M. R. Carey

Mesmerizing, thought-provoking, The Book of Koli begins a powerful new trilogy from one of the most inventive voices in contemporary fiction--the unforgettable story of a young boy struggling to find his place in a world where nature itself has turned against humanity. Everything that lives hates us... Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable landscape. A place where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly 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 believes the first rule of survival is that you don't venture too far beyond the walls. He's wrong. For more from M. R. Carey, check out:The Girl With All the GiftsFellsideThe Boy on the BridgeSomeone Like Me By the same author, writing as Mike Carey: The Devil You Know Vicious Circle Dead Men's Boots Thicker Than Water The Naming of the Beasts

The Book of Koli

altlovesbooks

First, thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I had a hard time settling on a rating for this book, because my personal hangup with it is probably easily overlooked by someone else. To get the good out of the way first, the premise is extremely interesting. Here you have Koli, this country village bumpkin living within his little bubble of what he knows in what is soon revealed to be a dystopian, post-apocalyptic England. His life gets upended at some point (maybe a little further along than I would have liked) through a well-meaning but ultimately misguided attempt to acquire some "tech", and he finds himself on quite a little adventure. The plot is fun, intense in places, and a little thought-provoking in others.

To touch on the bad, first and foremost, the book is written from the viewpoint of this uneducated country boy, with all the narrating baggage that implies. Descriptions are sometimes hard to follow because Koli doesn't always have the words to describe what he's seeing. Intentionally bad grammar abounds, because the book takes the form of him relating his adventures to you as a story. Things were also told a bit out of order in the beginning because Koli would start to relate something to you, or insinuate something, and then backtrack from it with lines akin to "but I need to tell you this first before I tell you that". It was mildly annoying to read, at times. I also feel like some of the thought-provoking parts about civilization gone astray were heavy handed in places. Finally, the beginning sort of drags. It takes about half the book before Koli finally gets his call to action and the plot starts picking up. 

So, summarizing, I ended up giving this a 3.5/5, because I had a hard time getting through the writing style to the meat underneath (maybe I'm a shallow person), and because the beginning felt like it dragged on a bit long.

Jessica Coburn

DNF at 3% 
This one may have been more palatable in an audio format. As it stands, there's no way I could read this book. It's a case of 'it's not you, it's me', so yeah this book was not for me. Interesting concept though.

M. r. Carey

'Beautiful . . . Gripping, engaging, and absolutely worth the time it takes to burrow yourself into its reality. I can't recommend it highly enough' Seanan McGuire EVERYTHING THAT LIVES HATES US . . . Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognisable landscape. A place where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don't get you, the Shunned men will. Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He believes the first rule of survival is that you don't venture too far beyond the walls. He's wrong. The Book of Koli begins a breathtakingly original new trilogy set in a strange and deadly world of our own making. 'A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable . . . Narrator Koli's inquisitive mind and kind heart make him the perfect guide to Carey's immersive, impeccably rendered world' Kirkus 'Carey writes with compassion and fire - strange and surprising and humane' Lauren Beukes 'An ingenious, dizzily provocative novel . . . Carey invents a fantastic far-future world, finding humanity in unlikely places' Helen Marshall, World Fantasy Award-winning author 'A thought-provoking and deeply engaging story' C. A. Fletcher, author of A Boy and his Dog At The End of the World Look out for the next novels in the trilogy: THE TRIALS OF KOLI and THE FALL OF KOLI

A slow start, but an interesting take on post-apocalyptic Britain, where technology is scarce - and thus attributes power to those that hold and wield it - and humans are pitted against a natural background that threatens them at every turn. Koli’s journey from his village towards an unknown has echoes of Willard’s in Apocalypse Now. 

Jan Jackson

Sarahi Flores

I’ve not read anything from this author before this. So many great reviews from his series, The Girl With All The Gifts, and now I wanna get a hold of that series. Ok so The Book of Koli is a science fiction story of how anything tech/ weapon is something to be controlled. However not everyone can control it. I’ll stop there.

This is a pretty good tale of how the world looks like after so much has happened. It’s almost like having to start over. Koli is the protagonist in the story. He is the one who uncovers the truth about the tech. It was a pretty good read in my opinion. It has action, friendship, and some scenes makes you feel sorry for him. Moderate pace for me. Hmm come to think of it, I pretty much imagined this as a show lol. Maybe it could be 🤔 This the the first book of the series and I hope everyone will enjoy it.  I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Maybe I’ll talk about it some more once it’s out.

Lea de Sousa

4.5/5 ⭐ (rounded down to 4)

M.R. Carey is a real storyteller - this book was a joyride! We're slowly introduced to Mythen Road, and all of its strange customs and beliefs, and our view of the world expands alongside Koli's as the story progresses. At first the language was irritating but after a few chapters you get to understand the idea and purpose behind its use. 

Koli was a refreshing protagonist - he's flawed, makes stupid choices and is in no way a hero (which is often not the case in these types of stories). 

My favourite part of this book: The world building was incredible and pretty realistic for dystopian fiction. Also, the strong female characters kicked ass (and it only get better in the next book!)

My least favourite part: Honestly? Nothing. 

You'll enjoy this if you like: Jeff VanderMeer, Semiosis or The Day of the Triffids.

Narah Quinn

I started reading this without much of an idea what I was really getting into. The blurb gives little away and we learn almost everything there is to know from Koli himself as our story teller.
I do not wish to give anything away in term of story, you can discover that for yourself, as I really feel this is the best way, but you need to know that the world is not as it was, and it was people that messed it up! Fast forward a couple of hundred years or more and we meet Koli.

I don't know how old story teller Koli is, or where he is telling us his story from, but he starts, as you should, at the beginning. 
Story Koli is 14, almost 15, and it's after his coming of age, his 'waiting' that everything changes. 
His life will never be the same, and he precedes to tell you why! 

I genuinely feel like this book is twice as big as it actually is. There is a whole lot of story in it, and at the 20% mark I felt like I had read so much but realised there was much more to come. 
At no point though was I bored, or hoping it would end. Koli is a wonderful story teller, and I don't know if its the area of the world I grew up in that helped, but I had no trouble reading in the voice he was given. 

Where Koli starts, and where Koli ends up are quite different, and there is worry, hurt, adventure, and plenty of things that would have you for dinner along the way. 

I really did enjoy this book in both the complexity of its world and the way things, we in this current world automatically would have a name for, are described, or are called, but also in the simplicity of being told the story by someone who has only ever known that world and wants to tell us their story. I am very much looking forward to finding out where Koli and co go next.

Ben Nathan

This was freaking excellent. The narrator was top notch, the story was wonderful, the world was full. I was so happy to be taken along this story start to finish. Everything that he's published as M.R. has been on point and this might be the best of the bunch. So ready for the next two!

Anyaconda

DNF at 15% - I just can't deal with the writing and grammar in this. What a bummer.

The Book of Koli

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