I received an ARC of The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey. It is a dystopian novel about a small walled- off community that lives in fear of trees and other dangerous creatures beyond their borders. Koli, a boy of fifteen finds out a secret that threatens to change the hierarchy of the community and is exiled by the leaders to prevent the secret from coming to light. We then follow the adventure outside the walls.

This had the misfortune of being read as I learned the pandemic was spreading to my country. Due to the anxiety and fear of the pandemic, reading a dystopian was not the best idea for me and therefore it took me almost a month to finish. I will try to be as objective as possible.

This story has a very slow start. While the blurb mentions that Koli will leave the safety of the walled community, it doesn't happen until nearly halfway into the book. Once he does, the story picks up and is actually quite thrilling. One stylistic choice I didn't care for is the way Koli and the others talk.
They constantly speak with poor grammar, similar to a toddler. I "et" instead of "ate" or I "shooted" instead of "shot." I did get over this after a while but it did impact my enjoyment. On the other hand, one thing I think Carey did well was his world building. He invented new creatures, plants, and technology which helped me envision the world. Overall, I gave this book three stars. It is the first in a series and I will most likely pick up the next one. Thanks to Netgalley for giving me an ARC. This book will be published on April 14th, 2020.

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

Title: the book of koli

Author: M. R. Carey

Publisher: Orbit Books

Publication Date: TODAY!! (paperback/e-book)

ISBN: 978-0316477536

Source: NetGalley

"She forgot about how bad things was for us for a while, and I guess I did too.  It never stops amazing me how a story can deliver you out of your own self, even in the worst of times. - the book of koli"

Aye, this story did indeed deliver me out of me own self.  I am surviving and really can't complain about me personal life right now.  But I am filled with worry about me family, friends, and fellow humans that be struggling because of the pandemic.  I have been failing to focus on reading all year but dang March was rough.  So it was with both surprise and delight that a sci-fi dystopian would be the book that I could a) finish; b) really enjoy; and c) thoroughly take me away from worry for a small while.

Now I chose to read this knowing nothing about the plot other than it is written by an author that I love and that it dealt with killer plants.  Well I have to admit that I was slightly taken aback because I thought I would get more of a thriller about killer plants and instead it be a coming of age story with a slight YA feel.  There is also a writing style of degraded language that took an adjustment until I was able to go with the flow.

However, the story, world building, and characters quickly won me over and the current era's woes faded away while experiencing the future centuries from now.  I ended up loving the language, world, and especially the side characters.  Now no offense to Koli but favorites were Ursula and Monono.  I particularly loved the framing of the plot and how Koli was able to tell the story while reflecting from within.  I even loved the switches in time frames.  I was never confused but always eager to find out how everything was going to work out.

The only minor complaints are the cult section which wasn't all that original and the momentum slowing down in parts but I was extremely satisfied with this read and how it ended.  I cannot wait for the next installment in the fall.

So lastly . . .

Thank ye Orbit Books!

Sorry, not sorry, DNFed this at 17 percent. My brain got mad at me and then I heard a buzzing noise and that's it. This is too painful to continue. I hope it gets better. Since I loved "The Girl With All the Gifts" and was meh to annoyed with "The Boy on the Bridge." The writing is what killed this book for me. I get what the author was going for, but you have to think through doing "gimmicky" things in your books if it's going to make some to most of your readers want to tear their hair out. This reminds me of a book I read last year which for some reason decided to highlight certain words in red. No idea what the hell was happening there and it was distracting.

"The Book of Koli" is M.R. Carey's first book in his "Rampart" trilogy. In this new world we follow Koli who is a young boy living among trees and seeds that can kill. Yes, someone trees are able to just murder people. So they are like the Ents in "The Lord of the Rings" or actually this book is similar to "The Happening" but somehow more annoying.

I can't even speak to the characters in this book. Told via Koli's POV we are stuck in the head of a young boy named Koli. Carey has the writing follow Koli's thoughts and since Koli doesn't speak full sentences or proper grammar you find yourself re-reading sentences over and over again to get the proper meaning. I mean my eyes glazed over when we had Koli explaining why he apparently says "road" as "rood". Deep breath. I cannot right now. I am in the house, listening to music to keep my ire and anxiety down and this book is making me anxious and stressed.

The nitty-gritty: A stellar start to a new series, The Book of Koli surprised me in just about every possible way.

