Andrzej Sapkowski biography

Andrzej Sapkowski portrait image

Andrzej Sapkowski was born on the 21st of June 1948 in Lodz, Poland. Sapkowski studied economy and business, but the success of his fantasy cycle about the sorcerer Geralt de Riv turned him into a bestselling writer and he is now one of Poland's most famous and successful authors, selling more in his own country than Stephen King or Michael Crichton. Sapkowski has won five Zajdel Awards, including three for short stories Lesser Evil in 1990, Sword of Destiny in 1992 and In a Bomb Crater in 1993, and two for the novels Blood of the Elves in 1994 and Narrenturm in 2002.

"You have to comprehend that I’ve been doing fantasy for twenty years. When I began to write in Poland there was no one, I was the pioneer. That is not an immodesty, it is the truth: I had to create Polish fantasy. I believed to part from my readings and my knowledge of the genre, because the Polish reader, extremely discerning, was not going to accept hybrids of the middle road between Fantasy and other genres, or a simple copy of Tolkien. S/he was searching for something new, special. And that eagerness for creating something new, special, that is what drove me to write."

Andrzej Sapkowski books

  • The Witcher (The Witcher Saga 1990)
  • Sword of Destiny (The Witcher Saga 1992)
  • The Last Wish (The Witcher Saga 1993)
  • Something ends, Something begins (The Witcher Saga 2000)
  • Blood of the Elves (The Saga 1994)
  • Time of Disdain (The Saga 1995)
  • Baptism of Fire (The Saga 1996)
  • The Swallow's Tower (The Saga 1997)
  • Lady of the Lake (The Saga 1999)
  • Narrenturm (Narrenturm trilogy 2002)
  • Warriors of God (Narrenturm trilogy 2004)
  • Lux perpetua (Narrenturm trilogy 2006)
  • The Eye of Yrrhedes (Oko Yrrhedesa) (1995), roleplaying game
  • The World of King Arthur. Maladie (Świat króla Artura. Maladie.) (1995), essay and a short story set in Arthurian mythology
  • Manuscript Discovered in a Dragon's Cave (Rękopis znaleziony w Smoczej Jaskini) (2001), fantasy encyclopedic compendium

Latest news: Andrzej Sapkowski

Voting for Legend Award now open
Voting is now open for the David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy, where you can choose from a slew of titles from all across the board. Check out the voting page here. The DGLA was presented for the first time last year, 2009, for the Best Fantasy novel of 2008, and was awarded to Andrzej Sapkow [...]

Sapkowski wins David Gemmell Legend Award
Blood of Elves, by Polish fantasy author Andrzej Sapkowski, has received The David Gemmell Legend Award for establishing honour and lending dignity to the fantasy genre. Sapkowski’s UK editor, Jo Fletcher, collected the award in front of an audience of publishing professionals, authors, media and f [...]

The short-list for The David Gemmell Award announced
At the beginning of 2009 the final long-list for the David Gemmell Legend Award [complete list of nominations] was announced. Comprising of 78 titles the list was in obvious need of pruning and this weekend came the announcement of the lucky 5 titles that had made it onto the short-list. The short-l [...]

The final 2008 longlist for the David Gemmell Legends Award
The David Gemmell Legend Award will be presented for the very first time in 2009 for the best Fantasy novel of 2008. The award will be given to a work written in the 'spirit' of the late, great David Gemmell, a true Master of Heroic Fantasy. Voting opens at midnight on 26th December – but you have u [...]

The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf will be released in the autumn of 2009
Atari has announced that it will release The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf in the autumn of 2009. Coming to both 360 and PS3, the game will be developed by CD Projekt RED and will be based on the PC role-playing game, The Witcher. The game will be an RPG and promises to bring an unrivaled next gen [...]

Fantasy Book Review: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
For over four years, Andrzej Sapkowski has been one of those authors that has been dangled in front of me, mentioned in passing by Polish readers here and elsewhere, along with an occasional mention on a couple of non-English-language sites that I frequent on occasion. Maciek (Vanin) in particular [...]

October 2008 issue of Locus Magazine
The Locus Magazine covers the Science Fiction & Fantasy genres and the October 2008 issue is now available. This issue will feature: Interviews with Ursula Le Guin and Tobias S. Buckell Reports from Denvention 3, this year's World Science Fiction Convention A new review column by Gardner Dozois [...]

Andrzej Sapkowski interviews

Part I of the June 2008 Fantasymundo interview with Andrzej Sapkowski - http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/part-i-of-june-2008-fantasymundo.html

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