The Witcher: House of Glass by Paul Tobin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’ve been completely sucked into the world of the Witcher since I started playing the third Witcher game a few months ago. Since then, I’ve tried to read everything I can to get familiarized with Geralt’s world and while I know there’s a series of novels waiting for me, this ended up being the first book that I’ve been able to read.
As video game graphic novels go, it’s okay. The story sagged somewhat in the middle and there were some basic assumptions about a certain character that I thought were going to be a plot twist, but ended up as something totally benign. Geralt certainly seems to have far more angst here than in the game and the continued self-references to “I’m a witcher, I don’t…” or “the witcher’s path is a lonely one” ended up getting a bit repetitive.
The art style was pretty cool, however, and there are some enjoyable moments. While the twist that I predicted ended up being completely wrong, there’s a pretty good reveal towards the end. Overall, though, I kept asking myself “why the hell would a master monster hunter allow himself to spend so much time in an obviously evil place?” Despite the fact that the titular House of Glass was full of cursed monsters and strange magic, Geralt didn’t seem to really mind that fact.
Final verdict: a fun, well illustrated graphic novel but somewhat underwhelming for my first foray into Witcher fiction, although the fact that this graphic novel appears to be a tie-in work to the game rather than the original novels might have something to do with that.
Cynical Idealism 