Exciting news for fans of M.R. Carey’s The Girl With All the Gifts: Today Carey announced that he’s returning to Melanie and Miss Justineau’s post-apocalyptic world. But rather than pick up where The Girl With All the Gifts left off, Carey is going back in time, in an untitled prequel novel coming in May 2017.

In a video message on his official Facebook page, Carey explained that he’s long been asked if he would return to that world. It turns out he’s already in the process of writing the prequel; he shares some hints about what to expect from the story:

“As many of you all know, The Girl With All the Gifts is set about a generation after the outbreak, the plague that has wiped out most of humanity. There are a lot of events that have happened in those 20 years. In this new novel, we go back about a decade. While Melanie is growing up in captivity at base Hotel Echo, some other events are playing out which eventually will bring her world to a turning point. It’s a book that can be read completely independently of The Girl With All the Gifts; it has a new cast, it’s a freestanding story. But it picks up on what we already know about Melanie’s world, and I think it opens up a new and unexpected vista on that world.”

Watch the full message here:

In the meantime, the movie adaptation of The Girl With All the Gifts comes to UK theaters September 23, with a US release date yet to be set. Check out the trailer!