The storytelling from M. R. Carey is wonderful, however I found myself kept getting lost within the story but not in the best of ways. I love a post-apocalyptic book, as well as a fantasy, but what I couldn't get on board with throughout this book were... Killer Trees?!
The book gripped me enough to want to read the rest of the Trilogy, but I don't think I will be sprinting to the book store to pick them up.
I also found myself struggling a bit with the way that certain words were spelt. Now, I understand this may have been done on purpose, but it was small things like slight changed to words or just the use of the "et" that threw me, because I still am not sure what was meant by this??

This novel is more than just a tale of survival; it's an exploration of the human spirit confronted with the unknown. Koli's journey beyond the village walls is as enlightening as it is dangerous, offering a profound commentary on curiosity, bravery, and the human condition. The world-building in "The Book of Koli" is exemplary, presenting a landscape both hauntingly familiar and alien, where the remnants of the old world clash with the wildness of the new.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I’m a bit of a fan of dystopian fiction. I say “a bit” - I like it a lot. It’s just that I tend to dream about what I read, and a lot of dystopian fiction can be quite scary. So I had a few nights dreaming about killer trees and plants, drones that just want to shoot you, and people that want to eat other people (potentially - that becomes clearer as the book goes on!).

It’s entirely believable though (in MY head, anyway!). Some catastrophe has happened in the past that has rendered all technology completely useless - unless you have the gift, that is. And Koli, it turns out, has. Except he’s not supposed to, and he’s exiled from his village.

Tech is considered to be like magic, and so when Koli actually manages to switch something on and learns how it’s done - it’s a revelation!

This first book is really just the set up for the next one I think, where we get to know the main characters of the next book (Koli, Ursala, the Drudge), and I’m definitely up for book 2!

I’ve read and loved several books by Carey previously, so of course I wanted to read another science fiction dystopian series from him. Now. I started reading this book in February 2021. I finished in it December 2022. This is in no way the book’s fault! I was suffering with severe anxiety when I first started the book and was struggling to read anything. I got about halfway through when I decided to put it aside. Having more recently regained my love and motivation for reading I picked this one back up and carried on where I left off.

The first half of the book sets up what life is like in Mythen Rood, the village our main character, Koli, lives in. He has a simply life as a woodcutter with his family and his friends. And okay, so there’s a massive wall around the village, and dangerous drones that show up occasionally, and folk seem to be very wary of the trees for some reason. There is a distinct lack of technology, except among the elite few who can make the weapons they have come alive. Koli, being an ambitious young fellow, gets his hands on some tech and gets himself into trouble.

The second half of the book follows Koli outside the walls of Mythen Rood, experiencing what else there is in this dystopian world. He finds killer trees, empty villages, old and new friends enemies. And, of course, getting himself into more trouble. I won’t say too much else on that.

My very favourite thing about this book is characters describing technology and other old-word items that they’ve never come across before, but are well-known things to the reader. It’s like a guessing game. A large piece of tech hammered together out of sheets of metal with wheels inside a great big metal band and a pipe sticking out. A soft slippery cloth puffed up like a pillow. Any guesses? There are loads of them, and I love it!

Language is another great thing. Seeing how it has evolved over time or how old and unknown words are pronounced and interpreted to make sense with the words people already know and understand. Mythen Rood, for example, had a previous and similar sounding name we’d be more familiar with. Koli doesn’t know how you communicate with tech and so when he learns the word he calls it an in-their-face. This shit is freaking catnip to me, I can’t get enough of it.

There were quite a few characters, all well-rounded and flawed and real. Which makes it hard to hate any of them, though I only truly loved a few. Koli, Monono, Ursula… controversial, possibly, but I loved Sky simply for how competent and no-nonsense she is. And Cup. I knew there was something about her, from the way Koli described her. There was something more to learn about her story and who she was—she was certainly going to be important to Koli. It was towards the end of the book, when we learn a little something about her, that I legitimately squealed with joy and the rating I was giving the book jumped from a 4.5 to a 5.

