The First Wave: "Lights Out"

A powerful electromagnetic pulse is emitted by the Others, causing the immediate failure of all technology. Planes crash, cellphones go out, and automobiles cease function. The estimated death toll is about 500,000.

The Second Wave: "Surf's Up"

Due to the large concentration of the human population within close proximity to coastlines, the Others drop large metal rods "twice as tall as the Empire State Building and three times as heavy" onto the earth's major fault lines. The resulting tsunamis obliterate every ocean front and raise sea levels dramatically. The estimated death toll is roughly 40% of the surviving population.

The Third Wave: "Pestilence"

Using the earth's birds as carriers, the Others spread a deadly virus thought to be a modified strain of Ebola. As the virus progresses, symptoms slowly deteriorate from a fever and cough to profuse bleeding from every orifice. The Pestilence claims an estimated 97% of the remaining survivors.

The Fourth Wave: "Silencers"

After being "implanted" by the Others prior to the Arrival, people infested with alien consciousnesses are tasked with killing the remaining humans.

After the first four waves decimate the human population, those who remain are terrified and desperately clinging to hope. As humanity awaits the arrival a new Fifth Wave, one that will supposedly wipe the human race off the planet, distrust is sown as people realize the existence of fifth column imposters in their midst, imposters intent on thwarting any possible plan for human retaliation.

The 5th Wave

The 5th Wave is the first book in the series and was released on May 7, 2013.

The book opens in the midst of the Fourth Wave and follows sixteen year old Cassie Sullivan, starting inside of Camp Ashpit, where infested humans mimicking U.S. Army drive away with her little brother, five-year-old Sammy. Cassie promises to find Sammy and keep their father safe. Minutes later, Lieutenant Colonel Vosch shoots their father in the head and blows Camp Ashpit off the map with a green extraterrestrial bomb. The unkept promise hangs over her head as she travels. The unknown fifth wave is coming. Humans aren't human anymore. When she comes across a soldier in a gas station, she kills him, mistaking his crucifix for a weapon. Not long after that, Cassie is shot by an Other-affiliated sniper, a "Silencer". She hides in the back of a van as a blizzard hits, bleeding out and clutching Sam's stuffed animal named Bear.

Meanwhile, Sammy arrives at Wright-Patterson AFB, which is now a "training camp" called Camp Haven. It is revealed over the course of the story that the soldiers are recruiting (truly, abducting) children into an army, telling them they are the last hope for fighting back against the Others. After a medical check every recruit is plugged into a piece of stolen alien technology called Wonderland. The program downloads all of their memories and maps the person's personality. Sammy is placed in Squad 53 with Flintstone, Tank, Dumbo, Poundcake, Oompa, Teacup, and Ben Parish, who is coincidentally Cassie's long-lost crush from high school. Now called Zombie, after surviving the 3rd wave virus, Ben has rebranded from his high school days under the advice of Colonel Vosch. Zombie takes Sammy under his wing immediately. Defending Sammy against the verbal assault of their Sergeant Reznik on his first day earns Ben Sam's loyalty and Flintstone's animosity as he is usurped as Squad Leader in favor of Zombie. While they train, Sam is coined Nugget for his small size.

Miles away and nearly dead, Cassie is rescued by Evan Walker. The too-good-to-be-true hero nurses her back to health and agrees to help her find her brother. But it is not a quick process; after taking a bullet to the leg Cassie has to relearn to walk. She's in no shape to take on a military compound for quite some time, during which she starts to notice off things about Evan Walker. After the two set out, Cassie and Evan are attacked by a squad from Wright-Patterson, and, after seeing how easily Evan dispatches them, Cassie makes him admit that he was the Silencer who originally shot her. He then helped her because he had fallen in love after reading her diary and couldn't bring himself to kill her. The two, though uneasily, begin to coordinate a plan to extract Sammy.

