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87-398: Andrzej Sapkowski ( Polish: [ˈandʐɛj sapˈkɔfskʲi] ; born 21 June 1948) is a Polish fantasy writer , essayist , translator and a trained economist . He is best known for his six-volume series of books The Witcher , which revolves around the eponymous "witcher," a monster-hunter, Geralt of Rivia . It began with the publication of Last Wish (1990), and was completed with

174-508: 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. In 2009, Russian heavy metal band Esse staged The Road with No Return , a rock opera based on the works by Sapkowski. Yevgeny Pronin

261-471: A book form as Historia i fantastyka . Sapkowski's books have been translated into Bulgarian , Chinese , Croatian , Czech , Dutch , English , Estonian , Finnish , French , Georgian , German , Greek , Hebrew, Hungarian , Italian , Korean , Lithuanian , Norwegian , Persian , Portuguese , Romanian , Russian , Serbian , Slovak , Spanish , Swedish , Turkish , and Ukrainian . An English translation of The Last Wish short story collection

348-461: A city in the clouds with the birds and challenges Zeus 's authority. Ovid 's Metamorphoses and Apuleius 's The Golden Ass are both works that influenced the development of the fantasy genre by taking mythic elements and weaving them into personal accounts. Both works involve complex narratives in which humans beings are transformed into animals or inanimate objects. Platonic teachings and early Christian theology are major influences on

435-704: A decoy mission against Italian forces. The Allied Combined Operations raid on the Normandie Dock in Saint Nazaire employed several legitimate ruses during their voyage up the Loire estuary , including flying German colours and replying to signal challenges by giving misleading replies in German. These measures were all designed to buy time for the attacking force. When these tactics ceased to be effective and German shore batteries opened fire in earnest, all

522-575: A dummy fourth funnel on top of her radio room to disguise her as a British cruiser, most of which were equipped with four funnels. During First and Second World Wars, Q-ships were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them. During the Second Sino-Japanese War , the former Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Asahi , which had been taken out of reserve shortly after

609-690: A feudal society hindering the modernization of China. Stories of the supernatural continued to be denounced once the Communists rose to power, and mainland China experienced a revival in fantasy only after the Cultural Revolution had ended. Fantasy became a genre of pulp magazines published in the West. In 1923, the first all-fantasy fiction magazine, Weird Tales , was published. Many other similar magazines eventually followed, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ; when it

696-664: A five-time recipient of the Zajdel Award , Poland's most popular science fiction and fantasy prize, as well as many other awards and honors including David Gemmell Award , World Fantasy Life Achievement Award and the Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture . He was born on 21 June 1948 in Łódź , in central Poland. His father served in the Polish People's Army and participated in the Battle of Berlin . After

783-475: A good fantasy novel eloquently and with ease. His style reads as easily as David Gemmel , but hits harder and deeper than his late fantasy comrade. Creating a world that is both familiar and comfortable, it is through his inventive use of character manipulation that he generates a new and realistic experience". Alex Jay of Polygon further observes that within Sapkowski's fantasy tales, "there are parallels to

870-564: A large audience. Lord Dunsany established the genre's popularity in both the novel and the short story form. H. Rider Haggard , Rudyard Kipling , and Edgar Rice Burroughs began to write fantasy at this time. These authors, along with Abraham Merritt , established what was known as the "lost world" subgenre, which was the most popular form of fantasy in the early decades of the 20th century, although several classic children's fantasies, such as Peter Pan and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , were also published around this time. Juvenile fantasy

957-471: A main plot element, theme , or setting . Magic, magic practitioners ( sorcerers , witches and so on) and magical creatures are common in many of these worlds. An identifying trait of fantasy is the author's use of narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, where fantasy does not. In writing fantasy

