Look, I'll be honest - I resisted The Witcher for way too long. Everyone kept telling me to read it, the games are legendary, the Netflix show exists, and I was just... stubborn? But then I had a particularly brutal on-call rotation last month, and Kevin basically forced his Audible login into my hands and said "just trust me." So there I was, 6:47 AM on a Tuesday, sardined between a guy eating a breakfast burrito and someone's oversized backpack, and Peter Kenny's voice cut through my exhaustion like Geralt's silver sword through a striga.
Bottom Line: Worth your commute. Actually, worth multiple commutes.
Peter Kenny Is Doing Something Special Here
Okay so I need to talk about this narrator because wow. I'm a Ray Porter devotee (obviously), but Peter Kenny? He might be in the running for my narrator hall of fame now. Kenny also narrates Lady of the Lake, and honestly that performance is what convinced me he deserves the hall of fame spot. His Geralt is this perfect blend of world-weary and quietly dangerous - like a senior engineer who's seen too many production outages and has zero patience left for your poorly documented code. The gravel in his voice isn't performative, it's just... lived in.
But here's what really got me: the character differentiation. Dandelion (the bard who's basically a medieval influencer) sounds completely different from Geralt, who sounds nothing like Yennefer, who sounds nothing like the various monsters and villagers and sorceresses. And Kenny switches between them mid-conversation without missing a beat. Someone on Reddit said he could read an Excel spreadsheet and they'd be enraptured - I get it now. I fully get it.
One tiny thing that might bug some people: apparently the pronunciation of "Dandelion" shifts a bit across the series? I didn't notice it in this book specifically, but fair warning if you're planning to binge the whole saga. (Which, let's be real, you probably will.)
Short Stories That Actually Work in Audio
So here's the thing about The Last Wish - it's not a novel. It's a short story collection with a framing device, and honestly? This format is perfect for audiobook consumption. Each story is maybe 1-2 commutes, which means you get natural stopping points. No more "okay I'll just finish this chapter" and then suddenly you're in Mountain View and you missed your stop because you HAD to know how the djinn situation resolved.
The stories themselves are basically fairy tales run through a blender of moral ambiguity and Eastern European cynicism. Beauty and the Beast, but make it complicated. Snow White, but everyone's kind of terrible. Sapkowski takes these familiar frameworks and asks "okay but what if the monster wasn't actually the monster?" It's not groundbreaking in 2024 - we've all seen grimdark fantasy at this point - but remember this was written in the 80s and 90s. American Gods does something similar with mythology, though Gaiman's approach is less cynical and more melancholic. The man was ahead of the curve.
My favorite was probably "The Last Wish" (the story, not just the book) - the djinn sequence is chaotic and funny and genuinely tense, and it introduces Yennefer, who is... a lot. In the best way. Kenny's voice for her has this sharp edge that makes you understand why Geralt is simultaneously terrified and obsessed.
Fair Warning: This Isn't Cozy Fantasy
I should probably mention - this book is dark. Like, really dark. Violence, moral complexity, some sexual content, and a general vibe of "the world is terrible and everyone is just trying to survive it." If you're looking for comfort reading, this ain't it. But if you're the kind of person who appreciates when fantasy doesn't shy away from the ugly parts of humanity (and monstrosity), you'll be fine.
Also the translation is from Polish, and while Danusia Stok did solid work, there are occasional moments where the prose feels slightly... off? Not bad, just clearly translated. It's minor, and Kenny's performance smooths over most of it, but I noticed it once or twice.
The Commute Verdict
Perfect for: train, gym, chores. The episodic structure means you can pick it up and drop it without losing the thread. Skip if: you need background audio for deep work (you'll want to pay attention) or you're not in the mood for dark fantasy.
I finished this in about 5 commutes at 1.5x speed, and honestly I could've gone faster but I was enjoying Kenny's delivery too much to rush. The ROI on this audiobook is excellent - 10+ hours of quality entertainment, a narrator who's genuinely elevating the material, and now I understand approximately 40% more of the memes Kevin sends me.
Am I going to listen to the rest of the series? Yeah, obviously. Kevin's already queued up Sword of Destiny on my phone. He looked way too smug about being right, but whatever. He earned it this time.