At Camp Haven, Tank goes Dorothy. The term is used to describe kids who break under the pressure of Camp Haven, often turning their weapons on their own squads. After threatening Nugget with his rifle, Flintstone and Zombie knock Tank out and report him to Reznik for a psychological evaluation. Later, Dumbo finds Tank's body in the Processing and Disposal hangar. He was assumed to have purposefully overdosed in the hospital.

On their first deployment Nugget gets reassigned to another squad due to his age. Zombie promises he'll come back and gives Nugget his little sister's necklace. Seven-year-old Teacup is just old enough to depart for the mission. Things go wrong quickly after they land. Oompa is killed by shrapnel after Zombie blows up a tanker truck. Flint is vomiting from anxiety, Teacups in shock due to a bullet wound. Dumbo is doing everything in his power as medic to save them. In a last ditch effort to take out a sniper Poundcake is left to defend Squad 53 and distract the Others assaulting them. Zombie and Ringer break away to sneak into the Silencer's building. Once away from the group, Ringer threatens to kill Zombie if he doesn't remove the implanted tracker from her neck. When he does Zombie is horrified to see she registers as an infested in his eyepiece. He allows her to remove his own tracker as they start to piece together their true purposes. They find out the Silencer who shot Teacup is Sargent Reznik and kill him. It is revealed that the Others are masquerading as a resistance force, abducting and training the children into a fighting force. Wright-Patterson is actually run by the Others. Ben and Ringer decide to bolt with the rest of Squad 53, but a disbelieving Flintstone uses the tracking device taken from Reznik and accidentally commits suicide using his own kill-switch.

Despite protest and the urge to leave Camp Haven in the dust, Zombie insists on going back for Sammy. The promise hanging over his head feels too much like the little sister he abandoned to die.

Using the knowledge given to her by Evan Walker, Cassie pretends to be younger than she truly is and infiltrates Camp Haven in the same manner her brother did: a yellow school bus. Before leaving Evan in the woods, she made him promise not to interfere because she'd have to get in and out without raising any alarms. She goes through the same process: a medical check and tracker implantation. She knew what came after this: Wonderland, where her entire mission would be mapped out to the enemy. So she fights and strangles Dr. Pam with a strap, then cuts out her tracker. Just as Evan instructed, she places it into Dr. Pam's broken nose. Then, Cassie attempts to use Wonderland to find Sammy. She fails. Plan B. She puts on a white jump suit and returns to find Dr. Pam awake. Despite Cassie's warning she activates Cassie's kill switch. Dr. Pam is the second accidental suicide of the book.

Upon the doctors death her implant would notify personnel. Alarms would sound. Mission failed. She and Evan had never formulated a Plan C. But Cassie isn't quick to give up. She remembers the barracks on the ground level to be where recruits were kept. After an incident with Vosch she learns Evan has killed three people on the base so far. He broke his promise. She crawls into an air vent in an attempt to go undetected, and ends up over the armory where soldiers are wheeling many of the green bombs that demolished Camp Ashpit away. She waits for them leave the area using the stolen handheld of Dr. Pam's that displays everyone's location, the dips from the air ducts and into the armory where she dresses and arms herself like the other recruits on the base.

Ben is escorted in by a Blackhawk, his bullet wound stitched up and his pain lessened by medication. He wakes up to Vosch and a slew of questions about his team, why they went Dorothy. Ben says he shot Flint and fled from the others after they killed Reznik, made a compassioned plea that Vosch didn't seem to believe. It didn't matter what he believed though, as soon as the pain medications wore off they'd run Zombie through Wonderland. Instead, he knocks out a hospital aid and cuts the new tracker out. Steals a doctor's outfit and escapes the hospital just in time to see the first bomb go off.

