hey guys my name is Iasmina and welcome
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today's video is a review a spoiler free
as much as possible a review of one of
the fantasy books I've read recently and
that is the last wish by Andrzej
Sapkowski so this of course is the first
book in The Witcher series it's actually
book 0.5 technically of The Witcher
series but everyone says to start with
this one and I think it was a good idea
because the first season of the show on
Netflix follows this book to a tee
pretty much so I'll put it here so that
I don't wave it around in my hands too
much so a little back story of my
familiarity with this series I have
played The Witcher 3 video game when
that came out years ago I have a
wallpaper of it as well actually that
was my wallpaper for a very long time I
changed it again to it just for this
video but that was my actual wallpaper
for a very long time when I was playing
that game because that is one of my
favorite games of all time I loved it it
is the only game to this day that I
never skipped a cutscene every single
cutscene every single side quest was
just interesting was interesting and
engaging and all the side quests had
some kind of story that I wanted to know
it was a great game so I had played that
game and then obviously when the show
came out I watched the first season of
the show it's pretty good it had a
couple things that didn't necessarily
like about it but I said okay now is a
great time to actually read the books
so I did I read this first book
and I really really liked it i rated it
4 out of 5 on Goodreads but in my head
it's more like a 4.25 4.5 out of 5 I
really did like it but I also had some
slight issues with it so we'll just go
into that now so the last wish the first
book in The Witcher series follows
Geralt in a sequence of sort of short
stories but they're not necessarily
unrelated he's at this temple getting
healed after a fight and then we see sort of
flashbacks of some of the fights and
some of the quests he had been on before
he arrived at this temple so the way
this book is structured was definitely a
bit strange and bit different than what
I had expected but all the stories were
interconnected in some ways and they did
kind of follow one journey towards the
end so it didn't bother me so much at
the end of the day and as I mentioned if
you've watched the first season of the show
it is pretty much word by word of some
of the scenes in this book it doesn't
show all of the scenes but maybe the
most important ones and the scenes that
it does show it's kind of word-for-word
I was actually quite surprised how close
to the book the show stuck
the writing was also pretty different
than what I expected or that I'm used to
in fantasy books it was a lot of
dialogue like back-to-back dialogue
without much dialogue tags or
descriptions which is not something you
see very often in fantasy books but it
meant that the plot moved forward
faster than otherwise and even though it
was a bit strange at first I actually
grew to like it okay so let's talk
characters now obviously I am familiar
with these characters already so you
know it's not like first impression from
the video game and from the show I feel
like I know these characters so it was
really interesting to read the books
after I already know the story and the
characters but Geralt is pretty similar
in the book to how he is in the video
game I feel like the show kind of
silenced him quite a bit I would say I
think he still comes across the same way
it's just he feels like he never says
anything really he just grunts because
he's actually really intelligent and he
makes some really smart remarks and he's
quite funny as well and we don't really
get that from the show but I feel like
the game and of course the book do a
much better job of characterizing Gerald
and then of course we have one of my
favorite characters ever Dandelion he
was my favorite character from the game
and I think the
show did him pretty well as well although
every single rendition of this character
is different and yes I'm going to call
him Dandelion I know the show call him
Jaskier but to me he's always gonna
be Dandelion so every single rendition
of his character is completely different
and I do have to say I prefer the book
version he's again he's just so much
more witty and more intelligent in his
commentary in the book then he is both
in the video game and the show
especially the show I feel like he's
definitely more of a comedic clown than
anything but he's so much more than that
and he's definitely you know Gerald's
best friend and you can really really see
their relationship in the book and it's
great I was a bit sad that he wasn't a
part of the book for a very long time he
kind of showed up towards the end and he
was there with Gerald through the rest
of the book but in the beginning it was
pretty much just Gerald which is fine
but he's one of my favorite characters
so I was very very happy to finally read
about him and then the only other
character that we know that we get to
see is Yennefer and that is only at the
end in one story that is actually the
name of the book the last wish so yeah
if you've seen the show you will know
the part that I mean and the what the
wish entails but it's basically the
scene where Dandelion and Gerald stumble
upon a genie in a pot and then things
happen and they have to go find Yennefer
for her to do her magic I don't want to
spoil things I don't know how many of
you seen the show so I'm trying not to
spoil things but anyway so yeah we only
see Yennefer in that part and it's very
interesting again I feel like her
character is handled a little bit
differently than in both the show and