I’ve read every one of M.R. Carey’s books—or at least the books he’s written under the name M.R. Carey (he has an urban fantasy series written as Mike Carey that I’m dying to read!)—and I couldn't wait to read his latest, the first in a dystopian trilogy that takes place in a future England. And wow, I loved this! The story ended up being much different than I expected, but I love when authors can surprise me. I went in thinking this was going to be about killer trees and plants, but honestly, there is very little of that in this series opener. Instead, The Book of Koli is a character driven story about the fantastical adventures of Koli Woodsmith, a young boy on the cusp of adulthood who makes some bad choices and pays the price.

In a far future “Ingland,” Koli Woodsmith lives with his family in the village of Mythen Rood, surrounded by a forest full of dangerous trees, plants and animals. Koli’s family works in the sawmill, cutting down trees and preparing them to use as building materials—that is, after the planks have been thoroughly soaked in poison to kill the tree completely. When the story begins, Koli has turned fifteen and is now of age to participate in the “testing,” when he will have the chance to try to wake up one of the treasured pieces of tech owned by the village. If he can sync with the tech, he will become a Rampart, one of the village elite who control the tech and protect the village. If not, he’s destined to be a Woodsmith for the rest of his life, a fate he’s not too keen on.

The results of the testing lead Koli on an unexpected adventure, one that will change his life forever.

I know this is a very vague story recap, but I thought it best in order to avoid spoilers. This is a tale that’s worth discovering for yourself, a tale with many surprises. The Book of Koli is told in first person by Koli himself, and the story is infused with his particular voice. I do want to address Koli’s voice first, just to get it out of the way. I’ve read all sorts of reviews where the reader either couldn’t finish the book or just didn’t enjoy it because of Koli’s odd, uneducated way of speaking. But for me, I had the opposite experience. I thought his voice made the story even better, and I’m very happy that Carey chose this unusual and bold approach. Once you get into the groove, you too may find Koli’s sing-song cadence works well with this world, a world that has fallen apart and is trying to find its way back. As an example, here's a snippet of Koli's voice:

I got a story to tell you. I've been meaning to make a start for a long while now, and this is me doing it, but I'm warning you it might be a bumpy road. I never done nothing like this before, so I got no map, as it were, and I can't figure how much of what happened to me is worth telling.

The setting at first appears to be your typical post-apocalyptic world: small villages dot the countryside, with very few people left after wars and other catastrophes have decimated the planet. Over the course of time, trees and plants have become almost sentient and are a mortal threat to humans. For this reason, villages have walls around them to keep out the deadly flora, and hunting expeditions outside the wall are timed to coincide with cloudy, cold days, when the trees aren’t as big a threat. But despite the hardscrabble life of the villagers, in Mythen Rood there are at least four pieces of “tech” from the old world, tech that still works and acts as weapons to protect the village. It’s this tech that lies at the heart of this story and colors everything that Koli does. And in order to keep the surprise, I’m not even going to talk too much about the tech—although I badly want to!—but I will say this: I absolutely loved two pieces of tech in the story. One is called a drudge (I want a drudge of my own so badly!) and is owned by another favorite character of mine named Ursala, and the other is a DreamSleeve. And the DreamSleeve has a name, and her name is Monono Aware. I don’t think I’ve loved a character more than Monono, she’s become my new favorite book character. Monono has a completely different voice than Koli and I have to include a bit of it here, simply because I know you’ll fall in love and want to find out more about her:

“What work are we gonna do, Monono?”

“I’m going to sharpen your taste buds to a point, Cody-bou. But basics first. This is ‘Poker Face’ by the lady named Gaga. Twice.

“First time, just listen. Second time, you dance.”

I know that makes no sense if you haven’t read the book, but trust me. You are going to love Monono too.

Carey is such a great storyteller, and I love the way Koli often gets sidetracked as he’s explaining something. These asides felt so natural, as if he were saying “Oh, I haven’t told you about that thing yet, have I? Don’t worry, that part’s coming up soon…” There’s also a wonderful tale-within-a-tale about Monono’s journey into the internet. That’s all I’m going to say about that, but look out for it, it’s sort of mind blowing!

Koli, Monono and Ursala wind up together on a quest of sorts, and a thrilling and terrifying climax eventually finds our characters preparing for—you guessed it—the next book in the series. I loved the direction Carey took at the end, which isn’t a cliffhanger at all, but rather the first steps into the sequel. This is one of my favorite types of endings: lots of things are wrapped up satisfactorily but the author also gives us a glimpse into the characters’ next adventure. I can hardly wait for The Trials of Koli, which luckily isn’t that far away—it comes out in September.

