Danusia Stok translated the first two English releases before David French took over for the remaining six. It wasn’t until the English version of The Last Wish was published in 2007 – the year that the first Witcher videogame was released – that Anglophone readers got their first chance to read the books. The first Witcher books debuted in the early '90s in Sapkowski’s native Poland, but the rest of the world was a little slow to catch on to Geralt of Rivia. Indeed, events in the stories ‘The Witcher’, ‘The Lesser Evil’, ‘A Question of Price’, ‘The Edge of the World’ and ‘The Last Wish’ form the basis of Geralt’s arc in the first season of the Netflix show – we meet the Striga, learn how Geralt became known as ‘the butcher of Blaviken’, and see the origin of the ‘Law of Surprise’ that ties him to Princess Ciri. The short stories of The Last Wish come first in the chronology of The Witcher universe, and provide the ideal introduction to Geralt of Rivia, sorceresses Yennefer of Vengerberg and Triss Merigold, and singing bard Dandelion (renamed Jaskier in Netflix’s The Witcher TV series).
The Witcher books: reading order explained
Get the best Kindle for reading The Witcher books. The Witcher now has an official timeline. The Witcher season 2: what we know about the Netflix show's return. So before you toss a coin to your Witcher’s author, read on to learn the best way to go about it. We’ve looked back at Sapkowski’s work to list The Witcher books by publication order, in the order they come in the Continent’s chronology, and also rank them from best to worst based on their reader ratings on Goodreads. The way timelines jumped around on The Witcher Netflix series was certainly contentious (Netflix have subsequently released a timeline to help, and season 2 will be easier to follow), but what’s the best order to read the Sapkowski Witcher books and short stories that inspired it? And which stories do you absolutely need to read? He took the stories set in this 'Continent' and turned it into a successful and much-loved fantasy book series. Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski created monster-hunting Geralt of Rivia as part of a magazine's short story competition all the way back in the mid-'80s – and he only finished third. Before we start, here's some background on The Witcher books.