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1044-626: A monster hunter since childhood. 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 . The world in which these adventures take place is heavily influenced by Slavic mythology . In her review of Blood of Elves , Alice Wybrew of Total Sci-Fi writes that "Moving effortlessly between moments of wrought emotion and staggeringly effective action, to lengthy periods of political discussion and war stratagems , Sapkowski addresses every aspect of

1131-802: A much larger army. Use of deception to mask an inferior force was also used in another battle during the War of 1812, the Battle of Chateauguay . Outnumbered during battle, the Canadian Fencibles were initially outflanked and falling back, before Lieutenant-Colonel Charles de Salaberry of the Canadian Voltigeurs ordered bugle calls, cheers and Indian war whoops, in a ruse to make the Americans believe that they were about to be enveloped. Fearing themselves outnumbered and about to be outflanked, Brigadier-General Wade Hampton called off

1218-509: A new book about Geralt will be published by the end of 2024. Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction which involves themes of the supernatural , magic , and imaginary worlds and creatures . Its roots are in oral traditions, which became fantasy literature and drama. From the twentieth century, it has expanded further into various media, including film , television , graphic novels , manga , animations , and video games . The expression fantastic literature

1305-412: A new style of "fuzzy" supernatural texts. The fantastic is on the dividing line between supernatural and not supernatural, Just as during this time period the women were not respecting the boundary of inequality that had always been set for them. At the time, women's roles in society were very uncertain, just as the rules of the fantastic are never straightforward. This climate allowed for a genre similar to

1392-613: A single source. The Welsh tradition has been particularly influential, due to its connection to King Arthur and its collection in a single work, the epic Mabinogion . There are many works where the boundary between fantasy and other works is not clear; the question of whether the writers believed in the possibilities of the marvels in A Midsummer Night's Dream or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight makes it difficult to distinguish when fantasy, in its modern sense, first began. Although pre-dated by John Ruskin 's The King of

1479-456: A translator and later as an author of fantasy books, following the success of his first short story The Witcher published in 1986 in Fantastyka magazine. Described as the "Polish Tolkien ", he wrote ten novels and eight short story collections, which sold over 30 million copies worldwide. The influence of Slavic mythology is seen as a characteristic feature of many of his works. He is

1566-509: A while as a creative consultant on the project. The popularity of the Netflix show led to Sapkowski topping Amazon 's list of best-selling authors ahead of J.K. Rowling and Stephen King . A spin-off anime The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf , produced by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich , premiered in 2021. In September 2017, a musical Wiedźmin (The Witcher) directed by Wojciech Kościelniak

1653-674: A wide audience, with the success of Robert E. Howard 's Conan the Barbarian and Fritz Leiber 's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. However, it was the advent of high fantasy , and most of all J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , which reached new heights of popularity in the late 1960s, that allowed fantasy to truly enter the mainstream . Several other series, such as C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and Ursula K. Le Guin 's Earthsea books, helped cement

1740-624: Is One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) , which is a compilation of many ancient and medieval folk tales. Various characters from this epic have become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin , Sinbad and Ali Baba . Hindu mythology was an evolution of the earlier Vedic mythology and had many more fantastical stories and characters, particularly in the Indian epics . The Panchatantra ( Fables of Bidpai ), for example, used various animal fables and magical tales to illustrate

1827-726: Is also often used to refer to this genre by the Anglophone literary critics. An archaic spelling for the term is phantasy . Fantasy is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes, although these can occur in fantasy. In popular culture , the fantasy genre predominantly features settings that emulate Earth, but with a sense of otherness. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy consists of works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians from ancient myths and legends to many recent and popular works. Many works of fantasy use magic or other supernatural elements as

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1914-559: Is the author of the libretto and the composer of much of the opera's music. The premiere of the opera took place the same year in Rostov-on-Don and was subsequently released as a DVD in 2012. The Polish game developer, CD Projekt Red , created a role-playing game series based on The Witcher universe. The first game, titled simply The Witcher , was first released in October 2007. The sequel, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

