B-

As the launching point for the Witcher saga from Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, not to mention the ill-fated Netflix show loosely (and do I ever mean loosely) based on his work, The Last Wish is a fascinating read. Particularly for newer Witcher fans coming over from the brilliant Witcher III: Wild Hunt video game, this collection of short stories may seem light on plot and rough around the edges. Frankly, both of these are true, but all the more so when noting the absence of Ciri and even, until the final sequence, Yennefer, two mainstays from Wild Hunt that gamers will likely be expecting to be present in the series opener.

I know this feeling well because I was a newcomer to the series that was introduced to Sapkowski’s world through The Witcher III, myself. But while The Last Wish is far from the masterpiece that CD Projekt RED’s magnum opus is, it’s still an engaging entry point into the series. In a sense, it’s a book of Witcher III side quests, largely adhering to the quality of writing that the best distractions in Wild Hunt have to offer.

Loosely wrapped together in an overarching plot featuring Dandelion and Nenneke in the present day, the meat of The Last Wish is told through its flashback short stories, all of which were originally published separately in 1990 by Polish publisher Reporter. Though they were published in book form by Independent Publishing House NOWA a few years later after the second short story collection Sword of Destiny, the events of The Last Wish actually precede this tale and were represented as the first “book” of the series when it came to the Americas in the aughts. Both short story collections precede a collection of five mainline books, though a sixth tangential book called Season of Storms was written by Sapkowski in 2018 and takes place between some of the short stories in The Last Wish.

Still with me? Complicated history aside, The Last Wish is a breezy enough read that, at its best, introduces series mainstays and pushes the plot forward (“The Last Wish” and “A Question of Price”) and, at worst, makes for mildly interesting set dressing (“The Leser Evil” and “The Edge of the World”). All of them put series antihero Geralt of Rivia in distressing situations that he must grunt, curse and kill his way out of, many of which feature the moral quandaries he’s still battling years later in the games.

Sapkowski’s writing style is unique in that it is heavily dominated by dialogue, at times almost reading like more of a script than a novel. But thanks to his sardonic wit and amusing characters, it all works, particularly in memorable scenes like when two side characters react to a chaotic struggle featuring Geralt, Yennefer and an angry djin at the final story’s climax.

The Last Wish is unlikely to be the best book you’ve ever read, but it remains essential reading for fans and newcomers alike looking to dig into the series. It succeeds as an introduction to Geralt, Dandelion and Yennefer, and though the main plot is largely left for later tales, a couple of key plot points here, particularly in “A Question of Price,” are critically important going forward and absolutely required reading. If you get a kick out of Geralt harassing an overzealous cop, unearthing the web of lies covering up a disturbing incest-borne princess-turned-monster, or finding himself trapped in an upside-down version of Beauty and the Beast along the way, well that’s just icing on the cake.