The Witcher 3: 7 Book Stories All Wild Hunt Fans Should Read
Put down the sword and pick up a book.
At times it seems a little mad that not only is The Witcher 3 the third game in a trilogy that should have boomed in popularity much earlier, but that that same trilogy is a followup to a series of acclaimed novels that likewise did not reach shores as soon as they should have.
What makes that so maddening is that you’d be forgiven as a player for not noticing the intricate lines connecting Andrzej Sapkowski’s stories to CD Projekt Red’s own masterful creation, but that’s all thanks to the masterful and subtle treatment afforded to Sapkowski’s lore.
His written word is the living flesh of the world and characters for players to explore, but doesn’t serve as a cop out for lazy writing, poor exposition or undeveloped characters.
While you can certainly play through the entirety of the Witcher 3 without needing to even touch a book - a prospect I’m certain many the media’s archetypal gamer enjoys (or as I call him, my roommate) - there’s a lot of joy to be found in mining the literature whilst exploring the Continent.
If you want to jump on the Witcher train, or are already fully aboard and looking for that upgrade to the first class carriage, here are the seven short stories from The Last Wish and The Sword of Destiny you should definitely read.
Light spoilers for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and select short stories from The Last Wish and The Sword of Destiny follow.
7. The Lesser Evil
What It’s About: Geralt arrives in the town of Blaviken hoping to make some dollar off of a monster he’s killed nearby.
He encounters the mage Stregobor who pleads for Geralt’s help against a ‘monster’ who is in fact a cursed woman called Renfri, with whom he has a complex history. Renfri and her big bad band of mercenaries are effectively untouchable thanks to a royal edict, and she and Stregobor both offer Geralt the chance to murder the other, calling it ‘the lesser evil’.
Geralt refuses them both, but upon realising Renfri plans on massacring the town to draw Stregobor out he slays her and her band before they can start their killing, but because nobody knows of their plans he becomes reviled by the townsfolk.
Why You Should Read It: If you hit the seventh word of that first segment and heard a great bell ringing amidst a wave of deja vu, that’s because you recognise it from one of Geralt’s myriad of nicknames - specifically, ‘The Butcher of Blaviken’.
The climax of this story marks the moment he acquired this rather undesirable moniker, but the road leading to it adds an extra weight. Though Geralt may not be fond of it, he recognises it as a distinction, a reminder that morality isn’t easy.
He did the right thing that day, but it was still a terrible thing to do, such is his place in the world.