Maladie and Other Stories (
Maladie i inne opowiadania) is a short story collection composed of all short stories written by Polish writer
Andrzej Sapkowski, created through his life (more specifically from 1988 to 2007) that weren't part of
two Witcher anthologies. Released in 2012, the short stories are mostly fantasy, although he also tackles two other genres - science-fiction and horror. It also consists of two stories set in the
Witcherverse, but none of them are part of the main series (first being a prequel, and the second being a
non-canon). The anthology is essentially a re-release of earlier
The Road of No Return from 2000, with a single new story (
Spanienkreuz) added to the mix.
- The Road of No Return (Droga z której się nie wraca, 1988): Prequel story to the Witcher franchise, which follows a female druid Visenne, Geralt's mother and talkative bandit Korin, presumably Geralt's father (
Sapkowski never confirmed it). At first, it wasn't supposed to be a part of the Witcherverse, but part of Sapkowski's first fantasy novel - until he had to shorten it to a story format and later used Visenne as Geralt's mother, making it ultimately part of the Witcher canon. - Musicians (Muzykanci, 1990): Sapkowski's very first horror story. It takes place in unkown small town in Poland, where detective Andrzej Nejman investigates the case of the bizarre murders taking place, that are somewhat linked to victims gruesomely killing their pets before.
- Tandaradei! (1992): Another horror story. It follows an unhappy, unattractive young woman named Monika which, while isolating herself from society and other people, falls into a weird fascination with the Walter von der Vogelweide poem Under der Linden.
- In the Bomb Funnel (W leju po bombie, 1993): A satirical science-fiction story set in alternative version of Poland where Polish city Suwałki is occupied by German and Lithuanian armies, both fighting with each other. The story mostly criticises clergy, radical nationalism and militarism with a great dose of black humour.
- Something Ends, Something Begins (Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna, 1993): Non-canon story taking place during Geralt's and Yennefer's wedding preparations, full of comedic situations and interactions caused by beloved Witcher characters. AS wrote it as honouring two very popular fantasy writers and his good friends at that, marrying each other, that's why he thinks of the story more as a "typical day at the fantasy convention" than an actual Witcher story.
- Battle Dust (1994): More of a joke, than an actual story, Battle Dust was written by Sapkowski because one of his friends from fantasy convention gave him the idea of writing a small part of the bigger story (a space opera at that) as a challenge of sorts. They ended up publishing it in a fantasy magazine with the heading reading Sapkowski ends with fantasy and Witcher cycle to start a space opera novel. And considering it's Sapkowski we are talking about here, he found the idea most delightful.
- Golden Afternoon (Złote popołudnie, 1999): Fantasy short story taking place during Alice's Adventures in Wonderland events, being this time told from Cheshire Cat's perspective. Full of deconstructions, taking a piss at all try-hard "adult" interpretations of Alice's story and Sapkowski's playground of showing his affection and admiration towards cats, if you haven't figured it out already.
- The Mischief Creek Happening (Zdarzenie w Mischief Creek, 2000): A combination of horror, fantasy and crime story, it's set during infamous Salem's witch trials and follows a group of men, being led by a fanatical reverend in search of a girl accused of being a witch.
- Spanienkreuz: By far the shortest (because it's only 5 pages long!) story set in the late 30s in Nazi Germany, dealing with Nazi war crimes during Spanish Civil War. Published in 2007, it was also Sapkowski's first short story that wasn't published in Poland at first but in Spain instead.
- Maladie (1992): Retelling of classical chivalric romance ''Tristan and Iseult'' known from Celtic and Arthurian myths, but barely focusing on main lovers themselves, but instead it's being told from Morholt's perspective.
Tropes found in the book:
- Author Appeal: Cats. They are everywhere. And they are cool. Way cooler than anything else.
- Bilingual Dialogue: The women from Mischief Creek speak English. The lumberjacks that live with them speak Dutch. Both parties speak their respective languages all the time, but communicate without a hitch. That's because the women are using magic to command the men.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The Native Guide from The Mischief Creek Happening has the misfortune of being "liberated" by a group of witches. He is turned against the English settlers, except they kill him in self-defense.
- Cats Are Magic: They tend to detect magic, the supernatural and evil.
- Dolled-Up Installment: The Road of No Return started as its own thing, until Sapkowski changed his mind and declared it part of the Witcherverse. It most definitely doesn't work as part of the setting, but given the author's attitude towards such things as "canon" or even "setting", it's hardly surprising.
- Eldritch Abomination: Both horror stories have them in some way or another, which should not be surprising considering the fact that Sapkowski regards H. P. Lovecraft as one of the best when it comes to horror and writing as a whole, and his other works have some lovecraftian references.
- The Musicians have weird demonic beings, mostly known as veehals, who kill people who abuse or kill their pets. They come in different shapes and forms, sometimes manifesting as the victim's worst fear or a formless mass of darkness. The worst of them is presumably krostowaty (which in translation literally means The Pustular One) who, despite being described as a classic monster (giant claws and teeth), is said to look so horrifying, it drives two people (a young girl and a scientist) insane.
