The day is coming closer and closer, Andrzej Sapkowski’s new Witcher book is arriving to the Polish shelves on November 29 and now we’ll run down all that we know about the next Witcher entry.
What is the new Witcher book about?
The new Witcher book will focus on young Geralt at the very beginning of his path. He is around 18 years old there and he’s discovering the human society for the first time, with both its beauty and ugliness.
Many may remember that in the previous books, there was a brief memory of young Geralt saving a girl from sexual assault by killing her attacker, only for that girl to be terrified of him. Well, the new book starts right after that happens.
Without going into much spoilers from the first few pages published in Nowa Fantastyka, we can say that the young green witcher has been arrested for his noble deed and is being questioned by the mayor of the nearby town. That is where the story begins.
The official synopsis for the books reads as following:
“This time the grandmaster of Polish fantasy is going back to Geralt’s teenage years, who is only taking his first steps in the witch craft and has to face numerous challenges. Armed with two runic swords, he fights monsters, saves innocent virgins and helps unhappy lovers. Always and everywhere he tries to obey the unwritten code he got from his teachers and mentors. As usual, life spares no disappointments – youthful idealism clashes with reality from time to time.
The saga continues. The story never ends…“
What is the title of the new book?
The title of the new Witcher book is Rozdroże Kruków. It can be translated from Polish as Crossroads of the Crow or Crows’s Crossroads. Raven may also be applicable instead of crow. Knowing that all the English translations are structured as “X of Y” like Blood of Elves, Lady of the Lake etc, this may also be the case here.
As English editions haven’t been revealed yet, we’ll see which variation will be chosen. The context of the story could likely be more fitting for one over the others.
Will any other familiar characters be in the new book?
Nenneke in the CD Projekt Red’s GWENT game
As the story revolves around a very young Geralt at the beginning of his witcher career, we shouldn’t expect to see many familiar faces. Geralt simply hasn’t met the vast majority of them yet and won’t meet for a considerable amount of years.
Vesemir, Lambert, Eskel or Nenneke, though, are quite possible. In fact, as this is Geralt’s first adventure, he’ll undoubtedly need some medical help from Nenneke along the way, so she seems the likeliest familiar character that we can expect.
The new book’s structure will go back to the novel-style
One divisive aspect of the last Witcher book, Season of Storms was how it was structured. It read more like several short stories glued into one novel. Depending on who you ask, some liked that approach, while some didn’t.
We can say that Crossroads of the Crow isn’t like Season of Storms. It is a singular story much like the main Witcher novels.
What is the release date of the new Witcher book?
The official premiere for the book release in Poland will be on November 29 while on December 1 the book will become available in the e-book format as well. The book can be pre-ordered here.
There hasn’t been any info on the international releases and translations. That said, 2024 is most likely out of the question. We’ll wait and see when in 2025 other countries will start getting their own release dates. If the wait is too long, there will surely be fan translations like with Season of Storms.
The Witcher Season 4 is in post-production for a 2025 release. Andrzej Sapkowski’s new Witcher book Crossroads of the Crow is available in Poland with The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep anime set for a February 2025 and CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 4 is now in full production.
