The Feeding by Anthony Ryan

On January 11, 2026 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Five-Star Books, Horror, Science FictionLeave a comment

Publisher: Orbit/Blackstone Publishing (Audiobook – 14 October 2025)

Series: Standalone/Book One

Length: 10 hours and 13 minutes

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Acclaimed fantasy author Anthony Ryan continues to explore the horror genre with the fantastic post-apocalyptic vampire novel, The Feeding, an awesome and deeply addictive read that you won’t be able to read fast enough.

Anthony Ryan is an author I’ve talked a lot about in recent weeks, primarily because his outstanding fantasy novel, Born of an Iron Storm. The impressive second novel in the author’s Age of Wrath series, Born of an Iron Storm was one of my favourite books, audiobooks and sequels of 2025, and I am currently very excited for the third and final entry in the series, currently titled Upon a Forge of Battle, which is coming out later this year. However, before we get to that I need to also highlight Ryan’s second book of 2025, the awesome horror novel The Feeding. Released here in Australia under the pen-name A. J. Ryan, The Feeding is Ryan’s second major horror release after Red River Seven in 2023. This new horror novel had a great plot behind it, as a desperate protagonist attempts to survive a twisted landscape filled with dangerous monsters.

Plot Synopsis:

Layla has spent her entire life in the Redoubt, one of the last bastions of humanity in a ravaged world. She’s never been beyond the Redoubt’s walls; only Crossers, with their special training and survival skills, are permitted to venture into the shadow-haunted wastelands.

When Layla’s father falls ill, she knows she needs to find a cure. But no such medicine can be found within the Redoubt. Instead, her only chance is to pass a series of gruelling trials to become a Crosser, and then to strike out into the wilderness.

Where the feeders are.

Internationally bestselling fantasy author Anthony Ryan – writing as A. J. Ryan – delivers a nerve-shredding horror novel where humans are no longer top of the food chain.

The Feeding was another extremely awesome novel from Ryan that I ended up powering through in no time at all. A clever and intense vampire horror novel, The Feeding effortlessly keeps your attention with its impressive worldbuilding and fast-paced story. I had such an incredible time with this book, and I deeply enjoyed seeing what Ryan could do in the horror space.

The plot of The Feeding was a great, grungy post-apocalyptic read that was a very interesting change of pace from the sprawling fantasy epics I’m used to from Ryan. Featuring a much more fast-paced story, Ryan quickly and effectively introduces you to The Feeding’s protagonist, Layla, and the dark world she inhabits. A lowly scavenger in the dying walled city of Redoubt, Layla finds herself desperate enough to become a Crosser, the city’s elite runners who leave Redoubt to trade in the wasteland, to find medicine for her dying father. This leads to an excellent extended early section of the book where the protagonist needs to go through a compelling Selection process, featuring several trials designed to whittle down the applicants and ensure only true survivors can go over the wall. This early sequence does an excellent job of hammering home just how dangerous the world outside of Redoubt is, as well as giving some intriguing insights into what the feeders, this universe’s vampire substitute, are capable of. This first part of the book really sets the tone for the rest of the novel, and I was frankly hooked on The Feeding the second we got to Selection.

I felt that the second half of The Feeding, which takes place primarily beyond the walls, lives up to the expectations Ryan sets up in the first part of the book. The protagonist and an interesting band of supporting characters enter the desolate wasteland and soon encounter all manner of horrors from wild feeders, even wilder humans, and the general abandonment of the outside world. Ryan also starts working in an excellent overarching narrative threat that stalks the protagonists from a distance. While you can easily guess at who or what this threat is, as well as a certain supporting character’s connections to it, the full impact and intensity of this looming danger keep hitting the protagonists hard and fast. There are some brutal losses as the plot continues, and you are constantly on edge as everything closes in and the stakes keep on rising.

