D&D General Random House Announces Three New Licensed Dungeons & Dragons Books

Random House opened pre-orders for three new licensed Dungeons & Dragons books coming later this year. The first is A Long Rest for Little Monsters (Dungeons & Dragons) written by Brittany Ramirez and illustrated by Shane Clester, which will be part of the classic children’s book line Little Golden Book. From the product description:

Little ones can meet iconic monsters from Dungeons & Dragons in this adorable rhyming Little Golden Book!

Colorful dragons settle down for the night.
No matter what color—blue, green, black, or white!
Red dragons curl up, protecting their gold,
While white dragons lie outside in the cold!

Little dungeon masters will meet dragons, owlbears, beholders, and more as they all get ready for bed in this fun, rhyming Little Golden Book. Perfect for adventurers ages 2 to 5 as well as Dungeons & Dragons fans and Little Golden Book collectors of all ages!

Little Golden Books enjoy nearly 100% consumer recognition. They feature beloved classics, hot licenses, and new original stories . . . the classics of tomorrow.

The 24-page hardcover is available for pre-order now for a retail price of $5.99 and an expected release date of January 23, 2024.

And for just about the complete opposite, we will also get later this summer Puncheons & Flagons: The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cocktail Book [A Cocktail and Mocktail Recipe Book] by Andrew Wheeler and “Official Dungeons & Dragons Licensed”. From the product description:

Complement any game night with 75 deliciously clever Dungeons & Dragons-themed cocktails and bar bites to sustain any group of players for any time of day.

Entertain fabulously while you adventure in your next D&D campaign! Puncheons & Flagons is a delightful and fun-filled cocktail and snacks book filled with fare that would be served up at your character’s favorite tavern, inn, or market along the Sword Coast. All seventy-five dishes, created by a professional recipe developer, are easy to prepare and provide everything you need for hosting and entertaining with D&D flair.

Dishes are organized by in-world drinking establishment and by base ingredient with options for every occasion—especially game nights!—including:

• Adventurous cocktails such as Necromancer and Hand of Vecna
• Batch cocktails such as Candlekeep Tea and Faerie Fire
• Nonalcoholic concoctions such as Mourning Cup and Baldurian Tonic
• Tasty morsels such as Luiric Rarebit and High Sun Florentines

Drink up!

The 192-page hardcover is available for pre-order for a retail price of $29.99 for the hardcover and $14.99 for the Kindle ebook edition with an expected release date of August 27, 2024.

Finally coming this summer is Dungeons & Dragons: Spelljammer: Memory’s Wake by Django Wexler. This makes the first solo Spelljammer novel for Dungeons & Dragons since 1993. From the product description:

A Dungeons & Dragons novel set in the Spelljammer universe

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.

Dungeons & Dragons: Spelljammer: Memory’s Wake is available for pre-order for $28.99 in hardcover, $14.99 in Kindle ebook, and $35.00 for the audio book with a scheduled release date of July 2, 2024.

Note: All links to Amazon in this article are affiliate links which provide a small commission of the purchase price of any products purchased by clicking the links to the author of this article.

 

[Distracted DM]

Is anyone familiar with the author of the Spelljammer book? I'm pretty interested in that.

 

[Abstruse]

Is anyone familiar with the author of the Spelljammer book? I'm pretty interested in that.

This is the bio from Random House's website:

About the Author​

Django Wexler is a self-proclaimed computer/fantasy/sci-fi geek. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with degrees in creative writing and computer science, worked in artificial intelligence research and as a programmer/writer for Microsoft, and is now a full-time fantasy writer. Django is the author of the Shadow Campaigns, an epic fantasy series for adults published by Roc (an imprint of Penguin), and the Forbidden Library, a classic fantasy series for young readers published by Kathy Dawson Books (an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group).

He also wrote the "flintlock fantasy" series The Shadow Campaigns, the YA fantasy The Forbidden Library, two Magic: The Gathering novels, and a Star Wars short story plus a few other odds and ends over the last decade.

 

[humble minion]

Is anyone familiar with the author of the Spelljammer book? I'm pretty interested in that.

He can legitimately write. I loved the Shadow Campaigns books, even though the final one in the series didn't quite stick the landing. I'll be buying this book cos of his name attached to it, for what it's worth.

 

[EthanSental]

I probably end up getting the audible version with my monthly audible credit this summer.

 

[sevenbastard]

Spelljammer (Novel) Confirmed!

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Oooh, sign me up for that D&D cocktail book! That is so up my alley.

 

[MNblockhead]

Seeing that classic Golden Book gold spine with a D&D cover gives a wonderfully strange anachronistic feeling to this child of the 70s.

EDIT: Though...since the first 12 Golden Books were published in 1942, my parents probably felt the same way about the There's a Monster at the End of the Book (a Sesame Street story).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Little Golden Books have been doing cool pop culture books for a while now. As I recall, they're doing a Little Golden Book version of Alien this year as well.

I will wait on the reviews of the cocktail book. In my experience, a lot of the themed cocktail books either just rename existing cocktails (boo) or include recipes that need a ton of obscure and expensive ingredients that most people don't have the ability to have on hand (also boo). I think one of the many, many, many existing unlicensed Hobbit cookbooks/cocktail books might be a better way to go for me.

And, despite its issues, obviously WotC feels like Spelljammer was a success, which is interesting. Maybe the chances of a Van Richten's style second book, with more setting information, isn't off the table.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

He can legitimately write. I loved the Shadow Campaigns books, even though the final one in the series didn't quite stick the landing. I'll be buying this book cos of his name attached to it, for what it's worth.

Yeah he's a decent writer who has very human and real characters, if sometimes a little "grimdark". I'm quite surprised to see him writing an SJ book, I really hope they've given him free reign, because he could do a great job with the setting, but if it has to be PG like everything else for D&D of late, it'll be a mess because he's very R-rated to put it mildly.