New Ravenloft Novel “Heir of Strahd” (First Look)
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While Dungeons & Dragons is best known as a tabletop roleplaying game, it’s also a literary franchise that once spawned hundreds of best-selling D&D novels. Most of these titles were published in the TSR heyday of the 1990s, which saw a slew of releases for settings like the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance and Dark Sun.
For better or for worse, those days are long gone and the past decade has been a bit of a desert for D&D novels. That’s recently changed, however, with Wizards of the Coast dipping their toe back into print. In March 2024 they published the original Forgotten Realms novel The Fallbacks: Bound for Ruin, followed up in June 2024 by the Spelljammer novel Memory’s Wake and a new Dragonlance trilogy that will wrap up in the summer of 2025.
Now, Wizards of Coast and Penguin Random House continue to breathe new life into the reanimated corpse of D&D lit in the form of a new Ravenloft novel entitled Heir of Strahd coming in April 2025 and which you can already pre-order on Amazon. So just what can readers expect in this return to the Domains of Dread? Below, we dig up all the details.
What is the new Ravenloft novel about?
The official book page on the Penguin Random House website has the following synopsis for Heir of Strahd.
Journey to the Domains of Dread and face the fearsome Count Strahd von Zarovich in this upcoming official Dungeons & Dragons novel!
Five strangers armed with steel and magic awaken in a mist-shrouded land, with no memory of how they arrived: Rotrog, a prideful orcish wizard; Chivarion, a sardonic drow barbarian; Alishai, an embittered tiefling paladin; Kah, a skittish kenku cleric; and Fielle, a sunny human artificer.
After they barely survive a nightmarish welcome to the realm of Barovia, a carriage arrives bearing an invitation:
Fairest Friends,
I pray you accept my humble Hospitality and dine with me tonight at Castle Ravenloft. It is rare we receive Visitors, and I do so Endeavor to Make your Acquaintance. The Carriage shall bear you to the Castle safely, and I await your Arrival with Pleasure.
Your host,
Strahd von Zarovich
With no alternative, and determined to find their way home, the strangers accept the summons and travel to the forbidding manor of the mysterious count. But all is not well at Castle Ravenloft. To survive the twisted enigmas of Strahd and his haunted home, the adventurers must confront the dark secrets in their own hearts and find a way to shift from strangers to comrades—before the mists of Barovia claim them forever.
Who is “Heir of Strahd” author Delilah S. Dawson?
Delilah S. Dawson is an American author known for her work in speculative fiction, particularly in genres spanning fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Some of her most recognized works include Phasma, a Star Wars novel that explores the origins of the character Captain Phasma, and Kill the Farm Boy, co-written with Kevin Hearne, which satirizes classic fantasy tropes. She is also the author of the Shadow series (which she writes under the pen name Lila Bowen), which earned the 2015 Fantasy Book of the Year from RT Book Reviews. Her work has earned multiple stars from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal.
Dawson is also a prolific comic book writer, having written for a variety of publishers, including Marvel, BOOM! Studios, IDW and DC.
Notably, Dawson is in good company as for the 2024 Forgotten Realms novel The Fallbacks: Bound for Ruin, Wizards of the Coast enlisted New York Times bestselling author Jaleigh Johnson, who is best known for her World of Solace fantasy series and had written a number of other D&D novels.
Similarly, for the Spelljammer novel Memory’s Wake, the publishers brought on Django Wexler an award-winning fantasy author best known for his flintlock fantasy series, The Shadow Campaigns and the young adult series, The Forbidden Library. Wexler had also written for Wizards of the Coast before, including the Magic: The Gathering novel The War of the Spark: Ravnica.
When will the new Ravenloft book be released?
Heir of Strahd is slated for release on May 27th, 2025 in both a hardcover and eBook format. Notably, reviewer copies will likely be available several weeks before then.
Notably, the book is being published under the Random House Worlds, which is an imprint of Random House Books; the former distributor of Dungeons & Dragons products who parted ways with Wizards of the Coast in October 2023.
How much is the new Ravenloft novel?
Heir of Strahd is retailing for $30 USD in hardcover and $14.99 USD for the Kindle eBook. This puts it in about the same price range as recent releases, including August 2024’s Dragonlance novel Dragons of Eternity.
The book will also be available online and from brick and mortar retailers and chances are you’ll also be able to pick it up at any local game stores who carry D&D products.
What other Ravenloft novels have been published?
This isn’t the first time the Domains of Dread have been given a literary treatment. In fact, there are currently 23 published Ravenloft books, most of which were released in the 1990s, with the last official novel published in 2008.
Arguably the most popular among them also feature the legendary vampire Strahd von Zarovich, including the 1991 novel Vampire of the Mists by Christie Golden and the 1993 novel I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire by P.N. Elrod. The bloodsucking count also features prominently in the 1991 novel Knight of the Black Rose, which finds the death knight Lord Soth of Dragonlance fame transported to the Domains of Dread.
Final Thoughts
It’s great to see that Wizards of the Coast is continuing to support the D&D line of novels and featuring the world of Ravenloft. It’s likely that Wizards of the Coast is testing the public’s appetite for these types of books, so it remains to be seen how well it’s received and whether future books will also be appearing through the literary mists.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story and update this page with new information as it’s made available. In the meantime, the upcoming Ravenloft novel 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.