- The Tandaradei! has an ancient, evil force that has no actual form, but is eager to corrupt anyone it can.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The Road of No Return, considering it was Sapkowski's second short story and at first it wasn't supposed to be set in the Witcher universe, has some elements of this. Visenna is said to be a part of the Mayena Circle of Druids, and while druids aren't uncommon in later Witcher stories, they're isolated groups, mostly trying to preserve nature and endangered species, but here the druid circle is said to be a powerful organisation of all magic users alike, pulling strings behind the scenes. All those traits would later be attached to the Lodge of Sorceresses and Brotherhood of Sorcerers. Also, both mention two non-human races, vrans and werebbubbs that would later never again appear in the Witcher cycle. Although the latter can be perfectly explainable - we don't know the exact date of the short story's events, so it can be explained as being a long time ago, where both vrans and werebbubbs weren't driven to extinction.
- Enemy Mine: Everyone from The Road of No Return bands together against koshchey - including people who were fighting each other mere moments ago.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Evil-detecting animals are omni-present in the anthology, with Battle Dust being the sole exception. Most of those animals are cats. On top of that, Musicians is an entire story about those, since it's a Fractured Fairy Tale version of The Bremen Town Musicians.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: Inverted in Tandaradei!. Monika is described as unattractive, and becomes smoking hot in the end after being corrupted into The Vamp.
- Evil Versus Evil: The Mischief Creek Happening pits a Sinister Minister on a frenzied witch-hunt against actual, real witches, with everyone else caught in the crossfire.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: It is Sapkowski, after all. And keep in mind that most of the stories where this happens were created in the early 90s, when the vast majority of Poles knew no second language:
- In the Bomb Funnel uses song lyrics in English in a Lampshade Hanging manner.
- Battle Dust came out with the English title, rather than a Polish one, as part of the general ploy to up-sell its "otherness" and out-of-genre experience for Sapkowski - and the elaborate trolling that went with pretending it's a teaser of the upcoming novel. Song lyrics are again left untranslated.
- There is a lot of untranslated German spread around in Tandaradei!, not just with the Under der Linden song that keeps returning.
- The Mischief Creek Happening gives us a few lines of (mangled) Dutch.
- It Will Never Catch On: Frances Flowers insists that this is America, the New World, a place where roads and vehicles will never be able to conquer the space of the primaeval, endless forests. She does it in a really smug and self-assured way.
- Magic Versus Science: The witches from Mischief Creek are explicitly anti-science and anti-technology faction, to the point a mere horse-drawn two-wheeler is an abomination to them that should be destroyed and never mentioned again.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Jacek from Tandaradei! dies from a brain haemorrhage, which is chalked up as accidental death during orgasm. It's an occult murder and while sex was involved, it played a completely different role.
- Multinational Team: The crew from Battle Dust is from all over the Earth, with their nationality being either explicitly brought up or simply implied.
- Nerd Glasses: Monika from Tandaradei! wears a pair of really thick ones, only adding to her unattractiveness.
- Our Witches Are Different:
- Tandaradei! has the old village sage, who might or might not be an actual witch, but either way is apt with occult subjects and folk beliefs.
- The women of Mischief Creek are a cabal of proto-Wiccan witches that claim to be all about healing and the betterment of the world, but their actions are those of petty, monstrous people that lay Disproportionate Retribution on anyone that crosses their path and think nothing about brainwashing people into their loyal slaves. There are implications for the Goddess they serve as the source of their powers from, too.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: The Puritans from The Mischief Creek Happening are after a woman accused of witchcraft and are snooping around the titular settlement, suspecting foul magic at play. The local female population is made out of actual witches, and the only exception is the poor woman they were chasing after.
- Sex Magic:
- Monika uses it in a very literal way to kill Jacek in the end of Tandaradei!.
- The witches from The Mischief Creek Happening got the Dutch under their thrall, and try to use it later on the party of English that barge into their "domain", with a heavy dose of Double Standard Rape: Female on Male.
- Slice of Life: Something Ends, Something Begins is basically this for the whole Witcher saga, novels and short stories alike. It's mostly lighthearted and comedic situations between Geralt, Yennefer, Ciri, Dandelion, and many, many more beloved Witcher characters getting their spotlight here and there.
- Sole Survivor: Battle Dust ends with the main character being the last man standing and swearing revange over the deaths of his camrades and love interest.
- Space Opera: Battle Dust is a rather brutal deconstruction, since the ongoing conflict is portrayed as War Is Hell, rather than a cheery escapade full of heroics and disposable mooks.
- Tome of Eldritch Lore: Monika from Tandaradei! finds a small library of those early in the story. It doesn't end well for her.
- Viewers Are Geniuses: How familiar are you with details on Nazi involvement in the Spanish Civil War? What about Imperial Germany and its colonial exploits? Because good luck registering half of the plot, references and details from Spanienkreuz without at least cursory knowledge, reducing the story to "bombing Guernica was bad".
- War Is Hell: One of the recurring themes of the anthology:
- In the Bomb Funnel is quite openly about disdain for jingoism and how all wars are achieving is destruction and ruining lives of people, no matter what the official slogans and reasons are.
- Spanienkreuz is about the Spanish Civil War, from the point of view of a Nazi ace pilot, whose job was to strafe civilians and bomb non-military targets and who thinks nothing about it.
- Battle Dust, despite on a surface level being a cheery Space Opera, is about a pointless, corporate space war fought for the margin, while everyone sans the main character dies in a gruesome way.
- Woman Scorned: Tandaradei! concludes with Monika murdering a man who played with her feelings and planned to offer her Pity Sex. She rides him in turn - to his death.
