D&D General 'War Wizard' Is A New Dragonlance Novel From Weis & Hickman

From Penguin Random House, and authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, comes a new Dragonlance novel focused on the early friendship between the red-robed wizard Magius, and the famed Solamnic knight, Huma, two characters who have featured heavily in Dragonlance lore (and notably in Weis & Hickman's recent Dragonlance Destinies novel trilogy which featured some of the Heroes of the Lance traveling back in time to an earlier dragon war).

Dragonlance: War Wizard releases on August 4th, 2026 as a 352-page hardcover, and forms the first in a new trilogy set in the world of Krynn.

The first volume of a new epic trilogy set in the world of Krynn, written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, the creators of Dragonlance.

Vinus Solamnus wrote: The practice of magic is secretive, inherently deceitful, and dishonorable. Those who practice magic are forbidden to enter the knighthood, nor should they be connected to the knighthood in any way.

The boy with a rare gift for magic was born in Solamnia, a nation that despised and distrusted mages. His father tried to beat the magic out of him. The knights threatened him with imprisonment and exile. He endured tragedy and heartbreak. Yet he persisted with his magic, for the sake of the magic.

One friend stood by him when others persecuted him, a young man who was studying for the knighthood. No one could understand this unlikely friendship.

The knight was Huma. The boy took the name, Magius. The two would one day become famous in Solamnic history, fighting together to defeat the Queen of Darkness.

But that future is distant, far down the River of Time.

For now, this is the story of an unlikely friendship that would one day change the world.

The cover art is by Stephen Youll, and according to Margaret Weis features the wizard Magius and his friend the knight Huma confronting an Ogre and a mercenary featured in the story.

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[Dioltach]

So Magius is a sorcerer then, not a wizard? Otherwise I assume he'd have enough INT to stand behind the fighter.

 

[Gambit42]

I like the cover. What I need to know regarding this book series is, does it retcon The Legend of Huma and the masterful work of Mr. Richard A. Knaak? If it does then I have zero interest, if it does not and is just supplementary backstory, then I will likely pick it up.

 

[jerryrice4949]

They tried that and people didn’t like it.

Maybe because they torched the setting into something unrecognizable.

 

[Darth Fistandantilus]

I like the cover. What I need to know regarding this book series is, does it retcon The Legend of Huma and the masterful work of Mr. Richard A. Knaak? If it does then I have zero interest, if it does not and is just supplementary backstory, then I will likely pick it up.

I do like Knaak's writing but I never looked at his works as canon. My definitive version of Huma and Magius are from Dragons of a Vanished Moon and Dragons of Fate. I just wish Weis and Hickman had included Kaz. He was mentioned several times during the War of Souls but was excluded from Dragons of Fate.

 

[dracomilan]

Maybe because they torched the setting into something unrecognizable.

the last trilogy fixed that (everything from Summer Flame on is yet to come, and can be changed), WotC should publish a campaign book starting from that.

 

[GreyLord]

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The cover artist is Stephen Youll per this FB post shared by Margaret Weis:

Margaret Weis

New cover reveal: Random House and Wizards of the Coast asked me to create the cover for a new Dragonlance novel titled War Wizard by authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Book 1 of a new trilogy....

www.facebook.com

So...Huma looks like Pedro Pascal?

 

[DarkCrisis]

Can't wait. Loved the previous book that sort of focused on them

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I don’t think they could not have created new stories with new characters that people would have liked, it’s just that they created stories in which people did not like the direction the world was taken in.

The whole 5th Age with undoing everything the Heroes did just a decade or so after that had happened was not a great idea and born out of a boneheaded move by TSR

You've been corrected on this falsehood once before yet keep posting it, so I'll say it again: the Summer of Chaos and its consequences were Weis and Hickman's idea, not TSR.

(And the decade reference, are you talking in universe or out of universe? Cos Summer Flame is set 30+ years after the Chronicles. It was published 10 years later, yes - after TSR had already well and truly cancelled the RPG)

Given that this split the fanbase and essentially killed DL (along with other TSR missteps) focusing on the past of the setting makes more sense, its ‘future’ (i.e. what happens after the war) is in dire need of a reboot, not a continuation

And you've been corrected on this before as well. This didn't kill the fanbase. The book fanbase continued for many years. The RPG fanbase was never big after the original modules. It was always more of a fiction setting.

What killed it was WoTC nuking its book department.

 

[Gambit42]

I do like Knaak's writing but I never looked at his works as canon. My definitive version of Huma and Magius are from Dragons of a Vanished Moon and Dragons of Fate. I just wish Weis and Hickman had included Kaz. He was mentioned several times during the War of Souls but was excluded from Dragons of Fate.

Margaret Weis Publishing rather extensively references The Legend of Huma (and Kaz) in the official Dragonlance sourcebooks they published in the 2000's (these were the final Dragonlance sourcebooks before Shadow of the Dragon Queen over a decade later). I consider all of that material canon, it is the collective whole of the setting.

 

[mamba]

You've been corrected on this falsehood once before yet keep posting it, so I'll say it again: the Summer of Chaos and its consequences were Weis and Hickman's idea, not TSR.

you may have disagreed with this before, that does not make it a correction though.

TSR wanted the Fifth Age, Weis/Hickman agreed to write the books ending the 4th Age because otherwise TSR would simply have hired someone else to do it and this way they at least had some influence in sending off their characters. TSR also shrunk the planned trilogy to a single book.
So while Weis/Hickman might have had some say in the plot, the destination was set by TSR.

And you've been corrected on this before as well. This didn't kill the fanbase. The book fanbase continued for many years. The RPG fanbase was never big after the original modules. It was always more of a fiction setting.

It split the fanbase. Continuing on with a lot less fans is killing the fanbase, unless you somehow think that means there have to be 0 fans left afterwards

Here is what Weis had to say on the subject

"Weis: When we wrote Dragons of a Summer Flame, everybody figured that was an ending point for Dragonlance. We knew we were going to take the world into a different age, which eventually became the Fifth Age, the Age of Mortals.

But at that point in time, we were doing other things. TSR was doing other things. TSR ended up taking the world into a different direction than we would have. Whether it was good or bad, it was simply different. But TSR not only took the world in a different direction, they also introduced a new gaming system to the world for various reasons.

This ended up splitting Dragonlance fandom. There were those who really liked the Fifth Age. There were those who really liked the Fourth Age, those who liked the new game system, those who liked the old game system. It sort of split everything right down the middle, which to all intents and purposes fractured Dragonlance.

The game wasn't selling very well. The novel sales were dropping. The whole thing was pretty contentious. Then again, TSR was going through more financial difficulties, which eventually ended up with Peter Adkison of Wizards of the Coast buying TSR."

Margaret Weis also does not consider Dragons of Summer Flame canon, which should tell you a lot about how she feels about that book and how much influence she had on it despite being the (co-)author.