History Literature / SeasonOfStorms

*** Lytta Neyd's death at Sodden is far more of an [[Evil versus Oblivion]] case. She might be a manipulative and not all that heroic individual (see her quietly disappearing during the storm, then coming back) but ultimately, she stood at Sodden Hill with other mages of Vilgefortz's contingent and paid the highest price, becoming one of the Fourteen who laid their lives for the freedom of northern kingdoms from Nilfgaardian conquest (and as we see during the second war, indiscriminate slaughter and displacement).

** The same with the DepravedBisexual villain of the story — his sexuality only figures here because he [[SituationalSexuality once became the Ortolan's lover]] [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections to advance his career]], and otherwise is just a sick fuck who loves torturing people [[ForTheEvulz for fun]] and ForScience.
* DistantEpilogue: It involves one of the minor characters from the Saga and, pretty much, is there to play with the minds of fans debating Geralt's post-Saga fate. [[spoiler: A girl named Nimue, while getting to the Aretuza, is saved by an unnamed witcher, assuming him to be Geralt. He, however, denies this, claiming that [[UnreliableNarrator Geralt died almost a hundred years ago.]]]]

* EvilSorcerer: Geralt has to deal with a sorcerer who dabbled in [[TheDarkArts goetia (daemon summoning)]] and lost control over his summons. [[spoiler:Subverted in that it's a ruse, and the wizard is just a sick sadist pretending to be DitzyGenius.]]

** He angrily berates Geralt for killing some of the monsters created by their research team and their predecessors, accusing the witcher of disresect towards science and knowledge. The fact that these "masterpieces" were killing people by the dozen flies over his head completely.

* HumiliationConga: Pretty much the whole book is this for Geralt. He's falsely accused of a crime and imprisoned, then when he gets out on bail has his swords stolen, nearly gets his ass kicked by a group of BoisterousBruiser women, gets kidnapped and tortured by an insane sorcerer, and for a grand finale, fails to receive the summons for a civil suit in time to attend the trial and all the money in his bank account is seized in the judgement.

* JustBetweenYouAndMe: Lampshaded as Geralt muses the villain clearly belongs to people who [[{{Narcissist}} just like the sound of their own voice]].

* MamaBear: Aguaras are ''fiercely'' protective of their children, and will do anything to get them back if they are kidnapped. Which the crew of the ''Prophet Lebioda'' ship find out the hard way when they capture a young one and inadvertently kill her. [[spoiler:Though it turns out that was just an illusion and the child was perfectly fine.]]

** Dandelion complains that Geralt never asks him to repeat a ballad: he never says, for example, [[{{Film/Casablanca}} 'Play it again, Dandelion. Play "As Time Goes by"']].

* ArmedWithCanon: A self-inflicted case. Sapkowski quite openly declared this book to be one big "fuck you" to the {{Fanon}} ''and'' what was considered actual canon of the Witcher saga so far, introducing a bunch of elements that outright ''mocked'' the concept of an "established canon", all while LeaningOnTheFourthWall.

''Sezon burz'' is the latest entry in ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' saga. A self-contained story, set between ''[[Literature/SwordOfDestiny Splinter of Ice]]'' and ''[[Literature/TheLastWish The Witcher]]'', the story details Geralt's adventures in a small kingdom of Kerack, his romance with sorceress Lytta Neyd, experiences with mutants and experimenting wizards, and his search for his two stolen swords.

* AffablyEvil: Ortolan wants to remove Geralt's eyes--he needs a sample of a witcher's eyeball cells for his transhuman research, and it has to be gathered from a live specimen. However, he is perfectly willing to let Geralt go after that, and even offers to help Geralt regenerate his eyes in a two or three years, when he hopefully perfects the procedure.

** It's mentioned that in a two or three years wizards should be able to regenerate lost eyes. It's exactly what Vilgefortz does in ''Literature/TowerOfTheSwallow'' and ''Literature/LadyOfTheLake''.

* CoolSword: Geralt's get stolen and we get a ridiculously detailed description of them. He also receives a couple of a famous Nilfgaardian type along the way -- one a substandard fake, bought to him by [[NonActionGuy Dandelion]], and the other a real deal.

* DistantEpilogue: It involves one of the minor characters from the Saga and, pretty much, is there to play with the minds of fans debating Geralt's post-Saga fate. [[spoiler: A girl named Nimue, while getting to the Arethusa, is saved by an unnamed witcher, assuming him to be Geralt. He, however, denies this, claiming that [[UnreliableNarrator Geralt died almost a hundred years ago.]]]]

* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: It is mentioned that Geralt attended the Oxenfurth Academy as a guest student, and actually knows half of the people in the story (especially wizards) back from his school days.

* ReallyGetsAround: Geralt, who at the start of the book has a short-lived but torrid affair with Lytta, and toward the end of the book, beds her assistant Mosaik, with an implication from Lytta that the younger woman may have been a virgin.

* {{Kitsune}}: Aguaras or vixen spirits appear to be this.
** {{Homage}}: Illusion-casting vixens are adapted from Victor Pelevin's "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf".

* AudienceSurrogate: Nimue is an obvious stand-in for the reader. She's shown to have greatly enjoyed the stories of Geralt, she claims to knows the names of all the signs witchers employ, and refuses to believe that Geralt actually died. Her demeanor towards the mysterious Witcher she meets in the book's DistantEpilogue can be described as akin to a groupie meeting her favorite rock star.

* AllForNothing: The whole excursion to the Borsodi Auction House. Geralt tries to make haste there so he can get his swords before they're sold off, and to that end, he hitches a ride on a ship. Unfortunately, the ship happens to have the dead child of an Aguara aboard ([[spoiler:or at least what appeared to be one]]), making everyone aboard it a target for its ''very'' angry mother. In the end, despite his best efforts, Geralt's not able to save anyone on the ship, and the whole adventure delays him long enough that he misses the deadline and has no choice but to return to Kerack empty-handed.

* StoppedCaring: After all the crap he puts up with over the course of the novel, Geralt just can't be bothered to challenge the courts for seizing the money he made from the Rissburg mades. He instead makes a point to put as much distance between him and Kerack as possible and put the everything about it out of his mind.

* JustStoppedCaring: After all the crap he puts up with over the course of the novel, Geralt just can't be bothered to challenge the courts for seizing the money he made from the Rissburg mades. He instead makes a point to put as much distance between him and Kerack as possible and put the everything about it out of his mind.

* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: A rare fantasy example. When Geralt comes across a magical sealed door, he is quickly able to open simply by saying "friend." Apparently, this is the default password for most magical doors and many people are simply too lazy to change it.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Lampshaded. The very first story of the franchise, [[Literature/TheLastWish The Witcher]] is about [[spoiler:a princess turned into a striga by curse]]. When Geralt first hears that story in this book, he dismisses it as a tall tale, saying it's not how the magic works.

* AbsentMindedProfessor: Ortolan, leader of a wizarding research complex is ancient, renowned and utterly out-of-touch.