Gonna keep this one short, because it’s essentially the next book (following Sword of Destiny, read my review here) in the Witcher series. Most of what I said in that review remains true for this book: it’s easy, the story is engrossing, and it’s pretty light on sex and gore. The translation has improved, or at least the instances of strange word choice are dramatically reduced.

This book will not win any literary prizes though. Compared to, say, The Name of the Wind, the writing is mediocre. You won’t marvel here or there at a turn of phrase, nor will you likely come away with an improved vocabulary. On the other hand, you also won’t notice that it’s bad. It’s not bad, which is good. But it’s not good, which is what is it. It’s unobtrusive.

Verdict: Sure, why not. It’s like candy. Elves and enchantresses and gnomes and dwarves and a mutant who abides by a moral code as he goes about his killing. Yay!