What book is ‘The Witcher’ season 3 based on?

Warning: There are spoilers ahead for The Witcher season 3.

The Witcher season 3 is finally here, and fans couldn’t be more excited to catch up on all the monster slayings, magic, and political intrigues for power. The new season picked up from where the last left off with the very first episode featuring Geralt (Henry Cavill) and Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) performing their parental duties with Ciri (Freya Allan).

The hunt for the latter once again becomes pivotal to the storyline and with every episode, we encounter arduous efforts by each player to obtain Ciri for their respective selfish purposes.

Several other significant plotlines include an emphasis on politics in Redenia, a cooperation between Nilfgaard and the Elves, a gathering of conclave, and attempts to make Ciri control her magical qualities.

Given the season’s enthralling plot, the credit will expectedly go to the first two critically acclaimed seasons but a similar opinion isn’t shared by the diehard Witcher fans who were quick to point out the show’s absolute deviance from the source material by Andrzej Sapowski.

Has the series followed the books chronologically so far?

Season 1 of the series is based on short stories from the first two books of the series, The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, whereas the 2nd season — inspired by the third book, Blood of Elves — earned criticisms for disassociating from the source material to a considerable degree.

Which book will season 3 be based on?

Given the chronological order in which the show is progressing, it is a given that season 3 is based on the fourth book, Time of Contempt, but unlike its predecessors, the new installment is supposed to stay true to the book.

It was claimed by none other than the showrunner and screenwriter, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who — overwhelmed by backlash due to the lack of an honest adaptation of the first two entries — told Collider that season 3 will maintain an honest adaptation, especially given the interesting events and smooth flowing of the story which Time of Contempt covers. “I’ve been not shy about saying Time of Content is my favorite book. To me, it was the easiest to adapt, but also had the biggest moving parts and big battles and exciting stuff,” was her statement on the subject.

With the new season already set on the path to popularity, there are plenty of chances for us to assess the connection between the book and the show. But until then, let’s enjoy this new entry, which is streaming on Netflix right now.