Serving as the inspiration not only for a string of massively successful video games, but also a hit Netflix series about to head into its fourth season, The Witcher series of books by Andrzej Sapkowski is an absolute phenomenon.
The first glimpse of Geralt of Rivia and the world of The Witcher actually took the form of a submission to a literary competition in a Polish fantasy magazine named Fatastyka. Challenged to keep the story within 30 pages, Sapkowski submitted the original short story “The Witcher” in 1986. He came in third place in the competition, but this original short story was the jumping-off point for an entire fantasy empire.
This first short story, as well as four others, were later collated and published as a collection of short stories, under the title of “The Witcher” in 1990, but this book is now out of print and difficult to find. However, three of these short stories (“ are still available as part of a different book as part of the now-established series of novels and short stories.
Novels and short story collections in universe of The Witcher
In total, there are six full novels and 15 short stories that make up the world explored by Geralt of Rivia. In order to soak up the story chronologically, you may need to have more than one book on the go at any time.
Here’s the full list of books available, in the order that they were translated into English:
| Book | First English translation | Original Polish release |
| The Last Wish | 2007 | 1993 |
| Blood of Elves | 2008 | 1994 |
| Time of Contempt | 2013 | 1995 |
| Baptism of Fire | 2014 | 1996 |
| Sword of Destiny | 2015 | 1992 |
| The Tower of the Swallow | 2016 | 1997 |
| The Lady of the Lake | 2017 | 1999 |
| Season of Storms | 2018 | 2013 |
As you can see, English-speaking audiences had to wait a long time to be able to read The Witcher books, and they were translated out of order. So how should you read them?
The definitive reading order of The Witcher books
It should go without saying that the reading order is more or less obvious if you consider the original Polish release dates, but even that is slightly out of order. On top of that, at least one of the novels should be read at a specific point between short stories. I know it sounds confusing, but don’t worry.
Here’s the order in which you’ll need to read The Witcher novels and short stories:
- “The Road With No Return” (Short story that was originally part of the 1990 collection of short stories and is currently out of publication, but an English PDF copy can be found here)
- “A Grain of Truth” (Short story in The Last Wish)
- “The Lesser Evil” (Short story in The Last Wish)
- “The Edge of the World” (Short story in The Last Wish)
- “The Last Wish” (Short story in The Last Wish)
- Season of Storms (only the main story)
- “A Question of Price” (Short story in The Last Wish)
- “The Witcher” (Short story in The Last Wish)
- “The Voice of Reason” (Short story in The Last Wish)
- “The Bounds of Reason” (Short story in Sword of Destiny)
- “A Shard of Ice” (Short story in Sword of Destiny)
- “Eternal Flame”(Short story in Sword of Destiny)
- “A Little Sacrifice” (Short story in Sword of Destiny)
- “Sword of Destiny (Short story in Sword of Destiny)
- “Something More” (Short story in Sword of Destiny)
- Blood of Elves
- Time of Contempt
- Baptism of Fire
- The Tower of the Swallow
- The Lady of the Lake
- Season of Storms (epilogue)
- “Something Ends, Something Begins” (considered non-canon, but written by Sapkowski and a nice way to tie off the series. Currently not officially translated to English, but an unofficial translation can be found here)
