The Last Wish

The Last Wish (Polish: Ostatnie życzenie) is the first book in Andrzej Sapkowski's in terms of story chronology, although the original Polish edition was published in 1993, after .
Some of the individual short stories were first published in the Fantastyka magazine or in the Wiedźmin short story collection (the first collection of Sapkowski's stories, out of print and now obsolete; all short stories were later collected in The Last Wish, Sword of Destiny and ) and as such were the first witcher stories published.
The first UK edition was released by Gollancz on 7 June 2007 and a second edition was released the next year on 14 February 2008. The US edition was released a few months later, on 1 May 2008 by Orbit.
Audible UK, in conjunction with Orion Books and Gollancz, released The Last Wish audio on February 27, 2014, only a few short weeks after it was announced. The Last Wish is read by Peter Kenny.
== Stories Included ==
The anthology employs the story within a story framework and contains seven main short stories.
Geralt, after having been injured in battle, rests in a temple of Melitele in Ellander. During that time he has flashbacks to recent events in his life — each of which forms a story of its own.
*The Voice of Reason (Głos rozsądku, framing story)
*The Witcher (Wiedźmin)
*A Grain of Truth (Ziarno prawdy)
*The Lesser Evil (Mniejsze zło)
*A Question of Price (Kwestia ceny)
*The Edge of the World (Kraniec świata)
*The Last Wish (Ostatnie życzenie)
== Translations ==
* Bulgarian: Вещерът. Последното желание, (ИнфоДар, 2008)
* Czech: Poslední přání, (Leonardo, 1999)
* Danish: Witcheren - Det sidste ønske, (Gyldendal, 2016)
* Dutch: De laatste wens , (Dutch Media Uitgevers, 2010)
* German: Der letzte Wunsch, (Heyne, 1998)
* English: The Last Wish, translated by Danusia Stok (UK – Gollancz, 2007, US – Orbit, 2008)
* Spanish: El último deseo, translated by Jose María Faraldo (Bibliópolis fantástica, 2002)
* Finnish: Viimeinen toivomus, translated by Tapani Kärkkäinen (WSOY 2010)
* French: Le Dernier Vœu, (Bragelonne, 2003)
* Hungarian: Vaják I. – Az utolsó kívánság, translated by Szathmáry-Kellermann Viktória (PlayON 2011)
* Italian: Il Guardiano degli Innocenti, (Nord, 2010)
* Korean: 위처:이성의 목소리, (제우미디어, 2011)
* Lithuanian: Paskutinis noras, (Eridanas-2005, Alma Littera-2017)
* Portuguese: O Terceiro Desejo, translated by Tomasz Barcinski (Saída de Emergência, 2016)
* Brazilian Portuguese: O Último Desejo, Brazilian version translated by Tomasz Barcinski (WMF Martins Fontes, 2011)
* Romanian: Ultima dorință, translated by Mihaela Fiscutean (Nemira, 2019)
* Russian: Последнее желание, translated by Евгений Вайсброт (АСТ, 1996)
* Serbian: Последња жеља/Poslednja želja, translated by Olivera Duskov and Milan Duskov (IPS 2009)
* Slovak: Zaklínač I.: Posledné želanie translated by Karol Chmel (Plus, 2015)
* Swedish: Den sista önskningen, (Coltso, 2010)
* Traditional Chinese: 獵魔士 - 最後的願望, translated by 林蔚昀 (蓋亞文化, 2011)
* Simplified Chinese: 猎魔人卷一：白狼崛起, translated by 小龙 (重庆出版社, 2015)
* Ukrainian: Останнє бажання, translated by Сергій Легеза (КСД, 2015)
* Turkish: Son Dilek, translated by Regaip Minareci from German (Pegasus, 2017)
* Greek: Η τελευταία ευχή, translated by Δημήτρης Χουλιαράκης (SEΛINI, 2013)
* Hebrew: המכשף המשאלה האחרונה, translated by Ilay Halpern (Yedioth Books, 2021)
== Audio Versions ==
There are two audio versions of The Last Wish available in Polish. Classic audiobook, lasting about 11 hours and read by Roch Siemianowski, was released by superNOWA (Polish publisher of Sapkowski's works) in 1996.
In 2011, after the huge success of audio play based on Sapkowski's Narrenturm, Fonopolis and audioteka.pl released audio plays based on The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny. The Last Wish, lasting about 12 hours, was voiced by 52 actors, including Krzysztof Banaszyk (Vernon Roche in Assassins of Kings) as Geralt, Anna Dereszowska as Yennefer, Sławimir Pacek (minor characters in video games) as Dandelion and Krzysztof Gosztyła as narrator. Samples from all short stories can be found on audioteka.pl's site.
