The Tower of Fools (Hussite Trilogy #1)

I’m a big Sapkowski fan so I kinda hate giving a two star rating. Our hero starts off as a naive, ineffectual twit always getting his companions in trouble. Standard fare but he never improves. The novel is confusing unless you know quite a bit about medieval Eastern European history. There’s lots of untranslated Latin and, I assume, Polish sentences in the book. I don’t know if they’re important to the story or not. That’s just it, I don’t know.

Save your $$$ and buy something else. Big Sapkowski fan and I read all the witcher books which were some of my favorite books ever. This new series can put coffee to sleep. Half way through the book (if you make it there) you will still be wondering if there is any meaning to the story and the character. Can I get my money back?

This ‘new’ novel by Andrzej Sapkowski (originally published in 2002, but only translated now to English) is an historical fiction novel set around 1450 in the area between Poland and the Czech republic at the time of the Hussite Wars (which also sets the scene for the whole book). The main premise is the schism between the reformers, protestant Hussites and the Holy Roman Papacy. Knowing a bit of European history gives a nice background into the book but it is not mandatory to be able to read it. Some of the characters are real while others are fictional; as such, some should be recognizable by almost everyone and others only for history scholars. For the most part, the world of the book is real but there’s a bit of magic thrown in. Even with magic, this is definitely more of a historical than fantasy.

Story: Our protagonist, Reinmar of Bielawa, sleeps with a married woman and flees to avoid the wrath of the husband’s family. While everyone tells him to flee to Hungary, he invariably makes an increasing amount of stupid decisions that lead him, and his eventual companions, into more and more danger. I felt a bit like I was reading Odysseus – that is, if Odysseus was an idiot.

This is my main gripe with the book: the protagonist is mostly unlikable due to being foolish. his personality is fine – he’s a nice enough guy and usually tries to do the right thing. But, given an option to do something smart or stupid, he picks stupid every time. After the 10th time it gets old and you really start to wonder why the other characters put up with it or bother to come save him yet again.

The other parts of the book are better. I like the history part (though there are so many characters and names I totally gave up trying to remember them already in chapter 1). While I’ve studied a bit of history of the region, I could not really tell where the real stuff ended and fiction began. It all feels very real. The description of medieval religion is very accurate and unapologetic. Neither side of the conflict is good and the horrors inflicted in the name of a proper style of faith are vivid enough to become a bit uncomfortable. Similarly, descriptiona of the age at large are very nice – this is not a fantasy setting with clean and happy peasants and noble knights. The world is gritty and dirty.

The writing (or perhaps translation) style is good, though it is very wordy and flowery at times, especially the dialogue. There are a lot of Latin quotes and if you know the basics you’ll get a bit more out of the book. And like I mentioned before, there’s an unlimited number of names and places, but luckily you don’t have to remember the vast majority of them. The story has a good pace, though occasionally due to the main character’s tendency to go in the wrong direction all the time, it’s not quite clear if you are actually getting anywhere in the story. I did not realize this was not a standalone novel until the very end of the book.

For those who are thinking of reading this because of the Witcher books (likely fairly many): The writing style is the same and the world is similarly gritty. The war of the religions is similar to the war between the empires. The main character is like Dandelion without any of the charm plus a bit of a noble streak. The story is a bit like the part in the Witcher where Gerald follows Ciri around the map without actually getting furthering the plot in the process. There’s a bit of the same dry humor here, as well as the tendency for various characters to be surprising philosophers. In short, if you loved the Witcher you might enjoy this but it really doesn’t have the same charm. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

very excited to receive this book; book was in excellent condition as advertised; fast shipping

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