A few levels below Cassie feels the bomb and runs away from the armory, following the sounds of children's screams. She has to kill an officer on her way, but she eventually finds a room full of children ages six and young. In that mass: Sammy. She takes him and moves, planning to tell anyone who asks that's he's got the plague and needs to be sent to the hospital. That's fine, until a doctor comes down the hall. Both Ben and Cassie draw on each other, but recognize each other at the last second. And though neither trusts the other, they take off for the surface. Until Vosch stops them. He taunts Cassie by pretending to kill Sam, and then leaves them to find Evan. They're left with two Silencers, but Evan drops a bug from the air vent that cues Cassie into action. After a slight struggle, the four are running again towards the surface level of the base. Evan is able to navigate them up many flights of stairs until it turns into barely navigable rocks and debris. Then he breaks away and goes back into the base, leaving Cassie with only cryptic answers to her questions. Once she's on the surface with her brother, Nugget, she realizes Evan's plan is to blow up the compound.

The three narrowly escape the bombs, had Ringer and the rest of Squad 53 not appeared in a Humvee to save them. They all leave Camp Haven behind, now a smoking crater. Evan Walker lost in its wake.

The book was adapted into a film by J Blakeson and Columbia Pictures, under the title The 5th Wave and was released on January 22, 2016. After box office performance was poorer than expected and heavy criticism as of January 11, 2022, there have been no further talks in making a sequel. However, Sony has not officially confirmed its cancellation of the movie series.^[4][5]

The Infinite Sea

The Infinite Sea is the second installment in the series, released on September 16, 2014.

The book becomes much more involved with the members of Squad 53 and the character Ringer. The group takes refuge in an old hotel near the ruins of Wright-Patterson, at Cassie's insistence that Evan is still alive. Ringer sets out to find an alternate route, though it goes awry when she mistakes Teacup, a small girl of the squad, for a Silencer, shoots her, and is taken by an approaching helicopter. Evan is revealed to have survived, having been rescued by another Silencer named Grace. Evan attempts to kill Grace after he finds out she is hunting Cassie, and though he fails, he manages to flee during an attack by hidden assailants. Evan finds the hotel Cassie is stationed at, though he is shot and knocked out in a misunderstanding with Squad 53. Cassie tends to him, while Ben angrily awaits his awakening. Later, a helicopter quickly flies over the hotel, and then a small girl, whom Sammy identifies as one Megan, appears. Evan wakes up and warns them that she is rigged with a bomb that explodes when it comes into contact with human breath. Evan and Cassie extract the bomb from Megan's throat. Grace appears and, after a violent confrontation, is killed when Private Poundcake detonates the bomb near her, also killing himself and destroying the hotel.

The second part of the story follows Private Ringer. She is taken to a base somewhere, similar to Wright-Patterson, and meets the alive-and-well Colonel Vosch. Vosch constantly thwarts her with mind games and preaches to her a philosophy that "rage is not the answer". She semi-befriends a recruit called Razor, who is aware that Vosch and the staff of the base are indeed the Others. Vosch installs Ringer with a piece of technology, the "twelfth system", that enhances her strength. He also reveals to Ringer that Silencers were never actually Others, just humans planted with fake memories and enhanced by the twelfth system with a link to the alien Mothership. It is concluded that there are only dozens of true Others in the world, and that the Mothership is the last remnant of their society programmed with the goal of eradicating humans. Ringer and Razor attempt to escape, though Razor secretly conspired with Vosch, and they were being monitored the entire time. Ringer learns, neutralizes Razor, and runs off, but not fast enough to evade Vosch, who incapacitates her. Razor is ordered to rejuvenate Ringer, though he does more and the two sleep together in a rough, hazy love. When they arrive back on base, Razor kills Teacup, whom Vosch used as a bargaining chip, in order to set Ringer free. Razor is shot dead, and Ringer escapes the base.

As the novel closes, Cassie and Squad 53 recover from the bomb that destroyed the hotel, when Evan, weak and exhausted, emerges from the woods.

The book was noted for its dark appeal and was released to the same good reception as its predecessor.

The Last Star

The Last Star, the third and final book in The 5th Wave series, was released on May 24, 2016.

