A great start to a trilogy. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it was meant to be a trilogy at first and was temporarily disappointed by an anti-climactic ending. The first half of the book did a lot of heavy-lifting in the world building department and was more enjoyable to me than the action packed second half. Regardless, I'm really excited to start Book 2 and waiting patiently for Book 3 to come out next year.

3.5 stars.

This is an interesting dystopian with a creative premise and a very unique look at a future world. The story takes place several generations in the future after what I assume to be nuclear war. Remaining humans have divided themselves into small villages and there are aggressive human consuming trees populating the world outside of Koli's home of Mythen Rood. That's right...the trees will eat you. It's awesome. The world building is fantastic and though it consumes a lot of the first book in this trilogy, I still want to know more about this plant situation.

The first half of this book moves fairly slowly, doing a lot of set up and introducing the characters, the world, the power structure. It's all necessary information, but it's done in a way that feels a little heavy on the info dumping side and does bog down the pacing. The other struggle to getting immersed in this book is the writing style. Koli is fairly illiterate and the language has changed over the years. There is shortening of words and mixing of tenses that will make grammar sticklers cringe. It was a bit of a challenge to get used to, but it is actually an incredibly smart addition to the creation of the atmosphere as there would be some alterations in speech patterns over time and with community isolation.

The last third/half picked up the pace and finally took off with a run. Once Koli leaves the gates of the village, it's all systems go. This second half sucked me in and got me wrapped up in the action and Koli's journey quite well. I left the ending just itching to grab the second book in the series. It's worth the read and the series does pick up in pacing over time...hang in there if it feels a little dense at the start.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Orbit!***

On a side note, expect to see a lot of this disclaimer. Somehow I got behind like 20 ARCs from places like NetGalley and authors. So, flurry of reviews!

On to this book. It was fairly good. The biggest annoyance that I had with it was the writing style. It was written in a world where humans have brought on their own demise. Through genetic engineering that was weaponized and AI used to fight a war, humans have been decimated. Human beings now live in separate small communities in a world that is constantly attacking them. Because while the war between humans may be over, no one told that to the attack drones or the killer trees. As a result, humans have lost a lot of the knowledge they had. And the writing style was done to match. It was also kind of annoying.

The beginning of this book wasn’t very good. Koli was not a very interesting narrator and most of what he did was pine over a girl. I was more interested in the wider world. I mean trees are out there attacking people! Can we not spend so much of our time in Koli’s bland little town of less than 200 people? Pretty please.

Once the plot moved on from his little town the story got a lot better. I liked the dynamics of the wider world and the resolution of the story. It was more of cliffhanger ending than I usually like but since I am invested in the story that’s okay with me because I planned on reading the next book anyway.

I wasn't able to read the book but will be featuring it in a series called 'I Wish I Had Read That.' Text below:

I had grand plans for The Rampart Trilogy. There’s nothing better than a long book series released nearly back to back over the course of a year. The description of the first book was wonderfully vague, leaving you with a picture of a very natural world that is hiding a dark past. Thanks to 2020, this trilogy has eluded me, but I’d love to hear in the comments what you thought of the world-building and character growth. Read more about the author and books below, or purchase a copy for yourself! And of course, a big thank you to Orbit for the free review copies of this compelling series!

it took me a bit to get into the somewhat choppy writing style of this book. As well, the names of the characters were a bit confusing initially. Nevertheless, I stuck with it and am glad I did. This was a great coming of age, apocalyptical adventure. I'm looking forward to the second in the series, Trials of Koli.

The Book of Koli is the first book in a trilogy about a world that is very different from our own. It is set in the far future, where most technology has been lost and the trees will literally eat you. Humanity has survived by huddling together in small villages enclosed by walls that must be constantly defended from the trees and other creatures. Koli lives in one of these villages, Mythen Rood. Mythen Rood is ruled by the Ramparts - those who are gifted with the ability to control the little technology that is left. When every child turns 15, they are given the chance to make the old tech wake for them. Those who succeed become a Rampart, charged with ruling the village and using the old tech to defend the village from threats. When Koli discovers a secret about the Ramparts, he steals a piece of old tech for himself, and his world turns upside down.