the books but what is not handled
differently is how infatuated
Geralt is with her like straight
away it's great it's really really funny
and by the way if you've played the
video again and you're wondering yes I
did go with Yennefer if you know what
I mean so I do really like her character
but that's about it we didn't really see
Ciri at all in this and we
didn't see Tris Jennifer mentioned Tris but
that only got about her and also we
didn't get any Yennefer back story so we
just saw her for that one scene so of
course in the show we get a lot of her
backstory and even though I feel like in
the show it was a bit confusing because
it was completely different timelines
but obviously not everyone would have
been aware of that
yeah we don't get any of that in this
book so I assume her backstory will be
in one of the next books in the series
and so I feel like the world-building
was really subtle and I really really
liked that it kind of came through in
scenes and on all the quest that Geralt
went on without it being sort of in your
face you know info dumping which I
absolutely love and I think it was done
really really well in this and the world
is very much fairy tale esque I would say
fairy tale combined with like Lord of
the Rings sort of classic medieval
fantasy obviously the whole Genie thing
is very fairy tale s and then there was
also a story that was not in the show
that kind of is almost like Beauty and
the Beast
but obviously on to all of these
retellings almost is put this sort of
polish Eastern European twist and I love
it oh I love that so much it's I think
it's done really really well I mean
that's essentially it we just get to see
Gerald going on some of these quests and
discovering some weird creatures and
handling them and yeah we get to know
more about his character and the
characters of some of his friends and
that's pretty much it so yeah I really
liked it
things I didn't like about it was
mainly there was of course this is something
that is prevalent and especially more
classical fantasy but that still doesn't
mean I enjoy reading it there's
definitely a hint of misogyny throughout
the whole thing and you know Geralt
himself is not the most well behaved in
that manner and I also feel like there
was like in Game of Thrones I feel like
it's sometimes it's really unnecessary
when there are just you know naked women
in the scene for no apparent reason
other than to
tickle the writers fancy or the male
readers fancy which I don't like I'll
just say that I don't like that so yeah
that was my main problem with it and
also the fact that you had their short
stories and there's not really an
overarching plot and if you weren't
familiar with the characters already
from the show from the books I feel like
it would be a bit difficult to get into
it because you you're not really given
much context you're just like pulled
straight in to the story which is fine
but I do feel like if you wouldn't know
the characters already it would be a
little more difficult to get through and
to get the most out of it yeah I mean
overall I really enjoyed it of course
and I love this world and I really want
to get further into the series and read
the rest of the books and hopefully this
show will become better with a bigger
budget that's not just spend on Gerald's
thighs and pants because it feels like
all of the budget was spent on him and
then everything else is like hey just
just put some green screen in there and
if project red is ever going to make
another Witcher game they have hinted at
it after saying they're not gonna do
that anymore and they were going to do
that sci-fi game but they did recently
hint that there might be another Witcher
game and that makes me very excited that
is still one of the best games I've ever
played so yeah that was my review of the
last wish I don't want to go into too
much detail it's also a relatively short
book for a fantasy so you know there's
not that much to say without going into
detail but I did really enjoy it and of
course if you are interested in this
story I would definitely recommend
reading the books even if you've read
the show even if it sticks very close
even if the show stick very close to the
book I would still recommend picking
these up if you're at all interested in
reading the original story because I do
think it does characterization of the
characters much better than any other
medium so yeah once I read the entire
series I might make another review of
the whole series I think that would be
interesting but I don't think I'm gonna
do a review for each book in the series
because
yeah because I don't think that makes so
much sense if you as a viewer haven't
read that particular book of the series
I don't like the first one or the series
as a whole I think makes a bit more
sense but let me know what you think and
yeah if you've read this or if you watch
the show or play the video game please
let me know in the comments what you
thought of it really curious know what
other people think of it because yeah
this was the first time I've read the
original material and it was very
interesting I usually prefer reading the
book before I watch or do anything else
obviously games is a bit more of a
unique thing there's not that many games
game adaptations of stories I wish there
were I really wish there were more so
this is kind of one's a rare occurrence
where I played the video game first that
I watched the show then finally I read
the book it just doesn't happen very
often so I thought that was an
interesting way to consume the story yes
I think that's everything from my review
I hope you guys enjoyed and I will see
you next week with the new video bye
