Brandon Mull to Publish New Fantasy Series With Random House Children's Books
Brandon Mull, beloved middle-grade author of the immensely successful Fablehaven, Dragonwatch, and Beyonders series, will publish a new epic fantasy series. It was announced today by Liesa Abrams, VP & Editor-in-Chief of Labyrinth Road, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books.
GUARDIANS: Forbidden Mountain will publish April 7, 2026, with a first printing of 125,000 copies. Abrams acquired North American rights from Simon Lipskar at Writers House; Abrams will edit. The series will launch with an extensive marketing and publicity campaign, including a gift-with-purchase preorder campaign, and an eight-city tour that will take Brandon across the US.
Brandon began his career in 2006 with the mega-successful series Fablehaven, which has sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide and celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2026. Adored by fans all over the globe, the Fablehaven series has received praise from literary giants like Christopher Paolini and Rick Riordan, and since the series’s inception, Brandon has received numerous starred reviews, visited over 2,000 schools, and had eighteen books hit the New York Times bestseller list. Brandon’s books have been praised as sweeping, epic fantasy sagas filled with imaginative world-building, quirky humor, and nonstop action, and his latest series starter is no exception.
Says Brandon Mull: “I try to take readers to new places in my books, and I have never seen anything quite like what I have planned for this series. I hoped to build a world that would make the spiritual dimension of life feel powerful and magical and tell a story where the main character had a distinct inner battle to complement his outward challenges. The Guardians series will only span three novels, but each will be longer than normal for me, packed with a lot of adventures and surprises. I have been planning this story for over ten years, and if I have a masterpiece in me, this will be it.”
Says Liesa Abrams: “Having worked with Brandon Mull on several of his bestselling middle-grade fantasy series, I’m thrilled to be reunited with him to publish his most ambitious and expansive series yet. Brandon has such a beautifully fertile imagination; these books will offer his existing fans and a new generation of readers all of Brandon’s trademark inventive creations, well-seeded plot twists, and epic storytelling.”
In GUARDIANS: Forbidden Mountain, every Anoran child bonds with a guardian—a spiritual guide who grants magically enhanced abilities. A lucky few bond with Advocates, who promise greatness and glory, while others are tempted by forbidden offers from the Accursed—dangerous spirits who bring nothing but destruction and a penalty of death to any Anoran who chooses them. But when Mako discovers that the worst of these agents of chaos has returned to spread an ancient evil through the empire, he faces an unthinkable choice: Will he bond with one of the Accursed to gain the power to stop another? Meanwhile, halfway across the empire, Arden has no guardian and no prospects of adventure . . . until she infiltrates an underground criminal network to rescue her missing friend, finding herself at the center of a sinister conspiracy that runs much deeper than she ever imagined. Soon Mako’s and Arden’s fates collide, and together they must face bandit armies, dark secrets, and untold dangers to fight an enemy who could destroy all they’ve ever known.
In addition to publishing Brandon’s latest series, as of April 1, 2026, Labyrinth Road will be the new home of Brandon’s Fablehaven and Dragonwatch paperbacks, just in time for the film adaptation of Fablehaven, which Angel Studios is set to produce and distribute in 2026, per Variety.
GUARDIANS: Forbidden Mountain will publish on April 7, 2026, as a deluxe first-edition hardcover featuring stunning sprayed edges; it will also be available as an ebook and audiobook.