Andrzej Sapkowski

Andrzej Sapkowski
Andrzej Sapkowski at Book World Fair in Prague in 2010
Born	21 June 1948 (1948-06-21) (age 63) Łódź, Poland
Occupation	Novelist
Citizenship	Poland
Period	1986 -present
Genres	Fantasy, history
Notable work(s)	The Witcher Saga The Hussite Trilogy
Notable award(s)	Janusz A. Zajdel Award Paszport Polityki
sapkowski.pl

Andrzej Sapkowski, born 21 June 1948 in Łódź, is a Polish fantasy writer. He is best known for his best-selling book series The Witcher.

Biography

Sapkowski studied economics, and before turning to writing, he had worked as a senior sales representative for a foreign trade company. His first short story, The Witcher (Wiedźmin), was published in Fantastyka, Poland's leading fantasy literary magazine, in 1986 and was enormously successful both with readers and critics. Sapkowski has created a cycle of tales based on the world of The Witcher, comprising three collections of short stories and five novels. This cycle and his many other works have made him one of the best-known fantasy authors in Poland in the 1990s.^[1]

The main character of The Witcher (alternative translations: The Hexer and Spellmaker) is Geralt, a mutant assassin who has been trained since childhood to hunt down and destroy monsters. Geralt exists in a morally ambiguous universe, yet manages to maintain his own coherent code of ethics. At the same time cynical and noble, Geralt has been compared to Raymond Chandler's signature character Philip Marlowe.^[1] The world in which these adventures take place is heavily influenced by Slavic mythology.^[2]

Sapkowski has won five Zajdel Awards, including three for short stories "Mniejsze zło" (Lesser Evil) (1990), "Miecz przeznaczenia" (Sword of Destiny) (1992) and "W leju po bombie" (In a Bomb Crater) (1993), and two for the novels "Krew elfów" (Blood of Elves) (1994) and "Narrenturm" (2002). He also won the Spanish Ignotus Award, best anthology, for The Last Wish in 2003, and for "Muzykanci" (The Musicians), best foreign short story, same year.

In 1997, Sapkowski won the prestigious Polityka's Passport award,^[3] which is awarded annually to artists who have strong prospects for international success.

In 2001, a television series based on the Witcher cycle was released in Poland and internationally, entitled Wiedźmin (The Hexer). A film by the same title was compiled from excerpts of the television series but both have been critical and box office failures.

Sapkowski's books have been translated into Czech, Russian, Lithuanian, German, Spanish, French, Ukrainian, Portuguese, Finnish, Slovak, Bulgarian, Serbian, English, Italian and Swedish. An English translation of The Last Wish short story collection was published by Gollancz in 2007.^[4] From 2009 the Witcher saga is published by Gollancz.^[5]

Sapkowski novels on display in a Polish bookstore

The Polish game publisher, CD Projekt, created a role-playing PC game based on this universe, called The Witcher, which was released in October 2007.^[6] There is also a mobile version of the game which has been created by Breakpoint Games and is being published by Hands-On Mobile^[7] in Western Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. The sequel, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was released in 2011.

The English translation of Sapkowski's novel Blood of Elves won the David Gemmell Legends Award in 2009.^[8][9]

Bibliography

The Witcher Saga

Short story collections

• The Witcher (Wiedźmin, 1990), 5 stories (4 were reprinted in The Last Wish, one in Something ends, Something begins).
• Sword of Destiny (Miecz przeznaczenia, 1992), 6 stories.
• The Last Wish (Ostatnie życzenie, 1993), 7 stories. English edition: 2007 (in US: 2008).
• "Spellmaker" in A Polish Book of Monsters, edited and translated by Michael Kandel. 2010.
• Something ends, Something begins (Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna, 2000), 8 stories (only two are related to The Witcher saga).

The Saga

• Blood of Elves (Krew elfów, 1994). English edition: 2009.
• Times of Contempt (Czas pogardy, 1995). English edition: 2012 (planned).
• Baptism of Fire (Chrzest ognia, 1996).
• The Swallow's Tower (Wieża Jaskółki, 1997).
• Lady of the Lake (Pani Jeziora, 1999).

The Hussite Trilogy

• Narrenturm (2002).
• Warriors of God (Boży bojownicy, 2004).
• Lux perpetua (2006).

Other novels

• Viper (Żmija, 2009), a novel set during Soviet war in Afghanistan.

Other works

• The Eye of Yrrhedes (Oko Yrrhedesa, 1995), roleplaying game.
• The World of King Arthur. Maladie (Świat króla Artura. Maladie, 1995), essay and an illustrated short story set in Arthurian mythology.
• Manuscript Discovered in a Dragon's Cave (Rękopis znaleziony w Smoczej Jaskini, 2001), fantasy encyclopedic compendium.

Awards

Preceded by Alain le Bussy

ESFS award for Best Author 1996

Succeeded by Rafał A. Ziemkiewicz

References

1. ^ ^{a b} (Polish) Marek Oramus Jedynie słuszny wizerunek wiedźmina, Polityka - nr 36 (2261) from 2000-09-02; p. 52-54
2. ^ The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski , fantasybookreview
3. ^ Stowarzyszenie Willa Decjusza. "Profiles: Andrzej Sapkowski". http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/os_sapkowski_andrzej. Retrieved 23 January 2009. 
4. ^ http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/MP-41816/The-Last-Wish.htm
5. ^ http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/MP-43318/Blood-of-Elves.htm
6. ^ "The Witcher Official Website - Official Release Date!". Archived from the original on 9 July 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070709103856/http://www.thewitcher.com/community/en/press_releases/18.html. Retrieved 17 July 2007. 
7. ^ Hands–On Mobile
8. ^ "The final 2008 longlist for the David Gemmell Legends Award". 1 January 2009. http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/blog/2009/01/01/the-final-2008-longlist-for-the-david-gemmell-legends-award/. Retrieved 23 January 2009. 
9. ^ Alison Flood, Gemmell prize for fantasy goes to Polish novel, Blood of Elves, Guardian, Friday 19 June 2009

External links

• Andrzej Sapkowski's official site
• Page for Sapkowski at Internet Movie Database
• Excerpts of Sapkowski in English
• Russian site of Andrzej Sapkowski
• Works by or about Andrzej Sapkowski in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Andrzej Sapkowski at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Persondata
Name	Sapkowski, Andrzej
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1948-06-21
Place of birth	Łódź, Poland
Date of death
Place of death