The Fifth Wave is still commencing, or so the characters believe. Ringer and Evan know that once Vosch and the other few Others are withdrawn from the surface, the Mothership will drop massive bombs on the surface to obliterate any trace of humanity left on Earth. Cassie and Squad 53 settle in the dead Silencer Grace's former home. Ringer returns to Vosch knowing that he will kill Ben Parish and the rest of Squad 53 if she does not kill the persistently rebellious Evan Walker for him. She takes a helicopter to the town that the squad stationed themselves in and is attacked by a Silencer. She is met by Ben after the Silencer is killed, and the two head to the house. Ringer immediately attempts to kill Evan, but they are interrupted by an incoming helicopter. Evan realizes why Ringer intended to kill him and he submits and is taken.

The group devises a plan to not only save Evan but to end the Others permanently. Cassie and Ringer infiltrate the base via a hijacked helicopter. Ringer detonates several bombs to incite chaos on the base, and, after many complications, they reach the command center of the base. Ben, having stayed behind to protect Sam and Megan, is attacked by a patrol and the three are taken back to the base. Cassie and Ringer attempt to find Evan's data on the CPU to locate him, though they do not know how to sift through each cell individually, and so Cassie downloads the data of every logged person to her own head to find it. She learns everything there is to know about anything who was ever downloaded in the CPU, and she learns the codes and layout of the base. Evan arrives, now completely devoid of humanity at the hands of the twelfth system. He fights Ringer and disables her easily. However, he walks into a trap when Cassie drops a live electric cable on the wet surface beneath him (as a result of the sprinkler system). Ringer wakes up to see Vosch, who has become attached to her and wishes to bring her with him in his extraction pod. The conversation is only a decoy from Ringer, allowing Cassie to shoot and kill him from behind. Cassie then uses the knowledge she gained to open Vosch's escape pod and she ascends into the sky. Ringer gets ahold of a device from Vosch that will electrocute any soldier with a tracking implant in them. Without much else of a choice, she activates it. Ben, Sam, and Megan dive out of their helicopter as the soldiers and pilot die, and they realize Cassie and Ringer must still be alive.

Cassie, now ascending to the Mothership, has a chance to glimpse the memories that she now has from tens of thousands of people. She begins to truly think about what humanity is worth, when the pod nears the Mothership. She takes out an explosive pill from her pocket that Vosch originally gave to Ringer so she could kill herself rather than be destroyed in the bombs of the Fifth Wave. She bites down on the pill, and the Mothership explodes. Ben and the kids witness this to their sorrow and delight. They enter the base and find Ringer paralyzed on the floor.

Sometime later, the group has settled down in a house in Marble Falls, with Ben and Ringer raising Sam and Megan like their own children, and Evan (the twelfth system having kept him alive, and the group having restored his memories and humanity with the CPU) watches over them. Seeing no future for himself there, he sets off away from the four, on a mission to kill every single Silencer and Fifth Waver there is left in the world.

Main characters

Cassiopeia "Cassie" Marie Sullivan - the main protagonist of the series. Her namesake is the constellation Cassiopeia. Both of her parents died in the first four waves. Her younger brother Sammy is taken by The Others to a "training camp" called Camp Haven, formerly, Wright-Patterson AFB. She is seventeen years old and is described as a short, strawberry-blonde girl with average features.

Evan Walker - a farm boy from rural Ohio. All of his family and girlfriend were killed in the Third Wave by the Red Death. Earlier in his life at a carnival, he meets Grace, who is the only person he finds to be like him, an Other. He saves Cassie after she is shot by an Other sniper, the "Silencer". Cassie soon finds out that Evan is actually an Other and not truly human. He is described as being a tall boy, at least eighteen or nineteen years old, being very muscular with chocolate-brown hair. Cassie also notes his soft hands. He develops strong feelings for Cassie, and so does she. Though, these feelings are strained when Cassie learns that Evan is an Other. Evan is rescued by Grace, who tries to seduce him, but, after they are attacked and Grace is wounded, he makes his way to Cassie. Grace, however, follows him there. A confrontation ensues, after which Poundcake blows up the hotel after Evan was left behind in the hotel, and it is not clear if Evan survives. However, at the end of The Infinite Sea, he emerges from the woods to find Cassie.

