Review by Frank Plowright

While most people associate The Witcher with either the successful action games or the TV show, the feature actually began as a series of fantasy novels written by Andrzej Sapkowski. Otherwise, though, the trappings of Paul Tobin and Joe Querio’s original fiction will be familiar as they feature Geralt of Rivia, the Witcher of the title, basically a monster hunter with supernatural resources, and a middle ages, mid-European setting.

Tobin has Geralt meet Jakob, a hunter whose wife has been transformed into a vampire, and who is unable to move on, staying in his locality where at night he and his wife can observe each other from afar. It sets a wistful tone in what’s a story prioritising atmosphere. Geralt is a cautious man, and Querio’s illustrations show how wise that is, supplying a spooky Black Forest where supernatural horrors lurk and gruesomely off-putting warnings hang from the branches, and some great forbidding creatures. However, just when it seems that’s going to be the prevailing tone, the house of glass appears, for which Querio designs some beautiful stained glass windows.

This is a far more subtle story than it first seems. As the few characters around whom this is based become better acquainted, their pasts are gradually shared with readers, almost all tragic, yet stoically accepted. They’re well chosen for a story that concerns human relationships. Jakob pines for his wife, while Geralt claims to be immune to love, even when meeting a cheery succubus not shy about sharing herself. A clever touch is how the windows of the house in which they’re all trapped change to reflect new circumstances.

Mike Mignola providing the cover is no great surprise, as The Witcher is very much his type of material. It places people in spooky surroundings, so well drawn here, and gives them a problem to work through while surrounded with dangers. The final chapter subverts a lot of what has been told in what turns out to be a morality tale after all. It’s a spooky treat.

This story and follow-up Fox Children by the same creative team are also found in hardcover among the content of the first Witcher Library Edition, or in the bulky paperback Omnibus.