Geralt of Rivia may be one of the most iconic pop culture characters today, but The Witcher saga had much humbler beginnings in the ’80s.
Having risen to prominence in Europe as a leading figure of the grimdark subgenre, and further bolstered by CD Projekt Red’s acclaimed video game trilogy, the story of the monster-hunter Geralt of Rivia is now a cornerstone of fantasy literature.
Most people would describe The Witcher as a dark, gritty tale that underpins themes like determinism, love, and tragedy. The story’s deep-rooted allusions to Slavic folklore and mythos certainly make a case for it being the most prominent contemporary work of grimdark. But at its heart, The Witcher is the tale of an alienated man trying to make his way in the world, often stumbling into destiny even if he works hard to avoid it.
The Witcher books, written by Polish novelist Andrzej Sapkowski, have sold millions of copies and spawned a multimedia franchise in the form of CD Projekt’s games, Dark Horse’s comic books, and Netflix’s live-action adaptation. Here’s how you can get into them in the proper order.
How many Witcher books are there?
Andrzej Sapkowski was slowly inching toward his 40th year when he first conceived the story of Geralt for a short story competition in a Polish sci-fi magazine. Back then, The Witcher was basically a retelling of a classic Polish fairy tale where a princess turns into a monster for the sins of her parents. You know, the usual scenario where the hero is thrust into a web of intrigue and unravels it to the disquietude of not just himself, but the whole of humanity.
Reactions to the short story were incredibly positive, so Sapkowski continued to expand Geralt’s story through a number of other self-contained outings. In 1990, Sapkowski published The Witcher, which featured four short stories centering around Geralt’s adventures. He then released Sword of Destiny in 1992, continuing Geralt’s journey and introducing his ward, Princess Cirilla. A year after that in 1993, Sapkowski re-released The Witcher under the title of The Last Wish, and the two collections of short stories became a gateway into the fictional world of the Continent.
And so, if you wish to dive into The Witcher books, you’ll want to start with these two anthology series:
- The Last Wish (1993)
- Sword of Destiny (1992)
The rest of the saga, featuring the story of Geralt and Ciri and a world that’s hell-bent on separating them, is chronicled through a pentalogy of novels in this order:
- Blood of Elves (1994)
- Time of Contempt (1995)
- Baptism of Fire (1996)
- The Tower of the Swallow (1997)
- The Lady of the Lake (1999)
Apart from these seven books, we also have Season of Storms, which is a 2013 prequel set between the stories of The Last Wish. You can read this prequel after finishing the saga, or somewhere in between; the decision is yours.
Andrzej Sapkowski is currently working on an upcoming, as-of-yet untitled Witcher book, so it’s entirely possible for Geralt’s canonical story to finally continue beyond The Lady of the Lake after more than two decades.