BLOOD OF ELVES - ANDRZEJ SAPKOWSKI

[drosdelnoch]

Known throughout Poland for his writing, he's only recently been brought to the English speaking market by his publisher. Here's the place where you can discuss the author, his work and in particular this novel.

[Mori]

I'm so glad to find Polish writer nominated to the English award. I do realise that translating our literature isn't the easiest thing on the Earth and said that having "Blood of Elves" nominated makes me even prouder to be Polish.

And, by the way, it's a great first book of the great fantasy series - try it! Or better - learn Polish and read it in our language :D

[Jesica]

Mori said:

And, by the way, it's a great first book of the great fantasy series - try it! Or better - learn Polish and read it in our language :D

Good joke :)

I love him as a writer and I hope he will win ;)

[Mori]

Jesica said:

Good joke :)

Hey, that's not a joke xP He's a good enough reason to learn Polish!

Jesica said:

I love him as a writer and I hope he will win ;)

Me too! Let's keep the fingers crossed. I'm pretty sure that when votes will be open there will be quite a few Poles coming here to vote!

[Zbigniew Braniecki]

I was surprised to find Blood of Elves in the Bookstore in downtown Victoria, Bc, Canada. It takes half of a shelve together with a re-edition (?) of Last Wish - hard to miss.
On the other hand I'm surprised to see really few reviews in the Internet. I just checked Technorati and just googled for reviews of Blood of Elves and the results are not impressive. Wondering why, since Last Wish got pretty good reviews and Blood of Elves is a hell lot better IMO.

I did read both in English, but since I'm not a native it's hard to judge the quality of translation for me. Sapkowski is basing a lot on a brilliant dialogues and descriptions of action. Reading in English was smooth for me, and I had a feeling that translator kept all the story and all sentences intact, but I'm still not sure if native speakers will find the book using their word-jokes and their ancient-language cases the same funny and majestic as we find in Polish.

Anyway, if someone did read the book, and is a native speaker, write a short review pls :)

[Tomasz]

I'm glad to see Sapkowski as a nominee. That's not only becouse I'm Polish. I just love David Gemmell's books and like very much Sapkowski's works, especially his stories. I hope he will win.

And yeah, that's good reason to learn Polish - we have so many great writers! :D

[Jesica]

>And yeah, that's good reason to learn Polish - we have so many great writers! :D

That's true, for example Jacek Dukaj is a genius, his every book is a literary masterpiece!
http://www.dukaj.pl/English

>Reading in English was smooth for me, and I had a feeling that translator kept all the story and all sentences intact, but I'm still not sure if native speakers will find the book using their word-jokes and their ancient-language cases the same funny and majestic as we find in Polish.

The translation is as good, as it can be - there are some words in Polish language that can't be translated in eglish.
In Polish edition Dandelion is called Jaskier ;)

[Mori]

Since the voting is open... You know what to do :P +2 votes on Sapkowski from me and my girlfriend. Go, Sapek, go!

[Jesica]

Go, Sapek, go!

[Mori]

By the way, Sapkowski is still at the bottom of the voting page :( Not fair! I hope "Blood of Elves" will win...

[Deborah J Miller - Award Administrator]

Mori - the order of the voting page is random - so, it doesn't mean anything about what position the authors are in! Not long to go now until the Shortlist is announced - so just need to wait a wee bitty longer! :-)

Mori said:

By the way, Sapkowski is still at the bottom of the voting page :( Not fair! I hope "Blood of Elves" will win...

[Zbigniew Braniecki]

Hope it teases that Sapkowski will be included in a shortlist :)))

[Caroline Toye]

Sometimes it is difficult to read a book that has been translated from it's author's language as, at times, the translator is just doing his or her job and the result is not in sympathy with the feelings intended in the story. You lose the whole point. I once started a book that had been translated from German and by the end of the first chapter I hated the 'hero', he came over as such an ass, and had to give it away unread (the one and only time I haven't finished a book I had started). However Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series is totally different and the translation is fantastic. No loss at all in the change over. Great stuff! I can't wait until the next book.