Readers who are already fans of M.R. Carey will not want to miss this, and new readers should take heed: this book might turn you into a fan as well. Highly recommended!

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Fully formatted review at Novellives.Com -Thank you to Orbit for a copy in exchange for an honest review
Also posted at all links in my profile, as always

Art Imitates Life

I think a lot of authors (not necessarily M.R Carey because well he's M.R. Carey) need to breathe. Sure, they've been writing about plagues, dystopian societies and apocalyptic world fates for years, but that doesn't mean they should be panicking now.  The world has always believed in art imitating life. Ok, maybe not Oscar Wilde, but he's an outlier. The Book of Koli, the first book in the Rampart Trilogy is, as Carey mentioned in his interview with me (linked above), a part of a trend of story lines where mother nature takes some form of revenge on humanity, because it is on the minds of anyone who is paying attention, authors included.

What is essential for not just Carey, but all those spinning the tales of these scary times, is what they do with them. Everyone has their own lens and their own voice. What you do with that voice is what makes each story unique and critical. The Book of Koli is the beginning of what promises to be a very unique take on the immediate and long-term devastation of our current state of in-actions. Also, it may just point to a direction of what hope might linger, if mother nature ever decided to give us another chance.

True Story

Seriously. Not that anyone will believe me but that's cool. I have a balcony/patio/whatever you want to call it (the mountain lion showed up on that night without being invited). That part everyone knows. Anyway. I can go out on that still because it is private, and no one is there (well before I got sick). Anyhow, The Book of Koli was the last book I really read when it was nice out and I started to not feel well. And I dropped it off the balcony. There was someone walking their dog. I'm on the second floor. So, it wasn't loud. They might have looked over. It wasn't some grand huge thing, except I had to go get it. And the guy who lives below me wasn't out. So, no big deal.

As I walked down the steps, to pick up the book and walked back up the steps I cursed Carey in English and Italian I realized what Carey had done. And why it mattered so much.

There In Lies The Torment- The Structure

See, The Book of Koli is a memoir. Instead of the unreliable narrator or that slow roll of unknowing like The Girl with All the Gifts? You get a narrator who knows the whole damn story. And you know he knows the whole damn story. And you are just reading along till you get...

In the end, the trouble come anyway, but that telling will have to wait for now.

And then Koli just goes on with the story. Like he didn't just tell you something horrendous was coming but no he isn't going to tell you about that now. He's just going to wait because he has to wait. NO, NO YOU DON'T HAVE TO WAIT. 

And so that is how the structure of The Book of Koli runs. Told from the perspective of Koli, a mostly illiterate member of a very post-apocalyptic world where nature has the hast the ability to devour people. This memoir starts with his time in Mythen Rood. In order to make it as realistic as possible everything is explained in very simplistic terms. The grammar and phonetics are often choppy and purposely incorrect. It stays true to Koli's voice, which has a dialect and description for a world where language has dropped off dramatically.

While Koli is a teenager, he still represents the "every man". He is frustrated with his lot in life. He sees what is going on around him and he wants more. The love of his life married his best friend. The place in society he wants to be a part of won't have him. And the path that is set forth for him? It just isn't enough. He knows everyone accepts their life and their place in it. And he knows that he should accept his. So, he tries.

So, I did what fools always have done since time was time, which is I pissed in my own milk and then complained about the taste of it.

If that isn't one of the quotes of the year? I'll be shocked.

That has to be one of the easiest feelings to relate to, ever. At some point in everyone's life, you've felt like that. If not? You just haven't ever wanted something bad enough.

Act One

Mythen Rood is a structured society. Everyone has their part. Some work with wood, some gather food, and some protect or keep watch. Ramparts use electronics from our era to do most of the protecting and hunting outside the walls that protect the community. This technology is from our era and the future. While, they wield it, it is widely unknown to them. Koli does his best to describe it in exact and literal terms.

This "magical" technology will seem very logical to readers and there are those at Mythen Rood who will make a power grab after figuring out some of the secrets behind the "magic." The tension builds around the introduction of an outsider who is much more educated. She comes with medical supplies and travels from community to community. Ursula helps many. She is both respected and disliked. The feeling is mutual, as she doesn't care to stay around people much other than helping them.

