I had originally looked into the Witcher series and decided to give it a pass. The reviews I had read were not that great and I have enough series books on my shelf already. I also decided to give the TV series a pass for much the same reason. Reviewers were saying that the confusing chronology of the books was even more confusing on the screen. My close friends are binge watchers so within a week I was hearing rave reviews from people I don't trust to review a cereal box, but also from the one guy whose opinion on books and movies is pretty bang-on to my own, so my son and I took a chance on the series, which was entertaining at the very least. Shortly after finishing the series, BookBub showed me that the first Witcher book was only three bucks, so I took another chance. While claiming to be the first in the series, I understand that this collection of short stories was written after the main body of the Witcher novels. I don't know if they were published individually in magazines since the English editions and reviews all concern themselves with the English editions and not the source material. The stories themselves were pretty entertaining, and I think maybe four of the six were incorporated into the first season of the TV series, so if you want to try the books first, this is the place to start. I must also say that the wrap-around story used to hold the others together in a coherent whole was also pretty good, even if the ending was very portentous. My only real complaint is with the last story, from which the volume gets its title. Throughout, there are situations where one, two, things are said, but no one hears the third — or one, two, things are done, but the third isn't seen. Mildly amusing, but in the end, Geralt must make "The Last Wish" and we aren't told what it is. It's frustrating in that the wish is implied, but to me the possibility that I got it wrong might mean that the last scene might not have been one of passion, but rape, since if you make a genie have someone fall in love with you, it's not love at all.

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