All this talk about TW2 makes me want to look for Blood of Elves and Times of Contempt, which I haven't read. I've never even played TW1 for that matter, but you don't need to, to enjoy Sapkowski's stories, which I feel are, as cliche as this may sound, simply marvelous.

I stumbled upon The Last Wish last year by a completely random chance, not knowing it contained the first few stories of Geralt of Rivia. I don't know if it's the translation, or just Sapkowski's writing style, since I know next to nothing about Polish - it took me a while at first to get used to the unusual setting and narration, but after The Witcher (the story where Geralt takes on the striga), Sapkowski just comes into his own. Emotive and hard-hitting, the stories aren't particularly deep but they're just what the doctor ordered - lots of fun. Praise must also go to Sapkowski for interjecting humour into the stories without seeming out of place. I especially like the satirical nature of A Question of Price.

Let's keep this spoiler free for those who haven't read the stories: is there anyone else who's a big fan of Sapkowski? What do you make of his other books? Does he have any other notable sword and sorcery sagas besides The Witcher?

From what I've heard, both The Last Wish and Blood of Elves are poorly translated into English. The excerpts I've read have been pretty clunky, so I'm inclined to agree. For that reason I've avoided them thus far, until they get a competent version. They seem pretty good, but they're difficult to read at times.

Well, i've met the man in person. Sadly. He's a great writer, but in person, a drunken baffoon. He tends to answer questions in a manner that will not give You a proper answer, because he fells the question to be stupid. No matter what. He misspelled my nickname, which at the time was "learic arteveld", hushing me with "i know how to spell learic", well, apparently not. Still have that one book over here. And as much as i've enjoyed reading his books, just one meeting with the guy completely broke the spell. Call it trauma.;P
When it comes to sword and sorcery, i prefer to stick with the oldschool approach, Elric's and Conan's are enough for me.

I read the Last Wish when it was released here in English. Thought it was pretty good stuff, all things considered. I've picked up Blood of Elves as well but not gotten around to reading it yet.

The attempt at translation definitely shows. It's not bad in the way that we typically apply it - I think "unusual" is a better way to describe the translation, or "clunky" as you mentioned. It didn't break the immersion once I got past the slightly awkward narrative style, though the effect is likely to differ among individuals.

I've only read The Last Wish, and I've been trying to find Blood of Elves. I didn't have a problem with the translation, though I can understand why it's clunky. Reading Battle Royale was a bit like that too.

Just bought myself the game today too.

I had no problem reading The Last Wish, and I'm almost done Blood of Elves. The clunkiness didn't start in until towards the end of the book, and that has caused me to slow down a bit. I've enjoyed both books, and I'm looking forward to the next one being released in English. I wish the publisher would translate the second short story collection though, according to them short story collections don't sell well. Bollocks I say.

The peaking of the short stories market was beyond my era, but I wish it would pick up again. There is a drought of it right now.