Everything leads up to an intense finale, as after another dark confrontation the protagonist finds herself at her most desperate. Forced to rely on an unlikely ally, Layla attempts the impossible and soon finds herself stuck in the middle of someone else’s dark tale. The raw intensity of the plot really grabs your attention at this point, and you are so very eager to see how the book will continue. Ryan also throws in some interesting additional worldbuilding as the novel heads towards the conclusion, which provides some answers to the questions you’ve built up throughout The Feeding, while also ensuring you’re even more curious about what else is out in the wasteland. After a gritty final confrontation, as well as some last-minute tragedy, Ryan ends The Feeding on a mostly hopeful and heartfelt note, which includes an excellent family moment bonding over a classic. This proved to be an excellent end to The Feeding’s standalone narrative, although Ryan does leave the story open for a potential sequel going forward, which I personally would be curious to see.

Ryan pulls together a tight, complex and character-driven narrative in The Feeding that I think worked extremely well. Grabbing the reader’s attention early, Ryan does an excellent job painting the post-apocalyptic scene, and I loved the complex world of walled cities and vampire-infested wastelands that emerged. The combined tension of mass human desperation and the dark overwhelming threat of feeders surrounding the city ensures that the reader knows how deadly this version of the world is from the beginning, which ensures you are really invested in the protagonist’s personal journey. The feeders themselves prove to be outstanding vampiric antagonists for much of the plot, especially with the combination of feral beast gamma feeders and more intelligent betas and alphas, providing some variation in the threat they posed. Ryan crafts together some outstanding and scary sequences involving the feeders as the novel continues, and your pulse is guaranteed to race every time they appear, especially once the death toll starts to rise. Combine that with Ryan’s proven ability to write good action scenes, of which there are some fantastic moments, as well as some excellent and compelling supporting characters (try not to get too attached though), and this really was a fantastically written novel. I was honestly really impressed with how Ryan transitioned from his usual fantasy style to this powerful and moving horror novel, while also retaining his typical imagination and intense storytelling ability.

As has become my habit with all the previous Anthony Ryan novels I’ve enjoyed, I ended up listening to The Feeding on audiobook, which I’ve always found compliments the author’s writing style and worldbuilding extremely well. This proved to once again be the case for The Feeding, with the format really enhancing the tension and fast-paced sequences loaded into this great horror story. It helped that they got another very skilled narrator in the form of Devon Sorvari, who took on the role of the one perspective protagonist extremely well. While it did take me a chapter or two to completely appreciate Sorvari’s narration style, once I got into her groove, I begun to really appreciate her take on the story and the intriguing characters. Sorvari perfectly captures the damaged and determined spirit of the main character Layla throughout The Feeding, and the alternate accents and voices she brings for the rest of the cast also work really well. Sorvari also keeps the pace of The Feeding constantly going, and the way she can enhance the tension of the audiobook through her voice work ensures you are constantly on the edge of your seat as you listen to it. Thanks to this excellent narration, I got through the audiobooks roughly 10-hour runtime extremely quickly, and this proved to be a particularly amazing audiobook to listen to.

Anthony Ryan continues to greatly impress with his captivating and highly entertaining horror novel The Feeding. Featuring an outstanding vampire-focused narrative in a complex post-apocalyptic world, The Feeding was a very fun and emotionally charged read, that I couldn’t get enough of. I had such a brilliant time with The Feeding, and it comes very highly recommend as a result. I will be seeking out more of Ryan’s dives into the horror genre going forward, and I cannot wait to see what other creepy tales he has planned.

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DEV1AT3 by Jay Kristoff

On July 28, 2019August 19, 2022 By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Science Fiction, Young Adult6 Comments

DEV1AT3 Cover.jpg

Publisher: Allen & Unwin (Trade Paperback – 17 June 2019)

Series: LIFEL1K3 – Book 2

Length: 423 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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From one of the most prolific young adult fiction authors, Jay Kristoff, comes the follow up to his electrifying 2018 smash-hit LIFEL1K3, DEV1AT3.

Over the last few years, Australian author Jay Kristoff has been one of the leading contributors to young adult fiction, writing several bestselling series. His works include The Lotus War series, the highly regarded The Nevernight Chronicles, and The Illuminae Files, which he co-wrote with fellow Australian Amie Kaufman. DEV1AT3 is actually the second of three Kristoff books being released this year, as he has already released the first book in his second collaborative series with Kaufman, Aurora Rising. Darkdawn, the third and final book in The Nevernight Chronicles, is set to be released in early September.