Benjamin "Ben" Thomas Parish or "Zombie" - the varsity quarterback of the football team at Cassie's school. Cassie secretly was in love with him. His family was killed during the first four waves by a group of psychotic looters. He is crushed by the fact that he ran while his baby sister was killed. He keeps a locket with a photo of her. He becomes a member of Camp Haven's makeshift army, not knowing that they are The Others (though he eventually finds out), taking the nickname "Zombie". After one of his squadmates goes crazy, or "Dorothy", Private Ringer replaces him. He obsesses with getting her to smile. Cassie describes him as overall gorgeous.

Marika "Ringer" - a member of Squad 53. Her father was an Atheist and a chess player. He taught her how to play. Marika's father was usually drunk. Her father is infected with the Red Death and dies of the disease. Marika wandered through the wilderness before forcefully being recruited into Camp Haven's army, where she took the nickname "Ringer". She is a replacement after Private Tank of Squad 53 went crazy, "Dorothy", and pulled a gun on his squad. Zombie is obsessed with getting Ringer to smile. On their first patrol, she and Zombie find that Camp Haven's officials are actually The Others. She is described as having glossy black hair and mild Asian features. In The Infinite Sea, she grows closer to Private Teacup, and, after being captured, grows feelings for a recruit named Razor.

Sammy "Nugget" Sullivan - Cassie's five-year-old little brother. At his refugee camp, he boards a bus from Camp Haven and is recruited into its army, unbeknownst to his father's death. He joins Squad 53 and friends Zombie deeply. Sammy is not allowed to go on his squad's patrol due to his age. (We later find out the purpose of kids his age at Camp Haven in The Infinite Sea.) Zombie, Cassie, and Evan unite after Commander Vosch attempts to kill Sammy. Evan destroys the base, though it is not clear whether he survives or not, and Cassie, Sam and Ben escape.

Secondary Characters

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vosch - The main antagonist though the trilogy. He leads the 5th wave bases and Silencers stationed across the world. Throughout the books he is steadily sadistic and cruel. First introduced by killing Cassie's father and gathering her brother Sam into a yellow school bus under the guise of safe keeping. Followed by brainwashing Ben into submitting to a cruel military-style training at Camp Haven. He later destroys Camp Haven, and kills thousands of children in the process. Regularly the reader is reminded of Vosch's hatred, and deep understanding of humanity. He rigs carbon-monoxide bombs into young children's throats to sew mistrust in survivors. He takes memories from the Wonderland program to make himself more trustworthy. One example is mimicking Ringer's father during a chess game to weaken her resolve. He later "enhances" Ringer (Marika) with alien technology called The 12th System, a piece of Other technology. Then offers her a place in the existential Wonderland the "other" survive in.

Grace - a Silencer like Evan, programmed by the 12th System to believe she is a part of the immortal alien "Others" taking over. They befriended each other before the waves began. Grace saves Evan after finding him severely wounded in an escape pod. Unknowingly harboring a tractor to "their kind" after he destroys Camp Haven. The night after one of her hunts, she tries to seduce Evan, but he attacks her and renders her unconscious. Believing her to be dead, Evan heads back to the hotel Cassie's group has taken refuge in, which they had nicknamed "The Walker Hotel". She watches him get slower, the 12th systems breaking down in his body. Waits for him to get inside, get settled. And silently starts her pillage. Cassie's group where she then attacks them. After this violent confrontation, Private Poundcake, now mortally wounded, goes back to the hotel to retrieve the bomb dropped by Sammy and detonates it an arms-length away from Grace, killing both of them.

