This book is not a novel, not even a mosaic one, though it is conected in a loose way. It's a short story collection of the adventures of Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher, which seems to be a mixture of a ninja with a battlemage only with very limited "magic" as opposed to wizards, which seem to be generally far more pawerful.

The stories are connected by way of most of them being memories Geralt is revisiting as he recovers from wounds taken on a mission at the start of the book.

I'll say something for Sapkowski, it's the first time in a LONG time I find such fast paced action aside from "light novels" (yup the japanese kind) but in "the witcher" the stories are not shallow, and though they are fast paced and action driven, they're not action centered, there is character development, and slowly we get to piece together who and what this man is, what drives, his weaknesses and strenghts (honestly, if I knew HOW I am to die and it were as horrible as his fate seems to be, I think I might poison myself to escape from my fate)

As a stand alone collection, it's well worth reading, but it also packs the added bonus of being necessary to be able to read the novels (yes! the witcher got real novels too, he also has a game btw but that's beside the point)

Sapowkski's style (at least what has been preserved by Danusia Stok who translated it from the original) is also worth commenting, he's scarce with description, and not very fond of adorned words. His is a practical, to the point, storytelling that nevertheless satisfies deeply. Now, I read the second witcher collection is spanish and since story telling in that language tends towards adornment, some got into the stories, but they kept the straight ahead -arrow in flight- quality. You'll not find weird small asides that lead nowhere (and can actually irritate no end when you're not reading a novel but a short story!)

all in all, I loved this book (and just got my hand on a witcher novel BWAHAHAHAHAH )