Andrzej Sapkowski

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:Sapkowski.jpg Andrzej Sapkowski, born June 21, 1948 in Łódź, is a Polish fantasy writer. Sapkowski studied economics, and before turning to writing, he had worked as a senior sales representative for a foreign trade company. His first short story, The Hexer (Wiedźmin), was published in Fantastyka, Poland's leading fantasy literary magazine, in 1986 and garnered enormous critical success. Sapkowski has created a cycle of tales based on the world of The Hexer, comprising three collections of short stories and five novels. This cycle and his many other books have made him one of the most well-known fantasy authors in Poland 1990s.

The main character of The Hexer (alternative translation: The Witcher) is Geralt, a mutant assassin who has been trained from childhood to hunt down and destroy monsters and other vermin. Geralt moves in an ambiguous moral universe, yet manages to maintain his own coherent code of ethics. At once cynical and noble, Geralt has been compared to Raymond Chandler's signature character Philip Marlowe. The world in which these adventures take place owes much to J.R.R. Tolkien, while also heavily influenced by Polish history and Slavic mythology.

Sapkowski has won five Zajdel Awards, including three for the short stories "Mniejsze zło" (Lesser Evil) (1990), "Miecz przeznaczenia" (Sword of destiny) (1992) and "W leju po bombie" (In a bomb hole) (1993), and two for the novels "Krew elfów" (Blood of the Elves) (1994) and "Narrenturm" (2002).

In 1997, Sapkowski won the prestigious Polityka Passport award, which is awarded anually to artists who have strong prospects for international success.

In 2001, a film based on the Hexer cycle was released in Poland and internationally, titled Wiedźmin (The Hexer), but both have been critical and box office failures.

Sapkowski's books have been translated into Czech, Russian, Lithuanian, German, Spanish, French, Slovakian and Portuguese. English translation of The Last Wish short story collection is going to be published by Gollancz in 2006.

Polish game publisher CD Projekt is also working on a role-playing PC game based on this universe. Called The Witcher, it's currently due for release in 2006.