"Sword of Destiny" Review - An Impressively Weighty and Significant Sequel

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Hello Fellow Journeyers,

The second installment in Sapkowski's Witcher saga comes with as much fire and fury as the first. It needs no further introduction than that; let's begin!


Whats the story about: Like The Last Wish, Sword of Destiny is a series of short stories that are interconnected. What Sword of Destiny does to improve on this setup is tell them in the order to ensure a more simplistic reading and it works splendidly over the last entry. This sequel is about monster hunting, Geralt, and philosophizing.

While The Last Wish is the introduction to the world of the Witcher, some of the main characters, and tells a more simplistic approach to the moral and philosophical implications of what a Witcher does, Sword of Destiny takes all of that for granted and just gets on with the fantastic storytelling. You can expect harsh truths, unexpected agendas, and dynamic action to be a staple to each of the stories. 

But not all the stories are equally good. The Bounds of Reason, A Shard of Ice, and Eternal Flame are not particularly thrilling or worth rereading, which is disappointing but not unexpected. The thing about Sapkowski's writing that continually perplexes is that he often commits to tangential streaks that seem either tedious, monotonous, or downright cruel to the reader in order to either prove a point, or prove that he's a good writer. Sometimes this works, but much of the time, it's just hard and a slog to get through. 

★★★★ 4 Stars - All in all, Sword of Destiny is a fantastic sequel to The Last Wish that provides everything you expect and a little more. After having read this book multiple times now, the main stories that stick out to me as the best are near the back end of the book. A Little Sacrifice, Sword of Destiny, and Something More are my three favorites in this entry and the writing involved is the absolute best of the whole series. While it does have its grating slow points, most of it is good enough to warrant rereading over and over again, which is a rarity when it comes to a short story collection.


Let me hear from you! If you like what you read, want to hear more thoughts on this book, other reviews, or talk book recommendations and Essential Reading, leave a comment below.


Rating system:

★★★★★ 5 Stars: It was amazing; I loved it. Read this book; it is definitely Essential Reading!

★★★★★* 4.5 Stars: It was fantastic, I really loved almost every aspect of it.

★★★★ 4 Stars: It was very good and worth reading; highly recommend.

★★★★* 3.5 Stars: I enjoyed a lot of aspects of this story, but it was lacking in certain areas.

★★★ 3 Stars: It was good, but could've been better or improved upon significantly.

★★★* 2.5 Stars: I wanted to enjoy it. Certain aspects were good, it was worth finishing, but many issues.

★★ 2 Stars:  It was okay, I didn't feel strongly about it.

★ 1 Star: I did not like it. It was not worth finishing or I did not finish it.

*I round up based on the system on Goodreads. Also, there is no 1.5 Stars because it does not seem to have enough differentiation.