Annabel Campbell on The Void Dragon, writing and X-Wings

Annabel Campbell is the author of The Outcast Mage, book one in The Shattered Lands. The book is shortlisted for the Best Fantasy Novel by the British Fantasy Society, and they’ve also shortlisted Annabel as the best newcomer for 2026. With book two, The Void Dragon, publishing on 13 October 2026, we caught up with Annabel to talk about what The Void Dragon is about, the writing process and piloting starships.

Read an extract of book 1,The Outcast Mage here.

Book two of The Shattered Lands will be in readers’ hands very soon. What should readers of The Outcast Mage most look forward to in your sequel, The Void Dragon?

DRAMA. DRAGONS. POOR DECISIONS. REUNIONS. BETRAYAL.

I am actually so excited for people to read this book – there’s so much in book one which was set-up for the events of The Void Dragon. You’ll see our guys from book one very much carrying the scars of events in The Outcast Mage. Haelius, especially, is struggling a lot and has found himself in a terrible situation, and he isn’t doing much to get himself out of it. I love the Star Wars structure of a trilogy, where the second film takes everything from the first film and just sets it on fire (my favourite of the original trilogy is The Empire Strikes Back), so you can expect some absolute disasters.

Entonin’s POV is one of my favourites in this book, because he spends a lot of the book going ‘What the hell, guys??’ while also pining after a certain Dahrani noble. I have also had a lot of fun with dragons in this book – I got to introduce them a little in book one, but they are really here this time, and they’re also causing problems. The world gets a lot bigger and so do our crew’s problems, but most of all I hope people have fun with this book. I had a tremendous amount of fun writing it (mentor vs mentee duel?? Who said that??).

Writing the second book in a trilogy can be tricky for lots of reasons. How have you found writing The Void Dragon? Has your approach to writing changed since The Outcast Mage?

Timing-wise this book was really hard for me, because I’d just had a baby – and it turns out that writing a book around young childcare is hard (who knew?). The book itself was actually fun to write! I’m weird, because I like the middle (endings are harder, in my opinion). I like the fact we’ve introduced everyone, got the reader comfortable, and then KABOOM. Also, I’m kind of an idiot and thought a lot of this book would fit in book one, so it was all already in my head and ready to go. The problem was getting the time to write rather than the story itself, something that I’m sure is familiar to a lot of people.

The way I wrote it was definitely different from book one. I started The Outcast Mage when I was a teenager (a long, long time ago) and then kept coming back to it for literal decades (I promise it’s very different now to the book I wrote when I was fourteen). Suddenly I had to write a book with deadlines, under contract, and with a lot of other life commitments. I planned a lot more this time – tried to make sure I knew what I wanted to happen in each chapter before I sat down to write it. I had to reduce the amount of rewriting I did with the first one. And I think it worked. Again, planning is helpful. Who knew? (It’s like the fact exercise is good for you. It’s true but I really resent it)

The world of The Shattered Lands is a harsh, desert landscape, and Haelius and Naila look set to explore more of the world in this upcoming story. Are there any locations in real life that inspired the world in The Void Dragon?

Oh, I think everywhere in The Void Dragon is inspired a bit by real places. My husband’s family live in Bahrain and I’ve been lucky enough to visit there a lot, so some of the streets of Dahran are inspired by the older streets near Bab Al Bahrain. The palace is inspired by a lot of the incredible architecture from that part of the world, everything centred around these lush courtyards and making the most of the cooler evenings. Awasef and the library are inspired by images of Cappadocia; I love the idea of Amoria being this place that was built at odds with the landscape around it, whereas Awasef really inhabits the mountains it’s built on. There are places inspired by the volcanic landscapes of Tenerife, a temple that is some kind of mixture between Karnak and Petra, and some floating islands that definitely ended up feeling a bit Zelda: Breath of the Wild (okay, not all the places are real).

Which came first: character, world, or plot? And how did that idea grow into what’s made it into a finished book?

Oh, this is a hard question, because The Outcast Mage has been with me for a really long time. The very, very first thing was probably the glass city of Amoria, swiftly followed by this girl who wanted to belong there and wanted to leave at the same time. Then it’s character all the way for me. The mentor character, Haelius, definitely lived in my head almost as long as Naila did. It’s no secret that I love a mentor character, and as a reader I almost always want to see more of these characters. I really wanted a ‘wise’ mentor who was also a mess. He one hundred percent doesn’t have all the answers, though he tries really hard, and the more power he has, the bigger the problems he can create. I didn’t want him to fall in love with his pupil (we’ve had a lot of those) but I did want him to have his own romance, which is also a mess (you can tell he’s my fav because he suffers the most). And then I wanted the mentorship between Naila and Haelius to be something that teaches and changes them both. They have become family to each other, with all the good and the bad that entails, and I promise, we are not at all done with their relationship.

How it grew into a book… that’s a really tough question to answer. A lot of daydreaming, a lot of trying things out, a lot of being stuck for weeks and then going ‘oh oh OH! I got it!’, and a lot of curating exactly the right playlist.

Which three characters from any book would choose to help you in an escape room?

I want to say Sherlock Holmes, but I guess that would utterly ruin the fun of it. Okay, okay, let’s put some of my favourite arrogant wizards in room: Sarkan from Uprooted, Akkarin from The Black Magician trilogy and Pug from Magician, take away their magic and watch them bicker about it.

If you could pilot any starship from Star Wars, which would you choose?

Boring choice maybe, but 100% an X-Wing. Fast, manoeuvrable, working FTL drive. Would also love to have a bash at a Viper from Battlestar Galactica.

What is one trope that hooks you in without fail, even if you’ve read it a dozen times?

Slow-burn romance with a ‘nursing back to health’ scene, particularly if they’re not a proper item yet. Bonus points for a switch in power dynamic. YUM.

The Void Dragon

Praise for The Void Dragon:

‘The Void Dragon is an explosively brilliant sequel. Everything I loved about the first book is here in spades and more: nail-biting stakes, political subterfuge around every corner and emotional betrayals to keep you turning the pages late at night. Stunningly fabulous epic fantasy – I ate up every moment of it!’ Georgia Summers, author of City of Stardust

‘One of my most anticipated sequels, and it absolutely did not disappoint. The Void Dragon does what every excellent sequel should: it sucks you back into a gloriously realised world, with deeply human characters you cannot help but root for and adore, even when you wish you could shake them. Annabel Campbell remains a truly standout voice in disaster mages and the epic fantasy genre, and I am so very thankful this is a trilogy’ Elian J Morgan, author of Princeweaver

Naila has escaped the chaos that engulfed her home city of Amoria, but at a terrible cost. Her allies have splintered and there’s a power growing inside of her that she doesn’t understand. It feels dangerous. It feels hungry.

Hunted by dragonriders, Naila must seek sanctuary at the great library of Awasef. Perhaps here she will find some answers – if they don’t kill her first.

But the land of Dahran is on a knife edge. The Queen’s advisor, the Wazira, is abducting mages and forcing them to join her cause.

Worse still, Haelius Akana – Naila’s friend and the greatest wizard of his age – is among them.

As political conspiracies slide towards civil war, Naila’s power threatens to consume her and everyone she holds dear. Haelius may be the only person who can help her.

But only if he betrays his new master to stand at Naila’s side.