I don’t think I have ever been so keen to get on and read the next book in a series. There are so many hints and clues and foreshadowing and points to connect. I have theories, and I need to know how everything comes together, when and what details are revealed, and what the hell happened in the past and will happen in the future. Most of my theories involve Ursula. She knows so much. How? Who was she before she became a wandering doctor-of-sorts? How old is she? I have some ideas. I also kind of maybe half suspect (or, at least, I want to believe) that this story is set in the far flung future of The Girl With All the Gifts. It’s a stretch, but noxious trees and enough time… let me have this.

Suffice to say I will be reading the next book in the series soon!

I struggled to get into this. The basic premise is interesting - plants have evolved into being carnivorous, taking over the world while humans dwindle and hide.

Care has been taken to build a complex world, but the writing style and irritating characters detracted from my overall enjoyment.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC without obligation.

Clever and thoughtful rendering of ideas about the future, reminded me of Girl with all the Gifts. The writing style was a little difficult to get into in the beginning but once I got into the rhythm of the book I noticed much less

This book took some getting into but once I was a few chapters in it was so interesting and flowed really smoothly.

Overall I enjoyed this book however it wasn't quite what I was expecting and took a while to get into.
More juvenile than I expected and more dystopian than I anticipated it was a good action-packed tech, but yet not tech-based read - you just have to read it.

Love a good post apocalyptic series, it's like a warning of what our world could become which is always quite freaky. Was pleased to get approved for the first book through netgalley and very soon after had to buy the rest of them on my kindle to continue reading.
In this book you don't want to hug trees, unless it's a suicide wish. Plants have become carnivorous and the human population is decreasing and hiding in small civilisations.

I enjoyed the world building in this and was reminded of the little shop of horrors with the plants that want to kill. Some of the characters were quite annoying but it made you feel things about them which is better than considering them boring.
An enjoyable first book and waiting to dig in to the next!

Will be posting a full review on my blog
Readingwithtyler.wordpress.com.

Thanks!

I have wanted to read this for a while but as soon as I started it the (intentional) bad grammar completely prevented me from enjoying this.

I found this book interesting in the end, but it was lacking in excitement for a very long time. The idea is good, and I enjoyed the way the words had changed, once I realised what was meant to be happening - before that it was just irritating.
I feel that every book I read nowadays has a trans character or two shoehorned into it, presumably to satisfy the woke brigade. I felt it added nothing to the story, rather detracted from it, and wished the author had applied their energy more into character building than being topical.
I can see that it is the first book in a trilogy, but I feel no burning desire to continue with the story.

The Book of Koli is dystopian done right. The world is still clearly our world, but the amount of depth that went into portraying it is simply astounding - the language is the most obvious of these, because of course it would change. I can see how it could be off-putting for some, and it does take some getting used to, but once I had adjusted to the changes I flew through this. I loved all the little nods and references to pop culture, and I look forward to reading about Koli's journey as he explores more of his fractured world.

In the end I gave The Book of Koli four stars because I was promised killer plants, and while they were present they were never really a direct threat. I want to see a tree eat a person! Moreover, Koli's introspection was fascinating but left the pace meandering a little at times.

One of the best speculative fiction trilogy openers I have read in a long time, setting up a wonderful world, an excellent character and an intriguing overall mystery. Suffering from the fact that it is a set up for the books to come, this is nevertheless an excellent introduction and left me eager for more.

Koli lives with his mother and two sisters in Mythen Rood, a small village surrounded by forest. He lives a carefree life, playing with his friends Spinner and Haijon whilst the rest of the villagers work and hunt to provide them all with what they need to survive within the walls they live in. Koli knows not to venture beyond the walls. In the world outside of Mythen Rood the forest and what’s in it will kill you including the trees. And if they don’t then the shunned men will.

