The 5th Wave (novel)
The cover art of The 5th Wave
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| Author | Rick Yancey |
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| Cover artist | Allied Integrated Marketing |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The 5th Wave |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Penguin Group |
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Publication date
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May 8, 2013 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 457 |
| ISBN | 978-0-399-16241-1 |
| Followed by | The Infinite Sea |
The 5th Wave is a young adult, science fiction novel. Written by Rick Yancey, the novel was published in 2013 and is the first installment in a trilogy. Critics have compared the book favorably to The Hunger Games and The Road,[1] and noted that it "should do for aliens what Twilight did for vampires."[2]
Sony Pictures released a film adaptation in January 2016.
Contents
Plot
Set roughly in the present day Dayton, Ohio, The 5th Wave follows 16-year-old Cassie Sullivan as she tries to survive in a world devastated by the waves of alien invasions that have already devastated the Earth's population and knocked humankind back to the Stone Age. Cassie is headed to a "training" facility established by the aliens in the hopes of saving her 5 year-old brother, Sam, who was taken there.
She comes across a gas station where she finds a wounded soldier. She kills him after mistaking the metal in his crucifix for a gun. This intensely disturbs her.
While on an Ohio highway on her way to find her brother, she comes across the recently deceased. Cassie is then suddenly shot in the leg by an unknown sniper. She takes cover under a car and has to make a difficult choice: try to flee the area and risk being shot by the sniper or bleed to death under the car.
We then jump to Ben Parish, Cassie's crush in high school, who is sick with the disease spread during the 3rd Wave. He is tended to by a friend named Chris. Ben is taken by soldiers to a woman named Dr. Pam. Ben miraculously recovers from his disease. Dr. Pam tells him that the Others raided his camp, Camp Haven at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, by inhabiting human hosts and posing as refugees. Dr. Pam puts Ben through a program called "Wonderland". She takes him to a hospital room, where Chris sits wired to a chair. Dr. Pam lets Ben look through a special eyepiece to find that a creature is attached to Chris's brain, which Dr. Pam confirms is an Other. She explains to Ben that the only way to kill the creature inside is to kill the host, which Dr. Pam pressures Ben into doing.
Commander Vosch, who killed Cassie's father at their refugee camp, meets Ben in his room. Vosch is straightforward and tells Ben that they will all die, but not without a fight. He gives Ben a position in Camp Haven's new army, and he becomes Private Zombie.
Cassie wakes in a four-poster bed hooked up to an IV machine and with her wounds nearly healed. She meets her savior, Evan Walker, who tells her that they are in his rural country house and that he found her on the highway crawling in blood. Cassie insists that she must go to Camp Haven to save her brother, but Evan is unsure that she is fit enough for the journey yet, and so they stay. Overtime, the two grow closer. One night, Cassie and Evan get into a fight, but Evan ends it by saying that Cassie saved him, rather than vice versa, and kisses her.
Sammy Sullivan, Cassie's brother, has arrived at Camp Haven via the bus on which he was taken. The soldiers at Camp Haven mark the children: greens for unhealthy, reds for healthy. Sammy is marked red. He is called to be processed and cleaned. He is put through the Wonderland program and asked many questions relating to his personal life. After Sammy is fully processed, Dr. Pam offers to let him see an Other.
Ben Parish, now Private Zombie, has been assigned to squad 53. His squad sergeant, Sergeant Reznik, is a cruel, uncaring man who taunts his members about their personal life, which he learned about via the Wonderland program. He takes a liking to a member of another squad. Another member is added to squad 53, Sammy Sullivan, who Reznik calls Private Nugget. Reznik taunts Nugget. Zombie blurts out, "Leave him alone!" and Reznik punches him in his throat, but respects his spirit and appoints him as the new leader of squad 53.
During a fire drill at Camp Haven, Nugget is scared and Zombie slings him on his shoulder and runs with him. He slows the squad down by 45 seconds, angering his squad. Private Tank goes "Dorothy", meaning crazy, and pulls his gun out. Private Flintstone takes Tank down before anyone is hurt. Tank is later found to be dead in the P&D hangar, "Process and Disposal". He is replaced by Private Ringer, who Zombie previously took a liking to. Ringer attempts to improve the squad's marksmanship and is successful. Squad 53 skyrockets through the ranks and graduates with the other top 3 squads.
