David Wellington Books In Order

Publication Order of Monster Island Books

Publication Order of Laura Caxton Books

Publication Order of Cheyenne Clark Books

Publication Order of Ancient Blades Trilogy Books

Publication Order of Jim Chapel Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Apocalypse Triptych Anthology Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

David Wellington is an American author born in 1971 and is best known for his Monster Zombie Trilogy. Other than his Zombie trilogy, he has also written Werewolf and Vampire series novels such as 13 Bullets and 32 Fangs. His books are very popular and are widely available in more than 11 languages.

Wellington wrote his first book when he was six years old. He named the book Santa Claus Vs the Smurfs. Even though he felt the book wasn’t good, he realized he had a passion for writing. Since then he has been writing books regularly. Almost every year since he was six, he has written two or three books. As a child he read a lot. His mother would bring six to eight books a week so far. Some of the books he read were realistic, naturalistic and horror literature from authors such as Peter Straub and Steven King.

He got Master of Fine Art from Syracuse University in New York. Wellington at some point after his MFA wanted to be a librarian. He got a contract in 2003 with the UN to digitize its records. The records included hardcopies from the year 1947 and his job was to organize, digitize, and make them digitally available. According to Wellington, the job was as mundane as anyone could imagine, but he found aspects of it intriguing. The most exciting part of the job for him was meeting ex KGB agents, aristocrats, and “people implicated in global scandals”. The job involved more than just digitizing records, since UN records are constantly under threat of terror attacks, and espionage threats.

After his contract with the UN came to an end, he worked on getting Master’s in Library Science. He hoped that he will be qualified enough to get permanent position in the UN. However, he did not get the job he had hoped for at the time. His experience working as a librarian inspired one of the characters in one of his novels. In Plague Zone the character Tim Kempfer works as a Librarian in Post apocalyptic Seattle.

Even though he did not get the chance to work at the UN, he was lucky enough to get a major book contract in 2004. He had been serializing the novel on one of his friend’s blog, when Thunder’s Mouth Press noticed the attention and positive reviews he was getting. They approached him and he agreed to sign a book contract. He decided to start writing full time.

Literary Style

One distinct feature of Wellington books is the nuanced characterization of his characters. His characters are well rounded and inspire a lot of curiosity from the reader. He has stated that he is able to achieve this through observation. “I’m the kind of guy who, if I see somebody on the subway train wearing a bizarre hat, I need to know why he put that hat on. And because you can’t just ask people, I end up making up my own story”, he stated in an interview.

Some of the characters in his books are based on his own experiences. Laura Caxton is a lesbian leading character in one of his novels, 13 Bullets. He got inspiration for this character from his sister, who is a lesbian and who had narrated to him the challenges she had to go through before she could come out as a lesbian.

Another novel that features a character based on his own experiences is Plague Zone. The main character in the novel is Tim Kempfer who is a librarian in post apocalyptic Seattle. Wellington pointed out that the character was also inspired by his time working as a librarian for the UN.

Monster Island

Monster Island was the first major book from David Wellington to be published after he secured his contract from Thunder’s Mouth Press. It was after publishing chapters of this book on his friend’s blog that he managed to get the contract.

In this first book, the trilogy starts a month or so after some of the first world countries are overrun by zombie masses. Only scores of humans that have not been affected have survived and are scattered across the cities. Humans are trying to fight off the zombies in isolated outposts. One of the Zombies, Gary, has managed to maintain his human intelligence and can have conversations with human and even control its appetite.

Deklab a UN arms inspector, has to go back to the free women’s republic to save his daughter, who has been abducted by a band of female child soldiers. Deklab goes back to East Africa to help this group of girls get the much needed cure. Ayaan is one of the child soldiers who is determined to complete this mission. However, when they get to Monster Island, they are yet to come face to face with something that is even more frightening than the zombies that are taking over the world.

Thirteen Bullets

This is an original vampire series book that was published into a book by the Three River Press in 2007. Just like the Monster island book, it started as a series of chapters that Wellington published online so far.

The book is set in 2003 years after vampires were wiped out of the earth, or so it is believed. The last vampire has been held captive after being captured by Special Deputy Jameson Arkeley. Even though the last vampire cannot escape, she can still infect the outside world with her vampire curse, working to free herself from captivity. Laura Caxton, a states trooper, has been enlisted to help Jameson Arkeley capture vampires that seem to be running loose in rural Pennsylvania. The vampires are much faster and stronger and almost impossible to kill with bullets.

To become a vampire, one must accept an invitation from a vampire and reject the self to be reborn. This is a departure from the typical “vampire infection” that is common in traditional vampire literature. The book show cases Wellington’s imagination as a writer and his ability to inject his own refreshing version of events in an otherwise overcrowded and sometimes predictable genre.