When I read The 5th Wave, I said that in my review, there was a lot to get through due to the world-building that needed to be done, from establishing the circumstances and getting to know the characters.  Now that that’s done, we can move on from there and see things really start developing, hopefully at a slightly faster pace.

USA Today to to ask Rick Yancey a few questions about The Infinite Sea, which is the title to the sequel of The 5th Wave.  Check out what he has to say:

Q. Overall, what can you tease about the sequel?

A. It will follow the same core structurally as the first book in that it will be a story told from different points of view. (Ben’s fellow soldier) Ringer takes on a much more major role in the second book. And if readers thought Cassie was kick-ass, she makes Cassie look like a Girl Scout.

We’ll meet some new characters, and we’ll discover a lot of the characters in the first book may not actually be the way (they seem to be). There still are some things that are hidden and will be revealed — there’s one major twist, and this one I don’t think anybody sees coming.

The question I get from a lot of readers is what happened to Evan Walker at the end of the first book: Is he alive or dead? That question will be answered in the second book.

Q. How quickly does The Infinite Sea pick up from the end of The 5th Wave?

A. It’s about two or three weeks later, dead of winter. One of the characters realizes that the timing of the attacks was extremely important. By the time the third wave was over, you have no electricity, society has been ripped apart and scattered, and now deep winter sets in. They’re using weather itself as a weapon.

Q. Cassie’s been reunited with her brother, but will she still be hanging with Ben after running into him at the end of the first novel?

A. Well, love triangles, love triangles… My feeling with Cassie at the end is it was a weird juxtaposition between the person that she was before all this happened, and what she became during the course of it.

What was so fun for me for that final scene in the first book was she remembers the kid from the middle-school bus, the all-American boy who had everything, and now she sees him with completely different eyes. That’s an interesting thing that will be explored further, this idea of are some things in the past permanently lost because of what’s happened to us.

Rick did confirm that casting for the film adaptation of this story will be starting shortly, as they already have a director, a producer, and a script.  He stated that he has not read the current script, but is waiting and hoping it doesn’t make him cry.

You can read the rest of the interview at USA Today.