Lady of the Lake is the final book of the witcher novel saga, concluding the whole story. A lot goes on in this culmination of a book and surely it is hard to write about it without spoiling. But I will make an attempt anyway. The spoiler section will be below, with a spoiler alert.
As I see it, this is the best book of the saga (that is to say of the novels, not the short stories) and some of the changes in the storytelling methods made it so. There are numerous POVs and narratives in this entry, all scattered throughout time and places and in the beginning you cannot be sure which comes first and which later on—maing it quite non linear. I liked that. Kind of reminded me of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.
The book starts with Ciri, in middle of a jungle and nearby a lake, chatting up Sir Galahad, a knight of king Arthur, in the world of Arthurian legend (perhaps our world?). She starts to tell him of her story. Young Sir Galahad mistakes her as lady of the lake, which is a mythical figure in that particular world’s lore. And this is from where the novel’s name comes from. This point of view serves as a key storytelling device for the novel.
We get introduced to a brand new narrative several decades in the future. Apparently the tales of the witcher Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer, Dandelion has already passed to the lore. None remembers those tales as events of the past, rather mere legends. There are many versions of them, as that is the nature of legends and scholar Nimue is on a mission to find the accurate version. She wants to uncover the true history. She is so devoted to the cause, that people have given her the nickname, “Lady of the lake”. She takes an apprentice who can dream the past and the future. Together they embark on the mission to unravel what really happened to Ciri and the others.
And rest of the POVs and narratives follow Ciri, Geralt and friends, Yennefer, Jarre, Rusty and the group of medics, Emhyr, The lodge of sorceress.
Scattering the narratives had its intended effects on me. I was restless while reading the book, itching to skip ahead and see what happens lol. Moments of joy, euphoria as well as fear grasped me from time to time.
Overall, a satisfying end to a cherished novel series. I’m glad I decided to pick it up a few years back.
Spoiler Alert
Now, on to some really satisfying things!
The way Bonhart was belittling Geralt, I really wished Geralt would beat the shit out of him. I’m clearly with Yennefer here, he’s no match for Geralt!
But I loved that Ciri finally overcame her fear and defeated him. She actually deserved that fight.
And on the other side, Geralt got to fight Vilgefortz and managed to hack him to death—granted, with the help of Yennefer and Regis, but hey, he’s the one with deadly blows!
I felt really sorry for Regis and the other comrades that died, all of them were special in their own ways. But perhaps, this is not the end for all of them. ;)
In the beginning I wasn’t interested about the Nimue narrative but soon it became all the more relevant and quite enjoyable. Didn’t like the apprentice though.
Ciri’s world hopping was intriguing. I was wondering what it would be like to experience that myself and fortunately I got to taste it in the Witcher 3 PC game. Geralt does the world hopping there with Avallach, in search of one of the generals of Eredin.
It was quite charming to read how Sapkowski nonchalantly used Ciri’s world hopping as a mean to spread plague from one world to another, which would change the fate of a few individuals.
And those individuals, including Jarre, Rusty and Shani, belong to the most nature narrative of all in the book. A battle field, a bunch of medic. Choices of life and death.
Although the most shocking thing for me was to find out that Nilfgaardian emperor Emhyr was Duny. This changed the whole story, forced me to see it under a new light.
But the series didn’t end for me here, for I still had the prequel book, Season of Storms, which takes place between The last wish and Sword of Destiny, respectively the first and the second witcher book.
So I will be writing about that one next.
Thanks for stopping by.
