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.
The Book of Koli is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of April 14th 2020.
Will you be picking up The Book of Koli? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
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?
The first in a gripping new trilogy, The Book of Koli charts the journey of one unforgettable young boy struggling to find his place in a chilling post-apocalyptic world. Perfect for readers of Station Eleven and Annihilation
