Read the first chapter of the new Lara Croft novel

Crystal Dynamics released the first chapter of its upcoming novel, “Lara Croft and the Blade of Gwynnever”, just two weeks ahead of its Sep. 13 launch date.

“Lara Croft and the Blade of Gwynnever”, written by Dan Abnett, alongside the developers at Crystal Dynamics, comes in at 352 pages. The official synopsis, spotted on publisher Prima Games’ hub, reads as follows:

“After a ruthless competitor beats her in a race to recover a priceless antiquity in Sri Lanka, Lara Croft returns home to London. Nursing her bruises, she gets a call from an old friend in desperate need of help and learns that something truly strange has been discovered during a excavation beneath the City of London. Investigating, Lara witnesses something so spectacular it could rewrite the history of the British Isles—and perhaps even the world—but is drawn into a dangerous shadow world of espionage, conspiracy and black market trafficking. There’s too much at stake. Lara sets off on a globe-trotting mission to recover a precious antiquity that links the modern world to ancient myths and legends, as old foes and new threats gather to stop her finding the truth. What is the true secret of the blade, who can she really trust, and is this the one mission even she can’t survive?”

Unlike Abnett’s last Tomb Raider novel, “Tomb Raider: The Ten Thousand Immortals”, “Lara Croft and the Blade of Gwynnever” does not follow the rebooted game series’ canon, but instead acts as a standalone entry under the “classic Lara Croft” umbrella, which includes arcade titles, such as Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, as well as comics, such as the “Lara Croft and the Frozen Omen” series published by Dark Horse comics.

You can preview “Lara Croft and the Blade of Gwynnever” right now over on the Official Tomb Raider Blog.

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