The Tower of Fools

Historical fiction with fantastical elements by the author of the Witcher series.

Set in central Europe during the middle ages, this follows the adventures of Reinmar of Bielau - a student of magick that gets into plenty of scrapes because he can't keep his trousers on. The backdrop is the religious wars between the Catholic Church and the Czech Hussites that wanted to reform the Church.

Undoubtedly Sapkowski has spent a great deal of effort researching the period and the different peoples involved in the events of the Hussite Wars 1419-1434. Unfortunately he really seems to want the reader to know how much he has researched at the expense of the flow of the story. There is a huge cast of minor characters, most of whom are listed with all of their titles and names everytime you meet them; some of them have a number of aliases as well. There are too many phrases in Latin, Czech, Polish, or other languages that maybe add colour to the story but really don't help with comprehension.

The plot itself is actually quite flimsy and acts as a platform from which to explore the historical events. The main characters are actually reasonably well fleshed out and interesting.

I personally think that many people would struggle to finish the book, which weighs in at around 700 pages for the first in the trilogy, unless they are genuinely interested in the period. I was certainly surprised that the story was not finished by the time I got to the end of the book.