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Disambig icon This article is about the book. For other uses, see The Last Wish (disambiguation).

The Last Wish (Polish: Ostatnie życzenie) is the first book in Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher series in terms of story chronology, although the original Polish edition was published in 1993, after Sword of Destiny.

Some of the individual short stories were first published in the Fantastyka magazine or in the Wiedźmin short story collection (the first collection of Sapkowski's stories, out of print and now obsolete; all short stories were later collected in The Last Wish, Sword of Destiny and Something Ends, Something Begins) and as such were the first witcher stories published.

The first UK edition was released by Gollancz on 7 June 2007 and a second edition was released the next year on 14 February 2008. The US edition was released a few months later, on 1 May 2008 by Orbit.

Audible UK, in conjunction with Orion Books and Gollancz, released The Last Wish audio on February 27, 2014, only a few short weeks after it was announced. The Last Wish is read by Peter Kenny.

Stories Included[]

The anthology employs the story within a story framework and contains seven main short stories.

Geralt, after having been injured in battle, rests in a temple of Melitele in Ellander. During that time he has flashbacks to recent events in his life — each of which forms a story of its own.

Translations[]

  • Flag bulgaria Bulgarian: Вещерът. Последното желание, (ИнфоДар, 2008)
  • Flag czech Czech: Poslední přání, (Leonardo, 1999)
  • Flag Denmark Danish: Witcheren - Det sidste ønske, (Gyldendal, 2016)
  • Flag netherlands Dutch: De laatste wens , (Dutch Media Uitgevers, 2010)
  • Flag germany German: Der letzte Wunsch, (Heyne, 1998)
  • Flag uk Flag USA English: The Last Wish, translated by Danusia Stok (UK – Gollancz, 2007, US – Orbit, 2008)
  • Flag spain Spanish: El último deseo, translated by Jose María Faraldo (Bibliópolis fantástica, 2002)
  • Flag finland Finnish: Viimeinen toivomus, translated by Tapani Kärkkäinen (WSOY 2010)
  • Flag france French: Le Dernier Vœu, (Bragelonne, 2003)
  • Flag hungary Hungarian: Vaják I. – Az utolsó kívánság, translated by Szathmáry-Kellermann Viktória (PlayON 2011)
  • Flag italy Italian: Il Guardiano degli Innocenti, (Nord, 2010)
  • Flag South Korea Korean: 위처:이성의 목소리, (제우미디어, 2011)
  • Flag Lithuania Lithuanian: Paskutinis noras, (Eridanas-2005, Alma Littera-2017)
  • Flag Portugal Portuguese: O Terceiro Desejo, translated by Tomasz Barcinski (Saída de Emergência, 2016)
  • Flag Brazil Brazilian Portuguese: O Último Desejo, Brazilian version translated by Tomasz Barcinski (WMF Martins Fontes, 2011)
  • Flag Romania Romanian: Ultima dorință, translated by Mihaela Fiscutean (Nemira, 2019)
  • Flag russia Russian: Последнее желание, translated by Евгений Вайсброт (АСТ, 1996)
  • Flag serbia Serbian: Последња жеља/Poslednja želja, translated by Olivera Duskov and Milan Duskov (IPS 2009)
  • Flag slovakia Slovak: Zaklínač I.: Posledné želanie translated by Karol Chmel (Plus, 2015)
  • Flag sweden Swedish: Den sista önskningen, (Coltso, 2010)
  • Flag China Traditional Chinese: 獵魔士 - 最後的願望, translated by 林蔚昀 (蓋亞文化, 2011)
  • Flag China Simplified Chinese: 猎魔人卷一:白狼崛起, translated by 小龙 (重庆出版社, 2015)
  • Flag ukraine Ukrainian: Останнє бажання, translated by Сергій Легеза (КСД, 2015)
  • Flag turkey Turkish: Son Dilek, translated by Regaip Minareci from German (Pegasus, 2017)
  • Flag greece Greek: Η τελευταία ευχή, translated by Δημήτρης Χουλιαράκης (SEΛINI, 2013)
  • Flag Israel Hebrew: המכשף המשאלה האחרונה, translated by Ilay Halpern (Yedioth Books, 2021)

Audio Versions[]

There are two audio versions of The Last Wish available in Polish. Classic audiobook, lasting about 11 hours and read by Roch Siemianowski, was released by superNOWA (Polish publisher of Sapkowski's works) in 1996.

In 2011, after the huge success of audio play based on Sapkowski's Narrenturm, Fonopolis and audioteka.pl released audio plays based on The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny. The Last Wish, lasting about 12 hours, was voiced by 52 actors, including Krzysztof Banaszyk (Vernon Roche in Assassins of Kings) as Geralt, Anna Dereszowska as Yennefer, Sławimir Pacek (minor characters in video games) as Dandelion and Krzysztof Gosztyła as narrator. Samples from all short stories can be found on audioteka.pl's site.

Bagiński Film[]

A movie adaptation announced for 2017 states that it: "will be based on themes from the short stories 'The Witcher' and 'Lesser Evil' from 'The Last Wish' collection. Tomasz Bagiński, who had been nominated for an Oscar for his film, 'The Cathedral', will be the director."

Notes[]

  • In the Polish edition, it is stated that Crach an Craite is a maternal nephew ("siostrzeniec") of King Bran, meaning that king had a sister which married into an Craites, something that is lost in most translations.
  • Four of these stories were first published in Fantastyka magazine before being collected here: The Witcher (1986), A Grain of Truth (1989), A Question of Price (1990), and The Lesser Evil (1990).

Book Covers[]

External links[]

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