Cassie continuously confronts the decision to trust Evan or not. Either way, Evan and Cassie continue to grow a relationship. While Evan leaves for one of night hunts, which Cassie suspects to be something far more terrible, searches through his things for any evidence that points to Evan being one of the Others. She finds her M16 in Evan's barn under a blanket, but Evan casually says that he simply found it near her when he found her. After a few more days, Cassie feels she is fit enough for the journey and Evan, against Cassie's wishes, sets out with her, burning his house down as a distraction to the Others.
Zombie and his squad are on their first patrol. They are given special headsets with lenses that can supposedly detect that a human is an Other rather than truly human. They are attacked, Private Oompa being killed in the process. Zombie and Ringer go out to kill their assailants while Private Poundcake covers them from above with his sniper. While under the cover of a building, Ringer cuts out her implant, and her head lights up green through Zombie's lens. Ringer pieces the evidence together with Zombie and concludes that Camp Haven is not a human training camp, but an "Other death camp". They find that their assailant is Reznik and kill him. Reznik is holding a piece of equipment with a map with green spots: the implants. Ringer and Zombie return to the squad and explain to them what they know. Flintstone, skeptic, snatches the equipment away and pulls a switch. He drops dead. Zombie is reluctant to leave whilst Nugget is still at Camp Haven and has Ringer shoot him so that his story will look real. Zombie is then evacuated by a helicopter to Camp Haven.
While on the journey, Cassie and Evan are attacked by a group of juvenile soldiers. Cassie is shocked as she watches Evan take them down at ease, though injuring his thigh and buttocks in the process. Once the soldiers are taken down, Cassie makes Evan confirm that he is the Silencer who shot her, while awkwardly stripping his clothing to heal his wounds. Cassie initially decides to leave him there to bleed to death, but afterwards decides to help him. After so, the two orchestrate a plan where Evan has little involvement, though highly against his approval.
Cassie arrives at the base on a bus. She is called for processing. Dr. Pam meets with her and Cassie knocks her unconscious. While trying to find where Sammy is, Dr. Pam awakens and commits suicide.
Zombie awakes in a hospital bed to see Vosch. Vosch tells him that he will be put through Wonderland. After Vosch leaves, Zombie escapes and steals an outfit from a dead guard. Cassie finds Sammy/Nugget and meets Zombie. They are captured by Vosch. Vosch attempts to kill Nugget by electrocuting him. It is revealed that Evan has planted bombs and hacked into the base's mainframe. Vosch leaves to Control. Evan appears and kills the soldiers guarding Zombie, Cassie, and Sam. Evan says goodbye before allegedly setting off "eyes", the same bombs Vosch used to destroy Cassie's refugee camp. The members of Squad 53 arrive and save Zombie, Cassie, and Sam. They ride off as Camp Haven is destroyed.
Characters
Cassiopeia Marie Sullivan or "Cassie"– the protagonist of the novel. She is 16 years old, short, and has curly strawberry-blonde hair. Before the waves hit, she had a crush on Ben Parish, a popular football player. She later has a relationship with "her silencer" Evan Walker. Cassie is also the main character in this book.
Evan Walker – a boy from rural Ohio who lived with his large family. His family and girlfriend were all killed during the 3rd Wave. He has a brief relationship with Cassie. He is described as having chocolate brown eyes and brown hair.
Benjamin Thomas Parish/Zombie – a popular football player and honors student at Cassie's high school. While in high school, Cassie had a crush on Ben, but he never noticed her. After the 3rd Wave, Ben contracts the plague but is "rescued" by soldiers who take him to Camp Haven. There he becomes a part of Squad 53, renamed Zombie. Zombie soon discovers the soldiers are not real soldiers but aliens in disguise. Ben manages to escape with Cassie and Sammy. He is described as tall, buff, and dark haired.
Sammy Sullivan/Nugget – Cassie's younger brother. He is taken away from the refugee camp that he, his father, and Cassie stayed at. He is taken to Camp Haven to be a part of Squad 53, after being given the name Nugget. Nugget and Zombie become good friends, with Zombie acting almost like a big brother to him. Sammy manages to escape with Cassie and Zombie at the end of the novel. He is described as having messy brown hair and large, teddy bear eyes.
Ringer/Marika – a girl who joins Squad 53 after Tank, a former member, goes "Dorothy" (the nickname for crazy). She is the best shot in the group and is very quiet yet scary. She and Zombie become friends, and she helps him shoot better. She is often threatening and serious toward the other squad members, but can also be vulnerable at times. She is described as tall and skinny, with pale white skin and long, glossy, straight black hair, three quarters Asian and a quarter Apache.