2001-632: The Epic of Gilgamesh . The ancient Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Eliš , in which the god Marduk slays the goddess Tiamat , contains the theme of a cosmic battle between good and evil, which is characteristic of the modern fantasy genre. Genres of romantic and fantasy literature existed in ancient Egypt. The Tales of the Court of King Khufu , which is preserved in the Westcar Papyrus and

2088-692: The Iliad , the Greeks during the Trojan War pretended to give up their fruitless ten-year siege of the city of Troy and sailed away, leaving behind the Trojan Horse . After the Trojans pulled what they believed was a parting gift within the walls of the city, soldiers that had hidden inside the hollow horse during the previous night emerged and opened the city's gates, allowing the awaiting army to enter

2175-805: The Confederate Army falsely claimed that it had gained a foothold in the Union Army lines. An effort by the Imperial Japanese Navy to lure the Russian fleet out of its harbor during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 was described by The New York Times as "a clever ruse of war to entice the Russian ships out of Port Arthur ". The use of the American flag flown on the liner Lusitania while crossing through

2262-521: The Elder Edda and the Younger Edda , includes such figures as Odin and his fellow Aesir , and dwarves , elves , dragons , and giants . These elements have been directly imported into various fantasy works. The separate folklore of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland has sometimes been used indiscriminately for "Celtic" fantasy, sometimes with great effect; other writers have specified the use of

2349-574: The Empty Fort Strategy from Sun Tzu 's The Art of War . Zhuge Liang sat upon the walls of the cities, his men far outnumbered by the Wei army which was advancing toward him. Zhuge Liang sat upon the walls and played his instrument, seemingly calm and composed, tricking Sima Yi into thinking that the Shu troops had hidden in the surrounding area for an ambush. Zhuge Liang was able to quickly flee

2436-741: The Irish Sea to avoid attack by German submarines during the First World War was criticized in debate in the United States House of Representatives by Republican Eben Martin of South Dakota , who stated that "the United States cannot be made a party to a ruse of war where the national colors are involved". During the Second World War , the crew of the merchant-raiding German light cruiser Emden rigged

2523-476: The American advance, withdrawing his forces to Plattsburgh, New York . During the American Civil War , Union General George Meade 's General Order No. 13 of 1865 was retracted after it was determined that his criticism of Brigadier-General McLaughlin was based on "nothing more than the obvious result of those ruses de guerre , by which the very best officers may, at times, be victimized", after

2610-574: The British and First Nations. Intercepting American dispatches from Fort Detroit, Brock judged the morale of the American garrison to be low, and that the American general had a fear of First Nations in particular. Brock arranged for misleading letters to fall into American hands, stating an inflated figure of 5,000 First Nations warriors were already in Amherstburg , to simulate a larger First Nations force had attached themselves to his army. Prior to

2697-630: The British ships lowered their German colours and hoisted White Ensigns before returning fire. German commando Otto Skorzeny led his troops wearing American uniforms to infiltrate American lines in Operation Greif during the Battle of the Bulge . Skorzeny later reported that he was told by experts in military law that wearing American uniforms was a defensible ruse de guerre , provided his troops took off their American uniforms, and put on German uniforms, prior to firing their weapons. Skorzeny

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2784-600: The Golden River (1841), the history of modern fantasy literature is usually said to begin with George MacDonald , the Scottish author of such novels as Phantastes (1858) and The Princess and the Goblin (1872); the former is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel ever written for adults. MacDonald was a major influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis . The other major fantasy author of this era

2871-551: The Polish Fantastyka magazine, and for whom he wrote the first Witcher story, who has since deceased. Sapkowski is a member of the Polish Writers' Association . In an interview, he mentioned that his favorite writers included Ernest Hemingway , Mikhail Bulgakov , Raymond Chandler and Umberto Eco . In 2005, Stanisław Bereś conducted a lengthy interview with Sapkowski that was eventually published in

