In exciting news for fans of Baldur’s Gate 3, a new prequel novel has now been announced, focused on the character played in the game by Neil Newbon.
The spin-off book, titled Baldur’s Gate 3: Astarion, has been written by T Kingfisher, and will be published by Random House Worlds on 29 September 2026. Not only that, but Newbon will reprise his role as Astarion for the audiobook.
The synopsis for the book says: “This prequel novel follows the beloved character Astarion during his time in servitude to the vampire lord Cazador Szarr in the years leading up to the events of the video game.
“Subsequent to its completion, Stephen Rooney, one of the senior writers of Baldur’s Gate 3, was consulted to ensure the novel’s authenticity within the game’s world and lore.”
For background, it has been established in the games that Cazador Szarr carved up Astarion’s back and broke him both mentally and physically, taking him to the darkest of places.
Excitingly, this isn’t the only Baldur’s Gate 3 book that is on the way, with other releases filling the gap before the sequel TV series arrives.
Random House Worlds will be bringing us Baldur’s Gate 3: The Necromancy of Thay, which will be released on 21 July 21. This is a blank, grid-paper notebook that is a faithful reproduction of the Necromancy of Thay, an important quest item found in the game.
Meanwhile, Ten Speed Press will publish The Official Baldur’s Gate 3 Colouring Book on 11 August 2026, illustrated by Jaki King and featuring 40 black-and-white line drawings of characters, creatures, and settings from Baldur’s Gate 3. The same publishers are also bringing us Feast for a Tenday: The Official Baldur’s Gate Cookbook, which will be released on 3 November 3 2026.
Last year, Newbon spoke with us about his new game Starfinder: Afterlight, which he called “an isometric roleplay game set in the world of Paizo’s amazing Starfinder 2e edition rule set.”
He continued: “If you don’t know what Starfinder is, that is a spiritual successor to Pathfinder, which is a spin-off itself from Dungeons & Dragons, but it’s not the same thing.
“It is a high-concept fantasy sci-fi drama. I actually think of Starfinder as a bit of a Western. But it’s a fantastic roleplay system. And you get to live out your life as heroes, fighting some unknown thing, to maybe save the universe… maybe. Or just have snacks. One of the two.”
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