The Book of Koli by M R Carey
I would like to thank Nazia from Orbit for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Orbit
Published – Out Now
Price - £8.99 paperback £4.99 Kindle eBook
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.
If I’m speaking to readers and bloggers we are all starting to joke that future apocalypse tales will be getting carefully measured against 2020 (FYI – I think Wyndham had a good stance on this) but actually the most interesting thing we see in novels is the question what’s next? From books such as Handmaid’s Tale, The Fifth Season and Station Eleven we often really focus less on the moment of doom itself but afterwards - what will we lose and what will we regain? Sound familiar to you in isolation? MR Carey takes the familiar journey in the start of a new series with The Book of Koli taking us through a very changed UK and creates a spellbinding tale of the future and gives it a very suitable twenty first century refresh.
In the far future the world tried to fix a global crisis affecting our ecosystem and in doing so made things go very very wrong. Plants and trees were gifted the power to move quickly and seek other kinds of nutrients such as meat…any meat. Over centuries and seeing various grabs for power the world broke up. By the time the story starts the UK is populated with less than a million people living in small villages – somewhere with 200 people is now felt to be overwhelming – where walls are used to protect the inhabitants from a far more dangerous countryside. In the northern town of Mythen Rood we find young teenager Koli son of a woodsmith. He tells the tale of how we discovered the secrets of the few technology users left who protected the village – the Ramparts and his punishment for trying to get a taste of that power himself then follow him as he is forced alone to explore the world outside and find that there is a whole world of secrets and dangers to explore.
This is going to be a circumspect review in some ways. Part of the wonder of this story is discovering the world at the same speed as Koli. There is a wonderful description of the book used for something else where someone likens living in a box then finally seeing the forest and world you know outside is not what you always expected it to be. That’s the kind of tale this is. The first half makes us understand this strange quasi-familiar settlement of Mythen Road which gives us a few pointers as to what happened to the world. It feels fairly rural, wood and metal skills are the standard tools of the world and yet we also start to understand the religions; socio-cultural views (Koli is a person of colour and both same sex and transgender people are accepted – at least by some); and particularly relevant to the plot how the outside world and remaining technology has changed the world. Now roads are gone a settlement of a few miles is several days travel in dangerous woods while if you can prove you can activate the remaining technology weapons and devices you will be accepted as a town leader. The outside world is very much a mystery and only a few still travel between settlements. It’s a huge world of potential and when we finally get out of Mythen Rood there are many wonders and terrors to find.
For me, the key to really enjoying this is the storytelling that Carey delivers the reader; especially with the creation of Koli’s voice. The tale is told in a northern dialect (and with a few clues you can pinpoint exactly where this actual place is) and this makes what should sound a futuristic tale almost sound like rural fantasy – so refreshing not to see a tale in London again! Koli is a bright young man but limited by the current understanding of the world so revelations and terms we know are magical and strange. Its an artful construction of a worldview that’s getting changed but also allows Carey to create a very real character we get to know. We have the traditional pains of being a teenager – first love, independence and working out who you are but also importantly as this is being told by Koli later in their life we get someone looking back at their past self and realising their behaviour could be foolish or even shameful. I always like to see characters who realise they are/were not perfect – it makes them more human and likeable.
Finally, I loved in the storytelling how Carey actually tells the tale. Hints for the future; side tales by other characters; cliffhangers or foreboding statements really make this feel like an extremely well told oral storyteller sitting down and telling me their story. We can tense scenes of interrogation, horrifying runs in the forest and moments of tenderness and compassion. At the same time some the tale delivers wonderful insights on how we embrace and fear change; and learn about how the world actually and also wonderfully a love of music that survive centuries (with a deliciously timed 80’s reference to look out for).
By the end I’d gone on a huge adventure despite only travelling a few miles and the world seemed bigger and stranger with an epic journey calling to me (the other two instalments will be be published over a year!). Carey is a writer I’ve always got some time for and this story really plays to their strengths for telling a tale and characters I want to know more. For a tale about reminding us of what we can lose in a crisis and perhaps a new way of looking at the world you really should be prepared to sit down and enjoy this one.