2958-592: The RPG products sold in 2005. The science fantasy role-playing game series Final Fantasy has been an icon of the role-playing video game genre (as of 2012 it was still among the top ten best-selling video game franchises ). The first collectible card game , Magic: The Gathering , has a fantasy theme and is similarly dominant in the industry. Fantasy encompasses numerous subgenres characterized by particular themes or settings, or by an overlap with other literary genres or forms of speculative fiction. They include

3045-689: The Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson , and the Harry Potter films, two of the highest-grossing film series in cinematic history. Fantasy role-playing games cross several different media. Dungeons & Dragons was the first tabletop role-playing game and remains the most successful and influential. According to a 1999 survey in the United States , 6% of 12- to 35-year-olds have played role-playing games. Of those who play regularly, two thirds play D&D . Products branded Dungeons & Dragons made up over fifty percent of

3132-476: The Supernatural in the 1890s and 1920s , Lizzie Harris McCormick, Jennifer Mitchell, and Rebecca Soares describe how the social climate in the 1890s and 1920s allowed for a new era of "fantastic" literature to grow. Women were finally exploring the new freedoms given to them and were quickly becoming equals in society. The fear of the new women in society, paired with their growing roles, allowed them to create

3219-505: The air of uncertainty in its narratives as described by Todorov. Jackson also introduces the idea of reading the fantastic through a psychoanalytical lens, referring primarily to Freud's theory of the unconscious, which she believes is integral to understanding the fantastic's connection to the human psyche. There are however additional ways to view the fantastic, and often these differing perspectives come from differing social climates. In their introduction to The Female Fantastic: Gender and

3306-451: The area as the Wei retreated. The Siege of Detroit was an early engagement in the War of 1812 , where a smaller British- First Nations force, led by Major-General Isaac Brock and Shawnee leader Tecumseh , used bluff and deception to intimidate Brigadier General William Hull into surrendering the fort , the town of Detroit , and a dispirited American force that nevertheless outnumbered

3393-402: The author of The Witcher does not hide that his characters are not exactly subtle, but who nonetheless bask with delight in what the literature theoretician Mikhail Bakhtin once called "the material bodily lower stratum". Although The Hussite Trilogy proved less popular compared to The Witcher , it has been described as the author's " magnum opus ". Published between 2002 and 2006, the series

3480-438: The author uses worldbuilding to create characters, situations, and settings that may not be possible in reality. Many fantasy authors use real-world folklore and mythology as inspiration; and although another defining characteristic of the fantasy genre is the inclusion of supernatural elements, such as magic, this does not have to be the case. Fantasy has often been compared to science fiction and horror because they are

3567-591: The central Indian principles of political science . Chinese traditions have been particularly influential in the vein of fantasy known as Chinoiserie , including such writers as Ernest Bramah and Barry Hughart . Beowulf is among the best known of the Old English tales in the English speaking world, and has had deep influence on the fantasy genre; several fantasy works have retold the tale, such as John Gardner 's Grendel . Norse mythology , as found in

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3654-644: The circular effect that all fantasy works, even the later The Lord of the Rings , were therefore classified as children's literature . Political and social trends can affect a society's reception towards fantasy. In the early 20th century, the New Culture Movement 's enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature. The spells and magical creatures of these novels were viewed as superstitious and backward, products of

3741-474: The city. Prior to a naval battle with King Eumenes II of Pergamon , Hannibal sent a herald with a message for the opposing commander. That was a trick aiming to locate Eumenes's ship so that Hannibal could concentrate his forces against it. Alexander the Great walked his men up and down a river continuously to condition his opponent, Porus , into a false sense of security in the belief that his whole army

3828-537: The company for using the Witcher universe in their computer games. The lawsuit was launched despite the fact that Sapkowski had sold the video game rights to the Witcher for a single sum, rather than through a royalties contract. Sapkowski and his lawyers based their lawsuit on Article 44 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act . CD Projekt released a statement claiming that the author's demands are groundless and that

