Fiend is the prequel to The Novel. The backstory. Ryder Strickland is a young man who barely knows how to feed himself. He dwells in a dangerous environment of trailer parks, drug dealers, and single mothers. But he knows how to hurt them, all of them. And he does so while attending college and volunteering as a firefighter. Follow along as Ryder begins his journey, before he became the most dangerous man in history. A trial by fire, where the fire is his weapon.