Ursula is a very complex and brilliantly written character. It is easy to both respect her and completely distrust her, despise her, even. However, much about her speech, her knowledge, her level of technology and what she says gives clues to so much going on beyond the walls of Mythen Rood, if you pay attention. This is the first half of the Book of Koli. And as much as I can tell you without giving too much away.

Thank you to Orbit for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Act Two

Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot I can say about act two other than it is really what sets up the rest of the series. For reasons that you will have to find out for yourself, Koli travels beyond the walls of Mythen Rood (it says that much in the summary). Many hidden secrets that are kept from the entirety of Mythen Rood come to light, along with another pending danger to what remains of the entire planet.

What happens to him beyond that point would give away much more than I'm willing to say.

Overall:

Two overall worlds built in The Book of Koli. Mythen Rood and beyond the wall. Both are done distinctively and utilizing not just site and the physicality of the places but primal fear. There is a palpable fear and creepiness of everything around you being alive and a threat, which especially grows beyond the walls that is physically debilitating to read. Within that there are minor worlds that come into play that are equally built-up and flushed out. Each are unique and some taking turns I definitely never saw coming.

I would imagine that throughout the series there is much more of this to come, or at least I would hope so. If that is the case, I believe it will be a phenomenal ride.

There are three major characters - Koli, Ursula and Monono- a voice AI for the Sony Dreamsleeve technology from Act 1. Character? Well you'll just have to figure that out in Act 2

The second book, The Trials of Koli, is due out in September. And it is just going to keep building through The Fall of Koli, next April.

There is a lot to love about this book. And it's a fantastic start to a series!

First off, it’s a master class in voice. Straight up one of the most voicey books I’ve read in a long time. And I honestly think it wasn’t overdone. At first, I was like, oh I dunno if I’m gonna last with this, but over time, I got used it, and before I knew it, Koli’s voice was stuck in my head and I got carried away by his story.

I think Koli is a fantastic protagonist. And I loved how his naivety plays off the reader's knowledge. He’s one of those protagonists that is sort of an accidental hero, but it worked for me. The things that he does make perfect sense—in a really frustrating way in which you can definitely guess that the shit is gonna hit the fan—but they made sense for his goals and what he wanted.

And I think my final praise is for the world-building in this book. I don’t want to say too much so I don’t spoil it (though maybe it’s obvious after the first few pages?), but I thought the book did a great job of showing the world through Koli’s eyes, rather than through what the reader would expect. And of course, this is a book that does the lie that the characters believe very well, and I just love that. I am also very eager to see where the next book goes! And additional aside, I was very pleased to see trans secondary characters, and though there is clearly transphobia in the world, neither of them are misgendered or deadnamed on-page (that I noticed!).

Overall, I’d recommend this one to anyone who’s loving the post-apocalyptic sci-fi trend in the book world for the past while. Another great book with oodles of voice and a brilliantly constructed world.
(this review will be posted on my blog on March 31, 2020)

just not for me. couldn't get my head in the right mind frame right now to get involved. thanks to the author and publisher for the opportunity. I can see a lot of promise moving forward but I need to put this one aside for another time.

The Book of Koli by M.R Carey, who is also the author of The Girl With All The Gifts, is a highly imaginative fable and the first in a planned dystopian and sci-fi trilogy known as The Rampart Trilogy.

I would struggle to explain exactly what the book is about as that would be spoiling it, and I found it fun to just dive in and try and work out some of the twists before the narrator Koli did!

Set far into the future, the world is not as we would normally think of it. Nature is the enemy, the trees harbour poison, and the woods house dangerous creatures. The communities must live behind fences and be guarded by lookout towers. It is not just the environment that holds danger outside the walls, but the people that roam it too, known as the "shunned men", they are the ones that don't belong in any village. Koli's life sees humanity returned to back to the basics. People live in small communities, they are assigned work, and they don't take well to outsiders. There are no electronics or technology and everything is built, farmed, or made by manual labour. The community is governed and protected by those known as "Ramparts", who are the ones who can use what little technology is left over from the olden days. Technology doesn't work for everyone, so the ones who can yield and use the devices hold the power. Weapons are most important, for example, one piece of technology in Koli's village is a flamethrower. This is something to be both feared yet respected.

Certain events lead to Koli obtaining his own piece of tech - an artificially intelligent multimedia player known as the "DreamSleeve Monono Aware Special Edition". Remember that Black Mirror episode with Miley Cyrus as an AI doll? Imagine something like that inside an MP3 player. It's a secret too big for Koli's village and the consequences are severe.