3915-519: The company had legitimately and legally acquired copyright to Sapkowski's works. His decision was criticized by many commentators and gaming journalists including Dmitry Glukhovsky , the author of Metro 2033 , who described him as "an old fool" and noted that without the gaming franchise , the Witcher series "would never get this crazy international readership" and would have remained popular only in Central and Eastern Europe . On 20 December 2019,

4002-487: The complicated history of ethnic strife and resistance to oppression in Central and Eastern Europe ". The depictions of the disputes between nonhumans and humans "echo real-world disputes over territory and citizenship that draw dividing lines according to race, nationality, or ethnicity". In 2001, he published the Manuscript Found in a Dragon's Cave , an original and personal guide to fantasy literature . It

4089-646: The convention. The first WFC was held in 1975 and it has occurred every year since. The convention is held at a different city each year. Additionally, many science fiction conventions, such as Florida's FX Show and MegaCon , cater to fantasy and horror fans. Anime conventions, such as Ohayocon or Anime Expo frequently feature showings of fantasy, science fantasy, and dark fantasy series and films, such as Majutsushi Orphen (fantasy), Sailor Moon (urban fantasy), Berserk (dark fantasy), and Spirited Away (fantasy). Many science fiction/fantasy and anime conventions also strongly feature or cater to one or more of

4176-469: The difference of critical traditions of each country have led to controversies such as the one led by Stanislaw Lem . Rosemary Jackson builds onto and challenges as well Todorov's definition of the fantastic in her 1981 nonfiction book Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion . Jackson rejects the notion of the fantastic genre as a simple vessel for wish fulfillment that transcends human reality in worlds presented as superior to our own, instead positing that

4263-555: The end of World War II , his parents lived near Nowa Sól before settling in Łódź. He attended the Bolesław Prus High School No. 21. He also studied economics at the University of Łódź , and before turning to writing, he had worked as a senior sales representative for a foreign trade company. He started his literary career as a translator, in particular, of science fiction. Among the first works translated by him

4350-457: The enemy civilian population, corrupting enemy civilians or soldiers by bribes, or inducing the enemy's soldiers to desert , surrender , or rebel . In general, a belligerent may resort to those measures for mystifying or misleading the enemy against which the enemy ought to take measures to protect itself. Legitimate ruses include: Further, according to the rules of war, ruses of war are legitimate so long as they do not involve perfidy on

4437-485: The enemy by deliberate lying or misleading conduct which involves a breach of faith , or when there is a moral obligation to speak the truth . For example, it is improper to pretend to surrender to secure an advantage over the opposing belligerent. To broadcast to the enemy that an armistice had been agreed upon when such is not the case would be treacherous. Abuse of the protections afforded to medical personnel (by disguising combat soldiers as medics, or by putting

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4524-514: The fantastic is a liminal space , characterized by the intrusion of supernatural elements into the realistic framework of a story, accompanied by uncertainty about their existence. However, this precise definition is not the predominant one in English critical literature, and the French term fantastique is used to differentiate the French concept from the broader English term of fantastic, synonym of fantasy. The restrictive definition of Todorov and

4611-429: The fantastic represents the unspoken desire for greater societal change. Jackson criticizes Todorov's theory as being too limited in scope, examining only the literary function of the fantastic, and expands his structuralist theory to fit a more cultural study of the genre—which, incidentally, she proposes is not a genre at all, but a mode that draws upon literary elements of both realistic and supernatural fiction to create

4698-554: The fantasy publisher Tor Books , men outnumber women by 67% to 33% among writers of historical, epic or high fantasy. But among writers of urban fantasy or paranormal romance, 57% are women and 43% are men. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other language studies, cultural studies , comparative literature , history and medieval studies . Some works make political, historical and literary connections between medievalism and popular culture. French literature theorists as Tzvetan Todorov argues that

