Baptism of Fire – Andrzey Sapkowski

Published: 6 March 2014 (first publication 1996)
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 352
Series: The Witcher Book 3
Format Read: Physical

Blurp:

As nations go to war around him, Geralt the Witcher is on a mission: to save his ward, Ciri, and with her the world . . .
The Wizards Guild has been shattered by a coup and, in the uproar, Geralt was seriously injured. The Witcher is supposed to be a guardian of the innocent, a protector of those in need, a defender against powerful and dangerous monsters that prey on men in dark times.
But now that dark times have fallen upon the world, Geralt is helpless until he has recovered from his injuries.
While war rages across all of the lands, the future of magic is under threat and those sorcerers who survive are determined to protect it. It’s an impossible situation in which to find one girl – Ciri, the heiress to the throne of Cintra, has vanished – until a rumour places her in the Niflgaard court, preparing to marry the Emperor.

Injured or not, Geralt has a rescue mission on his hands.

Thoughts:

It is time I try sit down and tell you all I can remember from this novel. I once again did not write down any notes as I went along so this will probably be another short review seeing as I finished the book in November last year. What is it with me and not keeping notes??? Baptism of Fire was another read by Milou, Jenn,( Jenn somehow did not get the GR notifications for this read so I will link her review for the book whenever it comes available)  Spalanz and I.

I originally thought that the girl depicted on the cover of this novel was Ciri, but I am now convinced it was Milfa/Milva?, and she had every right to be on the cover of this one. She outshone the main protagonist, Geralt of this series, on so many levels I am happy that the publisher thought about including her on it. Regis was a close second of my favorites in this novel, the guy was a total bad ass and also a fun addition to this novel which would have become pretty dull if they were not included.

Baptism of fire sees Geralt finally sort of figuring out that he needs to get to Ciri as it dawns on him, very slow mind you, that she might be in danger. Ciri, to her credit, can take care of herself though, she was trained as a witcher at a young age after all. Where Geralt is still recovering from wounds from some epic battle he had, that I have somehow forgotten about, he sets out to try find Ciri. Along the way he meets up with a few familiar faces and sort of reluctantly starts a traveling party. I have to say that this novel was probably my favorite of the novels so far. No Geralt and Yen lovey dovey stuff, no akward lesbian Ciri encounters, unless I blocked those out. Not too much of the sorceresses all lusting after Geralt. Just pure “we need to get to point B from point A” with a few more lore drops here and there that paints the world a bit more. There are, again, not a lot of monster hunting going on, with only one sort of encounter, but Geralt does not kill it, he just chases it away, adding more lore to the monsters you find in the setting.

All in all I had a good time with Baptism of Fire, it read easily enough now that I am somewhat more at home with Sapkowski’s way of story telling. I can only hope that the next novel will carry on that strength. We have three books left if I am not mistaken so will have to see how it ends up. Baptism of Fire got a 4 out of 5 on GR from me and as I have said, this was probably the best novel from the two I have read if you do not count the short story preludes to the series. Easily recommended to people who are starting out the Witcher and plann on going through the series, but not as a stand alone, you might be completely lost if you start the series with this book.

Till next time.