In stores today, The Nice House by the Sea #7 kicks off the second volume of the Nice House on the Lake follow-up, meaning it’s not exactly the ideal place to start if you haven’t been following along from the beginning. With a new story arc kicking off, there’s never been a better time to get started on the series as a whole, but if you’d prefer to begin with the latest issue, we’re here to fill you in on the essentials. Here’s what you need to know about the world of Tynion and Martínez Bueno’s Nice House series.
 

Series Reading Order

1. The Nice House on the Lake Vol. 1 (collects issues #1-6)
2. The Nice House on the Lake Vol. 2 (collects issues #7-12)
3. The Nice House by the Sea Vol. 1 (collects issues #1-6)
4. The Nice House by the Sea Issue #7 (begins Volume 2 of The Nice House by the Sea)

Note: The Nice House on the Lake is also available in a deluxe omnibus edition collecting the entire twelve-issue limited series.
 

The Premise by the Lake

Before we go any further, consider this your last chance to turn back. I highly recommend going into this series with no context and there are some serious spoilers ahead!

Still here? Then let’s continue…

Ten friends are invited to vacation at an idyllic lake house in upstate Wisconsin. And I mean idyllic. It is unreal how beautiful this place is. Everyone is connected by a mutual friend: Walter. However, they didn’t all meet him at the same time. Some friends have known him since high school, others met him in college and still others got to know him as a part of the bustling social scene of New York City.

This should be the vacation of a lifetime as these friends unwind and catch up while enjoying the billion-dollar view and amenities. And that’s exactly what they do…until they learn the entire world has ended and they are the only survivors. They’re trapped in this house for who knows how long. And Walter? He chose them to be the last of humanity. What he reveals himself to be cannot be put into words for us mere humans to understand. And his people, whatever they are, are responsible for the death of every living thing on Earth. These ten poor souls believe they may be the only humans still left alive. (They’re not, but they don’t know that yet.)

The Nice House by the Lake follows Ryan, Arturo, Sam, Norah, Veronica, Sarah, Naya, Rick, David and Molly as they navigate their new reality. They must come up with a plan to survive, or escape, while grieving the world and the people they knew, while also coping with Walter's betrayal. Why has Walter chosen them to survive? Is there anything left of the world outside the bounds of this safe haven…or prison? We follow these characters’ pasts, presents and futures as they uncover clues to questions they didn't even know they had.
 

The Characters by the Lake

Here is a breakdown of the ten souls trapped in the nice house by the lake: who they are, who they know and how they met Walter. (Code names, clusters and symbols assigned by Walter.) 

Norah Jakobs (The Writer)

34 Years Old. Female.
High School Cluster.
Met Walter nineteen years ago at Marquette University High School.

David Daye (The Comedian)

32 Years Old. Male.
College Cluster, New York Cluster.
Met Walter eleven years ago at The Consultant’s 21st birthday party at Sarah Lawrence College.

Molly Reynolds (The Accountant)

34 Years Old. Female.
High School Cluster.
Met Walter eighteen years ago at Mayfair Mall with her best friend, The Scientist.

Veronica Wright (The Scientist)

35 Years Old. Female.
High School Cluster.
Met Walter eighteen years ago at Marquette University High School, through her then-partner, The Writer.

Sam Nguyen (The Reporter)

34 Years Old. Male.
High School Cluster, New York Cluster.
Met Walter seventeen years ago through The Painter at Marquette University High School.

Arturo Pérez (The Acupuncturist)

36 Years Old. Male.
New York Cluster.
Met Walter ten years ago at The Reporter’s 24th birthday party in New York.

Sarah Radnitz (The Consultant)

32 Years Old. Female.
College Cluster, New York Cluster.
Met Walter twelve years ago at Sarah Lawrence College.

Naya Radia (The Doctor)

34 Years Old. Female.
New York Cluster.
Met Walter nine years ago in New York after a date with The Pianist.

Rick MacEwan (The Pianist)

34 Years Old. Male.
College Cluster, New York Cluster.

Met Walter thirteen years ago at Sarah Lawrence College
 

SPOILER ALERT: Another character is revealed at the end of Volume 1!
 

Reginald Madison (The Painter)

34 Years Old. Male.
High School Cluster.
Met Walter nineteen years ago at Marquette University High School.
 

How the House by the Lake Operates

• The house has survived and protected its inhabitants by seemingly breaking our understanding of reality at every turn—from an invisible forcefield to a mail-order system you could only dream of. Here are the important points to know.
   
