A
Andrzej Sapkowski
Polish fantasy writer
Sword of Destiny
Synopsis
The second collection of Witcher short stories follows Geralt of Rivia deeper into a world where doing the right thing is seldom simple and never safe. Across six tales he hunts a dragon in unlikely company, reckons with his turbulent bond to the sorceress Yennefer, and — most fatefully — crosses paths with a child of surprise, a girl named Ciri whose destiny is knotted to his own.
Darker and more emotionally charged than The Last Wish, Sword of Destiny deepens Geralt's relationships and the sense of inescapable fate that will drive the novels to come.
Vibe
Genres
Characters
Geralt of RiviaProtagonist
The witcher, hired to kill monsters and repeatedly forced to weigh a contract against a conscience.
Yennefer of VengerbergSupporting
The sorceress and Geralt's former lover, present at the dragon hunt and at the parting in Aedd Gynvael.
CiriSupporting
The runaway princess of Cintra, granddaughter of Queen Calanthe, whom Geralt is owed by the Law of Surprise.
Dandelion (The Witcher)Supporting
Geralt's friend, the poet and troubadour who travels with him on the dragon hunt and to Novigrad.
Essi DavenSupporting
The minstrel known as Little Eye, who joins Geralt on the coast during the affair of the mermaid and the duke.
Tähtifantasia Award (2012)
Frequently asked questions
Is Sword of Destiny a novel or a short story collection?
It is a collection of six short stories, not a novel. The stories are "The Bounds of Reason", "A Shard of Ice", "Eternal Flame", "A Little Sacrifice", "Sword of Destiny" and "Something More". They share a cast and run in rough chronological order, so the book reads more continuously than a typical anthology, but each piece is a self-contained story.
Where does Sword of Destiny fit in The Witcher reading order?
It is the second of the two short story collections that precede the main Witcher saga, and it comes after The Last Wish and before Blood of Elves. The numbering looks inconsistent because two systems are in use: the English publishers (Gollancz and Orbit) label it "The Witcher 2", while the Polish saga ordering lists the two collections as 0.5 and 0.7 because they sit outside the five-novel sequence. Both put it in the same place on the shelf.
Do I need to read The Last Wish before Sword of Destiny?
It is strongly recommended. The individual stories stand alone, but Sword of Destiny assumes you already know Geralt, Dandelion and the witcher's trade from The Last Wish, and it picks up the relationship with Yennefer partway through. More importantly, its closing stories pay off the Law of Surprise that The Last Wish sets up, which is the thread the whole later saga hangs on.
When was Sword of Destiny first published, and who translated it?
The original Polish edition, Miecz przeznaczenia, was published by superNOWA in 1992. The English translation is by David French and appeared 23 years later — Gollancz published it in the UK on 21 May 2015 and Orbit in the US on 1 December 2015. The gap is why the English editions arrived out of step with the novels: Blood of Elves had already been translated in 2008, several years before the collection that precedes it.