The tone and style of the writing is different, and certain readers may find it hard to get to grips with. The book is written as if Koli is speaking to the reader, as if he could be sat across from you telling you his story. There are deliberate spelling mistakes, and questionable grammar, as some words are written how they would be pronounced in his dialect. I think this might be because Koli is illiterate, as he doesn't read books, and his stories are told out loud rather than written down. Because of this, I think The Book of Koli would be really good as an audiobook, as the reader could enjoy the story being told to them, rather than having to adjust to how it appears on the page. That being said, I settled into this after a handful of chapters, but I'm not certain everyone would.

I really liked the character of Monono Aware. She is a piece of technology, but there is no doubt that she is a character in every sense in this book. Koli almost relates to her as a real being, and Carey has done really well at giving her her own identity and presence on the page. It was almost as if I could hear her voice in my head when reading her parts. Again, this goes back to what I said earlier about how this book could make a great audiobook experience!

The story flows fairly well. The first third of the book is enjoyable as you find out about Koli, how his world functions, who his important to him, and what happens in his past. It might seem like a slow start for some readers, but it is necessary to understand the main character. The second third of the book was my favourite, where the plot unravels further and Koli goes on his journey. Unfortunately, I found myself wanting to skip through bits of the last part, as I felt it lingered in places and lacked tension.

Would I read the next in the trilogy? I'm not 100% sure, but Carey has definitely laid out the next part of Koli's journey, and there is undeniably some curiosity about who he will meet next.

One of my favorite books last year, one that that I happily put on my “Best of” list is A Boy and his Dog at the End of the World by Charlie Fletcher. It’s an immersive near-future dystopian coming-of-age novel. I loved it. And I find so many similarities between that book and Carey’s The Book of Koli. Both feature a young person who questions the world they live in and is forced to strike out on their own. And each possess a voice that is unforgettable and encapsulates both their ages and the setting so well.

Let me get a little more into Carey’s book… Young Koli lives in a small town named Mythen Rood protected from the evils of the forrest. At first it’s a little difficult to figure things out as Koli describes his household and the people of the village. It takes place many generations in the future… The reader is told through his broken language that at one time it was a place called, “Inglan.” But that there’s been several wars and breakdowns of civilization since any time that we might recognize. The almost primeval makeup of the society causes their relationship with old tech to be stilted at best. There are a few elites who are able to use the tech and Koli desperately wants to be a part of it. Not only for the recognition, but because of a girl…

I won’t get too much farther into the plot, but I’ll just say that there’s a huge shift about halfway through that really grabbed me. If you’re a fan of dystopian fiction, especially with a dose of coming-of-age, I know you will like this. Also of note, this is the first book of a trilogy, and Carey cuts this one perfectly. I’m ready for the next one. After reading Someone Like Me and The Girl with all the Gifts I knew this book would be good.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orbit Books, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

<u> <b>Review for <i>The Book of Koli </i> by M.R. Carey</u> </b>

<u> <b>Thank you so much to Orbit for sending me a copy of this to read and review! All opinions are my own.</u> </b>

<b>Trigger Warnings (TW):</b> For some violence, this book is set in a post-apocalyptic world which I know can be triggering to many right now. Stay safe, friends!


<u> <b>Summary: </u> </b>
<b> <i>“ Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable world. A world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don't get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.

Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He knows the first rule of survival is that you don't venture beyond the walls.

What he doesn't know is - what happens when you aren't given a choice?”</b>

<img src=" https://imgur.com/LJUUaKW.jpg"


<u> <b>My Thoughts </u> </b>
In this book we follow Koli, as he learns to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where trees can kill you, and chosen ones in his village get the opportunity to be Ramparts. Ramparts are the select few who get tech to “wake” for them. Technology in this world is hard to find, thanks to it being post-apocalyptic, so the people who have it and who it magically wakes for, are seen as nearly god-like in Mythen Rood. The Ramparts are tasked with protecting the people of Mythen Rood by using their tech on things both in and outside the village. This small village and its people are all that Koli has known for his entire life, but that may soon change.

<i> “It’s a curious thing, when I think on it now, that I felt so trapped and so despairing of my station. The burden of my fears was that this place and these feelings I was stuck in wouldn’t ever change as long as I lived.”</i>
<u> Quote taken from an ARC and is subject to change upon publication</u>

I was really blown away by Carey’s writing. This is the first book I’ve read by him, and while it took me about 50 pages to get used to Koli’s vernacular, (this book is told in first person) once it clicked I was completely sucked in.

