Witcher / The Witcher Prehistory (book)?

I have now decided to read all of The Witcher books, only did I notice during the research into the order in which they should be read that there's a history? I only know that there are currently 9 books in total:

-The last wish

-The sword of providence

-The legacy of the elves

-The time of contempt

-Baptism of fire

-The Swallow Tower

-The lady from the lake

- Something ends, something begins

-Time of the storm

At least that's the order in which these books were published. So what is the prehistory or are there any other books I don't know about?

Please don't tell any spoilers either! I've only seen the first season of The Witcher Netflix series. The story of the games and books is unknown to me.

Please clarify me!

The chronological order:

1. The last wish (short story volume, 1993)
2. The Sword of Providence (short story volume, 1992)
3. The legacy of the elves (Roman, 1994)
4. The time of contempt (Roman, 1995)
5. Baptism of fire (Roman, 1996)
6. The Swallow Tower (Roman, 1997)
7. The Lady of the Lake (Roman, 1999)
8. Something ends, something begins (short story volume, 2000)
9. Time of the storm (Roman, 2013)
https://www.kino.de/...er-romane/

You can also treat yourself to comics…

Three are prehistory, The Last Wish, Time of Storm and The Sword of Providence.

The main series consists of The Legacy of the Elves, The Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, The Swallow Tower and The Lady of the Lake.

In Something Ends, Something Begins are two short stories about Geralt.

Sapkowski reportedly writes on another volume of the story, which is said to be a self-contained story and play somewhere in the main story, but have no effect on it. Just like the time of the storm, which also appeared later.

Basically, you can read the books exactly as they appeared. The first two books are short story volumes that tell the story of the novels. By the way, these two books are the content that was filmed with the Witcher Netflix series, so some of the first two books will seem very familiar to you. It does not get boring, however, since the Netflix series is sometimes strong, deviated from the book template and a few things were also left out. The books deal with how you can imagine how Geralt gets to know all the people who then appear in the 5 novels and how it all gets rolling. The last short story from "The Sword of Providence" also introduces the First Novel to a certain extent.

The last two books are quasi extras, I mean "Time of the Storm" is playing at the time of the first two short story volumes, but it is not necessary to read it before the novels.

Don't worry, without any poles:

Sapkowski has a total of 8 books on Geralt. Two of them are short story volumes, one is a self-contained novel and the last 5 together form the "Witcher Saga" as a pentology. All other books are not part of the actual canon.

You should definitely start with the first volume of short stories.

https://www.amazon.de/...423262648/

Why does it start?

Geralt von Riva was "born" when Sapkowski wrote a short story for a fantasy competition and won it. This short story is the first in this volume. Geralt is therefore better introduced in it than in all others, it is explained what a sorcerer is and what he does - simply because Sapkowski invented it specifically for this story and did not then think that there would be more.

But there was.

The other short stories in the volume also introduce other (later appearing) main characters for the first time. So this is definitely the start.

Secondly - if you like the first book, of course - you should read the independent novel, https://www.amazon.de/...423262664/

And then you read the second short story volume https://www.amazon.de/...423262656/

Why in that order?

Because the last short story is practically the introduction to pentalogy. This is where the events that culminate in the romance cycle begin in the last short story.

You can let the self-contained novel "Time of the Storm" out at will and read it at the end as a flashback to a completed adventure of our hero. Its action is not important for pentology. You can also just read the two short story volumes and then go into pentalogy. The Netflix series has so far only adapted a few short stories of these two volumes more or less freely.

And then simply the "Geralt Saga" 1-5, because the 5 volumes really have a continuous plot:

The legacy of the elves

Time of contempt

Baptism of fire

The swallow tower

The lady from the lake

The short story volume "Something Ends, Something Begins" does not belong to the canon of the Geralt saga, although by Sapkowski too. Only two of the short stories have anything vaguely to do with Geralt, he only occurs in one of them. However, the story is a rather entertaining text that is not related to the rest of the saga, which Sapkowski wrote as a wedding present for a friend.

There are still comics, but they all come from other authors and tell independent "Geralt adventures".