Andrzej Sapkowski's next Witcher book gets weird December 1 release date confirmation

2024 has been a quiet year for fans of The Witcher, but that's about to change in some pretty huge ways. As of this writing, Netflix is nearing the finish line for filming on the fourth season of its Witcher TV show; this time out, Geralt of Rivia will be played by Liam Hemsworth, and we're all very intrigued to see how it pans out. There's also an animated spinoff film, titled The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, which was supposed to come out this year but has been bumped to February 2025. On the video game front, CD Projekt Red has been ramping up development on its next video game, codenamed Polaris, which is believed to be a sequel to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that will center around a different character than Geralt.

And then there are the books, where it all began. Author Andrzej Sapkowski has written a brand new Witcher novel about Geralt of Rivia. The details are fairly sparse, but Sapkowski has confirmed this won't be a sequel to The Witcher Saga proper, which had a fairly conclusive ending for Geralt. Instead, this forthcoming novel will be another "sidequel," which will presumably explore some standalone adventure or other of Geralt's earlier in his monster-hunting career similar to 2018's Season of Storms.

Sapkowski finished writing his latest Witcher book in August. Last year, the author stated that it will be hitting shelves Poland sometime in late 2024, with translations circulating elsewhere in the world in early 2025. Now we've gotten a bit more information about when it will be published: in "the first days of December," according to Sapkowski.

The Witcher author confirms release date of next book

This comes from the Freedom Games event held in Sapkowski's hometown of Łódź, Poland, where he was on hand for a panel on October 18. Following his appearance, Sapkowski fielded a few questions from the audience. That included one from a representative of the Wiedźminlandia (Witcherland) fan page on Facebook, who wanted to know the title of the next Witcher book and whether Sapkowski had to revisit his old writings when preparing to write it. Credit to Gry-online for the transcription, with additional bits pulled from Wiedźminlandia.

"Nowadays it goes quickly. I'll start from the end," Sapkowski said about his writing process, later adding that he does occasionally revisit his previous works, "from the technical point of view." He then got into more details about the new book, but didn't reveal the title. "I wouldn't keep it a secret, but my publisher categorically does not want me to say anything more about it for marketing reasons, so what I can say and what not is prohibited by the embargo."

That alone wouldn't be too curious — it's not strange for publishers to have planned announcements for when to reveal information like titles and release dates for novels, especially for a hotly anticipated series like The Witcher. Where things get interesting is when Sapkowski started talking about the release date:

"This is approximately the book's release date - early December. First days of December, as far as I know. The book should be in bookstores [then]. But this is the only information I can, I am able to provide, because the publisher has influence on me."

- Andrzej Sapkowski

So Sapkowski says the latest Witcher book is releasing in Poland in early December, around a month and a half from now. But what about a specific date? Reliable Witcher scoop site Redanian Intelligence reports that the book is releasing in Poland on December 1. That number comes from Nowa Fantastyka, the longest running fantasy and science fiction magazine in Poland. The original Witcher short story was published in Fantastyka back in 1986, and they'll be doing something special to mark the release of the new book: their next issue releases earlier than usual on November 22, and will feature an excerpt from Sapkowski's highly-anticipated next Witcher novel. They announced this on Facebook, adding that the novel will be released on December 1...which they say Sapkowski confirmed at Freedom Games in Łódź.

So either Sapkowski made a different statement than the one we've got transcribed above where he says the "first days of December" (I triple checked that translation to be sure it was accurate), Nowa Fantastyka knows something the rest of us don't (which they likely do), or there's something weird afoot. Let's dig a bit deeper...

Is the Polish release date for the next Witcher book actually December 1 or what?

My initial reaction to this release date news was shock — yes, we had known that the next Witcher book was supposedly coming out in Poland in December-ish, but given the fact that we had practically no information about it before now and it's already almost November, I assumed it might be getting pushed back to 2025. In the United States and the UK, it'd be pretty much unheard of for a new book release from a major series like The Witcher to not even have a title announced less than two months out from its release date. Keep in mind, without a title, release date, or store listing, people can't preorder the book, which is a key metric that a lot of western publishers use to determine how big a splash a release is making.

The closest example we've got is Brandon Sanderson's fifth Stormlight Archive novel Wind and Truth; that releases on December 6, and Tor announced the title of it all the way back in December of last year. The cover art was revealed in late August, and I believe preorders were opened around then too. All of that is pretty essential to get a huge marketing push behind the book to make sure its reach is as wide as possible by publication day.

But that's the way things work in the U.S. and UK. It seems like the Polish publishing industry is a much more nimble beast, able to adapt to these sorts of quicker turnarounds. Wiedźminlandia did some digging into the last Witcher book, Season of Storms, and found that the first articles about the novel came out on October 26, a mere 11 days before the book's Polish release on November 6, 2013. So with that in mind, the timeframe ahead for Sapkowski's forthcoming Witcher book seems entirely possible.

However, I will give one other bit of caution for the road: December 1 is a Sunday. I have no idea if Polish bookstores have specific days of the week they typically get in new releases (it's Tuesdays in the U.S. and Thursdays in the UK), but that seems worth noting. Perhaps, as mentioned, the nimbleness of the Polish publishing industry means they can just roll with whatever day of the week they want. Perhaps The Witcher is a big enough series that they can choose an odd day for the launch, similar to how Brandon Sanderson's Wind and Truth is releasing on a Friday to align with this year's Dragonsteel Nexus convention.

What I'm trying to say here is that there seems to be some conflicting and weird information surrounding this release date still. So I'd pencil in December 1 as the release date in Poland, but maybe wait to go over it with dark pen on your calendar until we get some kind of official announcement. I imagine we'll hear something by the November 22 issue of Nowa Fantastyka, if not before.

As for when this new Witcher novel will be making its way to other countries, I'd keep your eye on 2025. Originally it was reported that the book was expected to release in the U.S. in early 2025...but since publishers are already sending out marketing materials for a lot of early 2025 books and I haven't heard a peep about Sapkowski's new Witcher novel, I wouldn't be surprised to see it a little later than that. Perhaps over the summer or fall, to align with a possible premiere date for The Witcher season 4 on Netflix? We'll have our ear to the ground for more information as the story develops.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.