All 8 books in The Witcher Saga, ranked worst to best

3. The Last Wish (The Witcher Short Stories #1)

The very first book in Sapkwoski’s Witcher series is The Last Wish, which collects various pieces of short fiction and connects them through a framing story set at the Temple of Melitele. The Last Wish is an excellent book which features some of the absolute best short stories that Sapkowski wrote for the saga. There’s a reason that, all these years later, people still refer to tales like “The Lesser Evil,” “The Witcher,” and “The Last Wish” when they talk about the series.

The Last Wish serves as an introduction to The Witcher world at large, and to professional monster hunter Geralt of Rivia. As such, it leans into the monster-of-the-week format more than any other of Sapkowski’s works. Geralt’s encounter with the Striga in “The Witcher” feels like a horror story, while “The Lesser Evil” and “A Grain of Truth” dig into the moral conundrums which often lie at the heart of Sapkowski’s stories. Another standout, “A Question of Price,” has ramifications that don’t become clear until near the end of the book series.

Best of all, the framing story brings together these tales in a way that sets it apart from your usual short story collection. Geralt’s time at the Temple of Melitele deepens our understanding of what happened between the short stories and how his relationship with Yennefer changed over time. “The Last Wish” is the beginning of Geralt and Yennefer’s epic love story, and it’s just as complex and tumultuous as their legendary partnership.

Despite the fact that some of the stories in The Last Wish were written upwards of 30 years ago, they hold up against the rest of The Witcher Saga pretty damn well.