Witcher 3 the game is a fine place to start. I’d say you can start in any of the games and Book 1 the Last Wish, Book 2 Sword of Destiny, or Book 3 Sword of Destiny. The games were in line with the books cannon but telling there own story. The popularity of the games made Sapkowski write more and they have now diverged somewhat. Here are some notes on all of them as far as a starting place.

Last Wish (book): Short stories based on classic stories. Good intro to the world and the writing style. No main plot so it can be skipped or read later without much problems. The Sleeping Beauty story is the opening cinematic of Game 1.

Sword of Destiny (Book): More short stories but we introduce a lot of the main characters in the rest of the books.

Blood of Elves (book): This is where the main story of the Witcher starts proper. After this you should read them in order.

Witcher 1 (game): Game play is ok but I think has the most interesting ideas and storytelling. It has the choose between two bad choices and find out later what the effect is. It doesn’t spoon feed you the lore and there are lots of hints about what is going on you can catch if you are paying attention. For example echinops grow where terrible crimes were committed if the crime wasn’t atoned for. Every place you find a echinops growing is a clue as to the nature of what happened there.

There is another great non obvious story element that I love. I think it’s more fun to know this and see how it plays out in the game. I recommend reading the spoiler but it’s up to you.

Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings (game): Improved gameplay with much more focus on combat and combat mechanics. Better graphics. Ok story but nothing compared to 1. The combat is very hard early and is required so that can be a drawback.

Witcher 3 Wild Hunt (game): The best game as far as gameplay. Fun lots different things to do and a solid story. It’s a very Ciri focused story and thus can spoil some of the books somewhat. As far as a starting place you are going to have a lot of fun but it does throw a fair amount of characters at you and expect you to know them. Also the spoiler from 1 is specifically confirmed at one point so if you don’t want that beware.

You can’t win a war by singing!

As far as the witcher and time travel kind of. At some point in the future there was a disaster and Earth was destroyed. However some humans and lots of monsters from alternate realities ended up in the world of the Witcher. Elves and dwarves were the original inhabitants.

Humans used a mix of genetic engineering they had and magic taught to them by the elves to make the Witchers. The Witchers helped solve the massive monster problem and the world ended up with humans mostly on top.

Witchers age very slowly and if not killed can live a very long time. Powerful magic users are basically the same. So the stories from session 1 are spread over about 80 years with some long lived characters.

The first book that season 1 is primarily based on is also different from the other books. It’s a bunch of short stories that are based on classic stories. So there is Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, etc.

Parametric recipes are great. The central ingredient is quantity 1 and everything else is a ratio by weight. You then scale it to your needs. So an equilibrium brine would be.

1 meat 1 water 0.03 salt Brine for 1 day per 2 inch of thickest section.

They don’t work for everything. So when baking a loaf of bread time and temp are spefic to loaf size. It still works for a batch of bread dough however.

This also helps you think in ratios which help general recipe construction. Once you know what flour to egg radio you like for your bread you can alter recipes to your preference.

So 100 is an average IQ. They will actually change the scoring to keep it that way. 115 puts you 1 standard deviation ahead. 125 or higher puts you in the top 5%.

I was similar in high school and college. I wasn’t good at studying and hadn’t needed to in high school. I had a rough first two semesters in college going on academic probation.

I was able to adjust in time and put the work in to pass but it could have gone either way. I tended do the best in my hard class because I put the most effort in those at the expense of my easy A classes hurting my GPA.

My IQ was tested several times back in school and I usually clocked in at 148 or 149. That said I don’t think IQ tests are very useful. They also test for very spefic types of thinking. Those traits that people considered smart have. It’s kind of circular.

I think it’s like a physical fitness test that just measures bicep thickness. It tells you something but not as much as it claims.

I’m very good a understanding systems and understanding how changes effect them. I also pick up concepts very easy but struggle with remembering the details.

Presumably that’s because I learned it quickly and didn’t have the repetition to cement the details. Because I know the concept I’m board trying to memorize the details.

I know what J K reproduction types are but don’t remember which is which. Same with baryonic particles I can’t remember if they are half integer spin or not and or if they obey the Pauli exclusion principle. But I understand what those concepts are.

I’m ok with people and general social interaction but I don’t read people well and stick to the social rules for a situation. I’ve totally misread interactions more than most people but usually keep it civil.

I do a lot of cooking and am very good at getting the effect I want. I know what protiens and starches do at various temps and how to calculate the right amounts of salt, acid, and sugar. I’m not good at winging it or being creative with flavors.