Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

A new war is threatening to erupt between the Northern Kingdoms and the Empire of Nilfgaard. Sorcerers are gathering on the island of Thanedd to decide on their position. A young woman guarding a power she cannot control is in the care of a sorceress, whilst the Witcher, Geralt, is fighting off threats to her life. These are perilous times for the Continent.

Time of Contempt is the fourth book (and second full-length novel) in the Witcher series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Following directly on from the events of Blood of Elves, the novel follows several storylines in close parallel. Numerous factions are still trying to capture or kill Ciri, the princess and only heir of fallen Cintra. Ciri is in the protection of the sorceress Yennefer, who is also trying to navigate the perils of both international and sorcerous politics. The situation also draws in Geralt, who has been trying to protect Ciri from afar, and puts all three of our protagonists in jeopardy when all-out chaos erupts.

Time of Contempt is an improvement over Blood of Elves, which felt like a very long prologue for the rest of the story. That story really gets underway in Time of Contempt, which mixes character development (particularly Ciri becoming less impetuous), international politics, war and action. If Blood of Elves didn't feel complete as a novel, Time of Contempt is more successful in that area, with a distinct battery of storylines and subplots which further the overall narrative.

There are some issues. In order for the chaos at Thanedd to really land, the reader should already be familiar with many of the wizards involved from their (oft-brief) appearances in the opening two short stories collections, The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny. In fact, several more events during the story only really landed with the appropriate emotional weight because I was familiar with the characters from their chronologically later appearances in The Witcher 3 video game. In the absence of that familiarity, I think the events of this storyline might be much less effective.

Once the book straightens itself out it does get more compelling, and the concluding section which is effectively a solo adventure for Ciri as she crosses a desert and finds a new band of companions feels like the opening of a bold new storyline for her, one that is cut short by the novel not so much concluding in a thematic or dramatically appropriate way, but just ending as if Sapkowski was working to a strict page count deadline. The storyline continues fairly directly into Baptism of Fire.

Time of Contempt (****) is an improvement over the previous Witcher novel and features some very good plot and character development. If it has a weakness, it's that it feels a bit too short and in fact I think the series may have benefited from being released as four fat omnibuses rather than eight shorter novels. Nevertheless, it is another solid installment in the series. It is available now in the UK and USA.

New cover art: Abercrombie, Sanderson, Banks, Sapkowski

A host of cover art for forthcoming books.

First up is The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson. This 30,000-word novella is a limited edition from Tachyon Press and sees a young woman use her forbidden magical skills to save the life of a dying emperor. The book appears to be set in Sanderson's unified Cosmere super-setting, but not on one of his established worlds. The book is due in December.

Next up is the American cover art for The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks, his ninth novel in The Culture setting. This book is due in October.

The American audience is also getting new covers for the Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski. The Last Wish and Blood of Elves are being rejacketed and should be available soon, and will later in 2012 be by The Time of Contempt, which is finally hitting the stands after years of delays due to rights issues.

Finally, there's the American cover art for Joe Abercrombie's Red Country (dropping the 'A', at least on this early version of the cover). Aidan has more info on the cover art here. The book is currently being revised and edited and will be out in late 2012 or early 2013.

News on THE WITCHER books

After a lengthy delay, the English translation of Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series is to resume publication in 2012.


The Witcher sequence comprises a five novel series and two short story collections relating the adventures of Geralt, a witcher (a monster-hunting warrior who can also use forms of magic). The books were published in Sapkowski's native Poland in the 1990s, and have gone on to be an enormous success in numerous other languages. The English translations began in 2007 with the publication of The Last Wish, the first short story collection, by Gollancz (in the UK) and Orbit (in the USA). Oddly, the publishers skipped the second short story collection (Sword of Destiny) to release the first full novel, Blood of Elves, in 2008. Both books were successful, with Blood of Elves winning the inaugural David Gemmell Legend Award in 2009.

The second novel, Time of Contempt, was scheduled for publication in 2009, but failed to appear. Apparently copyright and legal issues arose between Gollancz, the Polish publishers, Sapkowski's agent and the translator which proved complex to unravel. This delay was unfortunate, with the publishers missing a key opportunity to tie in with the release of The Witcher II: Assassin of Kings, a computer role-playing game based on the books which won immense critical acclaim and has sold millions of copies around the world.

According to Gollancz, the English translation of Time of Contempt will finally appear in August 2012. The book sports a cover by artist Alejandro Colucci, although, just to be really confusing, it isn't new. Instead, it previously graced the Spanish-language translation of the third novel, Baptism of Fire. Presumably the other books in the series will also use Colucci's existing artwork.