• There are invisible barriers surrounding the area, trapping everyone inside.
   
• The enclosed location consists of the lake and surrounding land, which includes mysterious statues, a greenhouse full of inedible plants and a black building with no windows or doors on the far end of the perimeter. Does someone live there?
   
• The ten inhabitants will never run out of food. They can request anything they want by writing it on a notepad. This includes buildings.
   
• Everyone seems to possess newfound healing abilities and nobody can get injured. This also means nobody can die.
   
• Nobody ages.
   
• We eventually discover that there is an otherworldly control panel that can manipulate the environment and each individual—it’s what creates the seemingly supernatural capabilities described above.
   
• We also learn that the house is supposed to contain no more or less than ten individuals, each one representing a particular human archetype. This makes the discovery of Reginald a real problem for Walter and the house.
   

The Plot by the Sea

The nice house by the lake was only the beginning—there are other houses out there! Most of the people who were invited to the house by the sea didn’t know its keeper Max, but she chose them. They represent what she sees as the best and brightest of humanity. But when a powerful storm causes the veil between worlds to lift, the fates of the house by the lake and the house by the sea become intertwined, and it appears only one house may survive…
 

Let’s put the names to the faces, ten new humans join the apocalyptic cast! (Code names, clusters and symbols assigned by Max.)

33 Years Old. Male.
Two Tony Awards. One Screen Actors Guild Award. Deadline Actor to Watch in 2020. Prada Vanguard Award 2012. MFA in Drama, Juilliard.

Seemingly the most pivotal new character in The Nice House by the Sea, Oliver knows Walter and other members of his High School Cluster. He also knew Max prior to the world’s end—he’s the only person to be included in her house that she had a relationship with.

Henry Allen (The Historian)

74 Years Old. Male.
Two Pulitzer Prizes for History. One Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Senior Fellow of the American Historical Association.

Cherri Campbell (The Singer)

34 Years Old. Female.
Five No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. Six Grammy Awards. Three MTV Video Music Awards. One Primetime Emmy Award.

Soka Tanaka (The Artist)

58 Years Old. Female.
Recipient of the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. MacArthur Fellowship. Twenty years running SOTA Art Gallery in Berlin.

Victor Pace (The Writer)

82 Years Old. Male.
New York Times Bestseller. Five Hugo Awards. Three Nebula Awards. 200 million copies of his novels sold. Writing Chair, Columbia University.

Quinn Thomas (The Scientist)

56 Years Old. Female.
Nobel Prize in Medicine. Head of the Genetics Laboratory at University of Washington, Seattle. Honorary Chair of the American Society of Human Genetics.

Hector Aguilar (The Doctor)

62 Years Old. Male.
Two Nobel Prizes in Medicine. MacArthur Fellowship. President of the American College of Surgeons.

Margaret “Margie” Collins (The Senator)

56 Years Old. Female.
Two terms, United States Senate (D-VA). Three terms, House of Representatives (D-VA). One term, Virginia General Assembly.

Father Freddie Beaumont, S.J. (The Priest)

48 Years Old. Male.
Provincial Superior Society of Jesus, Midwest. Featured contributor in American Magazine. Op-Ed Columnist, The Wall Street Journal.

Bob Washington (The Mathematician)

41 Years Old. Male.
People Magazine 100 Best Teachers in America. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Lifetime Achievement Award. Presidential Medal of Freedom.
 

The logistics and physics of this world are the same—they are trapped by invisible parameters and do not age and cannot die, thanks to the house’s control panel. Here’s how it differs from the house by the lake.

• Max is the caretaker of this house.
   
• Unlike the house by the lake, the residents of the house by the sea are not friends. They were chosen because they are pillars in their respective fields and in Max’s view represent the best of the best when it comes to humanity.
   
• They have had access to their control panel from the very start. This gives them the freedom to change their bodies (often making themselves younger or more fit) and manipulate the terrain and weather of their world.
   
• In contrast to the members of the house by the lake, they knew what was going to happen and didn’t hesitate to accept their fates.
   
• So far, the residents of the house by the lake have largely gotten along, with no serious issues arising between them. The house by the sea, on the other hand, seems as if it might be splintering, with disturbing and potentially violent results.
   

What We Know About Walter, Max and Their Kind