other overused literary devices. We get to know the Witcher through the things he says and the actions he takes.

That combines with the fact that he’s a pretty unique sort of anti-hero, a flawed but fully three-dimensional character who it’s a pleasure to read about, even though he himself isn’t always the most pleasant of people. But what do you expect? He’s a witcher.

Overall then, I preferred this book to the first one even though I suspect that the two of them are pretty equal when it comes to quality. It’s just that I was in a much better place for this one. I was looking forward to it and then when I finally picked it up, I didn’t feel disappointed. Now I’m looking forward to getting to the next one. I’d definitely recommend the series.

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Agatha Christie – While the Light Lasts | Review

Title: While the Light Lasts

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 213

Rating: 8/10

Agatha Christie – While the Light Lasts

While the Light Lasts is an excellent collection of some of Agatha Christie’s finest short stories, all of which were previously published between 1923 and 1932, during one of Christie’s most prolific and commercially successful periods. Each of these stories is worth reading on literary merit alone, but some are more interesting than others.

Manx Gold, in particular, stands out as one of Christie’s more interesting pieces, written on commission for the Isle of Man. The story contains coded references to the locations of four snuffboxes that were actually hidden on the island, each of which contained a voucher for £100 – quite a lot of money at the time, and hardly to be sneezed at today.

Crossovers like these are rare for even the most inventive of writers, but it’s unusual for Christie to have taken on such an ambitious undertaking. But while Manx Gold might be interesting because of its real-life crossover, the rest of the stories should not be overlooked – Christie is a fantastic writer, and this collection is a subtle reminder of why they call her the Queen of Crime. Excellent work, from the pen of a legendary great.