Here’s How To Catch Up On The Witcher

Netflix will soon be bringing Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer, Triss, and the rest of the gang from The Witcher into the world of television, and while you will get an introduction to this world in the show, you’ll undoubtedly get more out of it if you check out a few of the adventures in other mediums. That’s especially true for the original books by Andrzej Sapkowski, as The Witcher showrunner, Lauren S. Hissrich has made it clear that the books will inform much more of the show than the popular games from CD Projekt Red. You’ll still want to check those out mind you if you want to see what this world has to offer, and there’s also the comic stories from Dark Horse Comics to consider, which help fill in some of the gaps from the books.

So, as you can see, there’s plenty to keep your attention before The Witcher hits the popular streaming service, and we’re giving you a handy dandy quick start guide on what to check out if you want to get the most out of this awesome world.

The Books:

So first off you’ll want to start with the original book series from Sapkowski, and you might assume that the first published book is the way to start. That’s actually not the case though, as the first book released was actually Blood of Elves, but the first book in the timeline is actually The Last Wish, a series of short stories that establish the universe. The same is true of Sword of Destiny, another short story collection, though while Season of Storms takes place before Blood of Elves as well, you’ll want to wait to read it until you’ve read the other books for context.

You can check out all the books in original novel form or you can check them out via Audiobook on Audible, which gives full voice acting to their adventures. A suggested reading order is available below, and you can grab the books in any format you choose right here.

Reading Order:

The Last Wish

Sword of Destiny

Blood of Elves

Time of Contempt

Baptism of Fire – Novel

The Tower of Swallows

Lady of the Lake

Season of Storms

The Comics:

There have actually been several adaptions of The Witcher in comic form, though the most well known are the recent books from Dark Horse Comics. There are four collections of those stories, and they range all over the overall Witcher timeline (a Volume 1 collection of those comics is available on Amazon and Comixology for less than $30). There are also some stories that originated in Poland and one developed by CD Projekt Red, creators of the hit video games. None of these are required reading, but fans of the characters and the world will find plenty to love and explore here, and some even expand on the game’s interpretation of the world too.

You can check out all the available comics below, and where you should read them in regards to the books too.

The Road With No Return (before Last Wish) – Currently Unavailable, Fan Translation

House of Glass (after Last Wish) – Digital

Reasons of State (After Sword of Destiny) – Unavailable

Something More (Adapts Story in Sword of Destiny) – Unavailable

Matters of Conscience (After Lady of the Lake) – Unavailable

Killing Monsters (Collected in The Witcher Library Edition) – Digital

Curse of Crows (After a specific ending of Witcher 3) – Digital

Fox Children (Adapts Stories Season of Storms) – Digital

The Witcher Library Edition Vol. 1 (Collects House of Glass, Fox Children, Curse of Crows, and Killing Monsters) – Digital

The Witcher: Of Flesh and Flame – Digital

The Games:

The franchise really caught on with a bigger audience after the hit game adaptations from CD Projekt red, specifically The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and then in an even bigger way with The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.

The games are loose adaptations of the storylines from the books and aren’t necessary to understand the books or the upcoming series. That said, they are excellent, and give you a great idea of the world, the characters in it, and the relationships at play. If you don’t have time for all three games you can definitely just skip ahead to Witcher 3, though if you have time Witcher 2 is excellent. The original Witcher lacked some of the things that would become hallmarks of the series later, so if you have to skip one that’s the one to skip.

You can check out the titles and where they’re available below.

The Witcher – Steam, Amazon, GameStop

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings – Steam, Amazon, GameStop

The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt – Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Amazon, GameStop

So that should get you all squared away before the series premieres, though The Witcher currently has no release date. You can check out more from our Witcher coverage right here, and you can also hit me up on Twitter @MattAguilarCB for all things Witcher!