New D&D Novel: Spelljammer: Memory’s Wake (First Look)
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Back in the late 80s and early 90s, you couldn’t roll a D20 in a book store without it hitting one of hundreds of Dungeons & Dragons novels. At that time, it was a golden age for the literary side of D&D, with new books coming out on a regular basis.
In the 2000s, however, the flood of D&D novels largely dried up due to dwindling sales. Since then, Wizards of the Coast and their publishing partners have rarely released anything new, with the exception of the occasional Drizzt Do’Urden book or new entries in the long-running Dragonlance series.
Over the past year, however, things are looking up for D&D readers, with Wizards of the Coast and their partner Random House Worlds announcing a new Forgotten Realms novel entitled The Fallbacks: Bound for Ruin, slated for release in March 2024 and featuring an all-new cast of characters. What’s more, it seems that yet another new book is on the horizon. Entitled Spelljammer: Memory’s Wake, the novel is written by popular fantasy author Django Wexler and is scheduled for a release in July 2024 (although you can pre-order it on Amazon).
So just what can we expect as the literary world of Spelljammer once again sets sail? Below we break out all the details.
What is Spelljammer: Memory’s Wake About?
Published under the Random House Worlds imprint, so far we know very little about the book. We do know it comes in at 272 pages and the official description reads as follows:
In this reboot of a beloved D&D setting, join Axia, a young woman with a mysterious past, as she embarks on a piratical adventure aboard a Spelljammer, a flying spaceborne vessel powered by magic.
Clearly the book is meant to ride on the resurgence of interest in the setting following its reappearance for DnD 5e with Spelljammer: Adventures in Space box set in 2022 – although notably that game product was met with fairly mixed reviews among fans, despite the continued popularity of the Spelljammer setting itself.
Notably, on February 7th, 2024 Del Rey Books released the first official cover art for the new novel (which we’ve also included above).
What are the previous Spelljammer novels?
This isn’t the first time that DnD’s space-faring setting has appeared in a literary format. In fact, back during the early 1990s, there were six Spelljammer novels published by TSR. Entitled The Cloakmaster Cycle, the books were written by numerous authors, including: David “Zeb” Cook, Nigel Findley, Roger E. Moore, Elaine Cunningham and Howard Wornom (the latter writing under the pen name Russ T. Howard).
The books follow the adventures of Teldin Moore, a simple farmer from the world of Krynn (of Dragonlance fame) who becomes entangled in an interstellar conflict after a mysterious spelljamming ship crashes on his land. He soon find himself in the possession of a powerful magical Cloak and sets out across wildspace, encountering various bizarre creatures and worlds.
The books received somewhat middling reviews and are general considered entertaining for the time, if not particularly groundbreaking.
Who is Django Wexler?
Django Wexler is an award-winning American fantasy author who is perhaps best known for his flintlock fantasy series, The Shadow Campaigns and the young adult series, The Forbidden Library.
A Carnegie Mellon alumnus with degrees in creative writing and computer science, Wexler initially engaged in artificial intelligence research and later worked at Microsoft before becoming a full-time professional writer.
Notably, Wexler has also written for Wizards of the Coast before, including The War of the Spark: Ravnica, which is set in the world of Ravnica that appears in both Magic: The Gathering and DnD 5e game materials.
What in Spelljammer: Memory’s Wake being released?
Spelljammer: Memory’s Wake is currently scheduled for release on July 2nd, 2024, and will be available from both online and brick and mortal retail stores. It’s also likely that many local game stores will carry the book given its tie-in to Dungeons & Dragons.
Early review “galley” copies will likely also come out several months before the official, so we will likely get a sense of what the book’s like at that time (stay tuned to this page as we’ll be providing our own review).
How much is Spelljammer: Memory’s Wake?
The hardcover copy of Spelljammer: Memory’s Wake will have an MSRP of $28.99 USD, although a trade paperback version will likely be available several months afterwards at a much lower cost. Additionally, there will be an eBook version (which will likely retail for $14.99 USD) and an audio book (which will likely retail for around $25.00 USD).
Final Thoughts
It’s great to see that Wizards of the Coast is picking up the legacy of D&D novels and publishing new works, especially ones written by authors as well established as Django Wexler. It’s also amazing to see that they’ve chosen the Spelljammer setting, giving longtime fans another taste of wildpsace after the largely forgotten books from the 90s.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story and update this page with new information as it’s made available. We’ll also be providing a review shortly before launch. In the meantime, the book is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.
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Ollie Delano is a Staff Writer who lives in Chicago, Illinois where he majored in Journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He’s been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 10 years and currently plays in a weekly game group where he rolls way too many natural 1s and chugs way too much Mountain Dew. His favorite D&D campaign setting is Eberron and his favorite character to play was a Tiefling rogue named Draxiss who enjoys both literal and figurative backstabbing.
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