History Creator / AndrzejSapkowski

Andrzej Sapkowski (born 21 June 1948) is a Polish {{Fantasy}} author. He began his career as a writer by sending a story about a "Witcher" to a writing contest organised by a speculative fiction monthly. He didn't win, but garnered enough popularity to become one of the pioneers of the fantasy genre in Poland, which ultimately allowed him to drop his day job as a fur trader and take up writing full-time. He is well-versed in fantasy literature, often discussing fantasy tropes and their appearance in various literary works. In his writing, he is [[AuthorAppeal fond of]] untranslated foreign language passages, Celtic or faux-Celtic themes, and cats.

* ApprovalOfGod: Despite his feelings about the Polish film and TV adaptation of ''The Witcher'', Sapkowski praised the Netflix LiveActionAdaptation and called Geralt's actor Creator/HenryCavill a "real professional".

* FanworkBan:
** Averted. There were fanfiction sections on Sapkowski's site and forum, but they got deleted when the whole site undergone a reconstruction (along with many other things, so it wasn't an operation aimed at fanfiction). They can be only accessed via [[http://web.archive.org/web/20140522085943/http://www.sapkowski.pl/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=10 Web Archive]]. It's probably still safe to create ''Witcher'' fanfics (of course, knowing the [[FlipFlopOfGod author's attitude]] it may change at any moment).
** He allowed Creator/VladimirVasilyev to use Geralt's name for his ''The Big Kiev Witcher'' short story series.
** In 2013 ''The Tales of the Witcher World'' (''Opowieści ze świata wiedźmina''), a collection of short stories written by various Russian and Ukrainian authors got to be officially published in Poland with the [[ApprovalOfGod permission and blessing]] from Sapkowski, and later another one by Polish authors.

* ApprovalOfGod: Despite his feelings about the Polish film and TV adaptation of ''The Witcher'', Sapkowski praised the Netflix LiveActionAdaptation and called Geralt's actor Creator/HenryCavill a "real professional"

!!Tropes relating to his works:

** ''Literature/WarriorsOfGod'' (''Boży Bojownicy'', 2004)
** ''Literature/LuxPerpetua'' (2006)
* ''Literature/TheViper'' (''Żmija'', 2009): Novel set [[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan in Afghanistan]] in TheEighties
* ''Literature/MaladieAndOtherStories'' (2012): A collection of short stories, first published in 2000 as ''Something Ends, Something Begins''.

** ''Literature/TowerOfTheSwallow'' (''Wieża jaskółki'', 1997; English fan translation)
** ''Literature/LadyOfTheLake'' (''Pani jeziora'', 1999; English fan translation)

* FanworkBan: Averted. There were fanfiction sections on Sapkowski's site and forum, but they got deleted when the whole site undergone a reconstruction (along with many other things, so it wasn't an operation aimed at fanfiction). They can be only accessed via [[http://web.archive.org/web/20140522085943/http://www.sapkowski.pl/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=10 Web Archive]]. It's probably still safe to create ''Witcher'' fanfics (of course, knowing the [[FlipFlopOfGod author's attitude]] it may change at any moment).

** After the release of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', he's publicly blasted Creator/CDProjektRed over their treatment of the series and accused them of deliberately perpetuating AdaptationDisplacement of his novels, and has hinted that he may write new ''Witcher'' novels that will ignore the games. Unlike ''The Hexer'' however, the fanbase [[DeathOfTheAuthor hasn't taken well to his remarks]] as the games are widely acclaimed and well-respected by gamers and fans of the books alike. His comments about [[NewMediaAreEvil not respecting video games as a storytelling medium]] also didn't sit well. It formed into hilarious meme among fans about ''The Witcher'' books actually being sort of prequel-adaptation of video games rather than other way around.

