The character narratives are not always linear, or even told straightforwardly in the close third person favored by the genre. Yennefer's story, for example, is told over several timelines, with crucial parts related by individuals who may not be reliable narrators. More often than not, the stylistic gambit works, but there are instances in which “The Tower of Swallows” would have benefitted from more conventional plotting. For example, there is far too much space given to the spy Dijkstra's visit to a far-flung (and newly introduced) kingdom--a plot point that doesn't really develop and, frankly, isn't necessary. Sometimes the same event is narrated by different narrators from different times. Then there's this build up that always starts with the same words and goes nowhere: "if someone looked into the cottage, they would have seen an ashen haired girl…” It says it like 7 times, and it's a full paragraph of text. Every time I read it, it heightens my anticipation for bigger things to come -- but nothing ever happens! It feels like Andrzej Sapkowski got bored, and just decided to jump around and experiment with the story from different angles --then decided to throw the whole mess together and call it a book. There’s also the fact that Ciri gets visibly upset when the female elf at Avallac’h’s lab implies that he is only interested in Ciri for his work and can’t wait to be rid of her. Ciri is in fact so mad after meeting her she wants to destroy the lab. Is Avallac’h Good or Evil? For a series that gives the impression of being about the Witcher, Book 4 does not have that much content regarding Geralt and his company. There is a relatively short account from Dandelion’s POV covering what happens to their group after the Battle for the Bridge on the Yaruga,but most of it is just interactions of the characters mainly featured in Baptism of Fire, which I very much enjoyed nonetheless. Enter The Tower of the Swallow, Book 4 of the Witcher series, which pushed the plot so far ahead that I’m convinced this particular installment could have easily been two books. To the humans, Avallac’h imprisoning Ciri and forcing her to bear a child is a deplorable act. Not to mention the Aen Elle’s treatment of humans in their own world.

Fighting the Lancer: Geralt and Cahir get into a fight after some bad news causes the former to accuse the latter of betrayal and the latter getting fed up with the constant mistrust. Bonus points for Milva whipping them both to separate them. King Arthur's knight Sir Galahad stumbles upon Ciri bathing by a lake in ancient Britain. Ciri tells him her story, warning that it does not have a happy ending. Ironically, Ciri doesn't know what Rience does to her adoptive mother. Her cutting off all of Rience's fingers is because he threatened to use those fingers to torture her.Avallac’h and Auberon believe the humans “stole” the Lara gene from the elves when Lara bore Cregennan’s child, shattering their prophecy. Avallac’h in The Witcher books Rience is fond of threatening people about the pain he will cause "With these hands/fingers". Ciri slices off his fingers, causing him to sink into a frozen lake and drown. For bonus points, Rience had previously mutilated Yennifer's fingers, and was the one to cause the ice to break open. Swimmi

Then later, he says, “We used to say to ourselves, what’s the difference, we’ll spend some time here, some time there, so what if the Dh’oine insist on destroying this world along with themselves? We’ll go somewhere else…” Fantastic Drug: Fisstech (effectively, cocaine) is first introduced in this book and then retroactively spread across the world.How can Ciri trust that Avallac’h, who makes no secret of his disdain for humans, really plans to save them from the White Frost, too? Geralt and Ciri fight the last of Skellen's mercenaries until a Nilfgaardian force led by Emhyr suddenly arrives. Skellen is arrested for treason. Geralt recognizes Emhyr as Ciri's father, who married her mother Pavetta under the name Duny, [N 2] and realizes "Duny's" death was faked. To produce Ciri's prophesied child and save the world, Emhyr plans to make her Empress and impregnate her. Since Geralt recognizes him and Yennefer knows the genealogy, Emhyr means to execute them to keep the incest secret, but grants them the option of committing suicide together. As they prepare to do so, Ciri interrupts them, because Emhyr changed his mind and left after Ciri's tears over losing the only loving parents she had known. In this review of The Tower of the Swallow there may be mild spoilers for previous books in The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. After 8 days of inhabiting the Elves’ capital city, Tir ná Lia, Ciri learns that they wish for her to bear a child with their king, Auberon Muircetach, presumably to fulfill Ithlinne’s Prophecy. Fighting Fingerprint: This is Bonhart's final clue to Ciri's identity. He realized right at the beginning that the girl is more than just a common brigand with a mark on her head, which led him to renege on the contract and keep her alive rather than bringing her head in and reaping the reward, but couldn't quite figure it out until finally he sent her to fight in Claremont arena. As a competent swordsman himself, he noticed that her deadly fencing is essentially improvisational, which was a hallmark of witchers' fencing. Given that witcher-trained girls were, shall we say, uncommon, the rest was more or less a formality.

Implacable Man: Leo Bonhart is a bounty hunter, and it is very difficult for bounties to escape him. This gene was the result of an extensive elven genetic modification project that involved selective breeding and possibly magical intervention. Ithlinne’s Prophecy According to Ithlinne’s Prophecy, a White Frost (essentially, an Ice Age) will come to the Continent, ending the world and eradicating the humans.

Tropes found in the book:

Tired of Running: After half of a book worth of escaping from her captors (or the whole saga, including a few pre-Saga short stories till this point), Ciri finally snaps and turns the table on them, using all the advantages she can. But instead of marrying Avallac’h as planned, Lara fell in love with a human sorcerer named Cregennan of Lod after the Conjunction of Spheres — the event that first brought humans to the Continent. Ciri was baldly injured and was found by Vysogota an old hermit who treated her. While she was there healing she told him her story. We finally got to know how she got injured and how Bonhart captured her. Ciri is still smart but life has changed her, she is now somewhat bitter and very vengeful. Living with Vysogota for some months really helped her. I'm also glad she now knows that her love ones didn't abandon her.