The Witcher Books

Arts & Media Books, Literature & Writing
1

 The Witcher

 

Now I'm not sure if this is considered piracy or not, but I guess if it is, it can be taken down. But it has been on the Witcher forums for a while and hasn't been deleted, so I guess it's fine.

These are the fan translations of the book (pdf, mobi and epub versions)

(from: http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/20967-our-community-fan-translations/)

The Sword of Destiny (pdf, mobi, epub)

Times of Contempt (pdf, epub. No mobi, and they removed the epub version for some reason, so I put the one I uploaded)

Baptism by Fire (pdf, mobi, epub)

The Tower of Swallows (pdf, mobi, epub)

Lady of the Lake (pdf, mobi, epub)

They don't include the ones that have been officially released in English. Which from what I've heard, the official translations aren't aalll that great, but it doesn't bother me.

So far I've read The Sword of Destiny, The Last Wish, and a bit into Blood of Elves. I have really enjoyed them so far. Though they do have their dark and sexy moments, there was a lot more humor and playfulness than I expected which I didn't mind at all.

If you wanted to read all the books as a whole, the first one to start with would be The Last Wish. Even though it came out after The Sword of Destiny, apparently it has stories that happen before it. Though I could have sworn there were some stories in The Last Wish that happened after The Sword of Destiny...Whatever the case, it doesn't really matter which of those two you read first. The rest that are listed above are in their proper order, with the exception of Blood of Elves which is before Times of Contempt.

So in short, the chronological order is:

  • The Last Wish
  • The Sword of Destiny
  • Blood of Elves
  • Times of Contempt
  • Baptism by Fire
  • The Tower of Swallows
  • The Lady of the Lake

 

 (I put a little effort in this post mostly because I was bored.)

2

While I was going to say, I think one should buy the books if they are available but....

 

The translations are taking a terribly long time lol. I think I'd be able to learn fluent Polish and then buy the original copies faster than the time it's taken for translation. 

Though finally, the 3rd in the series, Times of Contempt, was just released in the UK and here next Weds in the States. I may as well reread the Last Wish and onward.

3

Yeah, they're taking way too long. Not to mention they skipped The Sword of Destiny for the English translation. By the rate they've been going it'll take them 6+ years for the other 3 to come out lol. But I couldn't wait that long so I started reading the fan translations.

4

I didn't even know that there were books. Thank you

5

Idk if this is considered necro-posting or not, but...

I was considering buying the Witcher books on amazon, but is the official translation really bad/worse than fan translation?

Edit: Nevermind, I just realized they don't include the officially translated books, so my question is kinda irrelevant.

6

It's hard to say man. I personally thought the first couple of books in english were awesome however...I dont know a lick of Polish so there could be important contexts or other embelishments of the Polish language that just can't translate right or in it's intended meaning.

 

Slightly off-topic. It's the same reason why I really like poetry from other languages, even if the one I can just understand is German.

7

Definitely not a necro-post, well I don't consider it to be anyway xD Because it took ages for anyway to even post on here :P

Anyway, good question. I'm not really sure since I haven't read the fan translations of the ones that were officially released, but I found myself stumbling on some sentences in the official English translations. In my opinion, some of the sentences could have been written/phrased better. But in the fan translations I have read, even though there are some typos I found them quite easy to read without too many problems. Also, I heard from someone who speaks Polish that the official English couldn't capture the beauty of how it was written in Polish

8

I don't know about the translations of the other books, but I have a paperback copy of The Last Wish in English.

9

Hello sir,

I made an account here for the sole purpose of posting on this thread and thanking you for posting these links here. You are my hero, I've been looking for these books for ages.

10

I'm with the Katanasteel. Although you may not be my hero I do greatly appreciate your post! Haven't got a chance to read through all of them yet, but just the fact that you provided readable copies is awesome. Have a spectacular life good sir. 

11

Sucks I don't have a tablet to read this.

12

Many people are saying that the fan translations are much better than the official ones. ;) Thank god I'm Polish. 

The problem with translating The Witcher series is that it's written in a very particular way. It's hugely based around the Polish culture and many jokes would not be understood for non-Polish people if translated literally. Also, the language is sort of archaic Polish but with some modern stuff mixed up into it and some neologisms and is used by Sapkowski to create some amazingly funny dialog. So yeah, it would take a very skilled and intelligent translator to do it properly and still keep the original spirit of the books. ;) 

13

Can someone reupload epub versions :slight_smile: