The Witcher Reading Order: Where Book Readers Should Actually Start

Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher came to most people through the games and the Netflix show, which makes the book reading order genuinely confusing — because the best starting point is not the first novel. Begin with the two short-story collections: The Last Wish, then Sword of Destiny. They introduce Geralt of Rivia, the monster-hunting witcher, and crucially set up his bond with Ciri and Yennefer before the main saga assumes you already care about them.

Only after the stories should you start the five-novel main saga: Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of Swallows, and The Lady of the Lake. Read in this order, the emotional throughline lands the way Sapkowski intended — the short stories are the foundation the novels build on, even though the novels were the "main" books.

There's also a standalone prequel, Season of Storms, published much later. Skip it on your first pass; it slots in best as a return trip once you know the world, since it sits chronologically among the early short stories but reads better with full context. The same goes for Crossroads of Ravens, a later prequel about a teenage Geralt's first steps as a witcher.

If you came from the games or the show, the books will reframe a lot of what you thought you knew — especially Yennefer. So: did you start with The Last Wish, or make the classic mistake of grabbing Blood of Elves first? And do the games or the books own the "real" Geralt for you?