The world that the book is set it is in fascinating, both familiar and totally alien at the same time. It is amazing to consider how drastically "trees that will eat you" alters everything about human life. For example, summer is considered the worst time of year, because that's when the trees are the most active. Winter is the easiest time of year, because that's when the trees sleep. Travel is the most dangerous when the sun is out, because that's when the trees can move.

Koli is a likeable protagonist, who ruefully admits his own shortcomings and poor choices. Because he lacks a proper education, his speech patterns don't exactly line up with proper English. I was afraid that I would find this too distracting to make it through the book, but I got used to it within a couple of chapters. And his grammar makes perfect sense for his character - survival skills are obviously going to be more important to his education than subject/verb agreement.

There are other characters who shine as the supporting cast. Ursala is a traveling doctor was a diagnostic machine. She seems to be the sole character who understands technology in the same terms that we do, and she often serves as a translator for Koli's primitive interpretation of the world. Even Monono, the Japanese AI inside the tech that Koli stole, has her own impressive character arc.

I enjoyed The Book of Koli very much, and can't wait to start the second book. Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for a copy of the book, in exchange for an honest review.

The Book of Koli is my first book by M.R. Carey. Unlike most of the world, I have yet to read The Girl With All the Gifts. But if BoK is any indicator, I will soon be reading his whole catalogue.

I had no idea what to expect with this book. What I got was a post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel, with fantasy tropes and a main character who I can’t help to compare to Forrest Gump. I mean that in the best way possible, I LOVED this book.

Koli is a very simple man, with a very simple way of speaking. This isn’t a book full of ten dollar words or flowery prose. But there is poetry in the simplicity.

Koli lives a world full of the half dead technological wonders of a world long past, in a village isolated from the rest of the world. The first quarter of the book building up the daily life of Koli, his friends and the community. Carey does such a wonderful job establishing all this that when it all inevitably gets shaken up, you actually miss the good ol’ days.

Koli is such an endearing voice, I didn’t want anything to happen to him. But, of course, to tell a story, conflict must ensue. It’s a true testament to Carey that he’s created a character I’m perfectly content just reading about his day to day. Don’t worry though, while it may seem a slow burn, it is by no means a boring book.

This is a story of wanting to belong. Of power, consequences and new beginnings. BoK is a fantastic book one to what promises to be a wonderful trilogy.

I received a free ebook ARC of this book but I wound up buying the audiobook version. That is the only way that I could get through the book. I found the writing style off-putting. The author employs an invented dialect that is very annoying and isn’t used consistently. “Then I come along, and I got a piece of tech for my own self. I thought my fortune was made until Catrin and them teached me better.” The audiobook saved me because the narrator had to do the heavy lifting of figuring out the proper pronunciation and inflection and reading the awkward sentences.

This is the first book of a trilogy that relates the story of Koli who is living in a dystopian future England. When teenagers reach the age of 15 they are tested for assignment to a profession. The most desirable assignment is to be designated a Rampart. They are the only citizens who are able to operate ancient technology. Coincidentally, all of the Ramparts come from a single family, and it’s not Koli’s family. I thought the book was stronger at world building (like genetically modified carnivorous trees) than it was at either plot or characters. Koli’s YA ruminations were kind of boring when he didn’t have a juicer character with whom to interact. Fortunately, there were two more interesting characters, Ursula (a healer) and Monona (an artificial intelligence). Ultimately, this book turns into a quest, but for most of it Koli is just buffeted by chance. Hopefully the next book will develop the plot more, but I fear that it will be the typical second book placeholder. 3.5 stars

A dystopian YA novel that takes pkace in the UK and doesn't live up to the author's other works.

It is very slow going. I understand it is the first of a series and the author must lay groundwork.

Besides being slow it is also confusing. The MC narrates and doesn't have a good grasp of the English language and uses incomprehensible jargon. It takes a long while to understand and
grasp his meaning. Additionally, there are a slew of characters that are difficult to keep straight, which adds to the confusion.

Overall, I found the book disappointing.

I received a free from Netgalley. I am leaving my honest review.

I like M. R. Carey but I could not get into this book. I understand what was happening with creating a "voice" for the narrator but it made it so difficult to read that I did not finish the book.