Having really enjoyed The Girl With All The Gifts by the same author, I couldn’t wait to get stuck into this and it definitely didn’t disappoint. I was hooked from the first sentence, finding that I was eager to immerse myself into Koli’s world and follow him through his journey. I like the the writing style very much and M.R.Carey has the fabulous talent of making the characters so real that you feel you could reach into the book and touch them. I genuinely can’t wait to read the next two instalments.

Massive thanks to Little, Brown Book Group and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this brilliant book in order for me to provide an unbiased opinion.

The Book of Koli is the first in a trilogy of fantasy novels set in a new-world post nuclear war. The basic synopsis is that technological advancements lead to interactive AI-based living, the ability to genetically manipulate living material, and post-nuclear destruction that brings about killer trees. This leaves groups of surviving colonies scattered over the country, afraid of sunlight and vegetation. Mythen Rood, where main character Koli is born and raised, is one of these archaic settlements. Most of the old-world technology no longer works, and the hierarchy of power in Mythen Rood is dictated by those who can "wake" the few items of technology of the old times. The balance is unsettled when Koli learns the secrets behind the Rampart family's power, and his world is turned upside down when he is cast out of the village. The story follows Koli on his discovery of the new world beyond the fences of Mythen Rood.

The world in which this story resides was built with care and due consideration, with a setback in English language proficiency that is often neglected in other post-apocalyptic fantasy tales. This does make it difficult to read in the beginning, especially for someone with Dyslexia. However, the use of this linguistic representation communicates a powerful sense of the societal and organisational set-back incurred by the nuclear war. A great read, once I got into it, with a good cliffhanger for book 2 - I think I liked the book more for what it set up rather than what it was in itself, but I will definitely be reading the rest of the trilogy!

Koli lives in a post-apocalyptic world, where there is little technology and many dangers beyond our comprehension. This is the first book in a series, which allows us to know about the world Koli grows up in, but also tells us the story of how Koli becomes estranged from that world, to one far stranger.

The Book of Koli took me a while to get into, as the people of Koli’s community speak in a vernacular that is and isn’t English. Once you get used to the rhythm of their speech patterns it flows much easier, but their speech also feels juvenile as though they have lost the words for things we take for granted. Koli begins his story by telling us about his childhood which although quite idyllic is also full of dangers, as the creatures that inhabit this world are far more dangerous than the ones we live with, in this time even the trees hunt humans.

As the book goes on we find out small bits of information about what happened to the old world, but this is still a misremembered past. In this world, genetic modifications were pushed to the extreme and yet Koli and his friends barely understand what they have lost. The first real conflict of the book is also the one where childhood ends, as children reach the age of majority in their community they are tested to see if any of them will be able to wield the technology of the past.

The book shows the thoughtlessness and rage of a fifteen-year-old boy. All Koli wants is to be able to pass the testing to become part of the group that handles the tech and leads the community, but the way Koli decides to get this knowledge is with both a destructive and impulsiveness that does not think of the consequences either to himself or how his actions could affect his family.

The second half of this book begins to show us the consequences of his actions, and due to this, the pace intensifies and so do Koli’s misfortunes. Koli’s world expands, but so too do the dangers around him as he is thrown into one bad situation after another. Although Koli starts to realise that there may be better ways to live than the rules he has grown up with. Koli starts to believe that there may be hope and a possibility of a way to help everyone out of their current situation.

This is a rich world and if you are ready to follow an unlikeable (which is no bad thing) protagonist on his journey of growth and reflection then you are in for a grand adventure. There are a lot of intense moments where you wonder whether Koli will survive and how much you want to see if and how he does, the next parts of this story will probably lead us to even stranger things.

A great original novel that will take you into a new world! Or rather into a scary version of our own world, a future that could happen if we're not careful.

M.R. Carey wraps his book up in sci-fi varnish, but it is the climate crisis he's talking about. What happens when mankind manipulates nature for his own profit? Nature strikes back! And we soon discover that trees are stronger than we are.

