Title: The Witcher – Time of Contempt

Author: Andrzej Sapkowski

Dear all,

The journey that the book is taking us on is truly much much more than a simple novel where a child was orphaned and then learns to become a Witcher in the most capable hands of Gerald, the White Wolf. This was the direction I believed the first series and book showed us we were heading towards.

After reading this book and the one before, my theory has been completely smashed and blown off the table. For it is not meant to be an easy trip for Ciri to become what she has been destined to become. In this book Ciri learns of a far distant ancestor of her Elder Blood that could possibly lead her to into a third destiny instead of the two earlier ones I believed to be true from the prior books.

The book is once again split into seven chapters.

• Chapter 1
  • We follow the trail of a royal messenger Applegatt who is on his way to deliver a letter from one king to another. The tensions between the north and south are close to breaking point that it is no longer a matter of if, but rather when the war will break out. He stops at a local inn for the night and then is on his way the next morning at dusk. Here he comes across two strangers, two females. One an adult with long raven-black hair and purple eyes, and one young girl who is hiding her appearance.
  • The next story continues to follow the messenger where he comes to halt on the road where multiple carts have stopped their journey. Up ahead there was a monster and was being taken care of by the Witcher, none other than Gerald. Not long their journey continues.
  • The Witcher arrives in Dorian where he rides over to the consultants Codringher and Fenn to ask for advice. He wishes to understand why all the kingdoms are desperately trying to get their hands on Ciri. They conclude the discussion by planning to issue some evidence that Ciri’s royal line is not solely royal blood, but slightly tainted, thus making her less attractive as the legitimate heir of Cintra, which will hopefully drop everyone’s interest in her. Fenn, during this research has discovered that Ciri isn’t just any child with Elder Blood, but is quite possibly a direct descendant of Falka.
  • The story continues to follow the messenger to an inn (in Dorian) where he will take rest for the night. At dinner a Witcher also comes to the inn. He sees some bounty hunters outside and deals with them as they were after him in order to get information from him where Ciri was held up.
• Chapter 2
  • Ciri and Yennefer are on their way to Gors Velen, which holds the magician castle/sanctuary Thanedd as well as the school for new enchantresses, called Aretuza and is an isolated island off the coast of Gors Velen.
  • While Yennefer does some business in the bank Ciri is permitted to investigate the local town with Fabio Sachs, an employee from the bank. One of the things they see on their short trip is a circus that is said to house a basilisk, but which Ciri corrects to be a wyvern instead. The beast manages to break free from its cage, and Ciri quickly eliminates the beast before more harm can be done. During the struggle no one saw who really did it but everyone was still in a rush to get out, which is when she activates a device that makes her invisible and she hurries out of the tent. Some of the local enchantresses have felt the magic pulse and tracked her down. Mistaking her for a student of the college instead. However, when they reach the bank, the matter is cleared up, but the two of them are still in trouble.
  • The two enchantresses, Tissaia de Vries and Margarita Laux-Antille, have gone to the sauna with Yennefer and Ciri where they catch up on events.
  • Ciri doesn’t want to go to Aretuza just yet. She wants to see Gerald first, so she takes a horse and escapes off to Hirundum, where it was last heard he might be heading to. On her trip the weather is not in her favour since it is dark and stormy and she starts having visions again, visions of being pursued by the black knight with the winged helmet. She manages to travel far enough to a farm which is where she meets Gerald and Dandelion, with Yennefer close on her heels.
• Chapter 3
  • That night there is a ball in Aretuza and all the mages and enchantresses have been invited to attend. Each of them is either attendant for their respective king or part of the college. Gerald meets some old acquaintances but also new interesting people. Unease is in the air due to the politics at court. No one is simply attending for a reunion, but also is spying for their respective kings. Some of the women are quite jealous of the man Yennefer has snatched up, some use their pleasantries to cleverly disguise their intent in trying to find out the location of Ciri, whereas others make vague associations to find out on which side of the war they are, maybe even persuade them to switch alliances, or join one side (the winning side) because when the time comes you really want to be on the right one.
  • Afterwards, they retreat to their lodgings and catch up on that long forgotten ‘sleep’.
• Chapter 4
