Weis and Hickman Reveal Cover, Release Date for Dragonlance War Wizard Novel

The cover for Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's War Wizard dropped last week, and it's doing more work than most Dragonlance covers have in years. Illustrated by Stephen Youll, a multiple Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists nominee whose work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian and who was named Artist Guest of Honor at the 2001 World Science Fiction Convention, the image places Magius and Huma Dragonbane together at the center of the frame, facing down an Ogre and a mercenary drawn directly from the novel's story. According to Weis, both male protagonists are prominently featured, something fans have already praised as a deliberate and welcome choice.

The red robe carries weight. Magius was born in Solamnia, a nation that despised and distrusted mages, and his prominent placement in the foreground signals where the story's center of gravity sits. Alongside Huma Dragonbane, the pairing represents one of Dragonlance's most mythologized partnerships: the friendship whose eventual culmination, the defeat of the Queen of Darkness, would make both names legendary across Krynn. The cover's action framing, two heroes squaring off against an Ogre and a mercenary, reinforces the Third Dragon War setting without leaning on the familiar iconography of the Chronicles. This is an earlier, rawer Krynn, and Youll's composition reflects it.

War Wizard is the first volume in a planned trilogy. The 352-page hardcover is scheduled for release on August 4, 2026, from Random House Worlds, an imprint of Penguin Random House. The series was announced at Gen Con in August 2024 under the name Dragonlance Legacies, with the series title later updated to match the opening volume. The two follow-up novels are expected to be titled Sword and Flame and The Exile. The story follows Magius and Huma from birth through their teenage years, set roughly 1,400 years before the War of the Lance, and concludes prior to their deaths in 1018 PC.

Richard A. Knaak previously explored Huma's story in The Legend of Huma, and questions about how this new telling would handle established lore followed quickly after the announcement. Weis answered in three words: "This is our story."

Returning to Krynn at all required clearing significant wreckage first. In October 2020, Weis and Hickman filed suit against Wizards of the Coast over an alleged breach of contract involving a planned Dragonlance trilogy to be published by Penguin Random House, with damages sought initially topping $30 million. The lawsuit was eventually settled, but the dispute had already produced more than a decade with no new Dragonlance novels. Weis and Hickman returned with the Dragonlance Destinies trilogy before the War Wizard announcement, and in October 2025 both authors appeared alongside actor and D&D superfan Joe Manganiello at Wizards of the Coast headquarters in Seattle, the most visible sign yet of a repaired relationship.

Weis and Hickman published Dragons of Autumn Twilight, their first Dragonlance novel, in 1984, and have since collaborated on over thirty novels across multiple fantasy worlds. War Wizard reaches back 1,400 years before their most celebrated work to find out who Huma and Magius were before the world knew their names.