Commander Vosch – the leader of the soldiers and the mastermind behind the plans. He is very sadistic, cruel, and unfeeling. He at first is shown as a "hero" to those at Cassie's refugee camp, but he soon reveals his true nature by personally killing Cassie's father and destroying the camp and abducting the children including Sam to fight. He is also responsible for Camp Haven and becomes familiar with Cassie, Ringer, and Ben Parish.
Dumbo – a member of Squad 53. He has huge ears and is good with medicine and anatomy. Around 12 years old
Teacup/Allison – a member of Squad 53. Originally, the only girl, and the youngest in the squad before Nugget and Ringer come. About 7 years old.
Poundcake – a member of Squad 53. A large, chubby boy who never speaks, but is good with a gun. Around 8 years old.
Flintstone – a member of Squad 53. A teenage boy with a unibrow. Around 16 years old.
Tank – a former member of Squad 53. He went "Dorothy" (crazy), and was taken away. Dumbo and Zombie discover him dead in the P&D (Processing and Disposal) hangar.
Kenny/Oompa – a member of Squad 53. A chubby boy around the age of 8 or 9 with crooked teeth.
Waves
First Wave: Lights Out: During the first wave, the Others release an EMP wave that takes out all electronics/lights/technology and kills half a million people by shorting out all moving vehicles, including planes in mid-flight.
Second wave: Surf's Up: The Others, realizing that roughly 40 percent of Earth's population lives within 60 miles (97 km) of coastline, drop enormous rods "twice as tall as the Empire State Building and three times as heavy" (45) onto the Earth's fault lines, causing massive tsunamis that wipe out three billion people.
Third wave: Pestilence: The Others launch a scheme to infect as many remaining survivors as possible with a deadly virus. Using the Earth's birds as carriers (via falling excrement), the plague claims 97 percent of remaining survivors. The virus, which resembles an advanced form of Ebola, causes victims to slowly bleed to death until eventually "you've become a viral bomb. And when you explode, you blast everyone around you with the virus" (46).
Fourth wave: Silencers: After the 3rd wave, the remaining human population tries desperately to survive off whatever resources remain by looting, all the while clinging to the hope that "the people in charge", wherever they may be, are working toward a solution. Eventually, this belief seems legitimate when an impressive battalion of soldiers (with functioning vehicles) arrives at the makeshift camp where Cassie, Sam, and her father are staying. The soldiers and commander, however, only appear interested in the children and promptly load them onto waiting buses before ordering all the adults into the camp barracks. Once the humans are surrounded, Commander Vosch orders a massacre and kills everyone at the camp. Cassie, however, narrowly escapes and witnesses her father's death by Vosch's hand. At this moment, the 4th wave becomes clear: not all humans are actually humans.
Fifth wave: The children captured during the 4th wave are taken to the Others' primary Earth military compound and are desocialized and then resocialized to execute one goal: kill the remaining human population. This is accomplished through a rigorous boot camp in which children, some as young as five years old, are issued weapons and are expected to follow orders given by commanding officers (whom the children have no idea are not human). During boot camp, the Others convince the children that the "aliens" have taken over human bodies and it is paramount that they (the children) eradicate them. In essence, the captured children are the 5th wave.
Reception
The critical reception to the book has been very positive. It received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus.[3][4] Reviewers have noted that it has broad audience appeal, blurring the lines between young adult and adult fiction, and of genre and mainstream fiction, that it cannot be easily wedged into one genre despite having many of the characteristics of young adult fiction.[1][5] The New York Times listed it as one of the best young adult books of 2013,[6] and it was a Goodreads finalist for Best Young Adult Fantasy or Science Fiction novel in 2013.[7]
Sequels
The 5th Wave is the first book in a trilogy. The second book in the series, The Infinite Sea, came out on September 16, 2014.[8] The third book in the series is named The Last Star and was released on May 24, 2016.[9]
Film adaptation
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The film rights for the trilogy are currently with Sony Pictures, who has a "significant six-figure deal" to launch the series with Graham King and Tobey Maguire attached as producers.[1] On April 15, 2014, it was officially announced that Chloë Grace Moretz will star as Cassie Sullivan, and that J Blakeson will direct from the script of Susannah Grant.[10][11] Nick Robinson and Alex Roe would be joining the film as Ben Parish and Evan Walker.[12] The scheduled release date is January 22, 2016. Liev Schreiber would play the villain in the film.[13] Maika Monroe joined the film to play the character of Ringer.[14] The first trailer for the film was released online on September 1, 2015. The film was released on January 22, 2016, to generally unfavourable reviews. [15]
References
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External links
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- The 5th Wave book trailers compilation on YouTube