The Book of Koli is another climate dystopian novel with a twist. The world is after a climatic disaster, and the new danger in the world are the plants and trees from humans’ genetic editing. This is played up when Koli tells an AI from before the catastrophe that isn’t everyone afraid of trees. However, the first half or so takes places in the walled village with an authoritarian ruling family. This is not particularly nuanced nor the surprise at all surprising. I liked the start but almost gave up from 20-30% because I got tired of Koli’s POV voice and whining. However, once he is outside the wall and having to survive on his own (more or less but spoilers) and his new friend, made it worth it. The book got better as it went so I am looking forward to the second one. The secondary characters made the book and I look forward to more of them in the second one. I also hope Koli’s voice continues to mature. The book is written as if it was spoken with double negatives, contractions and dubious grammar but I did not find it difficult to read and it did not slow my reading personally. I personally was not fond of the somewhat heavy handed foreshadowing or withholding of information early in the book but it either got better or I got used to it by the end.

** I received a Review Copy of this book via NetGalley **

The Book of Koli // by M.R. Carey

I’ve been dancing around reading this book for a while now. I was not sure if I was ready to jump into another series where I knew more books were coming out soon because I just have so many other books to read. But something just told me I needed to do it so I did. And am I glad that I did! I read almost the entire book in just one day and stayed up until 1am to finish it. I haven’t done that in years!

Koli, the narrator, drew me right in. I was hooked from the very first chapter on! Carey chooses his words so well. The writing was so beautiful that I highlighted sentences and whole passages in every chapter. There were so many highlights, that eventually I just told myself to stop with it all together because the entire book would glow in the end.

I am a big fan of dystopian stories but I did not even realize that this was one in the beginning! All I knew about this book was from the blurb and there honestly was not much information in that so I had no idea what was coming. The book reminded me a little bit of Zoo by James Patterson with nature banding together against the humans and even animals forming organized packs against them and their intelligence having evolved so much that revenge and placating via gifts were concepts they understood.

As I said, dystopia was not something I expected here so when technology started to appear, I was thoroughly confused at first. I had a rough time trying to figure out a general time period that this may have been set in or modeled after until then but it made so much more sense later. Koli did an incredible job explaining the time period, their living situation, the technology they know about, and everything else we needed to know to understand his story. It is written like a diary for future readers or as if he was verbally telling you this story much later and he wanted to make sure we really understood everything in case things were different again by the time we found his story. I really enjoyed that part.

I don’t want to give too much away because I actually think it was good not knowing a lot going in but the way the technology was integrated into society as well as against societies was very interesting. I am also a big fan of familiars and while that is probably not the right word to use here, it still felt similar to that, which was a lot of fun. The integration of and references to specific music was very well done as well.

The last thing I want to mention is that I am really enjoying the mention of more diverse characters in my reading lately and this one was no exception. But I do find it necessary to put a warning in [look away now for the rest of this paragraph if you don’t like even tiny spoilers!]: While Koli himself is very accepting of trans characters, some people in his society are not so there is talk about physical abuse towards those characters at least twice in this book and it seems to be based off of their religion.

This book is written to be a trilogy and it is obvious in the slow (but interesting!) start as well as the way it is left open-ended. Due to the changes of the English language over time (or maybe it is due to illiteracy of the majority of the population?), some people may enjoy this more as an audiobook, though I found it flowed very well and did not distract from the story. Some of his spellings even made me laugh out loud! I did listen to an excerpt of the audiobook though for my friend and the narrator sounded really awesome. I am very excited for the next book, The Trials of Koli, which will be released tomorrow, and am happy because the wait for the third book, The Fall of Koli, is not too far behind either.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

The book of Koli starts off pretty strongly with a new concept. Technology has gone wrong, knowledge is a forgotten secret, and nature has gone wild. Literally. There are trees that can run as fast as an animal and can kill you by crushing humans within their branches. Sounds cool right? Tell me why this wasn’t explained or explored at all. I kept reading and reading WAITING AND WAITNG but just given disappointment. Why would you create such an interesting concept but just breeze right over it?