Carey makes you relate to Koli so quickly, and understand him so well that you can’t help but feel for him as certain events take place in this book. The writing is breathtaking in its storytelling, though I do wish I had gotten a little more description of the setting in certain spots so that I could sink into the story just a little further.

Koli’s actions are very believable for a teenaged boy, and getting to see him handle things that happen with his romantic interest, as well as his situation with the Ramparts, was all incredibly well done. When you read this book, you <i>are</i> Koli, and I have never read anything like it
before.


<b> <u>Overall (TLDR)</b> </u>
I really enjoyed this unique and thought provoking story. Koli’s voice may be hard to get used to at first, but it really fits this story <i>so</i> well. If you’re into books like <i> Annihilation</i> or <i>Station Eleven </i> I definitely recommend it. Many aspects of this book reminded me of when I played Horizon Zero Dawn, which I actually restarted while reading this book.

A huge thank you to Orbit for sending me a copy!

Go read this, and then find me on Instagram and Twitter!
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I’ve enjoyed Carey’s other dystopian fiction, and this one is really good. With a compelling narrator and original setting, it’s a strong first volume to a new trilogy. I loved Koli, and I loved Monono even more. A great read!

Thank you very much to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me early access to this book!

2.5 rounded up - Unfortunately, this didn't work for me. I LOVED The Girl With All the Gifts and was so excited to dive into another series from that author. However, both the plot and the characters fell flat for me. The story had definite potential, and I can't exactly put my finger on why it didn't click, other than it felt emotionally disconnected. I couldn't get attached enough to the characters to really care about them. It felt a little like another try at a Hunger Games/Maze Runner/Divergent type of series, but didn't quite meet the mark. I doubt I'll read more from this particular series, however, will certainly be open to trying more from this author!

Koli is a coming of age boy living in a post-apocalyptic English village that's mostly medieval, but with a few touches of tech, but tech only a few can activate. Every year those on the cusp of adulthood try on the remaining items to see if they will wake for them, and so become Ramparts, the ruling family, or if they will stay dull artifacts, and leave the initiates to more mundane lives as woodcutters, tanners, butchers or any of the needed trades. Koli dreams of ascending from his woodcutter origins and being recognized by one of the tools, hopefully, the one the shoots flame or the one that pr4ojects an invisible blade of force, rather than the one that answers questions, but when he discovers that the fix is in, and the Ramparts are not chosen by fate, magic, or chance, he decides to steal an untried piece of tech and find out how to unlock it so that he can claim a place as a Rampart, and maybe get the girl he loves back.

The good news for us is that it doesn't go a Koli planned, good because it sets him on an adventure that will take three books to finish, though M.R. Carey has created a world that's wide enough to house lots of other adventures. Mankind has fallen after the Unfinished War into small enclaves surrounded by dangerous animals and killer trees, all the products of gene tampering and a bit like something out of a Jeffrey Ford novel. With teeth.

Koloi had hoped to find a fearsome weapon that would elevate his status in the village, but what he got was a snarky music player with a mind of its own. Forced into the wilds with nothing but his wits and a Sony Monomo Aware Special Edition entertainment unit housing the personality of a long-dead Japanese singer, Koli has to find a way to survive, not knowing that much more than that rests on his shoulders. His village, like many others, has fallen below genetic viability due to size and isolation, and despite the efforts of Ursula, a wandering medic with a mechanical mule full of meds, things look grim for the future o humanity.

Told in the first person in somewhat devolved English and Koli starts out by giving us a taste of things to come in the opening;

<blockquote>"The two sides is this: I went away, and then I come home again. But there’s more to the story than that, as you might expect. It was a hard journey, both ways. I was tried and I was tested, lots of times. You could say I failed, though what I brung back with me changed the world forever."</blockquote>

But a hero needs a quest, and the first book is about finding one, though Koli doesn't know it until it happens, as well as a fellow traveler or two. He thinks it' about coming of age, falling in love, and making a name for himself in his village, or failing all that just surviving to live another day.

As Monomo Aware might say, "Dopey boy. That's just the opening act."

M.R. Carey is one of the crop of talented authors that have done work for Marvel, DC, and other character universes, as well as writing notable fiction of his own, including The Girl With All the Gifts, and a comics adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. Reading The Book of Koli, I found it easy to translate his vivid imagery into a graphic novel, and now thinking back on scenes, I see them as sharp black and white drawings, maybe by Peter Gross, who worked with the author on The Dollhouse and other projects.

