Learning how to read the witcher books in order will serve all you bookworms as you endure the long wait for witcher season 3 to hit netflix in 2023.
by far one of the best netflix shows yet the witcher books are just as outstanding so if you’re a fan of the hit series starring henry cavill as geralt of rivia then trust us you’re going to want devour these fantasy novels by polish author andrzej sapkowski.
You are reading: Witcher books reading order
The Witcher Season 2 was a huge hit for Netflix and while we still don’t know much about The Witcher Season 3, we hope it will bring more action as we follow the adventures of the Witcher Geralt, a mutated monster. hunter who struggles to find his place in an evil world. but the witcher existed for fans of him long before he became a television show.
sapkowski created geralt of rivia, a monster hunter, as part of a magazine short story competition in the mid 80’s, would you believe he only finished third? Don’t worry, Sapkowski ended up taking all of those stories and turning them into his now hugely successful and much-loved fantasy book series.
When it comes to how to read the witcher books in order, you have a couple of options. The series includes five novels in the series, two prequels, and a standalone, and while it’s certainly not the most complicated fantasy series out there by any stretch of the imagination, and you can follow it in order of publication or by the order they appear in the chronology of the continent. .
As the books range from 300 to 550 pages, you can buy them in paperback or hardcover, or if you travel often, why not grab the best kindle so you can take the entire series with you? you wherever you go?
Here’s how to read the witcher books in order, as well as rank them from best to worst based on reader ratings on goodreads. let’s take a look…
the sorcerer’s books: explanation of the reading order
- the last wish (opens in a new tab)
- the sword of destiny (opens in a new tab)
- season of storms (opens in a new tab) </li
- goblin blood (opens in a new tab)
- time of contempt (opens in a new tab)
- baptism of fire ( opens in a new tab)
- the tower of the swallow (opens in a new tab)
- the lady of the lake (opens in a new tab)
When it comes to figuring out how to read the witcher books in order, there are a few things you need to know:
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The Last Wish short stories take first place in the chronology of the witcher universe and provide the ideal introduction to geralt of rivia, the sorceresses yennefer of vengerberg and triss merigold, and the Dandelion singing bard (renamed Jaskier in the Netflix television series The Witcher). In fact, the events in the stories ‘The Witcher’, ‘The Lesser Evil’, ‘A Question of Price’, ‘The End of the World’ and ‘The Last Wish’ form the basis of Geralt’s arc in the first season of Netflix Show: We meet the Striga, learn how Geralt became known as ‘The Butcher of Blaviken,’ and see the origin of the ‘Law of Surprise’ that links him to Princess Ciri.
Although the stand-alone Season of Storms was published after the five novels in the series, the events of the book take place in roughly the same time period as The Last Wish. it’s not essential to the overall story arc, but completionists can find clues to things that will later happen in the main saga.
The stories in sword of destiny, on the other hand, present the young Ciri. the book’s final tale, ‘algo más’, depicts the fall of cintra (a key event in the first episode of the warlock tv show), and serves as a prequel to the quintet of novels in the saga.
The five novels in the saga, then, are goblin blood, time of contempt, baptism of fire, the tower of the swallow and lady of the lake.
With much of the first season of the television series adapted from the two short story collections, the second season is where the netflix show will delve into the adaptation of the witcher saga novels.
how to read the witcher books in publication order
The first witch books debuted in the early 1990s in Sapkowski’s native Poland, but it took the rest of the world a while to understand Geralt of Rivia. It wasn’t until the English version of The Last Wish was published in 2007, the year the first Witcher video game was released, that Anglophone readers had their first chance to read the books. danusia stok translated the first two english releases before david french took over the remaining six.
We have opted for the original Polish release order below to help you read the Witcher books in order, which differs slightly from the English releases, while Sword of Destiny was the first (still available) collection of short stories. of witcher. Published in Poland, The Last Wish was the first English release. (However, it is interesting to note that four of the tales in The Last Wish had previously been published in a now-out-of-print 1990 release simply called The Witcher.)
These collections of short stories were followed by the five novels of the main wizard saga, as mentioned above (goblin blood, time of contempt, baptism of fire, the tower of the swallow, the lady of the lake), and independent new storm season.
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short story collections:
- the sword of destiny (original version in polish: 1992/english: 2015)
- the last wish (polish: 1993/english: 2007)
the sorcerer saga:
- goblin blood (Polish: 1994/English: 2008)
- time of contempt (Polish: 1995/English: 2013)
- baptism of fire (Polish: 2008) 1996/English: 2014)
- The Tower of the Swallow (Polish: 1997/English: 2016)
- The Lady of the Lake (Polish: 1999/English: 2017)
independent novel
- storm season (Polish: 2013/English: 2018)
witcher comics explained: are they canon?
If you still haven’t seen enough of the continent after watching the netflix show, reading andrzej sapkowski’s books, and venturing into the games, there are even more witcher stories, like dark horse (opens in a new tab) He has published several warlock comics and graphic novels.
they are not written by sapkowski and although the fox children are based on a stormy season episode, they are set in the games continuity rather than the books. They are all available to purchase from Dark Horse as stand-alone comics or collected as graphic novels.
- the witcher: house of glass (by paul tobin and joe querio, published 2014)
- the witcher: fox children (by paul tobin and joe querio, published 2015)
- The Witcher: Curse of the Ravens (by Paul Tobin and Piotr Kowalski, published 2016-2017)
- The Witcher: Of Flesh and Fire (by Aleksandra Motyka and Marianna Strychowska, published in 2018-2019)
best witch books: source material ranking
As far as readership ratings go on goodreads.com (opens in a new tab), witcher books are remarkably consistent in terms of quality.
Season of Storms, originally published 14 years after Sapkowski completed his saga, is last on the list, suggesting that some of the author’s magic had dissipated in the intervening years. And the five books translated by David French outnumber the two handled by Danusia Stok, suggesting that readers may prefer the French style.
but given that even the lowest rated title receives a very respectable 3.95 out of 5, fantasy fans are unlikely to be disappointed with any of sapkowski’s novels.
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- sword of destiny (opens in a new tab) – 4.35
- baptism of fire (opens in a new tab) – 4.34
- the tower of the Swallow (Opens in a new tab) – 4.32
- Contempt Time (Opens in a new tab) – 4.26
- The Lady of the Lake (Opens in a new tab) – 4.24
- The Last Wish (Opens in a new tab) – 4.19
- Blood of Elves (Opens in a new tab) – 4.16
- Season of storms (opens in a new tab) – 3.95