REVIEW: THE SWORD OF DESTINY (THE WITCHER #2)

The sword of destiny has two blades...

After being pleasantly surprised with THE LAST WISH, I knew I had to continue with the second short story collection which sort of concludes the introduction to the titular Witcher. 

HOW I RATED IT 

5/5 As much as I could do without some of the lewdness, I continue to find myself impressed with how much fun this series is. The new takes on classic fairy tales, the wry humor, and the exciting action scenes all make a return, but there was an emotional rawness to this entry which moved me in ways that I was not expecting.  

CHARACTERS

Geralt of Rivia returns for another series of short adventures and this is the best we've seen him so far. This book offers much deeper insights into who Geralt is, what motivates him, what scares him, and what exactly might be hiding beneath that gruff exterior. Though they do not appear in every story, Dandelion and Yennifer are quite prominent here as well, which I was very glad to see. Dandelion, in particular, really surprised me. While he's still quite silly and at times annoying, we really get to see exactly why it is that him and Geralt are such good friends. The way Dandelion is able to see through Geralt's barriers and offer surprisingly sage counsel touched me in a way that I wasn't expecting. Likewise, Geralt's desire to protect Dendelion, no matter if the troubadour is only in danger because of his own foolhardy actions or philandering, was equally heartwarming. Yennifer shows us some new sides of herself as well and I found myself to be quite pleasantly surprised with where her character led to. There's some pretty heartbreaking stuff when it comes to her, but I enjoyed how much agency she got over her pieces of the story. Yes, she is sometimes at the butt end of a lascivious moment and yes, she is very much presented as a love interest for Geralt, but she makes her own choices and always seems to have her own motives which she keeps closely guarded. I completely understand why the "male gaze-y" aspects of this book turns some people off, but I'd argue that the ladies are a lot more compelling and have a lot more power over what happens to them than they do in the Netflix adaptation or lots of other fantasy stories for that matter. 

Rounding out this cast are various figures that are sort of reimagined versions of classic fairy, a few returning faces from the previous book, and some new characters, including the introduction of Ciri. The way she plays into the story was super interesting and though she's still young, I can see a lot of potential in her. Another key standout for me was the return of Queen Calanthe. I love Geralt's interactions with her so much and I just find her to be such a badass all around. I don't really want to spoil too much about other appearances but a certain character in the first story, a woman who falls in love with Geralt, and a figure from Geralt's past all made distinct impressions on me as well. 

PLOT/TONE

Similar to THE LAST WISH, we get a series of short stories that are all connected to one another. This time around though, there are no "The Voice of Reason" interlude chapters to tie things together. Instead, what we get is more of a thematic story being told around, you guessed it, destiny. This is a concept that is introduced in the first book, though we mostly just know that Geralt doesn't believe in it, while pretty much everyone else does. In this installment, we find out more about why Geralt feels the way he does about the idea that he might be bound by this unseen force. We also get a much deeper exploration into whether or not such a thing may really exist within the context of this world. With Geralt's destiny being intertwined with both Yennifer's and Ciri's we get a couple of different angles to this idea that are explored, both somewhat tragic in their own way. I think the question of "is destiny enough" was a particularly fascinating idea to dig into and asking it brought into question what destiny even really means for someone. Apart from this connective tissue, the stories themselves were all quite enjoyable on their own as well. There were a couple that really caught me off-guard with how emotionally raw they were. There are some heavy and messy feelings which these characters have to confront and the results can be rather devastating. Fortunately, the more heavy-handed stories are usually followed by those that are a bit on the sillier side and wow, things can get pretty wacky in this world. It's not quite laugh out loud funny, but the dry, dark humor and general ridiculousness of certain situations can be richly entertaining. Even just some of the more moment-to-moment character interactions can have some wry and sometimes crass humor to them which sort of communicates that this story is meant to be as fun as it is dark. I'd originally intended to stop my Witcher journey here since thing switch over to a more traditional style of novel from this point forward and I'm not sure how I feel about that, but after my time with this book, I will almost certainly be continuing onward to see what the rest of the series is like because I absolutely need to know what happens to these characters next. 

SETTING/WORLD

I will say that I don't have an amazing sense for the geography of this world (even with the lovely map that's included in this edition of the book). It doesn't really matter though, since each individual story is fairly well contained to a specific area. There's a majestic mountain range, a bustling city district, a seaside town, Queen Calenthe's kingdom, a festival filled with mischief and debauchery, and a couple very dangerous forests to mention some of the most prominent ones. All in all, I'd say there was some really nice variety in the different settings which serve as the backdrop for the various adventures we go on. There's some expansion upon the different types of creatures that exist within this world, from dragons to shapeshifters, to some creepy underwater people. It was really cool to come across new species both monstrous and intelligent while also learning more about which ones Geralt is willing to slay and which he will not. What's possible in terms of the magic in this world is better explained as well though I think things stay on the softer side, in keeping with how magic is normally handled in a fairytale-like setting. I continued to enjoy the dark fairytale vibes of this world in general and found myself appreciating that not everything is completely doom and gloom. This is a setting where awful people exist and awful things can happen, but not everyone is a complete piece of garbage. There are genuinely good people that Geralt comes across in the midst of all the darkness and I think that makes this world almost feel more real than the gritty, "realistic" settings of some modern dark fantasies. 

HARDCOVER QUALITY

As with the previous book, I think this is a fantastic edition. The interior formatting is done so nicely and the illustrations are absolutely stunning. The paper is the perfect thickness and the print is quite luxurious. The dust jacket cover, though clearly done by a different artist still looks really nice beside this same edition of THE LAST WISH. One thing that will likely drive some people insane though is that the bottom logos on the spines do not match. I'm not really sure why, but it's something small that big publishers never seem to get right somehow. The naked hardback is fairly simple but I liked the gilded text set into the cover and enjoyed the quote that they picked for the front of this one. 

CONCLUSION

If you enjoyed the first book in THE WITCHER series, then I think you absolutely have to continue with this one. If it wasn't your cup of tea, then it may depend on what it was about the first book that turned you off which will dictate if this one lands any better for you or not. 

(+) Geralt, Yennifer, and Dandelion are all explored in a surprising amount of depth

(+) A nice mix of stories which were emotionally dense with those that were a bit more silly

(+) Strong, thematic connections tying all the episodic stories together

(+) Continued fun plays off of classic fairy tales

(+) A persistent, wry humor that always landed for me

(+) Additional insights into the world as well as the creatures and magic within it

(+) A mix of both good and evil that somehow feels truer to life than some grittier and more grounded fantasy stories

(+) A beautifully crafted hardcover edition with gorgeous pieces of interior (and exterior) art

(-) People will undoubtedly and understandably be put out by some of the physical commentary on certain female characters even if their actual character traits are quite strong.

(-) A spine that doesn't match the previous book