More spin-off novels set in Avatar: The Last Airbender are coming our way in a new series titled Avatar Legends. The series will focus on “the unsung heroes” throughout both Avatar and The Legend of Korra with the first set to be released this summer from Book of Tea author Judy I. Lin.
Titled Avatar Legends: City of Echoes, the book will focus on Jin, a character who briefly appeared in the second season of the animated series as a resident of the Earth Kingdom city Ba Sing Se. She was introduced in the episode ‘Tales of Ba Sing Se’ as a frequent customer of Iroh and Zuko’s tea shop during their time posing as refugees from the war against the Fire Nation. She and Zuko went on a date, though nothing romantic developed further.
“Surprise! I am writing a book set in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe!” Lin said in a statement on her website. “It’s part of a series about the unsung heroes in the ATLA and Legend of Korra animated series. It’s called Avatar Legends: City of Echoes and it will be coming your way on July 22, 2025. Yes, that’s right. This summer! I can’t wait to share more about it with you very soon! Remember to sign-up for my newsletter below if you want updates in your inbox.”
The novel will explore Jin’s backstory as Ba Sing Se becomes a totalitarian state, controlled by its secret police as it tries pretending the war against the Fire Nation does not exist and keeping its King as a puppet figurehead. City of Echoes will see Jin trying to navigate the tension within the city and protect the family who took her in when they get into trouble with the city’s underworld. The official synopsis reads:
There is no war outside of these walls.
This is what the citizens of Ba Sing Se are told to believe, but Jin knows better. As a refugee whose parents were killed by the Fire Nation, she is haunted by her past. Now, she does her best to keep her head down in the Lower Ring, caring for her ailing grandfather and balancing school with survival. Her one bright spot is her best friend Susu, whose family treats Jin like one of their own, and whose bakery she helps make deliveries for.
Her world shatters when Susu’s father gambles away the bakery and Susu is forced to take a contract in the Upper Ring to pay off the family’s debt. Jin vows to help her friend—no matter what it takes. A chain of events fueled by her desperate promise leads Jin to Xuan, an arrogant boy from the Middle Ring with ties to the Silver Fangs, a major player in the city’s black market. The deeper Jin delves into her double life, the more she learns about Susu’s own entanglement in a conspiracy darker and more dangerous than she could have imagined.
As whispers swirl of the Avatar’s presence within the city’s walls, the Fire Nation creeps ever closer. With Ba Sing Se teetering on the brink of revolution, Jin must defy the powerful forces that control her city and risk everything for the friend she’s determined to save.
This is the latest expansion of the Avatar franchise. In addition to Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the animated series and other spin-off novels of previous Avatars, Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon are developing three animated Avatar: The Last Airbender films with the first to focus on Aang in the years between The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra.
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