Best 1993 Adventures (4)

By: Joshua Glenn
July 4, 2020

One in a series of 10 posts identifying Josh Glenn’s favorite 1993 adventure novels.

Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher fantasy adventure The Last Wish (Ostatnie życzenie, translated into English in 2007).

In this collection of the original Witcher stories (connected by a frame story), Geralt of Rivia encounters fantastic creatures in twisted Slavic mythology and fairy-tale contexts. “A Grain of Truth” (“Ziarno prawdy”), for example, is a version of “Beauty and the Beast”; “The Lesser Evil” (“Mniejsze zło”), is a version of “Snow White” (though one in which the heroine convinces a band of seven dwrves to quit mining for banditry). Geralt’s tales take place on a continent settled thousands of years ago by Elves, then invaded a few hundred years ago by humans. Elves and other non-human races now live in ghettos within human settlements, and in the wilderness. “Witchers” like Geralt are mutants — bred and trained to slay vampires, werewolves, chimeras, and manticores. The writing is lyrical, the stories entertaining, the monster-fighting thrilling. Geralt is a Philip Marlowe-esque character, looking to make a buck in a corrupt world without compromising his own code of behavior.

Fun facts: There are several other Witcher story collections, as well as a five-part series of novels — incuding Blood of Elves (Krew elfów, 1994), Time of Contempt (Czas pogardy, 1995), and Baptism of Fire (Chrzest ognia, 1996). A 2001 Polish fantasy film adaptation, The Hexer (Wiedźmin), starred Michał Żebrowski. There’s a popular trilogy of video games (The Witcher, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt), a graphic novel series, and now a Netflix series starring Henry Cavill.

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Best 1993 Adventures (4)

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