The Witcher series

The Witcher series (Polish: cykl wiedźmiński) by Andrzej Sapkowski is a series of fantasy short stories (collected in two books) and five novels about the witcher Geralt of Rivia. The books have been adapted into a movie and television series (The Hexer), a computer game (The Witcher), a comic book and others. The novel series (excluding the short stories) is also called the Witcher saga (Polish: saga o wiedźminie).

Publishing history
It started as a series of short stories, at first published in Fantastyka, a Polish science fiction and fantasy magazine. The first short story, "Wiedźmin" ("The Witcher") (1986), was written for a contest held by the magazine, where it won third place. The first four stories of the witcher Geralt — and the story "Droga, z której się nie wraca" ("The Road with No Return"), which took place in the same world, but dozens of years before the witcher stories — were originally collected in a short story collection titled Wiedźmin (out of print and now obsolete; all fifteen short stories were later collected in three books published by superNOWA.)

Setting and story
Both short stories and novels are widely claimed by fans to be blockbusters of Polish fantasy. Geralt stories are appraised for slightly ironic sense of humor and subtle links to modern culture (e.g. one of the wizards taking part in the Gathering of the Wizards is constantly complying about "ecological" issues). Moreover, quite contrary to the classical fantasy scheme, there is no black-white partitioning. On the other hand, Geralt's world is nor a typical dark-fantasy (where all characters are more or less evil). Sapkowski tries to emphasize the scale of grays in everyone (e.g. one of the local rulers engaged in incestous relation with own sister shows as caring father - at least according to Geralt's world standards).

The Blood of the Elves series proper consists of the five novels about Geralt, in which Sapkowski links together the plotlines begun in the short stories, and adds new ones. Apart from Geralt himself, another central character is Princess Ciri. Their story is set against the background of the struggle of the Northern Kingdoms against the Nilfgaard Empire.

Short story collections

 * The Last Wish (Ostatnie życzenie) (1993, English edition: 2007)
 * Sword of Destiny (Miecz przeznaczenia) (1992, while the book was second to be published, it collects later short stories and takes place later than The Last Wish)
 * Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna (Something Ends, Something Begins) (2000)

Novels

 * Blood of the Elves (Krew elfów) (1994)
 * Czas pogardy (Time of Disdain) (1995)
 * Chrzest ognia (Baptism by Fire) (1996)
 * Wieża jaskółki (The Swallow's Tower) (1997)
 * Pani jeziora (Lady of the Lake) (1999)