This was fun. I haven't seen the show or played the games, so I was going in blind. This is a set of short stories that are mostly inspired by fairy tales - Beauty and the Beast, Rumplestiltskin, Snow White etc. Because it's short stories, you just get the world building in bits and pieces, and that was kind of cool. On the other hand, it wasn't super cohesive.
Still it was kind of refreshing to read a fantasy story that didn't have a giant quest with the fate of the world at stake. It was just a guy rolling into town and hunting monsters for money. I can see why it was made into a video game series - he just kind of wanders around and does cool things. Usually he has to make some sort of choice that effects the story. And then he's out!
Be warned that it does have a problem with the women characters that is typical of a lot of fantasy stories written by white men in the 90s. It wasn't perfect, but I'm intrigued enough to check more books in the series out.