4785-416: The first attempt to portray the Witcher universe outside the novels. Since 2014, a comic book series The Witcher has been published by the American publisher Dark Horse Comics . The stories presented in the series are mostly originals, written not by Andrzej Sapkowski but by other writers; the exception being volume 2, Fox Children, which adapted a story from the anthology Season of Storms . In 2001,

4872-478: The first time, women started to possess more masculine or queer qualities without it becoming as much of an issue. The fantastic during this time period reflects these new ideas by breaking parallel boundaries in the supernatural. The fantastic breaks this boundary by having the readers never truly know whether or not the story is supernatural. Ruse de guerre Ruses de guerre are described from ancient to modern times, both in semi-mythical accounts such as

4959-536: The following: In her 2008 book Rhetorics of Fantasy , Farah Mendlesohn proposes the following taxonomy of fantasy, as "determined by the means by which the fantastic enters the narrated world", while noting that there are fantasies that fit none of the patterns: Publishers, editors, authors, artists, and scholars with interest in the fantasy genre get together yearly at the World Fantasy Convention . The World Fantasy Awards are presented at

5046-528: The genre is inseparable from real life, particularly the social and cultural contexts within which each work of the fantastic is produced. She writes that the "unreal" elements of fantastic literature are created only in direct contrast to the boundaries set by its time period's "cultural order", acting to illuminate the unseen limitations of said boundaries by undoing and recompiling the very structures which define society into something "strange" and "apparently new". In subverting these societal norms, Jackson claims,

5133-633: The genre's popularity. The popularity of the fantasy genre has continued to increase in the 21st century, as evidenced by the best-selling status of J. K. Rowling 's Harry Potter series, Robert Jordan 's The Wheel of Time series, George R. R. Martin 's Song of Ice and Fire series, Steven Erikson 's Malazan Book of the Fallen sweeping epic, Brandon Sanderson 's The Stormlight Archive series and Mistborn series, and A. Sapkowski 's The Witcher saga. Several fantasy film adaptations have achieved blockbuster status, most notably The Lord of

5220-464: The illusion that a large First Nations force was attached with Brock's force, Tecumseh extended his men, and marched them three times through an opening in the woods at the rear of the fort in full view of the fort. Brock similarly dressed members of the Canadian militia as British regulars, and instructed soldiers to light individual fires instead of one fire per unit, thereby creating the illusion of

5307-415: The major categories of speculative fiction . Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements. A science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seemingly possible through logical scientific or technological extrapolation, where fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. Authors have to rely on the readers' suspension of disbelief , an acceptance of

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5394-627: The military insignia and military uniform of the enemy, as well as the distinctive badges of the Geneva Convention ". Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions expanded the rules of prohibiting certain type of ruses as defined in Articles 37, 38, and 39. The line of demarcation between legitimate ruses and forbidden acts of perfidy is sometimes indistinct. In general, it would be an improper practice to secure an advantage over

5481-510: The modern fantasy genre. Plato used allegories to convey many of his teachings, and early Christian writers interpreted both the Old and New Testaments as employing parables to relay spiritual truths. This ability to find meaning in a story that is not literally true became the foundation that allowed the modern fantasy genre to develop. The most well known fiction from the Islamic world

5568-618: The outbreak of war for use as a troop transport but then converted to a repair ship, was fitted with dummy wooden main batteries fore and aft to resemble an old battleship after her arrival in Shanghai on 29 December 1938. In the lead up to the First Battle of Sirte during the Second World War, the fast minelayer HMS  Abdiel successfully impersonated a force of two battleships using false signals traffic, as part of

5655-425: The part of the belligerent resorting to them. They are, however, forbidden if they contravene any generally accepted rule. Article 23 of the 1907 Hague Convention IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land provides that: "It is especially forbidden....(b) To kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army....(f) To make improper use of a flag of truce , of the national flag , or of

