The Witcher: Crossroads of Ravens by Andrzej Sapkowski

“You study bestiaries in order to acquire knowledge about what you will have to fight against. Remember, however, that knowledge is not everything. Books will teach you about known facts—about monsters that are familiar to us. Books will also permit you to understand that known unknowns exist—monsters which we know must exist, but which we do not know. But no bestiary and no book will prepare you for the unknown that we know not. For monsters about which we have no knowledge, nor any comprehension of their existence.”

-Crossroads of Ravens

The Witcher is one of my favorite fantasy series that I have come across the past few years. I’m on book three I think of the main series but was really excited to receive this prequel novel about Geralt from Orbit (thank you!!)

Crossroads of Ravens follows Geralt as he just begins practicing as a Witcher. Setting off from Kaer Morhen, he is quickly entangled in the politics of a small village where he is being accused of killing someone despite the fact that he acted in self-defense. It is as this point that he meets another Witcher, Preston Holt. For a ways, Geralt travels with Preston Holt and begins to learn quite a great deal under his tutelage. But there is more to Preston Holt than meets the eye, and Geralt realizes this too.

This book is broken down into chapters that really shift the setting and stakes for Geralt. We see him come up against some serious monsters and curses, slowly beginning to build a strong reputation for himself. He is so young in this book. It kind of reminded me of reading about Gus and Call in Dead Man’s Walk before you really get to see them in Lonesome Dove. This was like that. You get to see Geralt before everything we have come to know and love about him. I love that despite his age, his moral code has stayed with him from the very beginning. Geralt is really just one of my favorite characters in fantasy, and I am really excited to continue reading the main series.

You can definitely read Crossroads of Ravens at any time. I’d recommend at least reading a few of the books before this one, it just makes this one mean a bit more!