Witcher

Blood of Elves (1994)

Blood of Elves (Polish: Krew elfów) is the first novel in the Witcher Saga written by the Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski, first published in Poland in 1994. It is a sequel to the Witcher short stories collected in the books The Last Wish (Ostatnie życzenie) and Sword of Destiny (Miecz przeznaczenia) and is followed by Time of Contempt (Czas pogardy). The book won the Janusz A. Zajdel Award in 1994 and the David Gemmell Legend Award in 2009. An English translation was published in the United Kingdom in 2008 (Gollancz) and in the United States in 2009 (Orbit).

The Empire of Nilfgaard attacks the Kingdom of Cintra. Queen Calanthe commits suicide and her granddaughter, Cirilla, called Ciri and nicknamed the "Lion Cub of Cintra" manages to flee from the burning capital city. Emhyr var Emreis, Emperor of Nilfgaard, sends his spies to find her. He knows that this young girl has great importance, not only because of her royal blood, but also because of her magical potential and elven blood in her veins.

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Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher book series was almost adapted into a standalone Netflix film, but Kelly Luegenbiehl, Vice President of International Originals at Netflix, dissuaded the producers. She recalled asking them, "How can you take eight novels and just turn it into a film? There's so much material here. Through a number of conversations, the producers got really excited about the idea of using the source material for a longer-running series.In May 2017, Netflix announced the start of production on an English-language drama TV series based on the books.

The first season consisted of eight episodes and was released on Netflix in its entirety on December 20, 2019. It is based on The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, which are collections of short stories that precede the main Witcher saga. Before the first season had been released, Netflix announced a second eight-episode season, to be released in 2021.