5742-443: The publication of standalone prequel novel Season of Storms (2013). The saga has been popularized through television, stage, comic books, video games and translated into 37 languages making him the second most-translated Polish science fiction and fantasy writer after Stanisław Lem . He was born in Łódź and initially pursued a career as an economist after graduating from the University of Łódź . He turned to writing, first as

5829-458: The several subcultures within the main subcultures, including the cosplay subculture (in which people make or wear costumes based on existing or self-created characters, sometimes also acting out skits or plays as well), the fan fiction subculture, and the fan video or AMV subculture, as well as the large internet subculture devoted to reading and writing prose fiction or doujinshi in or related to those genres. According to 2013 statistics by

5916-400: The siege, Brock also sent a letter demanding for surrender to Hull, stating: The force at my disposal authorizes me to require the immediate surrender of Detroit. It is far from my intention to join in a war of extermination, but you must be aware, that the numerous body of Indians who have attached themselves to my troops, will be beyond my control the moment the contest commences. To further

6003-465: The social structure to emerge. The fantastic is never purely supernatural, nor can the supernatural be ruled out. Just as women were not equal yet, but they were not completely oppressed. The Female Fantastic seeks to enforce this idea that nothing is certain in the fantastic nor the gender roles of the 1920s. Many women in this time period began to blur the lines between the genders, removing the binary out of gender and allowing for many interpretations. For

6090-546: The story of the Trojan Horse in Virgil 's Aeneid , and in well-documented events such as the flying of the American flag by the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania in 1915 (whilst the United States was a neutral country ) to deter attack by German submarines; they also feature in fiction. The term ruse de guerre is given legal meaning within the rules of war . Good faith is required, but at least 17 different types of ruse , including ambushes , false radio messages,

6177-494: The unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment, in order to write effective fantasies. Despite both genres' heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable from one another. Horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists' weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. While some elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were a part of literature from its beginning, fantasy elements occur throughout ancient religious texts such as

6264-512: The use of spies and the use of dummy guns, are considered legitimate as long as they do not involve treachery or perfidy . Landmines and similar traps can be considered perfidious under the rules in certain circumstances. Explicitly prohibited ruses under article 23 of the Hague Convention of 1907 include improper use of a flag of truce or the military insignia of the enemy. According to Homer 's somewhat mythical account in

6351-417: The writer and the company resolved the lawsuit with an amicable settlement. The company stated this deal was made in an effort "to maintain good relations with authors of works which have inspired CD Projekt Red's own creations." The details of this arrangement were not made public. Sapkowski resides in his hometown of Łódź in central Poland. He had a son named Krzysztof (1972–2019), who was an avid reader of

6438-526: Was The Hussite Trilogy set in the 15th century at the time of the Hussite Wars with Reinmar of Bielawa as the main protagonist. Mariusz Czubaj writes: Sapkowski's trilogy is a form of polemics with the Polish tradition of the historical novel, with let's say Kraszewski and Sienkiewicz , who wrote about cruel times while depriving them of that dose of atrocities and a most basic human dimension. Yet

6525-436: Was The Words of Guru by Cyril M. Kornbluth . He says he wrote his first short story , The Witcher (1986), ("Wiedźmin", also translated "The Hexer" or "Spellmaker"), on a whim, in order to enter a contest by Polish science fiction and fantasy magazine Fantastyka . In an interview, he said that being a businessman at the time and thus familiar with marketing, he knew how to sell, and indeed, he won third prize. The story

6612-603: Was William Morris , an English poet who wrote several novels in the latter part of the century, including The Wood Beyond the World (1894) and The Well at the World's End (1896). Despite MacDonald's future influence with At the Back of the North Wind (1871), Morris's popularity with his contemporaries, and H. G. Wells 's The Wonderful Visit (1895), it was not until the 20th century that fantasy fiction began to reach

