3.5 stars.

I've played a bit of Witcher 3, watched a friend play a bit more, and then saw the TV Show (season 1). 80% of the content for season 1 comes from this one book, so it helped clear a lot of issues I had with the show (mainly around the pacing, and chronology).

Some of the chapters that were not adapted were quite refreshing. Especially the one about the Devyl's origin.

Things I liked:

- Interesting worldbuilding. A lot of it adapts tropes, myths and sometimes subverts tropes in unexpected ways. Since a Witcher exists to kill monsters, we get to see lots and lots of monsters, some mythical, lots made up, and a few monster-like but not really monsters.
- Witcher's internal monologue.
- Weird comic interventions. Often by characters doing non-genre stuff.
- One other unexpected finding was how "scientific" the book's viewpoint is. Witcher magic is fairly systematic, and Geralt is a staunch atheist, despite living in a world where he meets a God, and sees minor miracles via priests. There was also a really interesting tidbit about greenhouses, UV rays, and genetic mutations play a big role in the storyline.

Things the show did better:

- Using Jaskier instead of Dandelion as the name. Dandelion is what the english edition uses, Jaskier is apparently the polish edition - and works better I think.
- Music. I don't think Jaskier actually sings anything long anywhere in the book, but having Jaskier sing in the show makes for a much more lively tone.