By Title: The Tower of the Swallow
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski, David French (Translator)
Publication Date: 1997, 2016
Publishing House: Orbit
The Tower of Swallows is the fourth book in The Witcher Saga. There are a couple of prequal novels, such as The Last Wish, that follow Geralt and some of the other main characters in the main series. I read this book on loan from the library, if you don’t already – support your local library!
Synopsis from Goodreads
The world has fallen into war. Ciri, the child of prophecy, has vanished. Hunted by friends and foes alike, she has taken on the guise of a petty bandit and lives free for the first time in her life. But the net around her is closing. Geralt, the Witcher, has assembled a group of allies determined to rescue her. Both sides of the war have sent brutal mercenaries to hunt her down. Her crimes have made her famous. There is only one place left to run. The tower of the swallow is waiting…
I swear the author of these books loves to write each one slightly differently with a ridiculous amount of scene breaks throughout the series. Most of this book is told as if someone is telling a story: to a friend, to a court, or to readers as yet unknown. Some of the story is also told as flashbacks. Due to the way this book in particular is written a lot happens and many questions are answered, if in a round about fashion through the stories of different characters.
Things that I liked: the reader learns more about some of the wilder regions and more distant countries of this world. We also get some questions answered that we have been wondering about for a couple of books. My favorite thing is hearing Ciri discuss and reflect on how her experiences have changed her into the person she is at this point in the series. We also get to see how Geralt has changed since meeting his destiny.
Things I didn’t like: the organization in this book leaves something to be desired. As noted above there are a lot of scene breaks and sometimes it takes a minute to figure out where in the story we are at now. Also, I listened to this as an audiobook and its the same narrator reading all the books up to this point, in this book though he started pronouncing just one character’s name differently. Annoying, but it doesn’t distract from the story.
I suggest this book if you are fans of The Witcher series. I would not start with this book. Start with The Last Wish or Blood of Elves. I do suggest this series for fans of fantasy, for fans of the show and fans of the video game. Happy reading.
Don’t miss my other reviews from The Witcher Sage:
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