You have finished The Witcher. What should you read next?

Fantasy

Start with what you miss

The useful question after The Witcher is not “what is most similar?” A copy of the Continent would only expose everything that made Sapkowski's world singular. Think instead about what kept you reading: Geralt's profession, the banter, political cruelty, Slavic folklore or the uneasy bonds between people who rarely say what they feel.

For more of Sapkowski’s own voice

Begin the Hussite Trilogy with The Tower of Fools. It exchanges Geralt's road for fifteenth-century Silesia and Bohemia, but keeps Sapkowski's taste for argument, historical collision and ideals tested by the people carrying them.

For compromised characters and sharp dialogue

Joe Abercrombie's First Law begins with The Blade Itself. Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy starts with Assassin's Apprentice. Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora puts elaborate schemes and combative friendship at the centre.

For war or an antihero with fewer limits

Glen Cook's Black Company books bring fantasy warfare down to the soldiers who must survive it. Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire begins with Prince of Thorns and asks how long charisma can keep a reader beside an antihero. Neither is a substitute for Geralt. Each follows one part of the appeal in a different direction.

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