Initially, I requested the second book first and when I realized my mistake I went to the first before going to the second.. but now I'm not so sure I will read the second. I’ve come to realize I don’t care about Koli or what happens to him. At first I thought the intentional incorrect grammar created a strong character but then I realized something tragic.. Koli has absolutely no personality, nothing relatable, and nothing that made me want to root for him. I found the side characters more interesting and even the computer Monono Aware had more personality than him. I just thought the book droned on and on about.. nothing. I will attempt to read the second book in hopes that I get some answers but if it’s anything like this one I will give up immediately.

Looking at other reviews this seems to be a book people love or hate - no middle ground. Sometimes I can see how someone could love a book I didn’t like but in this case.. I do not understand. Maybe this will be one of those series where the first book is okay and the rest of the series are amazing? We will see. Thanks to Netgalley and to the publisher for a copy of this book.

Horror fans will likely know M. R. Carey, aka Mike Carey, best from The Girl With All the Gifts. In The Book of Koli, he brings us into another post-apocalyptic setting. This time, though, it’s one brought about by climate change, war, and scarcity, rather than a virus — and in the world that’s left, literally everything is trying to kill the survivors, who gather together in small villages and rely on the few remaining pieces of technology they have to defend themselves.

But what The Book of Koli is ultimately about is storytelling — how we construct ourselves and our world, and how we understand ourselves and our world, through the stories we tell ourselves and each other. We see this time and time again — in what the powerful Ramparts do and don’t tell the people of Koli’s village, Mythen Rood; in what Koli tells himself and the village to justify his taking of the piece of tech he later comes to know as the DreamSleeve; in how the DreamSleeve’s AI, Monono, grows to understand herself, and how she explains that understanding to Koli; in how the zealot Senlas gathers and keeps his followers.

The Book of Koli is about the power of stories. And I can’t wait to see where this particular story will go.

This was a fun story! It's a coming of age story set in a regressed future, which is a type of setting I really love. The setting really reminded me of the video game Horizon Zero Dawn, which I also happened to be playing at the same time as reading this. The idea of a world where plants become predators was super intriguing to me. There is an AI character in this book, a remnant from our past, and I loved this character so much! Koli himself did frustrate me at times as he was a bit immature but I already see growth in his character in this book and I can't wait to see where he goes in the next two. I really liked the ending of this book and the hints at where the story goes next. I will definitely be continuing on in this story.

An epic post-apocalyptic tale that lovers of fantasy and dystopian will devour! The Book of Koli is a riveting story of human versus nature in a world where nature has the upper hand. Fantastic world building and multidimensional characters that are interesting and engaging. I highly recommend this one and can't wait to read the sequel set to release in September 2020. Thank you to Orbit books and NetGalley for allowing me to review

Thank you so much for the early copy of this work. I've read every M.R. Carey book so far can't get enough of the world-building, but even more importantly- the character development. World elements were well built up including an entire dialect/language., mythology surrounding technology, and lethal trees. Characters are even better- Ursula being my favorite. I'm itching to see what happens next and can't wait for book 2.

I admittedly went into this book with no knowledge of what it was about (other than it was sci-fi/fantasy) and no expectations. Boy am I glad I picked it up.

The basic premise is that it is hundreds of years in the future. Tech is pretty much gone save for a scattering of items here and there. Koli lives in Mythen Rood which is an isolated village basically governed and protected from outside elements by four Ramparts. Ramparts (generally all from the same family) are the people that have had tech "wake" for them. Each time a child turns 15 they are tested to see if a tech of their choosing wakes for them. Koli wants more than anything to be a Rampart and that desire is what sets off all of the events of the story.

The world building of this story was just amazing and atmospheric. Koli was an extremely relatable character. And the conflicts were all believable in the context of a world that has come to this point of its evolution. I loved many of the side characters and even in times when I didn't like a character, I was invested enough in the story that my emotions were tied up in theirs as well as in Koli's. Bottom line, I absolutely loved it.

One interesting note that I feel NEEDS to be mentioned...
I listened to the audio book while reading along with the book and I think the audio book added SO much to the story. First off, it was well narrated. Kudos to Theo Solomon.) The other reason though is that much of the voice of the book is told FROM Koli as if he is speaking the story to you. The book is phonetic in that way where "et" is used instead of "ate" and listening to it just made me catch things faster than when my eyes stopped at a word to phonetically read it in context. Last, and most fascinating, words that look one way, are pronounced in the audio book very differently. For example, one of my favorite characters, Monono Aware isn't Monono A-ware, but Monono A-wa-re. My brain never would have gone there if I had only just read it.