!! The works of Andrzej Sapkowski provide examples of:

!!Andrzej Sapkowski and his works provide examples of:

!!Tropes relating to his works:

* MoneyDearBoy: Sapkowski always was very open about writing predominately to cover his own bills, but by ''Literature/SeasonOfStorms'' he outright called it "a small money-printing machine". Then there's the whole 'sued Creator/CDProjektRED because he wanted money from the games.' thing

** His attitude toward fandom and its expectations when still working on the ''Witcher'' saga is best decribed as simply mean-spirited. He openly declared few times in early 00s how the infamous decision to TorchTheFranchiseAndRun was made solely to get rid of fans, as they annoyed him.

!!Tropes relating to him as a creator, or to his works in general:

* MoneyDearBoy: Sapkowski always was very open about writing predominately to cover his own bills, but by ''Literature/SeasonOfStorms'' he outright called it "a small money-printing machine".

[[quoteright:319:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/andrzej_sapkowski.jpg]]

** Sapkowski euphemistically expressed his negative opinion about the movie ''Film/TheHexer'': "I can answer only with [[PrecisionFStrike a single word, an obscene, albeit a short one]]".

** ''Film/TheHexer'' movie. Sapkowski euphemistically expressed his negative opinion about the film: "I can answer only with [[PrecisionFStrike a single word, an obscene, albeit a short one]]". What he carefully "forgets" to mention nowadays is [[MoneyDearBoy the big pile of money he so eagerly took for selling the rights for adaptation]] and then started slandering the production the moment he realized there will be no second tranche of money. While the film is a disaster, [[SelfServingMemory Sapkowski is doing his best over the years to pretend he didn't help make it in such form in the first place]] with his messy and utterly pointless copyright battle when screenplay was still being written.

** ''Film/TheHexer'' movie. Sapkowski euphemistically expressed his negative opinion about the film: "I can answer only with [[PrecisionFStrike a single word, an obscene, albeit a short one]]". What he carefully "forgets" to mention nowadays is [[MoneyDearBoy the big pile of money he so eagerly took for selling the rights for adaptation]] and then started slandering the production the moment he realized there will be no second tranche of money.

** ''Film/TheHexer'' movie. Sapkowski euphemistically expressed his negative opinion about the film: "I can answer only with [[PrecisionFStrike a single word, an obscene, albeit a short one]]". What he carefully "forgets" to mention nowadays is [[MoneyDearBoy the big pile of money he so eagerly took for selling the rights for adaptation]] and then started slandering the production the moment he realized there will be no second tranche of money. While the film is a disaster, [[SelfServingMemory Sapkowski is doing his best over the years to pretend he didn't help make it in such form in the first place]].

** ''Film/TheHexer'' movie. Sapkowski euphemistically expressed his negative opinion about the film: "I can answer only with [[PrecisionFStrike a single word, an obscene, albeit a short one]]". What he carefully "forgets" to mention nowadays is [[{{Hypocrite}} the big pile of money he so eagerly took for selling the rights for adaptation]] and then started slandering the production the moment he realized there will be no second tranche of money. While the film is a disaster, Sapkowski is doing his best over the years to pretend he didn't help make it in such form in the first place.
** After the release of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', he's publicly blasted Creator/CDProjektRed over their treatment of the series and accused them of deliberately perpetuating AdaptationDisplacement of his novels, and has hinted that he may write new ''Witcher'' novels that will ignore the games. Unlike ''The Hexer'' however, the fanbase hasn't taken well to his remarks as the games are widely acclaimed and well-respected by gamers and fans of the books alike. His comments about [[NewMediaAreEvil not respecting video games as a storytelling medium]] also didn't sit well. It formed into hilarious meme among fans about ''The Witcher'' books actually being sort of prequel-adaptation of video games rather than other way around.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: When negotiating the sale of the Witcher game rights to Creator/CDProjektRED, Sapkowski turned down their offer of a 5% share of the profits in favor of a lump sum worth less than $10,000, because he believed the games would never be profitable. Naturally, Sapkowski currently regrets this decision and even tried to sue the company.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Most of Sapkowski's non-fantasy stories he wrote before ''The Witcher'' for... angling magazines are believed to be lost, as the author himself doesn't have copies of them. It's up to his dedicated fans to search for them in libraries and put into circulation on the Web.

