Amazon.co.uk:Customer reviews: Time of Contempt: Witcher 2 – Now a major Netflix show (The Witcher Book 8)

Interesting world and characters make Time of Contempt an absorbing read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 August 2017

Time of Contempt is second book to the Witcher Saga by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. These books form an ongoing fantasy story, they are not stand alone so if you are new to the series this is not the book to start with. I highly recommend reading them in this order with the two short story collections first which originally written for magazines before starting the saga:

1 - The Last Wish
2 - Sword of Destiny
3 - Blood of Elves (The Witcher Book 1)

Onto the review! Time of Contempt carries on straight off the back of the first book with a large war potentially brewing between the Nilfgaardian Empire and several other kingdoms while at the same time the humans and elves are fighting amongst themselves over years of bitter race hatred. In the midst of these growing tensions the Witcher Geralt and the sorceress Yennifer do their best to protect Ciri, a young girl who is the focus of a prophecy who is being chased by factions of all sides who want to use her for their own gain.

Time of Contempt is a relatively slow burn reading wise, much like Blood of Elves it takes it's time building up the world and characters. As a fan who got into the books through the video games I enjoy that a lot as I am getting a bit more of an in-depth view into relationships between the characters and the ever shifting world. Geralt is a great character but I have found the focus on both Ciri and Yennifer far more interesting thus far. This is not to say there is not a lot of action as there certainly are moments with some pretty good build up especially towards the latter half of the book, though I can't say much without spoiling anything but there are some interesting scenarios that happen as the story builds.

The entire book is very well written, though it feels occasionally a little stilted probably due to the nature of the translation from Polish it works very well with the content I have found. It's pretty easy to read and clear with a mixture of emotional and funny moments spread throughout. It has the same issue as Blood of Elves though that while being a full novel still feels at times like several short stories with an ongoing story stapled together. Some of the breaks between chapters or story arcs aren't as smooth as i'd like and it finishes just kind of randomly but it's a small gripe to an otherwise enjoyable read, I recommend the series thus far. Looking forward to the next book Baptism of Fire

+ Interesting characters.
+ Great setting and scenarios.
+ Well written.

- Ends kind of out of nowhere, some story arc breaks jump around a lot.

22 people found this helpful

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James Tivendale

I would personally recommend that you take the leap into the world of the Witcher.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 January 2019

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I mistook stars reflected in a pond at night for those in the sky."

The narrative commences at what seems like a time of contempt indeed. The Kings aren't conversing with the Mages as they have previously, the Nilfgaardian army is still planning for war, and the Scoia'tael (Squirrels) are attacking humans in forests and villages. Many parties are all still looking for the elusive Lion Cub, the child of Destiny, Cirilla.

After an interesting and quite tragic point of view chapter following a King's messenger called Aplegatt, where the worrying and uneasy times that the world is currently facing are expressed, we are introduced back to Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer. Geralt is doing typical Witcher work and trying to find out more about the mysterious magician Rience. We are unfamiliar with the mage's motives or who his employer may be but it's clearly known he wants Ciri. Yennefer and Ciri are travelling to Thanedd which is where a conclave of mages and enchantresses is set to take place shortly to discuss these times of contempt and how it affects the magic-wielders of the world. Whilst here, it transpires that Ciri may be left with the enchantresses to study at the female magic school of Aretuza.

This is a difficult book to review, not because it is bad but because the book seems to be split into two distinctive styles of telling the story. One of these two styles generally features fan favourites such as Dandelion (although not as much as I would have liked), Geralt, Ciri, Triss, and Yennefer and includes some of the finest and well-crafted scenes that have been created in the series to date. Two of my favourites include a spectacular dual with someone who I'm sure is going to become a huge character in the saga, and also reading into the intrigue, politics, backstabbing, and agendas at the mages 'meet-and-greet' buffet prior to the conclave. A war is brewing and through unfamiliar point of view characters or slightly boring chapters where a member of the ensemble talks to another we are relaid complex political happenings that are occurring in all states across this world. These often include many complex and unfamiliar names of people, places, alliances, etc... It was difficult to keep track of who was supporting who. It also wasn't really obvious that some of the point of views were from the Nilfgaardian perspective until I was halfway through that segment and had to reevaluate what I'd just read. These later sections take up about 25% of the book. Honestly, I just forced myself through them knowing that I wouldn't follow every exact detail but it wasn't enough to truly affect my enjoyment when the scenes with less info dumping were reintroduced a few pages later. There are also a lot of names of mages to remember when the magicians' meeting arrives about forty percent through the story.

Of the scenes that aren't information dumps, I'd estimated that seventy-five percent follows the Witcher and Ciri although not necessarily following the same storyline, and the rest tracks the action of Yennefer, Dandelion, and others. Geralt and Ciri are my favourite characters so this was fine for me. Please be warned, that as well as typical fantasy violence presented in line with what has been presented previously, there is a potential/ implied rape scene towards the end of Time of Contempt. Although it is not graphic it is not for everyone so I thought I'd make you aware. This happens around the ninety-five percent mark and if you don't want to read that, it doesn't actually take that much away from the story to pass it by.

Ciri is still having her visions and nightmares, we meet the Wild Hunt for the first time, Geralt slays a few monsters, Yennefer is still beautiful, charming, powerful and manipulative, Dandelion is still a world-renowned poet. We are also introduced to some very interesting new characters including Vilgefortz and Nilfgaard's ruler. This book feels more like a progression than a full story in its self. Unlike some fantasy, I've found that these books don't really have gut-wrenchingly tragic or 'oh-my-god-I-did-not-see-that-twist-coming' endings. I believe that these should be read as one huge novel that same way that Stephen King thought of his The Dark Tower books. That being said, the ending does set up things nicely for Baptism of Fire and it looks like it might introduce a new dynamic for one of the main players.