People who keep an eye on my blog may have noticed that I did a short review of DEV1AT3 a few weeks ago in a Canberra Weekly column. I have been meaning to write up an extended review of the book for a while now, as it was quite an enjoyable book with a lot of cool features. DEV1AT3 follows on from the incredibly popular first book, LIFEL1K3. The LIFEL1K3 series follows the adventures of four young friends in the dangerous post-apocalyptic remains of America, now controlled by rival mega-companies and gangs of religious fanatics.

DEV1AT3 is set in the immediate aftermath of the dramatic conclusion of LIFEL1K3, when the protagonist of the first book, Eve, found out the terrible truth of her origin: she is secretly a lifelike, an android who can ignore the Three Laws of Robotics. Worse, she is actually a replica of Ana Monrova, the daughter of the creator of the lifelikes, Nicholas Monrova, whose creations rebelled against him and killed his entire family. With the realisation that everything she has ever known is a lie, Eve begins to plot with the murderous Gabriel and the other lifelikes to find the comatose body of Ana. While Eve simply wants to kill the woman whose life she is imitating; the other lifelikes will use Ana’s body to unlock Monrova’s secrets in order to start a robot revolution.

Out in the post-apocalyptic wastelands surrounding Babel, Eve’s friends, Lemon Fresh, Ezekiel and Cricket, have seen better days. Not only were each of them forced to abandon Eve for different reasons but they must all face their individual consequence of the events that occurred within Babel. When unexpected events force them to separate, each of these friends find themselves in a whole world of trouble.

Lemon Fresh’s status as a deviate, a genetic mutant with the ability to manipulate electricity, has always landed her in trouble, but now she finds herself the ultimate pawn in a war between two of the major corporations that rule the land. Kidnapped by an agent of BioMaas Incorporated, Lemon eventually finds herself falling in with a band of fellow deviate teenagers, each with their own unique abilities, and whose leader, the Major, may hold the secrets to her past.

At the same time, the logika Cricket is stolen and sold to the Brotherhood, a group of religious fanatics determined to destroy every android, deviate and genetically modified being they can find. As the Brotherhood edges closer to a war with the Major’s deviates, Cricket is forced to fight as a robot gladiator while learning the dark secrets at the heart of the cult. Meanwhile, Ezekiel, the one lifelike with any love for humanity, teams up with an old enemy in order to track down Lemon Fresh and Cricket. However, when Ezekiel’s mission leads him into the path of Eve and his other lifelike brothers and sisters, he attempts to find a way to stop their destructive crusade and save his beloved Ana.

This was a fantastic piece of young adult fiction that does a wonderful job of following up the first book in the series. Kristoff tells an exciting story which not only continues the plot lines of the first book but which also takes the characters in some intriguing new directions. However, despite some differences in plot focus, the book continues to feature the cool allusions to other works of fiction that made the first book such a treat to read, and it continues to explore aspects of this intriguing post-apocalyptic setting. Readers who did not get the chance to read the first book, LIFEL1K3, last year will easily be able to start by reading DEV1AT3. Not only is the story quite accessible but it also starts off with an extremely detailed summary of the events and characters from the first book, which allows anyone to fully catch up with where the plot is.

One of the most interesting changes between this book and LIFEL1K3 is that the protagonist of the first book, Eve, is instead cast as an antagonist, and we end up seeing very little of the book’s plot from her point of view. Instead, the plot of DEV1AT3 is mostly split between the three perspectives of Lemon Fresh, Cricket and Ezekiel, who each have their own unique storylines. Each of these storylines is noticeably different, with all three of them making use of some unique features to help create an intriguing and emotionally strong story. The reader gets a real feel for all three of these point-of-view characters throughout the course of their individual plots, and several intriguing new side-characters are introduced. These separate storylines come together to form one amazing overall narrative, which ends with an amazing cliff-hanger for each of the main characters that will ensure readers will have to check out the final book in this series when it comes out.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the LIFEL1K3 series is that each of the books is marketed as a crazy mash-up of several different works of fiction. For example, the first book in the series had a real Alita Battle Angel crossed with Mad Max and Blade Runner vibe to it. Many of the references to the plots of various other media titles that were started in the first book are continued in DEV1AT3. For example, the whole Mad Max vibe of life in the wasteland is actually really enhanced in this book, as the vast majority of the story is spent out in the nuclear wastes and smaller outposts that make up the ruins of America, with a number of crazy car chases in souped-up doomsday vehicles featured throughout. We also get a deeper look at the whole Bladerunner aspect of the story, as Eve comes to terms with actually being a lifelike and attempts to get revenge for her creation.

