Sienkiewicz is indeed our Polish classic and we get to read lots of his books while late primary school/high school. He received the Nobel Prize in 1905.

I enjoyed mostly The Trilogy (With Fire and Sword; The Deluge; Fire in the Steppe) and our Polish all time classic The Teutonic Knights - which relates to the Battle of Grunwald (1410). These are actually very solid historical and adventure novels. They are usually a few hundred pages each and even reading them as a teenager as a school lecture (you know what i mean :) ) was enjoyable.

what can't you most do the least.?

I found Risen huge failure too. Stupid story.. Well hero, since you are here on the island and don't have what else to do why don't you go and help the local factions.. meh.
Small map, boring and linear last part of the game and the whole feel that I am playing some dumbed down and twisted Gothic copy

Lucky you. I had to read some crappy Latin American novel after reading the likes of Sienkiewicz (my favorite author of ALL time), Verne, Salgari and even Socrates and Plato.
I finally left Latin American for good and here in L.A. I went to a screening of Kcrizacy(Sorry about the spelling. I mean the Teutonic Knights). And guess what?

After the show one of the horse riders that actually participated in the last battle scene was there to tell the story. He was the only civilian besides the director son to make into that scene with 500 steeds that were running non stop. In order to get the job he had to ride non stop for something like 17 hours or so. He was also a veterinarian (at 17) and took care of the horses of Tzibizcko(sorry about spelling again, it's been a while). My Dad told me Tzibizcko was actually the same actor to play the Tartar/Cosack Villian in the trilogy. He also plays Angelina Jolie's spy master in Salt.
But there's more coolnes. My parents rented the last part of the Trilogy that was recently made. And guess who plays the hero? The same guy that played Geralt of Rivia on the Mini Series/Movie. How awesome is that?

Since the whole saga started. An Action RPG, exactly like The Witcher 1 and 2.
A quite good one, too.
In fact, Gothic, Gothic 2 and Risen are even better than The Witcher in some side.

The actor from Salt is Daniel Olbrychski. He's a colourful figure and he's indeed a fan of horseriding :) And the actor that played Geralt is Michal Zebrowski. Man, I just wish the Witcher movie wasn't such a failure! But it was made many years ago. I guess now after the success the Witcher game has had, I bet they would make it a bit more decent :)

Wow, I didn't know that they show "Krzyzacy" in LA :) Last year there was a 600th anniversary of defeating the Teutonic Knights Order in the battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg), a reconstruction of the battle was made, with thousands of knights taking part in it. Tomasz Baginski, who made the intro to the Witcher 1, made a TV spot advertising the event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0e_nXm2TZg

what do you mean by emergent gameplay? how does it fit in a single player game?