The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

Goodreads Blurb:

Geralt de Rivia is a witcher. A cunning sorcerer. A merciless assassin. And a cold-blooded killer. His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good...and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

A collection of short stories introducing de Rivia, to be followed by the first novel in the actual series, The Blood of Elves. Note that, while The Last Wish was published after The Sword of Destiny, the stories contained in The Last Wish take place first chronologically, and many of the individual stories were published before The Sword of Destiny.

The witcher books are ones I've seen on my bookstore's shelves for a while now -- their distinctive red spines grouped together make them easy to spot.  I've always passed by them because I often don't read spin-off books from tv shows or video games -- I prefer to watch/play the originating media rather than read the spin offs.

But then I learned --- the books came before the witcher games?!

So, yeah.  I'm late to that party.  I picked up the first one a week or two ago and was surprised to find that The Last Wish was a collection of short stories rather than a cohesive novel.  It's no secret that I don't much care for short fiction...but I had already purchased it.  Plus, if I was going to dive into the witcher world, I was going to do it in chronological reading order.  So...I read it.

And loved it!  Granted, my opinion of short fiction remains the same -- not a big fan.  And it did take me longer to read The Last Wish than a typical fantasy novel of that size.  Sapkowski provides the reader tantalizing glimpses into Geralt's world and gives you just enough character development to string you along from story to story.  

So...that said, I've already purchased the next book -- Sword of Destiny -- which is also a collection of short stories...and the first three novels.  The Last Wish was a fascinating blend of original fantasy with fairy tale retellings at the very core.  It was fantastic.  I can't wait to dive back in to Geralt of Rivia's world!