Koli, which I just managed to mistype as Loki, has an over-achieving Ai in a music player on his side, but his real power lies in his ability to read people and situations. He's not an especially heroic leader and is all the more engaging for it. I'm looking forward to the second book now that he's found a direction and some companions.

I loved M.R. Carey's take on the zombie apocalypse, in The Girl With All the Gifts, so I was excited to get my hands on this one.

This is another take on what the future could look like, but it was very different. This book takes place in the somewhat distant future (unclear how distant) where any remnant's of today's technology is viewed almost as mystical. There are only rumors about the large cities full of people and technology that existed in "ancient" times. People in Koli's small village think of themselves as lucky to have three pieces of technology, small weapons, really, from this time period. However, the technology won't work for everyone. When someone comes of age, they are tested to see if they possess the ability to operate this ancient technology, and most people do not pass the test. Koli learns a but more than the average person in his village about this tech, and decides to do things a bit differently.

I loved this book and particularly, the relationship that builds between Koli and Monono. It ends with a total cliff-hanger to set itself up for book #2, which made me a little crazy, but I'll definitely be picking up the next one as soon as it's available.

Pick it up!

Is this what life would be like after an apocalypse? It's absolutely possible. Language would change over time, like an old game of Telephone, where things change from person to person, until you have something very different than what you started with. I found myself wishing for a sequel before I even finished this book. Everything M. R. Carey writes is magical.

M.R. Carey’s writing was introduced to me when a book club friend picked The Girl With All the Gifts one month. I was immediately in love with the dark character studies that entrenched that book and went straight into the companion novel, The Boy on the Bridge, when it was released. Since then, I’ve discovered Carey is well known in the graphic novel community as Mike Carey, writing in both the DC and Marvel worlds (X-Men, Fantastic Four, and more) as well as a creator of popular characters such as Lucifer (click here for Mike Carey’s works and here for M.R. Carey’s)!
I was pleased to see he has a new work coming out - The Book of Koli - about a boy named Koli in a post-apocalyptic world. In this “new” world, Koli has grown up learning that the only safe place is inside the walls of his fortress-like town. Outside are creatures and plants waiting and ready to kill you at a moment's notice. The only saving graces are pieces of advanced technology that can be used to protect Koli’s people. However, after a series of events, Koli finds himself outside the walls, pushed to his own limits of survival on the search for deeper truths than he ever realized he needed to learn.
I believe Carey is a masterful storyteller. He writes with such suspense and depth with his characters that readers can find themselves wanting to continue the story just to see what happens. Little details are left here and there that will make you question and wonder What comes next? or How in the heck did THAT happen?! but they always serve a purpose. They’re intentional, little tidbits of worldbuilding that I rather enjoy (compared to that info-dump that can happen in fantasy/sci-fi).
One thing I found difficult about this book is the style. Don’t get me wrong, it was intentional and fantastic, but it was also incredibly hard to read! Koli is writing this book (not a spoiler, mind you) after-the-fact and he’s never learned to read or write until after all this has occurred. With that in mind, Carey wrote this book with interesting word choices, spelling mistakes, and other various changes that occur to language over a period of time. It was fascinating and interesting to read, but made for slow going at first. I think it helped to build Koli’s character, though, and helped add to my desire for him to win, thrive, and survive.
I’m giving The Book of Koli 4-out-of-5 Awesome Austin Points. It’s engaging and unique in style with such fantastical science fiction elements that I think readers are going to be pleased when they get their hands on it. It’s set up to be a trilogy already, so be prepared for some closure but open plot lines as well. The Book of Koli will be hitting shelves on April 14, 2020!

An updated/edited version of this review will be posted to my blog April 5, 2020.

I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Prior to receiving an eARC of The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey, I had not read any of the author’s work. While I know of The Girl with All the Gifts, I think The Book of Koli was a great introduction into Carey’s work. I was sold on this book as soon as I saw that it was recommended for those who enjoyed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer.

The Book of Koli is told from the point of view of the main character Koli who lives in a small village named Mythen Rood. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world. The population decreased and civilization as we know it was forced to adapt. Humans must now live and survive alongside nature that seems to have a mind of its own and strange new creatures that pose a constant threat.

