Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Plague of the Undead | 2014 | Joe McKinney | Buy |
| 2 | The Dead Won’t Die | 2015 | Joe McKinney | Buy |
| 3 | Thunder Moon Rising | 2015 | Joe McKinney | N/A |
| 4 | Boneyard | 2017 | Joe McKinney | N/A |
The Dead Lands series picks up in a broken-down America where the dead have long since reshaped the living world. The Plague of the Undead opened the series in 2014, introducing readers to a community of survivors clinging to what social order remains while the zombie threat continues to press in from outside.
The series spans four books – The Plague of the Undead, The Dead Won’t Die, Thunder Moon Rising, and Boneyard – and maintains McKinney’s characteristic focus on survival logistics and community dynamics. His characters aren’t just fighting the undead; they’re negotiating with each other, making compromises, and dealing with the ordinary human failures that don’t stop just because civilization has ended.
The Dead Lands books work as entry points for readers new to McKinney’s zombie fiction, though fans familiar with his Dead World series will notice thematic continuity across both sequences.