“This is a beautiful book. Gripping, engaging, and absolutely worth the time it takes to burrow yourself into its reality. I can’t recommend it highly enough.” –Seanan McGuire The first in a masterful new trilogy from acclaimed author M. R. Carey, The Book of Koli begins the story of a young boy on a journey through a strange and deadly world of our making. Everything that lives hates us… making.
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.
“A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.” —Kirkus
“Enthralling…Koli embarks upon a journey as perilous as it is enlightening.” —Guardian
“The best thing I’ve read in a long time. I loved it.” –Joanne Harris
“Carey hefts astonishing storytelling power with plainspoken language, heartbreaking choices, and sincerity like an arrow to the heart.” —Locus
Look out for the next novels in the trilogy: The Trials of Koli and The Fall of Koli
Excellent, inventive world-building, with a unique, entertaining take on a post-apocalypse setting. Great characterization, including my favorite, a cranky, know-it-all who can’t help getting mad at the ignorant folks surrounding her. I especially enjoyed the thoughtful inclusion of queer and trans characters.
I really enjoyed the world-building here–I mean what’s not to like about a world populated by deadly, carnivorous trees? I like the hints of how the world came to be. I know some readers found Koli’s vocabulary and syntax annoying, but as a writer, I admired Carey’s consistency in carrying it off. I also like the characters, even the ones that are “tech from the old world.” Definitely reading the next installment in the series.
This a hard sci-fi trilogy, I guess? Set in a future dystopian UK where genetic engineering has made the trees and animals so inimical to human life that the diminishing population is isolated in little villages that are held together by the remains of technology they don’t really understand. The main character is a young person just reaching adulthood at the beginning of the first book, who begins to question everything he’s told about how both the tech and his society works.
One of the things I found fascinating was that it’s initially set in West Yorkshire, which I hung around in quite a bit in my college years due to a boyfriend from Halifax (or Half Ax as it’s called in the story). I spent quite a while translating the dystopian names back to the towns and villages they’d evolved from. However, even if you aren’t familiar with The People’s Republic of Yorkshire, this will suck you in.
The second thing I loved about it was that it has absolutely brilliant trans rep. It’s clear from the acknowledgements that M. R. Carey did their research and they perfectly capture some of the the different levels of dissonance and dysphoria trans people can experience. Thirdly, it’s a rip-roaring story. It’s just…perfect. And fourthly, the covers. The covers are beautiful.
So, that’s why you should read them!
Another home run by MR carey. He writes wonderful stories/horror/Science fiction.
This book sounded way better than it actually was. Hard to read (for me at least) due to the under-educated way the characters speak, it was a little depressing. It takes a LOOONG time to get to any real action. I’m trying to read the second book. It’s even slower than the first one.
The Book of Koli starts as a slow burn and then takes off so fast that you feel like you’re racing to read to keep up, I don’t mean this negatively in the least.
There are some familiar ideas here but Carey spins them in such clever, interesting, and fun ways, that a whole new world opens up in front of you. Trees walk, wasps will disintegrate you, and people still have to live their lives.
The works building is great in both it’s simplicity and complexity. Koli’s speech patterns act as a tool to pull you in to his storytelling. The characters are vivid, dynamic, and realistically flawed. The story is told from Koli’s point of view, and he lets you have it, warts and all, not leaving out his own dumb moments or transgressions. He lets you know he’s bringing you on a journey through his story and earns your trust that he’ll tell you what he knows and that you’ll understand what’s going on by time it gets there.
This will be heavy on my recommend list this year, I can’t wait to join Koli again.