How to read The Witcher books in order? Official reading order for the Geralt of Rivia saga

The Witcher is one of the most popular licenses today. The trilogy developed by CD Projekt Red and the Netflix series have boosted its image beyond the paper. But fans of the saga should know that Andrzej Sapkowski’s work has its strength in the books in which it was created. We will tell you what the reading order is and which ones you should read to have the full spectrum of this wonderful universe.

The Witcher books reading order

Below we tell you the recommended reading order for The Witcher books, in case you want to read the novels of the Geralt of Rivia saga, written by Andrzej Sapkowski:

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The Witcher: considerations and tips before reading the books

The novels span more than two decades (1993-2013), are nine in number, and have a disparate and debatable reading order. The reason? That Sapkowski never conceived of his work as a saga. He just wanted to be part of his favorite genre, fantasy literature, so he started writing short stories or tales without the ambition that any of them would take on a life of their own. The first thing to understand about his work is that they are not only novels but also short stories. Secondly, their order of publication may not be the most advisable. The author of The Witcher started improvising, without any future plan in mind, which forced him later to make prequels or to bring out new collections of stories that thread, consider or connect some parts of the story.

How to start reading The Witcher books?

The seven introductory stories of his second book, The Last Wish (1993), are chronologically earlier than those of Sword of Destiny (1992), his first anthology. In fact, the book Netflix chose to set the series is the second book, The Last Wish, is where the character of Geralt of Rivia is introduced. Before the original manuscript we would also have to place Sapkowski's last work, Season of Storms (2013), which serves as a prequel to the saga.

The novels that actually tell the story of Geralt and Ciri are five, a pentalogy consisting of Blood of Elves (1994), Time of Contempt (1995), Baptism of Fire (1996), The Tower of the Swallow (1997) and The Lady of the Lake (1999). If anyone is wondering why not read The Last Wish and then go directly to this series without going through Sword of Destiny, the answer is simple. The first of the books in the pentalogy is a direct continuation of the last story in The Sword, so the best thing to do, even though the novels are best, not the stories, is to stick it out and try to cover this one as well. Reading never hurts.

Finally, there is The Road with No Return, his third collection of short stories. Although some of them are set before any other of the stories of The Witcher saga (at one point we even meet Geralt’s parents), it also contains an alternative or extended version of the events of The Lady of the Lake. The fifth installment of the pentalogy was published in two parts, in the middle of which came out The Road with No Return, which recreated the end of the first. Therefore, although it could be read before, the most advisable thing to avoid possible spoilers is to wait to complete all of Sapkowski’s work before reading it.

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What does the future hold for The Witcher?

Season 2 of the series on Netflix reaped some excellent rating data while waiting to see the reception of the third part of the series, although the news regarding the Witcher does not stop, the most obvious is the next video game developed by CD Projekt Red. The Polish promise “a new saga for the franchise”, which completely excludes a fourth numbered installment. The lynx medallion marks the path of this new path in the license.