The Witcher Books in Order: How to read Andrzej Sapkowski’s series?
Written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher was a popular fantasy series composed of multiple novels and short stories. The series revolves around the famous Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, a beast hunter with supernatural abilities (he is a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin), and Ciri, a princess who becomes a pawn of international politics but also a witcher-in-training.
How to read The Witcher Series in Order?
This is a chronological order for The Witcher series, not a publication order.
- Season of Storms – This is the last book released and a prequel. It takes place chronologically before the rest of the books but it is recommended to read it at the end in order to best understand it. A contract has gone wrong, and The Witcher Geralt of Rivia finds himself without his signature weapons. Now he needs them back, because sorcerers are scheming, and across the world, clouds are gathering. The season of storms is coming…
- The Last Wish (short story collection) – Geralt of Rivia is a Witcher. He is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good…and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.
- Sword of Destiny (short story collection) – As the Witcher Geralt of Rivia roams the country seeking assignments, he gradually comes to realize that while some of his quarries are unremittingly vile, vicious grotesques, others are the victims of sin, evil or simple naivety.
- Blood of Elves – For over a century, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves have lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over, and now the races are fighting once again. The only good elf, it seems, is a dead elf. Geralt of Rivia, the Witcher, has been waiting for the birth of a prophesied child. This child has the power to change the world — for good, or for evil. As the threat of war hangs over the land and the child is hunted for her extraordinary powers, it will become Geralt’s responsibility to protect them all. And the Witcher never accepts defeat.
- Time of Contempt – The Elves and other non-humans are still suffering under decades of repression, and growing numbers join the commando units hidden deep in the forest, striking at will and then dissolving into the trees. And against this backdrop of fear and contempt Geralt and his lover Yennefer must protect Ciri, orphaned heir and sought by all sides. For the prophecy rests on her, and whether she lives or dies she has the power to save the world – or perhaps end it.
- Baptism of Fire – The Wizards Guild has been shattered by a coup and, in the uproar, The Witcher Geralt of Rivia was seriously injured. Now that dark times have fallen upon the world, Geralt is helpless until he has recovered from his injuries. While war rages across all of the lands, the future of magic is under threat and those sorcerers who survive are determined to protect it.
- The Tower of Swallows – The world has fallen into war. Ciri has vanished. Hunted by friends and foes alike, she has taken on the guise of a petty bandit and lives free for the first time in her life. But the net around her is closing. Geralt of Rivia, the Witcher, has assembled a group of allies to rescue her. Both sides of the war have sent brutal mercenaries to hunt her down. Her crimes have made her famous. There is only one place left to run. The tower of the swallow is waiting…
- Lady of the Lake – After narrowly escaping death, the Witcher girl, Ciri, finds herself in a completely different world… a world of the Elves. She is trapped with no way out. Time does not seem to exist and there are no obvious borders or portals to cross back into her home world. She knows she must escape to finally rejoin the Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, and his companions.
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Season of storms takes place after The Last Wish.
Season of Storms is not a prequel to Last Wish. It takes roughly place somewhere around the time of Sword of Destiny.