6699-529: Was acquitted by a United States military court in Dachau in 1947, after his defense counsel argued that the "wearing of American uniforms was a legitimate ruse of war for espionage and sabotage " as described by The New York Times . According to the rules of war, good faith in dealing with the enemy must be observed as a rule of conduct, but this does not prevent measures such as using spies and secret agents , encouraging defection or insurrection among

6786-483: Was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, with the effect that writers who wished to write fantasy had to fit their work into forms aimed at children. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys , intended for children, although his works for adults only verged on fantasy. For many years, this and successes such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) created

6873-401: Was founded in 1949, the pulp magazine format was at the height of its popularity, and the magazine was instrumental in bringing fantasy fiction to a wide audience in both the U.S. and Britain. Such magazines were also instrumental in the rise of science fiction, and it was at this time the two genres began to be associated with each other. By 1950, " sword and sorcery " fiction had begun to find

6960-600: Was premiered at the Musical Theatre in Gdynia . The Witcher: Blood Origin is a fantasy miniseries created by Declan de Barra and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich adapted from The Witcher book series which serves as a prequel to the Netflix television series. It was released on Netflix in December 2022. Sapkowski is a recipient of numerous awards and honours both Polish and foreign including: Sapkowski announced

7047-548: Was probably written in the middle of the second half of the eighteenth century BC, preserves a mixture of stories with elements of historical fiction, fantasy, and satire. Egyptian funerary texts preserve mythological tales, the most significant of which are the myths of Osiris and his son Horus . Myth with fantastic elements intended for adults were a major genre of ancient Greek literature . The comedies of Aristophanes are filled with fantastic elements, particularly his play The Birds , in which an Athenian man builds

7134-591: Was published by Gollancz in 2007. From 2008, the Witcher saga is published by Gollancz . The English translation of Sapkowski's novel Blood of Elves won the David Gemmell Legend Award in 2009. In the years 1993–1995, a six-issue comic book series entitled The Witcher was released in the Komiks magazine by Prószyński i S-ka publishing house . The comic was written by Maciej Parowski and illustrated by Bogusław Polch . The comics were

7221-478: Was published in Fantastyka 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 eight novels. This cycle and his other works have made him one of the best-known fantasy authors in Poland in the 1990s. The main character of "The Witcher" is Geralt of Rivia , trained as

7308-454: Was released as an audiobook in 2019. In August 2023, Sapkowski announced he was working on a new novel from The Witcher universe during an on-line meeting with his Ukrainian fans. He added that his work on the book "may take a year, but no longer" giving it a potential expected publication date at some point in 2024. In October 2018, he filed a lawsuit against CD Projekt demanding 60 million zloty ($ 16.1 million) in royalty payments from

7395-464: Was released in 2011. The third game in the trilogy, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt , was released in May 2015. The game shipped over 40 million copies, making it one of the best selling video games of all time . In May 2017, Netflix commissioned The Witcher , an English-language adaptation of the book series. The Witcher television series premiered on Netflix on 20 December 2019. Sapkowski served for

7482-603: Was searching for a ford. Then, under the cover of night Alexander marched a contingent of his men upriver and crossed the Indus, while his remaining forces marched south to their camp as they usually did. This feint allowed Alexander to hide his troops' location and win the Battle of Hydaspes in 326 BC. As stated in the probably fictional account in Romance of the Three Kingdoms , Zhuge Liang tricked Sima Yi using

7569-575: Was written in the form of an encyclopaedia and the author discusses in it the history of the literary genre , well-known fantasy heroes, descriptions of magic terminology as well as major works of notable writers including J.R.R. Tolkien 's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , Robert E. Howard 's Conan , C. S. Lewis 's The Chronicles of Narnia , Ursula K. Le Guin 's Earthsea , Roger Zelazny 's The Chronicles of Amber , J.K. Rowling 's Harry Potter , and George R.R. Martin 's A Song of Ice and Fire . Sapkowski's next book series

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