Synopsis:
The New York Times bestselling author Anthony Ryan’s The Feeding is a brilliant postapocalyptic novel that finds the sweet spot between commercial, literary, and creepy. Perfect for fans of Justin Cronin, M. R. Carey, and Alexis Henderson.
Fifteen years ago the feeders rose from the shadows to transform the world into a graveyard. The few survivors exist in fortified settlements surrounded by the empty ruins of a destroyed civilization. For years the citizens of New City Redoubt have relied on an elite cadre of Crossers to navigate the feeder infested wasteland between settlements in order to trade for vital supplies. But the Outside is becoming ever more dangerous, and the ranks of the Crossers grow thinner with every crossing.
Layla, only a child when the Feeding destroyed the old world, spends her days scavenging the ruins for valuable scrap and her nights helping her adoptive family eke a living from the Redoubt’s only movie theatre. Now, with her father slowly dying, Layla resolves to join the Crossers to retrieve the medicine that can save him. Smart, ruthless, and fast on her feet, Layla quickly gains the respect of her fellow Crossers. But, in a world lost to the deadliest predators, can even the most cunning prey survive?
Review:
Hello again dear reader or listener, I am here to say I succumbed to the mood reader in me while still maintaining some modicum of responsible reviewer conduct by making sure what I did read was an ARC. The fact that this comes out in August is beside the point.
With thanks to the Blackstone Publishing team for this early review copy then, allow me to list all the reasons why you need this new postapocalyptic thriller on your TBRs.
For those who don’t already know, Anthony Ryan has been an auto-buy author for me for years. I don’t even read the plot blurbs, I see he’s got a new book coming, I do the grabby hands. Reason being he has proven his skill time and time again in many a subgenre of SFF. Be it under his name and, in recent years, he’s also joined the ranks of post-apocalyptic horrors and thrillers under the pen name A.J. Ryan. I was actually surprised to realize his first foray into the genre, Red River Seven, came out two years ago!
Now, I deeply enjoy his fantasy epics, some more than others, as is natural when an author has a certain scope in their writing. But with this new upcoming book I think I can safely say that I love the hell out of his post-apocalyptic thrillers!
With The Feeding, Ryan continues to prove he is an expert at rendering vivid and powerful ambiance even through the simplest and most straightforward of plots. His characters are all memorable even when not overburdened with details or backstories that would fill pages. Instead, we get right into a captivating story of survival, pervaded with riveting action made all the more thrilling by the high stakes, and interspersed with, at times, a certain pragmatic poignancy that drives the emotional impact in fully.
Parts I Am Legend, parts The Last of Us, and with perhaps a certain whiff of Fallout or Mad Max-esque fortified settlements, (just to name drop a few IPs in there for the vibes for ya) The Feeding stands on its own two feet as a brand-new entry among the ranks of post apocalypse without any of the tired clichés but with all of the beloved tropes you want to find in this subgenre. And bear in mind, this is not a zombie book. Not quite.
Also, much like Red River Seven, this book gives you the feeling of a videogame novelization and at this point I am asking, begging even, somebody at Naughty Dog, Rockstar, or Bethesda, to give this author a contract to write for them. We digress.
Set 15 years into the apocalypse, Ryan successfully plays the difficult balancing act of determining how much has humanity tried to hang onto the social contracts of civilization as we know it and how much they’ve shed and moved past to make the best of what they have now. Are all old rules and conventions still relevant? Or should they for that matter? What is the point past which you say “Fuck it, I am changing things because holding onto the past is pointless”? That is arguably one of my favorite themes within postapocalyptic fiction and seeing the ways in which each author tackles it is always interesting to me. Needless to say, I found Ryan’s answers to these questions intriguing while also grounded. Utilitarian but also without the level of cynicism this genre is often prone towards. All the while keeping certain details purposefully vague so as to not set it in one specific/recognizable location – the world did end after all. It is left to the reader to decide where the story is happening.
Compared to the slow and inexorable building dread and mystery that characterized Red River Seven, the narrative pace of The Feeding is speedy, uncompromising, and to the point, keeping you on your toes while still pulling the rug under you any time you feel safe enough to take a breath. Being fast on your feet is not nearly enough in this world. Past the walls keeping what is left of humanity safe, sentimentality or weakness will get you or those around you killed. And yet still, the author doesn’t sacrifice character likeability for their ruthlessness, nor does he leave you wanting for details that slowly build a mystery within what initially seemed a simple enough action plot going from point A to point B.
I was also very pleased by the lack of answers for certain things. Yes, you read that correctly, I loved the questions that remained, or the missing context at times. It grounded this story with the realistic rendering of lack of information one expects after world ending events. We take so much of what we know for granted after all, and books like this are a reminder of that.
Finally, I am a simple movie nerd, I see pop culture Easter eggs, I get a boost of serotonin.
In short, The Feeding is pretty much everything you want in a postapocalyptic horror. You can take it as a “simple” yet badass action flick that’ll have you enthralled for the duration of the ride, with its scares, thrills, and cinematic storytelling. Or, you can give it an extra minute to ponder the underlying themes it allows for without beating you over the head with them. My only real qualm with this book is that I wanted more of it regardless of how satisfying yet a little bitterwseet the end was.
The Feeding comes out through Blackstone Publishing in the US, and through Orbit Books in the UK (under the A.J. pen name) August 26th, and if anything I said piqued your interest, dear reader, this is exactly the book you need on your shelves!
Until next time
Eleni A. E.
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