While The Last Wish is a series of disconnected stories that all happen to star Geralt as a lone wolf, Sword of Destiny digs deeper into his relationships. As always, Geralt tries to relate to these characters not as monsters, but as misunderstood people who aren’t always happy with their fates. Another story spins on a doppelganger who impersonates others when he impersonates a halfling merchant, he ironically ends up making more money than the man he’s pretending to be. For instance, the book opens with a tale about a seaman who has fallen in love with a mermaid, but neither the sailor nor the mermaid want to give up their residence for either fins or legs, respectively - so they can’t live together. The fantasy characters he meets here can be more fun than the monsters in The Last Wish. Sword of Destiny veers away from the witcher contracts to explore Geralt’s life in-depth. The Last Wish, the first in The Witcher series of novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, focuses on Geralt’s monster-hunting contracts. Geralt must decide whether to kill them outright or try to restore their humanity. But not every monster he encounters is an animal or beast - many are people who have been cursed.

He’s made a career of fulfilling contracts to kill monsters, traveling from village to village to help those in need. The Witcher series dives into the life of Geralt of Rivia, a man who grew up mutated by potions so he can now sense monsters - and fight them with magic. It’s the perfect background for the video games and the new Netflix show. But if you can only pick up one, make it Sword of Destiny.

If you’re looking to pick up The Witcher books, I’d recommend starting at the very beginning. As a collection of short stories with tons of action and a deep-dive into Geralt’s relationships, it ended up being my favorite of the entire series (so far). The best part of exploring these stories again? I realized I had missed a book! It’s called Sword of Destiny, and it belongs after The Last Wish and before Blood of Elves. I started reading the series over again, from the start, and continued on to learn more about the main character, Geralt of Rivia. Though I wanted to pick up the video games (again!), I had too much on my plate. Then I heard that Netflix would adapt the books into a new show - and I fell back into a Witcher frenzy. Back then, I read two books: The Last Wish, a short story collection introducing the main character, and Blood of Elves, the first in a handful of novels about the witcher. As expected, the books provide tons more backstory, which the games just throw at you to figure out as you play. A few years ago, I picked up The Witcher books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, in an attempt to learn more about the video games based on them.

The witcher book sword of destiny