This one definitely started slower than some of the others. It does pickup at pointsYennefer, Geralt, and Ciri are all in different places for the entire book,so there are 3 separate stories going on at once. They do all tie together.Geralt is recovering from being wounded in the last book and finds himself a brunch of companions. I really liked the dwarves and the gnome.Yennefer does appear for most of the book, and Ciri also only appears sporadically.