Koli’s village comes together under the rule of Ramparts—people who have control of technology that is used to benefit their community. Every person has a chance to make this technology “wake” for them, but not everything is what it seems. Koli’s life is disrupted when he discovers a secret that pushes him to defy the Rampart’s order. This secret and Koli’s actions launch his journey into the world outside of his village where he must fight to survive.

The Book of Koli is a very entertaining novel. Koli is a likable protagonist who makes readers genuinely feel for him and the situations he is put in throughout the story. The world building is interesting, but I was hoping for more of an emphasis on the post-apocalyptic environment. Also, since the story is told from Koli’s point of view, it did take some time for me to get used to his language skills as well as words that were specific to his world. Nonetheless, the novel was intriguing. I look forward to reading the rest of this trilogy as well as other novels by M.R. Carey!

Thank you to the publisher, Orbit Books, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this novel before its release.

Not for me. I described this as I was going at the YA version of the dystopian chapters of Cloud Atlas. Maybe someone is into that, but I don’t mean it at a complement.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

The Book of Koli is a great start to a trilogy about a world that has moved on... with some of the technology still intact.

The use of language is a little jarring, but useful in conveying the feelings of the unreliable narrator.

Carey has written several good books that I can't put down and this is another one.

"'Monono Aware is sort of a gimmick name. It's a phrase in Japanese for a certain kind of feeling. Did you ever look at something beautiful, Koli, like a sunset or a flower, and think how sad it was that it would only be there for a little while? That it was going to vanish out of the world and never be seen again, and there was nothing you or anybody could do to make it stay? ... Then what you were feeling was monono aware. The sadness that's deep down inside beautiful things. The pain and suckiness of everything having a shelf life. I-love-you-so-much-goodbye-for-ever.'"

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Orbit Books. Koli has been raised in the small village of Mythen Rood, well after the collapse of society due to rapidly evolving plantlife that has turned against humans. In his world, the wildlife is deadly, and trees even more so, but they're protected by the Ramparts, a small group of special villagers who can control the technology of the old world. Koli longs to be a Rampart, but when he discovers some of their secrets, he realizes that the power structures of his home are not what he thought--and people may be willing to kill to keep those secrets. Trigger warnings: death, violence, some body horror, eye horror, severe injury, guns, fires, blood, transphobia (countered in text).

There are a number of reasons this book and I didn't get along, but the thing I was never able to get past was the writing style. It's not written in standard written English, no doubt to reflect how much knowledge has been lost since the world ended and to represent Koli's "simple" worldview from his small village. There are a lot of double negatives, wrong verb tenses, and folksy spellings like "et" instead of ate. It is my job to help people with their grammar, so this gave me a headache. I don't go around correcting people or judging them when they're wrong; grammar can always get better, and I'm guilty of mistakes myself, but books go through a rigorous editing process before they're published. This is bad grammar on purpose, bad grammar for the sake of style, and I actively hated it for the entire book.

The second major problem is that Carey and I have a disagreement about what's most interesting in this book. This is a world where trees can walk around and crush people (AWESOME), yet we spend most of the time plunking around Koli's boring village while he obsesses over a girl. I wanted so much more of the post-apocalyptic world where plants have gone feral, but thanks to Koli's limited perspective, we rarely get to see any of that. The politics of his village are much less interesting and a thousand times more predictable. That people in power want to keep it isn't exactly a novel idea, and the major revelation of the first half is that you have to turn technology on to make it work. One of fiction's jobs is to make the familiar unfamiliar, and I sense that's what this book was trying to accomplish, but it never works. Mostly, I was just frustrated that Carey was spending chapters describing my own technology to me, like I've never seen a cell phone or railroad tracks (as Koli hasn't), while NOT describing his murder trees. I get it; murder trees are background noise to Koli like railroad tracks are to me, not worth describing because we see them all the time. Fine, it's clever, and also terribly, terribly boring.

Koli is rough as a main character. Though he's an adult in his village, he's a young adult by our standards (though this is not marketed as a YA novel because it was written by a man). I've read many YA books with cleverer and more interesting young adult characters though, and Koli's short-sightedness and self-centeredness are hard to swallow in a main character. The most interesting character isn't even a person but a semi-sentient AI called Monono who starts to realize that she's only an AI. The pacing is slow as well. Koli doesn't leave his village until midway in the book, and by the end, there's still the sense that things have only barely begun to take off. It's like reading an incredibly boring prequel to the book I wanted to read, but I won't be continuing with the series.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.