That's why young Koli has to live in a small village protected from the forest, which he can only enters at his own risks. Only "old tech" (the rest of our 20th-century technology) keeps the people alive. But one day, Koli doesn't have a choice: he has broken the law and is banned from his community. It's time to face the forest.

Koli's adventures are packed with suspense, but most of all with remarkable characters. We see Koli changing through the chapters, and the more he describes his world to us, the more we understand what his life is like. Why he's desperate for freedom. And why we should do all we can today so that he never has to fight this fight.

Similar title: "Niourk" by Stefan Wul

All you really need to know is that as soon as I finished The Book of Koli, I immediately loaded up the next in the series! M.R. Carey succeeds in creating a story that’s full of tension and believable characters. surrounded by a world that's completely alien and scarily familiar at the same time.

Although it’s not specifically sold as YA, it has a teenage protagonist and contains plot devices that YA readers will recognise, particularly from post-apocalyptic novels. In interviews, the author references Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban and John Wyndham’s work. There are also glimmers of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (trials), Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve (old tech) and The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

The main character, Koli ,starts out with one name and ends up gaining others over the course of the book. He tells the story directly to the reader in his own distinctive voice. The language is jarring to begin with, and swings between present and past, so you have to push through this until you become accustomed to the new rhythms and constructs. Some may find this technique too experimental, but I liked the blend of intimacy and otherness.

The use of technology is central to the novel. I have a soft spot for this trope and the author wields it well. In The Book of Koli, tech equals power and those who can activate ‘ancient’ machinery, have major life advantages. This idea is played out in the first half of the story as we see how the Ramparts, the ruling family in Koli’s settlement, use tech to hold their place in society – raising lots of questions about the nature of power and how it should be used.

It was fascinating to journey through the post-apocalyptic setting The Book of Koli. For anyone living in the north of England, the names of the settlements will be recognisable (Half-Ax is Halifax for instance), but the places themselves have changed beyond recognition – reverting to medieval-like villages that rarely connect with one another. The surrounding landscape is full of deadly wildlife – carnivorous trees, toxic seeds and creatures that skulk in the shadows – not to mention the cannibals, shunned men, who live in the woods. Survival is everything. Satisfyingly the author explains some of the reasons why civillisation has crumbled by introducing a Gandalf-like character, Ursala-of-Elsewhere, who shares her tale, together with handy backstory, as the book unfolds.

I don’t have strong feelings about trilogies, but if truth be told, it takes a really strong first book to carry me to the second installment and beyond these days. The Book of Koli has a mythical quality with touches of humour and horror. I also like the way the story is confined to a tight setting. This isn’t an epic novel in the classic sense – more a deep dive into the present and imagined future of mankind.

The Book of Koli is one of the best novels I have read so far this year. Set centuries after war and climate change have all but destroyed the human race, we follow the story of Koli Woodsmith, a fifteen year old boy growing up in the small, isolated community of Mythen Rood. Outside of the village walls lies an unrecognisable world, where either the trees or the Shunned Men will kill you. Then one day Koli finds he must head out into the forest alone...

I found this book quite difficult to get into at first, partly because the plot is initially a little slow to allow the necessary world and context building, but predominantly due to the colloquial narrative style used by the protagonist. Once Koli’s voice clicked with me after a chapter or two though, I raced through the rest of the book in just a couple of sittings. It becomes clear that Koli’s manner of speaking is reflective of the illiteracy of the dystopian society in which he lives. This is a coming of age story that you can lose yourself in for hours at a time.

Koli himself is a well drawn character with plenty of the flaws you would expect to see in a teenage protagonist. The supporting characters, particularly those of Ursula and Monono, are a joy to read and I greatly looked forward to their appearances. There are a number of thought provoking ideas here around our relationship with technology and the evolution of language.

Thoroughly recommended for science fiction and fantasy fans looking for something a little different. I, for one, will be diving into book two immediately – I’m curious to know where the journey will take Koli next.

My thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.