Review by Ian Keogh

The cover is misleading as Witch’s Lament opens powerfully with Geralt among the many observers as a witch is burned to death. As he watches he hears a voice asking if he ever feels haunted by a mistake. It’s powerfully drawn by Vanesa R. Del Ray to deliver the feel of a horrific and shameful occasion, down to the scorched Earth and blackened surroundings after the event.

It’s a prelude to a generally disturbing story from Bartosz Sztybor, who places Geralt in the middle of conflicting factions. Should he believe the drunken and despairing local landowner, or the coven of genuine witches? Neither is likely to be forgiving.

The illustration is a full combination, with Del Ray working from John Starr’s layouts, and her loose form of art really given an evocative spooky atmosphere well beyond the opening sequence by Jordie Bellaire’s restrained colours. Del Ray provides broad brush strokes and abstract swirls with other patterns to convey Geralt’s disorientation in unfamiliar circumstances, and it’s all very effective even if a big step away from the realism that’s so far characterised Geralt’s medieval world. And are those words to be read in the bound twigs?

Sztybor’s version of Geralt through his dialogue can seem a man displaced in time, using contemporary phrasing in olden times, and he heightens the comparison by part of the plot concerning therapy sessions, where women purge their guilt. There are also some very modern motivations behind everything when finally revealed, and Sztybor sets a fine trap for Geralt.

The Witcher’s strengths are that little comes easily for Geralt, and rarely without cost, and that his world is one of continual darkness and isolation. Screenwriter Sztybor understands this, and Del Ray certainly delivers her end. This is complex, intelligent horror with a flawed protagonist, and it’s very good indeed.

Witch’s Lament can also be found combined with Of Flesh and Flame and Fading Memories in the second Witcher Omnibus in paperback, or as the second Witcher Library Edition in hardcover. The Ballad of Two Wolves is the next published volume, but any Witcher graphic novel can be read without reference to earlier stories.