In this second book, Kristoff’s plot also makes allusions to several other pieces of fiction in the three various storylines. For example, Lemon Fresh’s storyline is an interesting post-apocalyptic take on the X-Men, with the super-powered teen finding kinship with a group of similarly gifted individuals in a world that hates and fears them. The new deviates introduced in this storyline have a pretty cool range of powers, have all been attacked because of their abilities and even have a wise old mentor character in the Major. The various twists associated with this storyline are really clever, and it was interesting to see more deviates aside from Lemon. Ezekiel also has a great storyline within DEV1AT3. While much of his story is still tied up with his feelings for Eve, the lifelike copy of the woman he loves, and all the Bladerunner-esque emotions and thoughts he and his lifelike family experienced in the first book, Kristoff adds a fun new element to his storyline in this book. For much of his storyline, Ezekiel actually teams up with Preacher, the cyborg bounty hunter who was an antagonist of the first book. This is a very fun team-up, and it harkens back to a lot of classic odd-couple crime movies, with the two having a very rocky relationship that kind of improves as the story goes along.

I personally liked Cricket’s storyline the most. Cricket is a logika, a sentient robot who must obey the Three Laws of Robotics. Cricket, who was previously a small assistant robot, had his personality transferred into a massive combat robot in the last book. However, he is kidnapped by members of the Brotherhood, the insidious religious group fighting against Lemon Fresh’s new deviate brethren. Cricket, who has to obey all the orders given to him by the Brotherhood due to the Three Laws of Robotics, is forced to fight in a series of gladiatorial combats. This storyline gives the reader the best insight into the ranks of the Brotherhood, and Cricket uncovers certain secrets while working for them. With the whole Three Laws aspect, this storyline is obviously very reminiscent of the science fiction classic I, Robot; however, Kristoff comes up with some humorous takes on the Three Laws. Thanks to the assistance of the snarky logika Solomon (who I found to be one of the funniest characters in DEV1AT3), Cricket starts to learn how to utilise the loopholes in people’s statements, so he has a degree of freedom and he also makes use of a simple solution to counteract one of the laws, which was pretty funny. All of these references to these established pieces of fiction are great, and I really liked how the author adapted them to fit his compelling young adult story. I especially enjoyed seeing some complex science fiction ideas, such as Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, explained to a younger audience, with some cool tweaks to make a more entertaining and modern story.

In addition to fun story and clever references to other works, one of the most interesting things about the LIFEL1K3 series is the cool post-apocalyptic setting that the author has come up with. The nuclear ruins of America always makes for an intriguing setting for a story, and I really enjoyed the cool combination that Kristoff makes in this series with savage nuclear wasteland and high-tech cities. The sheer amount of creativity that Kristoff utilises for the setting is really impressive, as this book alone features wars between rival corporations, desert-dwelling religious nuts, mutants, rebelling androids, bandits and mutated monsters. All of these are utilised extremely well in the story, and I look forward to seeing what other cool aspects of this broken world become apparent in the next instalment of this series.

DEV1AT3 is another wild ride from Jay Kristoff that I had a lot of fun reading. Featuring an excellent story that makes great use of references to some classic pieces of science fiction and fantasy, DEV1AT3 is a fantastic read that refuses to slow down for everything. This is a highly recommended read for the older young adult market, and it will also appeal to older readers. I am extremely curious to see where Kristoff takes this story next and look forward to another electrifying adventure in this mad-cap world.

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