* OneHitWonder: No matter how to count it, none of his works gained as much attention, recognition and basic publishing output as the witcher saga. And that was ''before'' video game adaptations reignited popularity of his works.
* TrollingCreator: His attitude toward fandom and its expectations when still working on the witcher saga is best decribed as simply mean-spirited. He openly declared few times in early 00s how the infamous decision to TorchTheFranchiseAndRun was made solely to get rid of fans, as they annoyed him.

* WriteWhatYouKnow: As an economist of education, Sapkowski just couldn't resist to include real life economic laws into his fantasy series. Probably the most prominent example is the short story ''[[Literature/SwordOfDestiny Eternal Flame]]'' (''Wieczny ogień''), in which Geralt meets Dainty, a halfling merchant.

* FlipFlopOfGod: It's not an exaggeration to call Sapkowski's attitude toward his works and their adaptations to be like a swing.
** With adaptations, he is perfectly capable to change his stance 180 degrees within just few weeks, as already happend when ''Series/TheHexer'' was in production. Then there is his constantly worsening stance toward The Witcher video games. He initially supported the first one with passion, then consider it "subpar", only to suddenly start prising it again, until another game was released and the circle restarted. By [[VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt The Wild Hunt]] he reached the point of declaring the games a detriment of his books.
** It's also worth to note he was ''always'' like this and toward his own works, too, where there were periods where he self-adored Witcher books and short stories, then hated them with passion when working on ''Literature/HussiteTrilogy'' and then praising the Witcher saga once again when it regained popularity via games.
** Asking anything about "canon" of his works is pointless - as part of this trope and being TrollingCreator he always gives different answers and purposefully so. Sometimes during the same convention he's attending.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: When negotiating the sale of the Witcher game rights to Creator/CDProjektRED, Sapkowski turned down their offer of a 5% share of the profits in favor of a lump sum worth less than $10,000, because he believed the games would never be profitable. Naturally, Sapkowski currently regrets this decision.

Polish {{Fantasy}} author, born 1948. He began his career as a writer by sending a story about a "Witcher" to a writing contest organised by a speculative fiction monthly. He didn't win, but garnered enough popularity to become one of the pioneers of the fantasy genre in Poland, which ultimately allowed him to drop his day job as a fur trader and take up writing full-time. He is well-versed in fantasy literature, often discussing fantasy tropes and their appearance in various literary works. In his writing, he is [[AuthorAppeal fond of]] untranslated foreign language passages, Celtic or faux-Celtic themes, and cats.

* ''Piróg, or, There Is No Gold In The Grey Mountains'' (1992): [[BooksOnTrope An essay]] about [[OneOfUs fantasy tropes and clichés]], the history of modern fantasy and a criticque of the state of fantasy literature in early 1990s Poland. Nowadays mostly infamous due to [[{{Hypocrite}} a hefty dose of hypocrisy]] on author's side. [[labelnote:Explanation]]The essay is heavily rooted in the context of the era, when faux-Slavic themes were in vogue among Polish fantasy writers. Sapkowski claims that his point wasn't that Slavic motifs are bad, but that these authors' supposed Slavic fantasies were merely generic fantasy superficially sprinkled with Slavic names, which in his eyes revealed their lack of self-awareness, as well as that of the genre's roots. However, he expressed this opinion in aggressive and patronizing terms, with bonus points for hypothesising about the causes of this phenomenon in a somewhat politicised way.[[/labelnote]]

* ''Manuscript Discovered in a Dragon's Cave'' (2001): [[BooksOnTrope An essay]] about [[OneOfUs fantasy tropes]]