So far this isn't my favourite fantasy series of all time yet, something does seem to click with me. I love the characters and the tales are utterly addictive. Every single one of the four entries I have read so far has only taken me two days apiece to complete. My original aim was to read this series before the Netflix show is released next year and I don't think I'll be the only person who has these thoughts. If you weren't sure whether to dive into the Witcher's world then I would personally recommend that you take the leap.

7 people found this helpful

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Mr Smith

Started reading as Witcher videogame backstory, but now enjoying the books 'in their own right'.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 January 2017

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I've always loved reading, especially Fantasy/SciFi stories. I also like playing video games that tell such stories, like Skyrim, DragonAge, MassEffect and Witcher. I played 'The Witcher' video game recently, so thought about readinga bit more Witcher backstory, spotted the Witcher books at a very reasonable price, bought them for my kindle and started reading.

Finished reading Book 1 in the series last week. Just finished this one, book 2. Just started the next, book 3 ........ so that probably tells you I think they're worth reading!

You really need to read these books in sequence. They very much read as a single story that has been deliberately cut into 350(ish) page length 'book sized chunks'. If you read book 2 before book 1 you will probably be very confused.

As I noted in my review of book 1, its quite slow reading. Its a story of several individuals moving against a backdrop of several large nations at war and the bulk of the books are 'textbook' exposition, by characters, of the story world's races, conflicts, politics, events. There are 'action sequences' but they are only a small part of the book so don'r expect this to be a 'Conan the Barbarian' style hack'n'slash adventure - its focus is far more 'Game Of Thrones' style national politics - however much the main character says he tries to avoid being involved in politics.

Politicking focus or not, you will have to suspend your disbelief at the almost omniscient knowledge of some of the main characters - they combine magic, politics, research, spies, contacts and 'Sherlock Holmes' style logic to 'know things' that you wonder how they could possibly know

This all provides interesting backstory to the Witcher games - so its broadly what I was looking for - but, as noted, be prepared for long sections about whats happened, happening and planned in the wider world's backdrop.

The book is translated from its original Polish, which may be why it feels a bit stilted. Translation of novels is notoriously difficult I am told, so no surprises or complaints, but know what to expect. There also seems to be some obvious formatting errors where the story moves from one character to another (in a totally different time/geography) with just the change of a paragraph. No chapter change, no white space - or any other grammatical or formatting clue- which can be very confusing if you're a fast reader. This sort of thing may be common in eBook conversions, I don't know as I've only just started reading them in place of paper (because ebooks are easy to read at night without turning on the room lights!).

Finally, the this book again ends quite abruptly. Its not 'the end of the story', of course, which continues in book 3 of the series.

So, overall, very worthwhile as Witcher videogame backstory - or, more generally, as a story of characters moving against a large warring multinational fantasy world backdrop.

4 people found this helpful

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Dimplestacey

Draws you in, breathtaking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 September 2020

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I love this series!!! Why I never heard of it until I started watching the TV series I do not know as it is exactly the genre I read voraciously and constantly... not sure why its not appeared on my recommended.

Spoiler alert!!!
As for this book in the series.... the battles are raging in all parts of the land. The protagonists are together but then pulled apart again in awful circumstances and now I just dont know who to trust or believe. On to the next one it is to find out!!!

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Amazon Customer

Best of the series so far

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 January 2020

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I felt that all of the books before we get to this one were just collections of short stories. The previous Witcher Book in the series "Blood of Elves" was really just a scene setting for this book. This is where the action really starts. We get a lot more detail in this book and the power play between the sorcerers and the Kings comes to fruition. Great book, loved it.

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Anonymous

Good book, poor translation.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 January 2021

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Overall it's a good book but the English translation is of a rather poor quality:
- The book is full of literal translations from the Polish language which often makes you guess the intended meaning.
- Lack of consistency: same words are translated differently in different parts of the book.
- Some translations are simply incorrect and include very fundamental phrases which are warned against at schools.
- Typos are quite common too.

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Can confirm I am now hooked on this series.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 August 2022

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I am sad about the relative lack of Geralt but I mostly had a great time reading this. It is quite different from the two short story collections at this point - as I already said there is much less Geralt and there is way more politics - but yeah I'm having a good time!

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Miss C Darnell

Witcher

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 December 2020

Verified Purchase

Love the Witcher books and this is as well written humorous and richly fantastical as ever. However it is very concerned with war and it can be confusing following it all. And also be aware that the cover is marred by the bright red non removable 'now on Netflix' sticker. A bit of a pain for a book you want to keep. But otherwise, yeah it's great.

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Mark N.

The Story Unfolds

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 March 2022

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The actual story is finally beginning to unfold into a flow with all the characters in the initial books finally coming together into the same time line. It is becoming very interesting although the last third of this book wandered a bit.

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Luke

Another phenomenal addition

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 September 2019

Verified Purchase

I continue to enjoy this series. Now onto the fourth book (second in the official series) and I continue to enjoy the lore and the stories that are being told.

The characters are truly likeable and even the politics is interesting (and I'm not one for politics in books).

If you've read the first, this is a must as the story continues.

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5 star		78%
4 star		15%
3 star		6%
2 star		1%
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