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A review by finding_novel_land
Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
So this is the book that made me re-think my book-a-week reading challenge...
...because I may have enjoyed this more had I not felt the constant time pressure to finish it (it took me nearly 3 weeks to read).
Besides its very slow, uneven pacing, I am just very confused how this book was ever enjoyed enough for enough of the series to be written for the author to write prequels. Because I needed the prequels desperately to understand this book. So much of the novel is set in the aftermath of past events, with so little explanation that I just don't understand how early readers understood what was going on (thank goodness for the TV show). On top of that, the book darts around between different storylines that never really join up, meaning I was unable to ever get fully invested in what was going on. And honestly, from my point of view very little happened. It never culminated in any big fight. It was the calm between two storms. There was, instead, a huge number of pages wasted on unnecessary dialogue that I just ended up skipping.
I also found some of the text (namely Ciri's way of talking and descriptions of women) a bit grating, but I'll never know how much was down to the translation and how much was down to the original author.
...because I may have enjoyed this more had I not felt the constant time pressure to finish it (it took me nearly 3 weeks to read).
Besides its very slow, uneven pacing, I am just very confused how this book was ever enjoyed enough for enough of the series to be written for the author to write prequels. Because I needed the prequels desperately to understand this book. So much of the novel is set in the aftermath of past events, with so little explanation that I just don't understand how early readers understood what was going on (thank goodness for the TV show). On top of that, the book darts around between different storylines that never really join up, meaning I was unable to ever get fully invested in what was going on. And honestly, from my point of view very little happened. It never culminated in any big fight. It was the calm between two storms. There was, instead, a huge number of pages wasted on unnecessary dialogue that I just ended up skipping.
I also found some of the text (namely Ciri's way of talking and descriptions of women) a bit grating, but I'll never know how much was down to the translation and how much was down to the original author.