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The Witcher Witcher books(19 posts)(19 posts)
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Posted February 25, 2015
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Random_Coffee: I'm considering buying the first Witcher-novel, Blood of Elves, has anyone here read it? Is the english translation good?
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Waltorious: I am reading it right now (a few chapters in). So far I find the translation to be pretty good, but of course I can't read the original Polish so I don't know how accurate it is. But it reads well.

I recommend reading the short stories first. The Last Wish is available in English, but you really want to read The Sword of Destiny too if you can, as Katanasteel mentioned above. I've read the fan translation, and some of it was a little awkward but mostly it was OK. The important thing is that The Sword of Destiny introduces Ciri, who is a major character in the novels, and gives a lot more background on Yennefer, who is also an important character. Technically Yennefer is introduced in The Last Wish but she shows up a lot in The Sword of Destiny and readers learn more about her and Geralt.

EDIT: Specifically, the stories "The Sword of Destiny" and "Something More" in The Sword of Destiny collection are basically set-up stories for the events of the novels.
Alright, I'll read The Last Wish first. I'll wait for the official English version of The Sword of Destiny. I prefer reading books, than reading from the PC-screen (I don't own a Kindle/tablet). The official English translation is apparently coming in May :) I guess I should wait for Sword of Destiny before I start reading Blood of Elves, if it includes set-up stories for the novels. Thanks! This was very helpful :)
Posted February 26, 2015
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Random_Coffee: The official English translation is apparently coming in May :)
I didn't know that... maybe I'll pick that up to see how different the translation is.

I enjoyed the stories in The Last Wish a lot. They have a different feel to the novels, they're more like interesting takes on folk tales, whereas the later stories and the novels (so far anyway) have a bigger political story going on. But I like both!

By the way, you will discover that the first story in The Last Wish (barring the short intro) is the same one that is included with the extras back for The Witcher game (and it's also called, simply, "The Witcher"). I can't remember if it's the same translation but I think it is.
Posted February 26, 2015
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Random_Coffee: I'll wait for the official English version of The Sword of Destiny. I prefer reading books, than reading from the PC-screen (I don't own a Kindle/tablet).
Completely understandable, but just so you know, the official translations of the last two books haven't been exactly brilliant. The fan translations seem to hew closer to the original text, from what I'm told.
Posted February 27, 2015
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Adonai-: Completely understandable, but just so you know, the official translations of the last two books haven't been exactly brilliant. The fan translations seem to hew closer to the original text, from what I'm told.
It's possible to be too close to the original text, though. In the fan translations of The Sword of Destiny, there are some parts which just sound wrong in English, e.g. a character saying "It's good to see again you" which makes sense in Polish but not in English. Translations always have to be a balance of capturing the original text while making it sound natural in the new language; so far The Blood of Elves has read pretty well to me. But the later books may have worse translations.
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The Witcher Witcher books(19 posts)(19 posts)
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