All in all fantastic read/listen. I can NOT wait to dive into The Trials of Koli asap.

I absolutely loved The Book of Koli from the first page to final sentence. This book started as a collection of fantasy novel tropes that were systematically turned on their heads. Koli is a new kind of hero, and his story is a new kind of Book. I am a sucker for stories featuring a primitive society built over advanced technology from a bygone age. Even in this very niche sub-genre of speculative fiction, Koli stands out and shines.

MR Carey plants us in a familiar starting place if you've read a decent amount of fantasy. Koli is a very young man in a small village, who's ambition outpaces his means, and his station. When he discovers that the leaders of his village, the Ramparts, have fixed the game so he'll always be a woodsmith while his best friend Haijon will be chosen to become a Rampart you can see where you think the story is going. Koli will expose the secret, win the trust of the village, become the beloved leader, and win the maiden's heart. If that's the story you want to read, The Book of Koli will disappoint you.

Koli isn't strong or smart or brave. He never wins a fight or a race or a battle of wits. He's afraid of everything and everyone he encounters. He cries. A lot. What Koli lacks in traditional heroism he more than makes up for in his empathy. He lives in a world of kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, where even members of his own family have died or disappeared suddenly. Life is cheap and ends fast. Lots of bad things happen to poor Koli and his emotional journey takes him from being selfish and indignant, to learning how to feel other people's pain, to share their victories, and respect that anyone has a right to live, and to choose who they are and how they'll live.

While The Book of Koli initially presents itself in a fantasy setting, it quickly reveals that the story is set in our world in the far future. This isn't fantasy, it's pure science fiction. In Koli's future there has been a full climate collapse. Humans have genetically engineered trees to feed on meat rather than sunlight. The internet has become powerful enough that the right technology performing the right searches can teach itself to write its' own code, and become self-aware. There are all manner of futuristic weapons and medical technology and every other piece of high tech that sci-fi writers have ever imagined. But humanity has lost the knowledge to use and produce this technology effectively. The primitive peoples in The Book of Koli are in King Arthur's Court without the Connecticut Yankee. Carey's vision of how our technology will advance in the near future gets to be both predictive and retrospective.

The Book of Koli is the first of a trilogy and I will definitely be following the rest of Koli's story, as well as keeping an eye out for more of MR Carey's novels. I can't wait to read more.

I went into The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey nearly blind, and I suggest all others do the same. In that spirit, I’m going to keep my review as spoiler free as possible. Koli, in addition to being our main character, is also our teacher. Unlike other fantasy novels that invest in broad sweeping pages of lucious descriptions of their strange worlds, we truly have the privilege of seeing through Koli’s eyes. This means, sometimes, our dear narrator talks about things like evil trees and gives no reasoning...mostly because he has never known trees to be any different.

Why is that?

The beginning of the novel begins like many other fantasy bildungsromans - teenagers of a small village, Mythen Rood, must attend the Waiting - a time in which each child, upon turning 15, takes the Rampart test and decides their future in the village. Worshipping the old tech that surrounds them, those accepted by the tech are raised in status...and those who the tech does not work are forced back into the village to leave ordinary lives. But Koli isn’t prepared to stick with the status quo...and so begins our adventure and education into the world of Koli and the characters that surround him.

Personally, I usually find coming-of-age fantasies featuring young men...uninspiring. However, Carey’s unique narrative voice and the way she presents the fantastical world that Koli inhabits sets the book so apart from everything I’ve read before in the genre.

The deeper I got in the book and the bigger Koli’s world grew, the more I had to read. Although the pacing felt a little strange and stunted, and Koli’s voice and narrative style took a little getting used to, soon I fell deeper into his world and as it grew more complicated I found it harder to pull away.

This is a fantasy book where world-building, at first, takes a backseat to getting to deeply know our characters, especially our narrator, and the daily and intimate struggle of their worlds. I found that to be unique and relatable way to approach the first book in a fantasy series which are typically over concerned about ‘explaining’ everything. Instead, Carey allowed the characters to do the work.

If you are looking for a unique entry into the bildungsroman fantasy world, and an enjoyably strange read I’d highly suggest picking this up!