Everything I've read thus far (short stories and novels) in the Witcher series is great fun! As I've alluded to previously, Sapkowski's story-telling is refreshing in a genre overpopulated with mediocre fare and I won't cover things I talked about in my previous review here.

In my opinion, one of Sapkowski's great talents is presenting the challenges of racism, hate, and other prescient culture issues in a way that is a lynchpin to the story and is baked in to the world he creates and he does it in a way that presents these issues in a very real way, where there isn't a clear right and wrong, where the history of the different sides informs the current tensions, and where individuals are torn between their own opposing values, desires, and fears. He does this all in a way that isn't overtly blunt melodramatic, whereas in much writing today I find writers adding such themes to a story as clearly extraneous material, ultimately irrelevant to the story, plot, and even to the characters.

I found that Baptism of Fire was a little simpler to follow than the previous books in the trilogy. We're on an adventure with our main characters while the world is in the throes of a massive war. There are riots, benevolent dwarves wrestling with their own fallibility, a megalomaniacal village priest, a vegetarian vampire, raging battles, love and loss, compassion and redemption.

Ultimately, this is a great series of books for anyone who loves the fantasy genre, is a Tolkien fan, or just likes a good, fun story.