The Last Wish

The Last Wish marks the first major appearance of Andrzej Sapkowski’s most famous character: the witcher Geralt of Rivia. But Geralt’s adventures only found international fame when they became multimedia, being translated into a video game series and a Netflix show that, with their epic scope and intricate web of political intrigue, little resemble Geralt’s first major adventures, which are structured as a collection of simple short stories.

Geralt of Rivia is a mercenary specialized in killing monsters and supernatural creatures. Because he has undergone special training, which has modified some of his genetic traits, he is called a witcher – someone who uses magic and potions to destroy the creatures of the night, but is then rejected during the day by the very people he protected. Human beings are very good at being ungrateful, you see, some people even specialize in that, and Geralt is a mutant, a freak: he helps others, yes, but for coin, and his countenance, especially after taking his potions, is a terrying one. He’s a scary man, in other words, and no one wants those around for long.

The witcher, then, naturally resembles those typical heroes who are shunned precisely because of their heroic deeds, even though he appears to care little about this rejection: Geralt prefers to distance himself from society, its people, and their political problems.

The opening tale, The Witcher, introduces the character and his methods. Geralt is hired by a king to cure his daughter of a curse that turned her into a terrible striga – a huge beast that “is four cubits high, shaped like a barrel of beer, has a maw which stretches from ear to ear and is full of dagger-like teeth, has red eyes and a red mop of hair!”

The story shows the witcher’s main traits. The task – saving the princess – is extremely dangerous; completely impossible, some say. Many others, even witchers, have already tried and failed. Geralt, however, much like Tom Cruise, never hesitates. His personal code comes into play when he stumbles upon some court intrigue: some parties would prefer if the princess never returned to her normal state, but Geralt pushes them away immediately. He was paid to do a job, and he’ll honor his contract. At the same time, he doesn’t accept the mission just because he has a good heart, making sure his compensation will be more than just.

Geralt is a cautious man. Fighting the monster is just half the job, after all; the other half is preparing for the battle. So, we witness him learning about the princess and analyzing the situation to find out which potions he should prepare for the fateful clash: they modify his features and physical traits, such as dilating his pupils to allow for sharper vision in the dark, making a huge part of his battle strategy. His fighting style also matches his personality: Geralt usually circles his enemies, studying their patterns, to finally end the fight with just two or three quick moves. His infallibility, however, is quickly demystified by the story’s end, when his mistakes are severely punished.

The structure here is episodic, with each short story working as a self-contained tale. The following one, for example, is A Grain of Truth, where the witcher, while looking for work and following a trail of corpses, comes across a castle where a huge, well-dressed, educated beast lives, and is invited to spend the night there. The small arrangement of blue roses in front of the castle, beloved by the beast, reveals the book’s most recurring feature: you probably would never guess by just playing the games and watching the TV show (although they work with the theme occasionally), but the first couple of The Witcher books are all about the subversion of fairy tales. They always contain at least a grain of truth about the human condition, one character argues, and humans being the wonderfully empathetic creatures that we are, that grain here is prejudice: appearances can be deceiving in The Last Wish, and the most beautiful things are often found to be the most dangerous.

But Geralt’s main narrative arc is best outlined in The Lesser Evil. Here is the thing about Geralt: he hates getting involved in politics; they make matters muddy, complicated, and he’d rather be left alone to kill monsters in peace. You probably know someone like Geralt, the witcher, someone who tries to avoid politics like the plague, tuning the news out, because they believe everyone involved is evil and choosing the lesser evil is still choosing evil – and they’re simply too good to do that. Someone who may believe their inaction is a right, as they’re already too busy, their lives are already too hard, to add even more bullshit to the mix – so they’re entitled to be left ignorant, never having to engage with unsavory matters such as systemic oppression, war, and genocide. Someone who is screaming right now, “Don’t put politics in my fantasy series, I’d rather be left alone to read about guys killing monsters in peace!” Unfortunately for Geralt, the witcher, sometimes we have no choice in the matter: there are indeed political discussions in your fantasy series and, even worse, because you exist in a certain political environment, it’s up to you to act to change it, whether you like it or not.

So, by subverting Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Lesser Evil has Geralt in such an uncomfortable scenario: the dwarves are murderers, the princess is a psycho-revolutionary capable of killing dozens of innocents, and they want the life of the wizard who exiled her. This wizard has tried to hire the witcher to kill the princess and locked himself inside a tower. But since this grants Geralt free access to the place, the princess makes a similar offer to the witcher, forcing him to choose a side. Noticing that the two options are not exactly ideal, Geralt’s stance is initially firm, but he eventually begins to realize (even if maybe a bit too late) that staying away from politics is a political choice in itself: if a person refuses to choose between two options because they think they’re both heavily problematic, they may very well be choosing the worst of them – inaction, after all, has always favored the oppressor. You may believe you’re sitting on the fence or not engaging with the fence at all, negating its existence altogether because it’s covered in shit, but you’re clearly standing on one specific side; you’re just being a coward about it.

But when I say you, I mean Geralt, the witcher, of course. Not you. You’re great.

The Edge of the World, in turn, puts the focus on worldbuilding. The witcher sets off on an adventure with his troubadour friend, Jaskier, through a distant region where they eventually encounter a goat-shaped creature that is being accused of stealing people’s crops. It’s in this tale that characters stop to reflect not only on their dilemmas but also on how they affect the universe around them. Geralt’s discussions with his friend share a melancholic, nostalgic tone, in which they realize how different the world has become: true monsters are increasingly rare, and their problems are increasingly political. In the past, things were different, things were better, and Geralt could stay apolitical in peace. This shift is no coincidence, as the story aptly turns to the issue of racism once again, and the villain becomes linked not to the supernatural but to human cruelty.

Serving as interludes between the short stories, there are many chapters entitled The Voice of Reason. In these chapters, in which Geralt is recovering from the confrontation with the striga, the witcher reflects briefly on his adventures. These short chapters are, however, completely unnecessary, as they fail to add anything relevant to the bigger picture. To make matters worse, they’re also responsible for the book ending with a very cheap hook, which only undermines its conclusion.

Despite these problematic interludes, The Last Wish is a straightforward fantasy book that develops its themes and protagonist quite effectively, exploring the problems of human nature and their inevitable, unavoidable political consequences.

February 25, 2025.

Review originally published in Portuguese on July 03, 2014.