Dumbo - the twelve year old medical officer in Squad 53. One of his most prominent features is his extraordinarily large ears, like his namesake. He's known for his loyalty, risking himself for the other characters many times over throughout the series. Traveling through Urbana on a hopeless mission to save Teacup and Ringer, he dives into Zombie at the last second and takes a bullet to the back. Unable to stay Zombie leaves Dumbo with the promise to return with Ringer and Teacup. When he returns he finds Dumbo has crawled ten blocks away in delirium, looking for Zombie.

Allison "Teacup" or "Cup" - a seven-year-old member of Squad 53. She is described as "the meanest seven-year-old you've ever seen" by Zombie. Teacup grows close to Ringer as the only other female in Squad 53, especially after the destruction of Camp Haven. She is shot by Ringer who mistakes her for an Other. Ringer surrenders to Vosch knowing it is the only way to save Teacup's life, and Vosch uses Teacup as leverage against Ringer. Teacup is killed by Razor so Vosch will have no more leverage against her.

Poundcake - a chubby member of Squad 53 who is mostly silent. His mother was killed by the Red Death. While he was on a supply run, he returned to find his brother gone. On the supply run, he found only a sweet treat, his namesake, as his drill sergeant thought he was "so sweet". He sacrificed himself to save the others of his group by detonating a bomb rigged to detonate on high concentrations of carbon dioxide in close proximity to Grace, a Silencer targeting the group.

Megan - a seven-year-old girl rescued and taken to Camp Haven. She meets and befriends Sammy on the bus they ride. Megan is, along with many other kids her age that are part of the Fifth Wave, rigged with a carbon dioxide-bomb. She is dropped off near Cassie's group's hideout. Evan and Cassie manage to get the bomb out of her, for which they plan to use to attack the others, though Poundcake ends up detonating it to save the others from Grace. She inevitably lives on, independent and untrusting of any character in the books.

Flintstone "Flint" - a boy around Ben and Cassie's age. He is the former leader of Squad 53, until his drill sergeant, Reznik, replaced him with Zombie. In disbelief that Camp Haven could be a coup, he accidentally kills himself by taking the tracking devices and detonating his own kill-switch.

Tank - a young boy in Squad 53. He goes "Dorothy" (crazy) and is replaced by Ringer. Zombie and Dumbo discover him dead in the P&D Hangar (Processing and Disposal).

Kenny "Oompa" - an eight-or-nine-year-old boy on Squad 53. He is killed by grenade shrapnel on the squad's first patrol.

Razor - Alex a recruit at the northern base where Ringer was captured. He is ordered to bring her food three times a day after she's injected with the 12th system. Despite being ordered not to speak to her he rambles during their time together: his favorite things in life, before and after the others. Prayer circles. His grandmother nippy purse dog he prayed would not die because his grandmother told him to. Even though he hated the dog, he was upset when it died. He introduces a game of his own creation: Chaseball (baseball played on a chessboard using a quarter). He orchestrates her and Teacup's escape from the military base though secrets codes traced on board. After jumping from a Blackhawk manned by Lieutenant Bobband surviving, the two kiss. But Ringers 12th includes a CPU attached to her brain that interprets physiological biofeedback. She knew immediately something was wrong. She takes his gun and knocks him out, then finds Vosch inside of the hospital Teacups was supposed to be hiding in. After fighting with Vosch, Ringer is left to heal in an abandoned hospital with Razor assigned to watch her. They are tasked to rid hundreds of dead bodies. He and Ringer attempt to reconcile, her talking much more now, finding she misses the talkative nature he had taken in the military base. By the end of the week they sleep together. He does not have to convince her not to go back to the base: Teacup is there and Razor knows that is Ringer's only weakness. When they return to the base, he shoots Teacup so that Vosch will have no leverage over Ringer. He in turn is shot and killed himself by 5th Wave soldiers.

Lieutenant Bob - Was forced to commandeer a Black Hawk helicopter and escort Ringer, Teacup, and Razor away from Vosch's base. She made him jump out and then crashed it. As if once wasn't enough, she later forced him to fly another Black Hawk back into the base and then blew it up.