  • Codringher and Fenn have continued their research into Ciri’s bloodline and have made a fascinating discovery. She truly is of the Elder Blood, and related to none other than Falka. Falka once was a powerful elf who the people turned against and put her on the stake. Legend has it that she was so enraged that she vowed that her successor would one day return and fulfil her destiny and kill them all. Just then they receive visitors from elves. They are not there for regular services but kill the two of them and take all the research the both have undertaken including the results from their most recent discovery.
  • Gerald takes a morning stroll and finds that enchantresses and mages are taken prisoner. The Redanians are arresting all the mages and enchantresses that they have suspected to be in alliance with the Nilfgaards and are quickly making arrests before they can fight back. However, they don’t manage to do this without trouble since some of the suspects were already awake and opened the magical barriers that otherwise protected the place. What followed was Scio’tael coming in through the cellars as well as some Nilfgaards and the fight erupts.
  • Ciri has made her way to the castle to find Gerald and Yennefer and when she finds this carnage going on she tries to escape it all because the Nilfgaards are now chasing her as well.
• Chapter 5
  • Gerald was brutally hurt and had been brought to Brokilon by Triss Merrigold, where he recovered from his wounds. It is here that Dandelion is traveling to and meets up with him. Dandelion tells Gerald of all the current events that were going on in the different kingdoms, which mainly sums up to some northern kingdoms having submitted to being vassals of the Nilfgaardian king and some still trying to hold out, but unsuccessfully because mostly all alliances between the northern kingdoms have ruptured. Some kings have received back some of their old territories that another kingdom had occupied centuries earlier, whereas the elves have also retrieved some of their lands they had lost when the humans first arrived.
  • We also have an audience with the king of Nilfgaard where he proclaims to have ‘saved’ the heiress of the kingdom of Cintra, princess Ciri. He introduces her to his audience and announces that he is her saviour and that he will continue his pursuit to reclaim all of the northern lands that once belonged to her Queen Calanthe. He saved her since her own people didn’t save her from the life she have lived since the fall of their kingdom. He then sends her on her way to another kingdom on the edge of his territory to wait until he has completed his work.
  • Only, once all the attendees have left, does the king summon his three trusted people and tells them that the search must continue since the ‘heir’ they were presented with is not the true Ciri.
• Chapter 6
  • When Ciri managed to flee her pursuers she had accidentally stumbled through the old portal in Thanned. The portal is said to be unstable since it throws people out somewhere random.
  • She recovers her wits and then realizes she has landed in some kind of desert. Ciri struggles on day-by-day and barely holds out when she meets a mystical creature who accompanies her to the mountain area. There, she hopes to find some people who may help her.
  • In the end she manages to escape the desert, but only to be caught by a knight. One with black armour and birds on his helmet.
• Chapter 7
  • The knight together with his trackers are on their way to deliver Ciri to collect their reward. On the way they are confronted by another group and the knights come to a clash and both become badly injured. The trackers take this opportunity and seize Ciri and flee.
  • They stop over in a Nilfgaardian town to have a pint and some food before they continue on their journey the next day. There, Ciri is seated next to boy, who is part of an infamous gang called the six Rats, who have stirred up trouble with smaller towns and travelers, taking what they can for themselves.
  • She helps him loosen his restrains, and then the rest of the group invade the tavern and kill off the other trackers. They manage to escape as Ciri now joins their group.

If you have followed my reviews this far then you know that the story has not yet reached its climax by a long shot and thus more mystery and adventure lies ahead. I may now believe that Ciri won’t follow the third destiny that was set before her by her ancestor Falka, but one thing should be certain, she will not become an ordinary Witcher/Enchantress as Gerald or Yennefer are. She has something that makes her more special.

However, I may be completely wrong and she decides to settle into a simple life of a Witcher/Enchantress. Only the next books will deliver clues what we can expect next.

What isn’t done very well in the individual chapters is when the author stops writing the story of one set of characters and starts off with another set of characters somewhere completely different. Because you try to understand where they now suddenly come into the picture but then realize the other story has actually stopped and he continues with a completely different one from here onwards.

Summary:

The book flows very well from the previous one and expands on the story even more. While we were introduced to Ciri having some significant ancestor in the past, we now learn that that ancestor has left her something very powerful. They continue to be pursued in the brink of war between the northern kingdoms and the southern Nilfgaards. The book leaves the reader in suspense what path Ciri will be taking as she has multiple destinies she could pursue. The book receives a rating of 4.4/5.

Happy reading!