Stranger Things: Flight of Icarus is out today, the sixth tie-in novel to Netflix’s flagship love letter to ’80s horror. While the previous five novels in the series haven’t made too many waves outside of hardcore Stranger Things fandom, Flight of Icarus has itself a solid hook. Set two years before the events of the show’s most recent season, it fills in a bunch of lovely lore about one of the show’s most beloved characters as he embarks on a side-quest filled with music, mayhem, and Dungeons & Dragons.
Eddie Munson (played by English actor Joseph Quinn) became an instant fan favourite when he was introduced at the start of Season 4 — no small feat when you’re joining an ensemble cast as established as that of Stranger Things. Eddie won hearts left and right as the rebellious metalhead leader of the Hellfire Club (actual purpose: tabletop gaming) who, despite outward appearances, quickly emerged as one of the kindest and noblest characters on the show.
Warning for late-arrival spoilers, but Eddie’s death in the Season 4 finale was decried as a waste of one of the show’s best characters, with even his fitting send-off protecting his young friends marred by the fact that he was still believed to be a satanic murderer by the public at large. There are those who are hoping that Eddie will make a return in some form in the final season regardless; but in the meantime, at least we get a whole novel to fill in more of his backstory — although knowing more about what a sound dude he was is unlikely to make his ultimate fate feel any less tragic.
The novel’s author, Caitlin Schneiderhan, is a safe pair of hands indeed, as she’s actually written for the show itself. She joined the Stranger Things crew as a director’s assistant in season two and was lead writer on the season three episode “The Monster and the Superhero”, before becoming a staff writer throughout season four.
As a member of the Writers Guild of America she was recently seen on the picket lines of the WGA strike carrying a sign making ominous predictions about the wellbeing of Eddie’s fellow fan favourite Steve Harrington, familiar to gamers thanks to his guest fighter appearance in Dead By Daylight. Now that a deal has been reached between the studios and the WGA, though, it seems that Steve is once again as safe as he’s likely to get in the show’s final season.
Meanwhile, the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is definitely happening, a small miracle in itself given Netflix’s propensity to cancel every show one season before its planned conclusion. It’s off to a slow start thanks to a combination of factors, though, including the aforementioned labour disputes, as well as the fact that they’re still working out how to get a bunch of college-aged actors to convincingly portray wide-eyed tweens one last time. (Seriously, even the actor playing the kid sister is 17 now. Heck, the baby’s 11!)
Stranger Things: Flight of Icarus by Caitlin Schneiderhan is out today in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats, with a paperback release expected on 30th July 2024 according to publisher Penguin. Joseph Quinn doesn’t perform the audiobook version, sadly, although the production does star a good soundalike in the form of veteran narrator and True Detective alum Lee Osorio.