== Bagiński Film ==
A movie adaptation announced for 2017 states that it: "will be based on themes from the short stories 'The Witcher' and 'Lesser Evil' from 'The Last Wish' collection. Tomasz Bagiński, who had been nominated for an Oscar for his film, 'The Cathedral', will be the director."
== Notes ==
* In the Polish edition, it is stated that Crach an Craite is a maternal nephew ("siostrzeniec") of King Bran, meaning that king had a sister which married into an Craites, something that is lost in most translations.
* Four of these stories were first published in Fantastyka magazine before being collected here: The Witcher (1986), A Grain of Truth (1989), A Question of Price (1990), and The Lesser Evil (1990).
== Book Covers ==
Ostatnie zyczenie 1.jpg|First softcover edition.
Okładka ostatnie życzenie.jpg|Second softcover edition.
Okładka ostatnie życzenie2.jpg|Third softcover edition.
Ostatnie_zyczenie_miecz_przeznaczenia.jpg|Hardcover edition (together with ).
Ostatnie Zyczenie 2010.jpg|Fourth softcover edition, designed along with CD PROJEKT RED.
Ostatnie życzenie audio1.jpg|Cover of audiobook/audio play.
Ostatnie życzenie audio2.jpg|Cover of audiobook/audio play.
Pl the last wish new.jpg|Polish edition cover (Oct. 2014).
Cover_Wiedzmin_1-8_2014.jpg|Cover of the "Wiedźmin" premium box (8 vol., Dec 2014).
Cover_Wiedzmin_1-OstatnieZyczenie2014.png|Cover of the Polish premium edition (Dec 2014).
The Last Wish.jpg|UK hardcover and trade paperback edition (2007).
The Last Wish 2.jpg|UK mass market paperback edition (2008).
Andrzej Sapkowski - The Last Wish.jpg|US edition (2008).
Lastwishhardcover.jpg|US hardcover edition
TheLastWishNetflix.jpg|US Netflix edition
Book the last wish turkish edition.jpg|Turkish Edition (2016)
Den_sista_önskningen.jpg|Swedish edition (2010).
Serbian_edition.jpg|Serbian edition (2012).
Veshterat.jpg|Вещерът. Последното желаниеBulgarian edition (2008).
poslední přání old.jpg|Old Czech edition.
Posledni prani.gif|Czech edition.
zaklinac-1-posledni-prani.jpg|Second Czech edition.
Zaklínač I Posledné Želanie.jpg|Sovak edition.
DeLaatsteWens .jpg|Dutch edition.
Last wish Finnish.jpg|Finnish edition.
Le Dernier Voeu 2003.jpg|French edition (2003).
Le Dernier Voeu 2005.jpg|French edition (2005).
Le Dernier Voeu 2008.jpg|French edition (2008).
Le_Dernier_Voeu_2011.jpg|French edition (2011).
Der letzte Wunsch 1.jpg|First German edition.
Der letzte Wunsch 2.jpg|Second German edition.
Hamechashef Master.jpg|Hebrew edition.
vaják.png|Hungarian edition.
Iran the last wish.png|Iranian edition.
Sapkowski_il_guardiano_degli_innocenti_2.jpg|Italian Edition, Nord, 2010.
Raganius.jpg|Lithuanian edition of both The Last Wish and Miecz przeznaczenia.
SoD_LT.png|Second Lithuanian edition.
Oultimodesejo.gif|Portuguese edition.
vedmak.jpg|Russian edition of both The Last Wish and .
Okladka El ultimo deseo.jpg|Spanish edition.
Alamut Ultimodeseo.jpg|Spanish edition, Alamut.
634540157143221250.jpg|Traditional Chinese edition (2011).
ultimo desejo.jpg|Brazilian edition (2011).
Simplified Chinese edition (2015).jpg|Simplified Chinese edition (2015).
== External links ==
*
ar:الأمنية الأخيرة
cs:Poslední přání
de:Der letzte Wunsch
el:Ostatnie życzenie
es:El último deseo
fr:Le Dernier Vœu
it:Il Guardiano degli Innocenti
lt:Pakutinis Noras
nl:De laatste wens (bundel)
pl:Ostatnie życzenie
pt-br:O Último Desejo
ru:Последнее желание (книга)
sv:Den sista önskningen
tr:Son Dilek
uk:Останнє бажання (книга)
zh:獵魔士：最後的願望
hu:Az utolsó kívánság
Category:Books
Category:Witcher series