How to Read All The Witcher Stories in the Correct Order Before Season 4 Drops

The Last Wish, Stories 1–4 (1993)

Technically, The Last Wish was the second-released short story collection about the Witcher, it’s chronologically earlier. In The Last Wish, the White Wolf recollects the recent events while being healed in the temple.

The chronological order of the first four stories is: A Grain of Truth, The Lesser Evil, The Edge of the World, and The Last Wish.

Warning: Do not read A Question of Price and later stories just yet!

Season of Storms, Chapters 1–20 (2013)

Despite its being the last novel Andrzej Sapkowski has written to date, the main events of Season of Storms take place before every other story in The Witcher series. In this book, Geralt loses his trusty swords and gets entangled in two large-scale conspiracies, forced to make tough choices and forge shaky alliances.

Warning: Do not read the Epilogue of Seasons of Storms just yet!

The Last Wish, Stories 5–7 (1993)

Now that you’ve read Season of Storms (save for the Epilogue), you can proceed with The Last Wish short story collection and join Geralt as he retells his next stories, in the following chronological order: A Question of Price, The Witcher, and The Voice of Reason.

Sword of Destiny (1992)

The earliest short story collection published by Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny follows the events of The Last Wish and Season of Storms. The stories in this book are placed in loose chronological order already, so this time, we can skip the timeline shenanigans and get straight to meeting the most crucial characters of the series.

Blood of Elves (1994)

Blood of Elves is the first full-scale novel in The Witcher series and it officially starts the main storyline of the following novels. The confrontation with the Empire of Nilfgaard sets off a chain of events that leads to Ciri, the Princess of Cintra, fleeing her homeland and becoming the protege of Geralt, the legendary White Wolf.

Time of Contempt (1995)

In the second novel of The Witcher series, the confrontation between the Northern Kingdoms and the Nilfgaardian Empire worsens: despite its initial defeat, the Empire manages to quickly take over several kingdoms following the disastrous wizarding coup. Geralt and Yennefer lose their foster daughter Ciri who joins a bandit gang.

Baptism of Fire (1996)

In the third novel, Ciri completely settles into her new life as an outlaw and now leads the Rats, her gang, into a murderous spree. Geralt accidentally becomes a war hero by being in the wrong place at the right time and is now knighted as Geralt of Rivia. Yennefer flees the power-hungry Lodge of Sorceresses to find Ciri before they do.

Tower of the Swallow (1997)

The fourth novel sees Ciri lose her gang in a slaughter and be captured by the Nilfgaardians who have been searching for her. Geralt and Yennefer continue their quests to find Ciri, though to no avail as both get into trouble. Both the Sorceresses’ Lodge and the Empire make powerful advances while Ciri discovers her new power.

Lady of the Lake (1999)

In the final novel of The Witcher series, Ciri retells the events of her life to one of King Arthur's knights whom she encounters after traveling to ancient Britain. Back in the original world, the conflict between Nilfgaard and the Northern Kingdoms reaches its peak as well as the conflict between humans and other, non-human races.

Season of Storms, the Epilogue (2013)

Now, it’s finally time to return to Season of Storms, the book that started our journey. The Epilogue is set many years after the finale of the saga and concludes the story; however, since Andrzej Sapkowski is working on a new novel, this may not be the case for much longer. But for now, you’ve finished the original The Witcher Saga!