Minecraft Dungeons II: The Rift Novel

On September 1, 2026 — four weeks before Minecraft Dungeons II launches — Random House Worlds published Minecraft Dungeons II: The Rift by Caleb Zane Huett, with Mojang AB on the cover line. It is a licensed prequel novel, about 256 pages in hardcover (ISBN 9780593976678), with an audiobook the same day. This page exists because search will mix the book, The Sift dimension, and a fake “rift dungeon” walkthrough into one result. They are not the same object.

The novel is not a patch. It is not Deluxe DLC. It does not contain a cape code. It will not teach you the Enchantsmith. If you came here for jump attacks and minecarts, go back to Getting Started. If you came here because a bookstore email said “Minecraft Dungeons II” on September 1, you are in the right tab.

What the publisher actually says

Official jacket copy frames the book as an epic Minecraft adventure and a prequel to Minecraft Dungeons II. The Overworld looks fine until it does not. Glowing mobs that feel “not of this world” appear outside a village. The illagers are supposed to be gone. A boy named Harlow is convinced the strangeness is tied to the disappearance of his best friend, Iliana. His search leaves the village, runs through tunnels, and dumps him into an illager base. After a narrow escape he has more questions: how the illagers are back, what they want with these new mobs, and what waits in an ancient city and in a “wondrous dimension of peace and calm.”

That last phrase is why this wiki files the book under Updates instead of Guides. The game’s public dimension is The Sift — strange, beautiful, and full of threats, reached through Overworld rifts. The novel’s jacket talks about a calm dimension and an ancient city. Those may rhyme with the Deep Dark / rift story the trailers are selling. They may also be book-only geography. This page will not collapse them into one spoiler map.

What the book is for

• Flavour for people who like Mojang’s tie-in novels more than inventory grids.
• A story-shaped hint at why rifts and soul-looking mobs are in the marketing.
• Something to finish on the couch while you wait for 08:00 UTC on September 29.

Ages listed in trade copy sit around 10 and up. It is a kids’ adventure novel, not a strategy guide. Do not expect named enchant books, Copper Monstrosity phase charts, or a Brave Haven street map. Harlow and Iliana are book protagonists. Valorie, Kellen, Ren, and Flores are the Dungeons hero skins on the Deluxe art. Mixing those casts into one “canon party” is fan work, not store copy.

Caleb Zane Huett is a novelist and game designer in Athens, Georgia. He has other Minecraft-adjacent books (the Ironsword Academy series). That resume does not make this novel a design document. Treat it as licensed fiction sitting next to the game, the way the 2020 Dungeons novels sat next to the original.

What the book is not

• Not a walkthrough. Beating the Copper Monstrosity still happens in a tower on Rainy Plains, not on page 140.
• Not a cape. Hero, Twisted, Soul, Corrupted Creeper, and the TBA Special cape are on capes and cosmetics. The hardcover does not unlock them.
• Not Deluxe. DLC 1 and 2 are still unscheduled packs inside a $49.99 SKU. See Deluxe Edition.
• Not The Sift guide. The August 20 gameplay trailer is the visual for the playable dimension. The novel is prose about a character walking into a dimension. Read both if you want. Do not replace one with the other.
• Not required. You can land in Brave Haven on September 29 without reading a word of Harlow’s trip. The game will still have a jump button.

Light spoiler policy

Jacket copy is fair game: missing friend, glowing otherworldly mobs, illagers returning, ancient city, a calmer dimension. Plot turns past that sentence stay in the book. This wiki’s job is to stop you from thinking the novel is DLC, not to recap every chapter so you can skip the hardcover.

If later official interviews say “the book is set six months before the Sift opens,” we will add that sentence here with a source. Until then, “prequel” is the only timeline claim we will make.

How to buy it without mixing SKUs

Hardcover list price in US trade copy is about $19. Ebook and audiobook exist on the usual storefronts (Random House, bookstore chains, library apps). Regional prices vary. This is a book purchase, not a Microsoft Store add-on. Buying Deluxe does not mail you the novel. Buying the novel does not add Blub to your hero.

If a listing is still marked pre-order after September 1, that is a retailer warehouse lag, not a delay of the game. The game date is still September 29. Confirm on the release date page, not on a bookstore ETA.

Where to go next

• Want the playable rift: The Sift.
• Want the public timeline of trailers and gamescom: Updates hub.
• Want to spend money on the game, not the book: pre-order.
• Want official URLs: links.

The novel is a side door into the same crisis the trailers are shouting about. Walk through it if you like reading. Walk past it if you would rather practise a dodge roll. Either way, Brave Haven still opens on September 29.