Chronologically speaking, Blood of Elves is the third book in the Witcher series. It is, however, the first full length novel and is mostly linear. Those that had trouble with the skipping timelines of the short story collections will appreciate the more conventional timing of this novel.

In this novel, we expand into multiple character points of view. This happens within chapters and the characters are not named before we get their perspective. Although this was a little jarring at first, it was something I quickly got used to and I found it didn't bother me. Each point of view added to what I understood of the world and knew of each character. Sadly, though, we only see one full chapter told from Geralt's perspective, so soak that up while you can. This has led some to believe that the Geralt of Blood of Elves is a strict departure from the earlier books. I wouldn't agree with that perspective completely; we simply see Geralt in very different situations. We get more of his concerns and less of slaughtering monsters and his dry wit. I hope to see more for his perspective in the next book.

This book is divided into seven very large chapters. Most I found quite interesting. There where, however, a couple of chapters (I believe two and six) where the storytelling relied almost solely on dialogue for several pages and this got very old very quickly. In the first instance of this, villagers argue over Dandelion's ballad and what happened to Ciri. It's important to the story and could be more interesting, but we as the reader already know the truth and don't really care for the incorrect suppositions of the nameless crowd. This happens again with a conclave of rulers and again with a council of magicians. The author seems to have expounded on his weakness for relying on huge dialogues to "tell" the story and move the plot along. It's difficult to resist temptation to skim these parts.

Overall, not much happens in this book as far as action is concerned. This is more of an extended prologue. But only in the instances of excessive dialogue between previously unknown characters did it ever feel boring. Instead of monsters and action of the previous stories, this one gives us more on the characters. Ciri comes into her own in this book and Yennefer becomes much more likable as a character. Triss is explored much more deeply and contains an element of mystery. Dandelion becomes multidimensional. Geralt, although he takes a considerable back seat, remains the glue for all of these characters.

On a final note, it's nice to see more Witchers, even if only briefly. I could read an entire series about Coen. A witcher who laughs openly, plays games of slap-hands with his friend's little girl, and has no issues about teaching a girl some amazing sword techniques? Yes, please!