The Essential Malady

Like many in the English-speaking world, I learned of Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series through the 2007 of the game of the same name. The first book which is a collection of short stories titled The Last Wish, was published earlier the same year. I did not play the first game until after the ‘Enhanced Edition’ was released and my interest in the game also had me seek out related media. Though the original game sold very well, it was the third game where the series really took off. The first two games were mainly PC releases though the second did get an Xbox 360 port. The third game was a much-hyped multiplatform release and one of the biggest game releases of 2015.

For anyone unfamiliar, the series is about Geralt of Rivia who has undergone mutations that significantly enhance his physical characteristics to make him an ideal monster slayer — a witcher. He is part of a dying order of monster slayers who were taken as children and managed to survive the intense training and often fatal mutagens used to become an emotionless killing machine. Though not conceived as a game, it has parallels with the science-fiction setting of Halo where the protagonist Master Chief goes through a similar program to become a super soldier. Were I better read on science-fiction and fantasy, I am sure I would be aware of earlier examples too.

I enjoyed the game series and so read a the first few books as they were published in English beginning with The Last Wish and then the first three of the five novels, Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt and Baptism of Fire before stopping and forgetting about them. The last two were not published in English until after the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2016 and 2017 respectively. By this time, a lot of things were happening  in my life (including my conversion to Catholicism) and I had lost interest in the series. Those familiar with the games (as well as the novels), will know they include some rather unsavoury elements such as some disturbing horror, violence and sexual content and I was generally re-thinking the kind of media I consumed at the time. This also included the Game of Thrones television series based on the unfinished novels by George R. R. Martin which contained frequently gratuitous sex and violence. This is less evident in the first novel in the series though I can’t speak of the others. 

I mentioned I was re-reading the series in a previous post and have just today finished the concluding novel in the series though there are also two prequel novels by the author which I haven’t and likely will not read. I also replayed all three of the games over the last year for the first time in a decade. This I confess broke a pledge to avoid media like this and wanting to reappraise the series a decade after the third game’s release is a poor excuse. Still, it at least inspired this post.

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