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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
A release date and title have been announced for the eagerly anticipated next instalment of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s “The Witcher” series of fantasy books, which has spawned a hugely successful video game franchise and Netflix show.
It is 11 years since the release of the last Witcher book, Season of Storms (Sezon burz), which was the eighth instalment in a series that began in 1990 with The Witcher (Wiedźmin). Before that, Sapkowski had also published a set of Witcher short stories, beginning in 1986.
On Thursday, Polish fantasy fiction magazine Nowa Fantastyka announced that Sapkowski’s new book would be published on 29 November under the title Rozdroże kruków. There is not yet an official English translation of the title, but it means Ravens’ Crossroad.
The magazine added that the details were supposed to have remained under wraps for even longer, but “unfortunately, one of the distributors betrayed our trust and revealed the secret that we had managed to keep for so long”.
The new book – an extract of which is published in today’s issue of Nowa Fantastyka – continues the adventures of Geralt of Rivia, the titular witcher, who hunts monsters.
In a post on Facebook, Sapkowski revealed that the new book will “go back to Geralt’s teenage years, when he is just taking his first steps in the witcher’s profession and must face numerous challenges”.
“Armed with two runic swords, he fights monsters, saves innocent maidens and helps unhappy lovers,” continued the author. “As is usually the case, life does not spare him disappointments – youthful idealism clashes with reality time and again.”
Fans of the Witcher series who do not speak Polish will unfortunately have to wait longer to read the new book. The English translation of Season of Storms was published five years after the Polish version.
The original seven books published in the 1990s took even longer to appear in English, with official translations only beginning to be published in 2007.
That was also the year in which the first Witcher computer game by Polish developer CD Projekt Red appeared. The game and its two sequels have since gone on to sell over 75 million copies, making it one of the biggest video game franchises of all time.
The Witcher, by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, has become a global hit, spawning video games and a Netflix series.
Yet at each stage since its debut in 1986, the series has faced scepticism from critics – something Sapkowski has delighted in confounding https://t.co/7zS7QFKbDN
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 8, 2021
Sapkowski himself, however, did not benefit directly from that success after making what he later admitted was the “stupid” decision to sell the rights to CD Projekt for a lump sum (reportedly 35,000 zloty, around €8,000) rather than for a share of the profits.
However, the author was involved in the development of a Netflix show based on his books, with the first season, starring Henry Cavill in the lead role, airing in 2019. Two further seasons have followed, with a fourth, now featuring Liam Hemsworth as Geralt, set for release next year.
The Witcher has also spawned a successful series of comic books, though those were published originally in English and are not written by Sapkowski himself.
Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, creator of The Witcher saga, has become Amazon's most popular author following the huge success of the Netflix series based on his books https://t.co/kSOhzAwVbs
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 14, 2020
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: ActuaLitté/Flickr (under CC BY-SA 2.0) and Andrzej Sapkowski/Facebook
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
