How many Witcher books are there?

The Witcher show on Netflix is a big hit, which has led many to seek out the books by Andrzej Sapkowski. How many are out there?

There’s a bit of a complicated question, since The Witcher series didn’t begin as a series of books; the first Witcher thing was a short story that Sapkowski submitted to a competition in 1987, his first work ever as an author. He got third place, but the short story was popular so he decided to write more. The first Witcher book, Sword of Destiny, came out in Sapkowski’s native Poland in 1992, but it’s not a novel; rather, it’s a collection of those short stories, the first of two before the novels proper begin.

Let’s break this all down with a neat little list below.

The Witcher books in order

If you’re looking to read The Witcher books, here’s the order you should tackle them in:

• The Last Wish — This is another collection of short stories. It was actually published after Sword of Destiny, at least in Poland, but the stories take place before the stories in Sword of Destiny, so you should start here.
• Season of Storms — Published in 2013, this is the most recent Witcher book, and quite possibly the last. It’s a novel, but it’s set between some of the stories in The Last Wish.
• Sword of Destiny
• Blood of Elves — This is the first of the proper Witcher novels. It’s pretty simple from here on out.
• Time of Contempt
• Baptism of Fire
• The Tower of the Swallow
• The Lady of the Lake

And if you read all those and still want more Witcher, there are always The Witcher video games by CD Projekt Red, which are set after the end of the books. The Witcher 3 is particularly popular.

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