IN WHAT ORDER SHOULD I READ THE WITCHER BOOKS BY ANDRZEJ SAPKOWSKI?

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Reading order for The Witcher books that fans of the Netflix show might find useful. Looking to pass the time until The Witcher Season 2 finally releases in 2021?

Reading the Witcher books in order is the perfect way to do this. If you enjoyed the fantasy show, which we consider to be one of the best Netflix shows right now, you probably won't be surprised to hear that the books are amazing reads if you enjoyed the series starring Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia.

Before we start, let's talk a little about witchers. Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski created Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunt, as part of a magazine short story contest back in the mid-80s - and only came in third place. He took stories set in The Continent and turned it into a successful and much-loved fantasy book series.

The way the timelines changed in The Witcher Netflix series has certainly been controversial (Netflix subsequently released a timeline to help, and Season 2 will be easier to follow), but what's the best way to read Sapkowski's The Witcher books and the stories that inspired his ? What stories do you need to read?

We've looked back at Sapkowski's work to compile a list of The Witcher books in order of publication, in order of their appearance in the chronology of the continent, and to rank them from best to worst based on their Goodreads reader ratings. So before you toss a coin to the author of The Witcher, read on to find out the best way to do it.

Books "The Witcher" reading order with explanations

Last wish
Sword of Destiny
Thunderstorm season (optional; explained below)
Elven blood
Hour of contempt
baptism by fire
Tower of the Swallow
mistress of the lake

The "Last Wish" stories are at the top of the Witcher universe timeline and provide a perfect introduction to Geralt of Rivia, the sorceresses Yennefer of Vengerberg and Triss Merigold, and the singing bard Dandelion (renamed Jaskier in the Netflix series The Witcher). Indeed, the events in The Witcher, The Lesser Evil, A Matter of Price, World's End, and The Last Wish form the basis of Geralt's plot in Netflix's first season. show - we meet Striga, learn how Geralt came to be known as "the butcher of Blaviken", and see the origin of the "Law of Surprise" linking him to Princess Ciri.

Although a separate Season of Storms was published after the five saga novels, the book takes place around the same time period as The Last Wish. It's not important for the overall story arc, but ending advocates may find hints of things that will happen later in the main saga.

Meanwhile, the stories in Sword of Destiny introduce young Ciri. The book's last story, "Something More", shows the fall of Cintra (a pivotal event in the first episode of The Witcher TV show) and serves as a prequel to a quintet of saga novels.

So, the five sagas are Blood of the Elves, Time of Contempt, Baptism by Fire, Tower of the Swallow and Lady of the Lake.

Since much of the show's first season is adapted from two storybooks, the show's second season will delve into Netflix's adaptation of the novels of the Witcher saga.

How to read The Witcher books in release order

The first Witcher books debuted in the early 90s in Sapkowski's birthplace Poland, but the rest of the world was a bit slow on Geralt of Rivia. It wasn't until 2007, when the first Witcher video game was released and the English version of The Last Wish was published, that English-speaking readers got their first chance to read the books. Danusia Stock translated the first two English releases before David French made the remaining six.

We have chosen the original publishing order in Polish below, which is slightly different from the English language releases - while Sword of Destiny was the first (still available) collection of witcher stories published in Poland, The Last Wish was the first release in English . (It is interesting, however, to note that four stories from The Last Wish had previously been published in a now out-of-print 1990 issue called The Witcher.)

These collections of short stories were followed by five novels of the main Witcher saga as previously mentioned (Blood of the Elves, Time of Scorn, Baptism by Fire, Tower of the Swallow, Lady of the Lake) and a separate novel, Season of the Storm.

Storybooks:

Sword of Destiny (original Polish version: 1992 / English: 2015)
Last Wish (Polish: 1993 / English: 2007)

Witcher. Saga:

Blood of the Elves (Polish: 1994 / English: 2008)
Time of Contempt (Polish: 1995 / English: 2013)
Baptism by Fire (Polish: 1996 / English: 2014)
Tower of the Swallow (Polish: 1997 / English: 2016)
Lady of the Lake (Polish: 1999 / English: 2017)

Offline novel

Season of Storms (Polish: 2013 / English: 2018)

Are The Witcher comics canon?

If you still haven't seen enough of The Continent after watching Netflix shows, reading Andrzej Sapkowski's books, and gaming adventures, then there are even more Witcher stories as Dark Horse has published various Witcher comics and graphic novels.

They are not written by Sapkowski, and while "Children of the Foxes" is based on a chapter from Season of Storms, they are set in the game's sequel, not in the books. They are all available for purchase from Dark Horse as standalone comics or bundled together as graphic novels.

The Witcher: House of Glass (Paul Tobin and Joe Kerio, published 2014)
The Witcher: Children of the Foxes (Paul Tobin and Joe Kerio, published 2015)
The Witcher: Curse of the Crows (Paul Tobin and Piotr Kowalski, published 2016-2017)
The Witcher: From Flesh and Fire (Alexandra Motyka and Marianna Strychowska, published 2018-2019)

The best books about witchers: ranking of primary sources

The Witcher books ranked by readers on Goodreads.com are surprisingly consistent in terms of quality.

Season of Storms, originally published 14 years after Sapkowski completed his saga, is at the bottom of the stack, indicating that some of the author's magic has dissipated over the years. And the five books translated by David French are ahead of the two by Danusia Stock, suggesting that readers may prefer the French style.

But given that even the lowest rated title gets a highly respectable 3.95 out of 5, fantasy fans are unlikely to be disappointed by any of Sapkowski's novels.